A SERMON Preached before Sr Patience Ward, UPON THE Last SUNDAY of His MAYORALTY.  
Anno 1681.  
With ADDITIONS.  
By John Turner, late Fellow of Christ's College in Cambridge.  
Virtus repulsae nescia sordidae  
Intaminatis fulget honoribus,  
Nec sumit aut ponit secures  
Arbitrio popularis aurae.  
LONDON, Printed for Walter Rettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1683.   

SUMMA PRIVILEGII. Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical, 1640. Artic. 8.  
WHereas the Preaching of order and decency, according to St. Paul's rule, doth conduce to edification, it is required that all Preachers (as well beneficed men as others) shall positively and plainly preach and instruct the people in their public Sermons, twice in the year at least, that the Rites and Ceremonies now established in the Church of England, are lawful and commendable, and that they the said people and others ought to conform themselves in their practice to all the said Rites and Ceremonies, and that the people and others ought willingly to submit themselves unto the authority and government of the Church, as it is now established under the King's Majesty. And if any Preacher shall neglect or refuse to do according to this Canon, let him be suspended by his Ordinary during the time of his refusal, or wilful forbearance to do thereafter.   
I. COR. 14. 40. Let all things be done decently, and in order. 
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 men's Actions, rather than their Words, there is nothing that seems less hearty to the 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 inflame those differences, and, if I were, 'tis twenty to one but I should lose my Errand, for they are so great already that perhaps they are incapable of being increased.  
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 public Concerns, I will put you in a way by which this blessed Union can only 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 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 virtues, all our pretences to Religion, and all our attainments in it, our proficiency in spiritual knowledge, and our supererogation, if that were possible in good works, will signify 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 tinkling Cymbal; and though I have the gift of prophecy, 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 Union 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 public Worship; if we can fear God, and honour the King, and love one another, as well and as hearty in the 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 fancy; 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 only way to Unity and Peace is by an Uniformity of Discipline and Obedience, as to the external circumstances of Divine Worship, than 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 justify 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 mournful Scene of those Miseries and Distractions which neither can nor aught to be remembered without Amazement and Horror.  
But if you will, every one of you, retire into your own thoughts, and ask yourselves the question, What it was that brought those dreadful Calamities upon us, that involved three flourishing and powerful Kingdoms in Blood, and Slaughter, and Confusion, that made the Gods to die 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; than you yourselves will answer for me, It was the tender Conscience dissolved into rebellious Pretences, that carried Order and Government before it, and overflowed all things with a resistless Stream; it was a Cry against Discipline, and Ceremonies and humane Institutions; it was a Clamour 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 Jealousy and godly Fear, lined with Hypocrisy and Dissimulation, that reduced our Beauty and Order into Ashes, that laid the magnificent and comely Fabrics 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, raised paper Tenements of crumbling Sects and Factions, which, instead of being able to support themselves, betrayed us in a manner into that Security which we now enjoy.  
While we, forgetful of those Miseries under which our Fathers and ourselves have groaned, unthankful for those Blessings which, under the shade and protection of a wise and happy Government we receive, ungrateful to Almighty God, who out of that Chaos of Confusion has reared this new world of Establishment and Order, displeased with the fatness of the Olive, and the sweetness of the Figtree, and quarrelling with the friendly and sociable Vine that cheereth God and Man, are calling again for the Bramble to reign over us, and for the Thorns and Briars to protect us; or like the Israelites in the Wilderness, surfeited with Miracles, with Manna, and with Quails, 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 Garlic and the Onions 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 Gild, for which this Land of our Nativity has wept in tears of Blood, and should for ever mourn in Sackcloth, and humble herself 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 Mosaic 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 symbolical nature, and were designed to shadow out unto the Jews, either that purity, simplicity and innocence of mind which God expects from all his worshippers and servants; or else they were figurative and emblematical Representations of the life and death and sufferings of the Messiah, and of that more perfect Dispensation which was to be introduced into the World by him.  
But yet notwithstanding, it must not be denied, that there are many Ceremonies to be found in the Law of Moses, which being equally commanded by God himself, were of equal obligation as to their performance, with any of the rest, of which no such Typical 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 men's 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 wonderful 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, than all its Members are under an indispensable obligation to obey it, because that Power which may be lawfully disobeyed, is no Power at all: And this is sufficient to vindicate the exercise of Ecclesiastical Censures.  
