The Mischief of Impositions, Section 11
SECTION. XI. The Application. And firſt, To thoſe in Communion with the Church.
NOthing now remains, as the Doctor thinks, but application; and perhaps it may be ſo, nothing for us to Read, becauſe we have read all the reſt; but upon my word there remains a great deal more, for the Doctor to do than he has yet done, unleſs he can ſatisfie himſelf to have done juſt nothing: Here are ſeveral Propoſitions to be proved, his own Queſtions to be anſwered, and many things upon the ſcore not wiped off; yet let us hear his Application, which is alwayes either the beſt or the worſt part of a Sermon.
He begins with a word of Advice to thoſe That continue in Communion with the Church. That they would walk by the ſame Rule, and mind the ſame things. For whileſt we keep to one Rule all people know what 'tis to be of our Church.
Here then are two ſorts of Perſons, both ſuppoſed to be in Communion with the Church: Firſt The ſuper-Conformiſts, who out-run Canon, Convocation, Rubrick, and are got as far as Calice before ſome of their Brethren can reach Canterbury. The ſecond of Subter-Conformiſts, who jogging on their own pace, neither the high-trot, nor the Tantivey, are almoſt run out of diſtance; the former are for the high Notion of Canon-Prayer, the other form their own Conceptions in their own expreſſions, in Prayer both before and after Sermon; theſe again are ſo ſtiffe in their Hams, they will not bend at the naming the word Jeſus, but others are ſo ſupple in the joynts, they are ready to buckle at the name of Judas: Some are got into the high ſtrains of the Organ, above Canon, againſt Homilies, others content themſelves with the plain ſong of the old Metre; and from hence. 1. Quaere whether ſuper-conformity, and ſubter-conformity, overdoeing the Rule and underdoing it, exceſſes, and defects in reference to the ſame Canon, be not a real Schiſm in the bowells of the Church?
2. Quaere. If ſo; which faction is it that makes Schiſmatick? If the Gallopers, why are they not then declared Schiſmaticks from the preſs and Pulpit? Is it for fear they ſhould loſe ſuch zealots from their party? or are they aſhamed to condemn others, for what they practice themſelves? or is it becauſe theſe Sinners are too good, too bad, or too great to be told of their faults: But if the halting Conformiſts be the Schiſmaticks, how comes it to paſs that only defects are Sins, and yet exceſſes are ſuch vertues? why is it, that a man may advance towards Rome, and yet be no Schiſmatick, but yet one ſtep towards Geneva makes him a damnable one; that it would be no crime to out-run the Conſtable, but to hang back, and give him the ſlip, when he would drag him to the Stocks, is ſuch a heinous one?
Quaere 3. Whether if they can relax the Rule of Severity, or exerciſe the Rule of Charity towards their own brethren, to ſave them from being Schiſmaticks, they might not ſtrain a little farther to ſave the reſt of the Nation?
Quaere 4. If it be true, that while all keep to one Rule, all people know what it is to be of the Church of England, Mr. B. will not be as far to ſeek, as ever he was to underſtand, what the Church of England is; when he cannot but ſee by mens practiſes, they either walk by no Rule, or Twenty; and when a punctual Conformiſt neither exceeding, nor coming ſhort of the Rule, is like that Temperamentum ad pondus, which unleſs in ſome Philoſophical Noddle, never yet had any real exiſtence.
Quaere 5. If (as the Doctor ſays) it be Indiſcretion only, and ſome peccadillo, to go beyond the Rule, a good nature might not allow it to be Indiſcretion too, and no more, in thoſe that fall below the Rule? It may be demonſtrated, that ten degrees of Northern Latitude varies no more from the Equinox, than as many degrees of Southern Latitude: But the miſery is, Titius ſhall be a Saint for the ſame thing for which Sempronius is a Raſcal; and let him fly never ſo high above the Canon, he's but indiſcreet; when-as let him lag never ſo little behind it, he's a notorious Schiſmatick.
Nevertheleſs Conformiſts muſt own it to be wholeſome counſel which he gives them and himſelf, Let us take heed we do not give too much occaſion to our enemies, to think the worſe of our Church for our ſakes. Moſt excellent counſel it had been, had he defined critically what occaſion is too much, what too little, and what juſt enough to make men think evil of the Church. And his old Queſtioning method might have here been ſeaſonably revived; How far we may, or may not give occaſion to enemies to think worſe of the Church: but we never expect an Anſwer of theſe hot-ſcalding queſtions: occaſion may be given, and much occaſion, but too much occaſion muſt not; for too much is too much; and therefore whatever that may be, take heed of it.
This advice was firſt deſign'd for thoſe that continue in Communion with the Church; but by ſome unhappy accident or other, it's turn'd into a word of reproof, nay of reproach to thoſe that are out of it