And if you demand further, Whether it be lawful for the civil Sanction to interpose in behalf of the Church, to see that its Orders and Injunctions be duly and faithfully executed and obeyed, I answer that it is for this plain reason, because the Civil Power has a right of exacting all kinds of lawful Obedience from its subjects; and this obedience if it were not Lawful, could not be enjoined by the Church itself.  
But besides the express provisions of the Law of Moses itself, 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 Pharisaic Order. For which Traditions and Determinations of their famous Masters, the Jews had usually as great if not greater Veneration than for the Law itself; and they were at length swelled 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, burdensome in their number, frivolous and superstitious in their use) they eaten 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 intolerable to a devout Soul, which cannot suffer its self to be so far taken off from the more inward and substantial 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 public 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, through all the spacious Territories and Dominions of that mighty Monarch? Shall we think it is a Zeal for the Catholic Religion, as they are pleased to call it, that is for a Fardel of absurd, ridiculous and blasphemous Superstitions, that inspires so wise and powerful a Prince, with so mean thoughts of Cruelty and Revenge? Shall we think he acts upon a principle of Conscience, who has sufficiently discovered to the world by his insatiable thirst after Empire, which cannot be purchased without the price of Blood, 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 Dependences and unwarrantable Claims? 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 itself? 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 peace at home, that a Kingdom divided against itself cannot stand; and that these differences of Religion, as they have done already in the experience of that Kingdom 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 wisdom 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 wrapped 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 temporal and eternal Interest lie at stake? If the things prescribed be indifferent and consequently lawful, why do we not show that they are so by complying with them? If the quarrels 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 public 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 succour our Allies, to relieve the distressed Protestants, to keep the balance 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 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 British Shore? Shall we suffer ourselves 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 counsel together and go into the house of God as friends?  
Certainly this one consideration, if it were but powerfully and frequently impressed upon our minds, must needs have a wonderful influence upon us, and must even fright men, and compel 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 reflection to us, or at least to so many of us, as have been active either in causing or something the Differences that are among us, that we must one day give a dreadful account before the Judgment-seat of God, for a great part of that Blood which has been spilt, and of those Spoils, 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 aught we know, if these destructive Animosities be not soon composed, for the removal of the Candlestick from among ourselves, and for the small extirpation of the Protestant Religion.  
The Jews had their Ritual, and the Christians their Liturgies or set forms of Divine Service, the one before Christianity, and the other long before Popery, were known in the World.  
And first, As to the Jewish Ritual, which cannot be denied 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 borrowed most of those expressions which he makes use of in the Institution of the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood 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 not 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 pour out his Prayers before him, by looking up towards Heaven; 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 Country 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,  
Quidam sortiti metuentem sabbata patrem.  
Nil praeter nubes & caeli numen adorant.  
And in the Catalecta of Petronius,  
Judaeus licet & Porcinum Numen adoret,  
Et coeli summas advocet auriculas.  
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 does 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 prayed unto him, namely, because they thought the more peculiar and beatific 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, 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 custom in the World before that time; which, not having the least foot-step of a Divine Command, was probably owing merely to humane institution, but yet we see was approved by God himself.  
This Custom prevailed also under the Law; though in the Law itself it be not where enjoined, 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 always go barefoot into their Mosches: and it was a Precept of Pythagoras recorded by jamblichus, 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 do as Moses had done before him, Josh. 5. 15. Lose 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 go 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 satire,  
— deinde adamas notissimus, & Berenice's  
In digito factus pretiosior; hunc dedit olim  
Barbarus incestae, dedit hunc Agrippa sorori,  
Observant ubi festa mero pede sabbata reges,  
Et vetus indulget senibus clementia porcis.  
So that here we have two plain Instances of Institutions in matters of an indifferent nature approved by God, but commanded only 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 positive 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 Tenors which hold only 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 complied with in these cases, than so may any other humane Institution, and if Custom may not, then is it unlawful for us to go to our Devotions at those times when our Neighbours and Countrymen are used to frequent them, because this is an Imposition upon our Liberty, which is not tied 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, than 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,) than 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 ours, is in a great measure taken from thence: nay, so ancient and in such constant use have they always 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, etc. 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 could better express it. And indeed this must be allowed 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, 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 Dramatic Poesy, 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 says, 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 always looked upon as a special Duty, and we have several places of Scripture which do not only vouch and justify, but also enjoin 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 always lawful, 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 enjoined 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 read 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 enjoined it; but I have proved the contrary, and they themselves confute their own Pretences by their Practice.  
But, suppose the Scripture did not enjoin it, what then? if we must neither pray with a Form nor without, unless the Scripture bid us do one or the other, than 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 enjoins 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 acknowledgement and admiration of the Divine Excellence and Perfection, or it is a thanksgiving for his Mercies, or an humbling ourselves before him for our Sins, or entering 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 Judgements 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 always the same, as a tune is the same, though it be pricked down by never such variety of marks, and a sentence the same, expressed 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 than he that officiates, not being to seek for what he is to say, and his fancy and invention, not being perpetually upon the rack, his mind is the more intent and fixed upon the Object of his Devotion, and upon a sober and considerate reflection 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 nonconforming Brethren do, as well in their Prayers as Sermons, for want of duly considering what they have to say beforehand, which shows plainly what extreme 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 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 Ambassadors 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 carried before Magistrates and Rulers, to give an account of themselves and of that Gospel which they preached; and than 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 expressly tells us, that the Gift of Prophecy, 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 Prophecy 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 very expressions into our mouths; the Spirit itself 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.  
Compositum jus fásque animo, sanctósque recessus  
Mentis, & incoctum generoso pectus honesto.  
Haec cedo ut admoveam templis, & fare litabo.  
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 useful 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 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 Judgements, and to prepare them for Happiness by wisdom and instruction.  
But if there be any who, by the strength of natural parts, by the quickness of their fancy, 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 reality 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 unfruitful. 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 Prayer; because in those we go along with the Minister himself; nay, we understand beforehand what it is he is about to ask, and so are the better prepared to join with him, and to say, Amen, hearty, 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 only 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 unbelievers, 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 judgement and experience, he does usually endeavour only to show 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 coke's the great God of Heaven and Earth; while the man of gifts and graces, as he thinks himself, does by ridiculous or rash expressions, by mimical gestures and affected alterations of his voice, by speaking sometimes so high as if he would prevail with him by clamour, 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 public Assemblies of Christians be not only lawful in itself, 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 allowed.  
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 public Sanction, whether sacred, or civil, or both, than we have here a plain instance of a lawful 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 itself unlawful, and whatsoever may be lawfully commanded is of necessity to be obeyed, unless we will renounce all obedience whatsoever.  
However, thus much will certainly be granted by the most avowed Assertors of the Separation, that we have every one of us a right and power of determining our selves in those indifferent matters; for otherwise the nature of their indifference is destroyed; and yet if thus much be but allowed, they will find themselves driven to an absolute necessity, either to contradict themselves, 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 adieu 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 do 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 politic, 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 only Judge when he is wronged or injured; 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 politic 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 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 public.  
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 public 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 Denizen of a sober Corporation; if charity, goodwill and love; if mutual helpfulness and reciprocal usefulness to one another; if peace with God, and peace with men, and peace within ourselves 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 displeased and angry with other men; if the controversies raised about matters confessedly indifferent have been, when and wherever they have happened, a perpetual bane and disquiet to the Church; if they always heighten men's Passions against and alienate their affections from one another; if they are always attended with a disturbance of the public 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 dutiful submission to the Authority of the Church; if by giving up this Power, the Church, as a Body politic 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 public Worship of God: lastly, when men are met together in a religious Assembly; if every man shall follow his own particular fancy; 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 remissness; 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 itself 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, for which the Civil forbid Adultery and Murder, namely, because it is necessary to the public 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 public 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 lawful to use all necessary means for the preservation of the Civil Peace, or it is lawful for the Church to concern herself 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 public 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 public Authority, as they tender the reputation of their own wisdom 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 Apostles 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 useful Arts are encouraged; which is nothing else but the consideration of the public 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 public, or to the interest of any private person; but if any prejudice or advantage will accrue, than 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 public 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 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 its imposition is founded.  
To be sure men of common sense and understanding, if they have but common honesty joined together with it, will take their measures of obligation as to the lawfulness or unlawfulness of what is commanded, from its design and tendency to promote or obstruct the interest of the Public, 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 Wisdom of the King and his three Estates in Parliament assembled, which though they be for the interest of the whole Kingdom, 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 fundamental Constitution of all Societies, that a greater Interest be preferred before a less, and that when the public 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 plainly for the advantage of the Public and of every particular Person?  
And if notwithstanding the manifest Conducibleness of such an Uniform way of Worship to the public 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 Superiors, and shall from thence proceed upon I know not what Pretences, ridiculous in themselves and destructive of the public Welfare, 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 enjoins 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 public Peace. But alas! we carry souls and Consciences about us, and these are precious things; there is an immortal Interest lies 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, 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 show hereafter: it remains therefore, that the Church itself be in all Ages furnished 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 expressly, or by direct and lawful 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, customs, and other circumstances of several Nations, will introduce a diversity of external Formality 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 Kingdom, 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 Relics, or Images, or praying for Dead, or worshipping the Host: Nay, you shall hardly ever see a man in a passion when he hears the Tragical stories of those horrible persecutions against the professors 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 displeased, we scarce ever trouble ourselves. But at home the pretences of Religion and Liberty, which are always stirring when ever there is any prospect of public Disorders likely to ensue upon them, will never fail to excite the ambitious, the discontented, and the needy, to embroil the State out of principles either of Interest or Revenge, while the passions of men that daily converse together, and are engaged by interest, or prejudice, or duty in the respective parties, do but serve to blow the coal, 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 Kingdoms and Provinces without dissension; 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 Kingdom 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 Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; and this is that which I affirm to be necessary in every Kingdom or State that would avoid all occasions of public Tumults and Disorders, and would be as 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 congregational 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 Foreign to itself; and this is a Form of Church Government, which in a Christian Kingdom or Commonwealth, I affirm to be naturally unlawful: 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 national Establishment from which these particular Congregations have separated themselves. The first of these is Babel in Effigy, the very Emblem and Landscape 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 public Hostility and Rapine; for the reason why men separate from one another, is always out of some real or some pretended dislike, which dislikes by actual separation, are so far from being composed, that they are manifestly improved and heightened 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 to their own Opinion, for men to love themselves and those of their own way, and to think of other men, who are not enroled in the same list with themselves, if not with a real 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 Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction external to themselves; from whence it is easy to perceive that every such Congregation may be a new Sect and Party by itself; 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 public could not be secured, if it were not for the overbalance of the calvinistical 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 public Churches in the Dominions of the State as well as of the only Ministers or Pastors, who are maintained by the public, 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 always 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 irreconcilable and everlasting) it will prove the ruin of that once powerful, 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 established 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 itself not being all of it of the same metal, and the Army that was to wield it, being itself cantoned into Sects and Factions, they began at length not to understand one another's language, but were forced to leave working any longer, and to desist from building that Babel of Religion, cemented with blood instead of mortar, which is inconsistent with the quiet of the Earth, and by which men in vain expect to climb to Heaven.  
It is a prodigious thing for a man to consider what irreconcilable 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 bloody 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 always 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 always happen, that the smaller Fishes will associate and unite together against the Leviathan or prevailing Party, that overballances the rest, but when that King of the Waters is destroyed, they will then begin to prey upon one another, and contend which of them shall engross 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 forbidden, what miserable work they will make of it among themselves.  
It is to be confessed indeed that there are abroad very great heats and contentions to be found, which are not of such dangerous consequence to the public Peace, such as are those feuds, which will never be extinguished, betwixt the Seculars and the Regulars, and betwixt the regular Fraternities with one another; and, I believe, there are but very few monastic 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 encumbered 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 do; 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 employment to them, hinder them from being capable of prosecuting any dangorous 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 cloisters, and in the little formality of their cells, and convents renders them unexperienced in affairs, listless and unactive in business, and unfit to do 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 holiness 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 justify the lawfulness of separate and independent Congregations in a Christian Commonwealth or Kingdom, 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 applied, but by the removal of their necessary cause, and by destroying the Independency itself, 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 of the Peace of the World, and of the design of Christianity itself, 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 Nonsense and religious Folly to allow that Charity, Good will and Peace are the indispensable duties of a Christian; nay, the characteristic 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 only 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 public: which second Case differs only 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 encumbered; and, it being much easier for small things to increase 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 humours of the Body politic will naturally flow, thither the unfortunate, the discontented, the covetous and the ambitious will betake themselves, to seek revenge against real or imaginary wrongs, to repair the decays and ruins of a broken fortune, to satisfy the craving circumstances of poverty and want, and to fill up the wide capacity of immodest, unreasonable and unjust desires at the expense of the public welfare, security and quiet.  
Neither are such Conventicles as these dangerous only to the Civil Peace, by being the natural causes of embroilment and disturbance, the very sinks and common-shores into which all bad humours disembogue themselves and find a welcome entertainment, while the simplicity of some suffers itself, under the specious pretences of an extraordinary zeal, to be misled and carried away captive by the designing Hypocrisy of others; but, which is still worse, they have a no less pleasing aspect upon Religion itself, 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 conveyed by a due and worthy participation of them, are placed 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, do it out of any bad design; for I am not only 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 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 chief reflect upon the sad experience of former times, which is sufficient to convince us, what the genuine tendency 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 wonderful effect upon the Peace and Settlement of these distracted Kingdoms, by persuading all that hearty wish the Prosperity of Zion 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 gone astray without all the concern that is natural to a distressed, forsaken Mother, and stands always 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 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, 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 Error; but on the contrary, there are many of our Dissenting Brethren, who, when they are taxed 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 chief 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 Lawful to make any breach or disturbance in the Church upon this account, but rather to take this occasion for the exercise of those two excellent virtues of Patience and Humility, and expect the good time when this burden should be removed by the same regular Authoriy that had imposed it.  
This was the case of the Mosaic 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 Yoke; from which the Wisdom and Piety of our Ancestors, has with no less Justice than Necessity freed us, and placed 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 itself, 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 itself 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 burdensome or too many, is manifestly unlawful. The reason is, because this will be liable to the same Inconveniences, to which a separation upon pretence of greater Purity, is exposed; and in both cases, if every private man shall be allowed to judge for himself, and to proceed to a Separation in pursuance of that judgement, so infinite are the humours, the fancies, the prejudices, the perversities of some men; so fond are they of Novelty and Change, so apt to control Authority, and so desirous to be governed only by their own Measures, that there can be no lasting Establishment in the World, but the Discipline of the Church will be always 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 intolerable burden, 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 virtue, of which in this contentious Age we have a great deal of need; yet in my opinion they deserve rather to be sound Laughed at, than seriously Confuted.  
What hath been said of the Church's 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 public Wisdom for the great Purpose of Edification; but for every private person to challenge this Right to himself, is unlawful, because 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 condescension be examined, they will be found to be of a quite different nature from those which make up the pretences of our days, 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 expressly prohibited by a temporary Canon of the Council of Jerusalem, must needs give very great offence and scandal to the Christians of those days, 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 lawful for one who was well grounded in the reason of things and might do 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 do it without scandal to others. Secondly, There were others who could not justify 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, ask no question for conscience sake. Lastly, There were a third sort, more scrupulous than either of the former, who thought themselves bound not to eat any manner of meat but what they were sure had not been sacrificed to Idols, and it is to these especially that Saint Paul's condescension is with abundance of equity and justice made, because their scruple was founded not in a Circumstance or Ceremony only, but in a deep sense of Devotion, and in a jealousy 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 blood, which was not only strictly enjoined 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 Blood, 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 examine 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 Blood and of Circumcision, the case is far different from the scruples of our days; since it was not the squeamish aversation of a Ceremony, 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 how little an enemy 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 entered 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 signify the final abolition, antiquation and repealment of the Abrahamitical Covenant and Mosaic Law, the Holy of Holies was at that instant laid open, whereinto not only the Highpriest 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 only, 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 only that the Promise was literally 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 again, Gal. 3. 29. If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.  
The Abstinence from Blood, though it be not so much a Jewish Institution, but was as old as the Creation itself, and continued all along in force till our Saviour's time; yet than 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 atonement 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 Messiah, as to their efficacy and virtue, and as the Prophet Daniel had long before expressly prophesied it should do; I say, when the Sacrifices were no longer allowed in which this legal Abstinence was founded, it is plain the Obligation to the Abstinence itself must cease together with it, because, sublatâ causâ tollitur effectus: that Cause upon which this Abstinence was enjoined being now finally antiquated and abolished, the Effect of that Cause, which was this Abstinence from Blood, must of necessity be supposed to be abrogated likewise.  
But yet, I know not how it came to pass, not only the converted Jews in the Apostolical times, but the primitive Christians for many Ages together did generally abstain from Blood, and this Abstinence has not wanted very learned Assertors even in our days, Curcelleus has written a particular Diatriba or Dissertation, De esu sanguinis, wherein he defends this practice, with what success I leave others to determine, when they shall have considered what I have here said; to which I will now add, to strengthen the Demonstration, that that Text of Saint Paul's which I have already cited, whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, ask no question for conscience sake, may as well refer, and does as necessarily do so, 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 Solicitude 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 Gild 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 Gild, and Gild 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 Custom 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 unlawful 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, roll a great stone unto me this day. And Saul said, disperse yourselves 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 rolling a Stone to the place where the Beasts were to be killed, was this, That they were to be laid athwart it with their 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 Condescension, 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 legal 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 relinquished, 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 which our times have experienced, when the Church was swallowed up at one Morsel, and the Kingdom at another; when all that was Sacred and Devoted to the service of Almighty God, was converted to profane uses by Thiefs 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 mere 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 Control their Governors in things of Public 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 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 Apostasy from the Christian Faith, which did impose burdens upon them which their Consciences, not being yet sufficiently informed of the true extent of that liberty which Christ had purchased 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 dispensed with them in some cases out of mere necessity, that his Brother, for whom Christ died, might not be destroyed, by Relapsing to Judaisme 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 Author to the Hebrews speaking of this very business, tells us, c. 6. v. 4, 5, 6. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, 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 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 yourselves 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 established in the Church, are in themselves of a changeable nature, and since our Church herself hath openly and expressly declared, 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 itself to the public Rule; and such a Toleration as this is, I affirm to be directly and positively unlawful, because it cuts the sinews of Government in pieces, and lets the Rains lose 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 Kingdom 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 Yoke, 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 Judgement and Reason, against the Independency, which may now with  Force be retorted upon themselves; as the Most Reverend and Incomparably Learned, the Excellent Dean of Saint Paul's, 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, 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 go 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 than 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 vicious habits, which the Gnostics, 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 Jesuit, Caesar Baronius, I could not believe he had quoted his Authors 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 loath 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 ourselves, then certainly, since humane Nature is always the same, and being allowed the same scope, will always be guilty of the same or like Enormities, which, by the prevalence of bad example, and by the addition of impunity to temptation will always increase, instead of taking up within a dutiful compass of Sobriety and Moderation, such an unbounded Liberty as this aught always, by the utmost Severity of public Justice, to be repressed, 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 public 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 always the same shall be joined 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 public, because the common Interest of Mankind will always 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 public mischief, which can only be done by a regular and orderly Discipline, is to lean so much upon humane probabilities and upon ourselves, 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 Virtue.  
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 Pastor to preach what Doctrine he pleases, be it never so much to the disturbance of the Government of the public, as some of them do at this time take a most unpardonable liberty in their Sermons: But if it be lawful for the Government to assume to itself a Judgement of what Doctrines tend most to the Establishment of its peace and safety, it is much more lawful for it to concern itself in matters of Discipline, which are not in themselves of so great moment, and which notwithstanding being left undetermined 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 ourselves.  
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 expressly revealed in the Scriptures of the New Testament; then all we have to do is, to suffer patiently, as our glorious Predecessors, the Apostles and the primitive Christians did, and we shall certainly have our reward in Heaven for so doing; but if we suffer only for breaking the Rules of decency and order, which have been found by experience to be so necessary to the public Peace, and which have no other tendency, meaning or design, but in order to this end, unless we can allege 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 Confessors or Martyrs.  
I reckon there are three Causes especially of the present Nonconformity 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 destroyed, 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 only 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 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 do 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 professed 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 Live and Benefices of which they were then possessed, being unable to dig, unless it were in the Vineyard, and being ashamed to beg; being desirous to reek their Revenge upon the Government, which had ejected them only 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 sound seasoned with Democratical and Demagogical Principles of which it is very hard for a through 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 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 Dependants upon an Interest, that wanted a Wife, or would oblige a Chapman, or insinuate themselves into a Last Will and Testament; by the women's caressing their Husbands, and the Husbands persuading their Wives; by causes that cannot be justified, 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 justify 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 Nonconforming 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 dregs 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 Nonconformity 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 always 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 public 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 yoke, and a foreign Religion from abroad; only to gratify the Designs of proud, or discontented, or necessitous men; to feed Contempt and Ignorance themselves, and to  Want of loyalty, learning, good nature and good manners.  
It is true indeed, that the Wisdom of this World is Foolishness with God, and that the Wisdom of God is Foolishness with this World, and that they are opposite the one to the other; but then by the Wisdom of this World, is meant, that Carnal Mind that hath a greater consideration for a Temporal Interest, than for the Interest of Truth and Virtue; 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 unlimited Toleration must of necessity be unlawful, 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 unlimited Toleration, by which nothing else is or can be meant, but a Liberty for every man to do or say as he pleases, so he do 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 unlimited Toleration in itself, and will prove so in its Effects; then I suppose it will be granted, that all such Separate Assemblies are unlawful; 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 reposed in them for the preservation of the public Peace.  
What if an Holderforth in a Separate Assembly, shall teach his Auditors that they own no subjection to any Earthly Prince, that Rebellion is expressly dispensed with in the Charter of the Saints; that Adultery, and Sacrilege, and Theft, and Murder, 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 unlawful; but that Perjury itself, in such as are sanctified and made Partakers of that new Birth by which so many Monsters are brought into the World, may be not only Lawful, but Pious and Commendable, and in some cases an indispensable Duty?  
Shall the Government in this Case, Shall Civil or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction be allowed 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 liege People from their Obedience, and to the unspeakable peril and hazard of their immortal Souls? If thus much be not allowed, than 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 public , to the peace of the Kingdom, 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 merely 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 control.  
The Drunkard, he puts his excess to the account of his friendship and good nature; the Lustful 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 heroic 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 Yoke 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 sinful practices, so they do not own the Principles from whence those practices proceed.  
But what shall we think of the Gnostics of old time, that made adulterous and incestuous mixtures, and promiscuous coitions a part of their Religion? or, of the Family of Love, that do 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 Villainy of the religious Incendiaries in Scotland? of the Zealots among the Jews, the exact Patterns of the Zealots of our days, 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 do at present endeavour to set up for themselves, and shake off the Yoke of obedience to their lawful Superiors, to their liege Lords and rightful Masters. What sort of People in the World are so arbitrary as these, who yet are the loudest Declamours not only against Arbitrary Power, but against all Power but their own? The Papists themselves are not more bloody than they, nor any of the persecuting Emperors more powerfully acted and possessed by a Spirit of bitterness and persecution. To conclude; Did not the Levellers preach Community of goods, according to the primitive example, (though the reason of that practice be now utterly ceased) 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 Highway? What was it but a new Invention of those pilfering Saints, to give Thiefs 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 men's embodying themselves into particular Ecclesiastical Societies distinct from the public 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 unlawful; that they may, and that they ought to be suppressed; and that all the Favourers and Abettors of such unlawful 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 do it only 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 knowledge, yet we are not to consider so much what it is they design, as what the natural tendency 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 intent 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 easy it is too for a man to inform himself: (and what is or can be more manifest than the Prejudice arising from men's 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 turn, 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 mere Discipline and Ceremony, 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 Controversy, to which we must apply ourselves 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 public Calamities, that has made so dreadful and so terrible Convulsions both in Church and State, but an overheated zeal against Ceremonies and public Order, 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 model of a particular Party instead of joining in the regular and uniform Worship of the public, 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, than 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 itself were at stake, as if it were the being of a God or the immortality of the Souls of men that were denied by us, and asserted only by the Dissenters from the public Order and Rule.  
So that either way the inconvenience is in a manner equal, a Toleration has a manifest tendency 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 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 United Provinces from under the Spanish Yoke; 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 Governors and Soldiery 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 itself by Blood, 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 balance 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 powerful Republic that has ever appeared since the Roman, yet, as a Republic in its nature and constitution is more exposed to the ambition or animosity of bad men than a Kingdom or Monarchy is or can well be, so in the midst of its greatness, it always carried in its bowels the undoubted symptoms and causes of its ruin, which it is to be feared, what with the Factions at home, and the daily increasing 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 only 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 themselves 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 myself 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 only Expedient by which an universal Friendship and Charity can be maintained, by which the Government can be rendered safe in itself and easy to those that are to obey, by which we can be rendered quiet and secure at home, or considerable abroad, by which we can be put in the best capacity to resist an Enemy or to secure 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, Profaneness, and of all manner of Evil whatsoever it be; this is sufficient to justify a lawful Power in the use of the only 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 only possible expedient of Peace and Safety, 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 betrayed 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 fruitful 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 would 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 lawful to endeavour the subversion of the Government, which in this case will never be able to maintain itself 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 descending the Laws, they shall not at some time or other subvert 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 weakening 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 denied; besides, that the present posture of affairs doth sufficiently prove it to be true, when our Heats and Dissensions 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 uneasy and unsafe at home; besides, that by our Divisions we increase 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 public safety; it is necessary to the honour and seemly appearance of the Government as well as to the happiness of it: it appears likewise that separate and independent Congregations are therefore unlawful, 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 strife among men, and therefore as being directly and diametrically opposite to the very nature and temper of Christianity, it must of necessity be unlawful: lastly it appears that humane impositions are lawful, because this Uniformity, which is so necessary to the quiet of the World and to the making Christianity useful 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 easy by new provocations to add new fuel 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 unlawful, because all other pretences are infinite, and at that rate there can be no end of Dissension 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 unlawful; men do not only 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 do 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 there are parties or factions in that unhappy Church whose misfortune it is to be so miserably divided: the consideration of which cannot choose but affright every man who has any regard either of his own peace, or to that of his Country, 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 only the Signal of opportunity or advantage on any side to begin a bloody 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 do whenever it shall lie in their power. They having not only 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 Protestant's, who cannot be united by any thing but a public Form and Ritual of Divine Service; they would soon have shown us what opinion they have of their pretended Diana Toleration, a Goddess never worshipped in the public 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 unlawful, to be attended with infinite inconvenience and mischief both to the public and particular persons, of which the body politic itself 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 topic of concession, but that either we altar 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 lawful, otherwise it would be ridiculous to talk of substituting other Ceremonies in the stead of those that are abolished, when the very substitution itself is made an exception against them, it behoves those persons therefore who are desirous of such an alteration, since by the desire itself they do imply an acknowledgement, that a substitution, that is, a new imposition may lawfully be made, and by consequence that an imposition in the general considered is not unlawful; I say, it concerns them to show 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 public 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 Samson, with an honest perhaps, but yet a blind fury, and a mistaken zeal pulls up the very Pillars of Government from their natural basis, and destroys the only expedient under Heaven of public safety, security and peace; it makes the very worship of God itself 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 expressly declared that she intends nothing by them but only 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 expressly declare that it doth not at all belong to the Essence of it, that the Baptism is complete without and before it, that it is only 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 painful 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 tribulation and sufferings into the glory of the Father. So that here there are but two things to be considered, either this Rite is unlawful because it hath been superstitiously abused by those in the Romish Communion, and then upon the same account kneeling at our Prayers will be unlawful, 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 unlawful because it is a Ceremony of a symbolical or significative nature, which is very strange, as if a Ceremony could be unlawful, only 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 majestic 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 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 do in us, and they wear long cloaks too, though Gowns and Cassocks they have nothing to do with, and therefore they do still remain in a state of superstition and uncleanness, only for that reason because they are longer, that is, more grave, more becoming, more authoritative, because they preach better and persuade more effectually than short ones.  
The Surplice, a thing so much decried and talked against by some, what is it to the Laity? 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 only 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 gins 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 only 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  and change of raiment on a Sunday, which that that day of the week is chose above all the rest to do 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 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 only 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 carelessness and disregard of God and of his worship, and will without question produce that bad effect upon the minds of men wherever they are put to practice; as on the contrary, a devout and submissive gesture and deportment of ourselves at the times and ●●aces of religious worship is of real benefit and advantage to ourselves, 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, 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 expressly forbidden by the second Commandment, that we worship the Rails or the Table itself, or at any time the consecrated Elements upon it, which is likewise included in the meaning of that Commandment, all which our Church does expressly 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 aught appears, only 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 herself in this point, that she intends no worship but to God only, to God the Father, who sent his only 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 unlawful for us to kneel at our Prayers, to behave ourselves humbly in the presence of the true and only 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 Blood 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 sum up all, as I began, with the words of the Apostle, Let all things be done decently and in order.  
THE END.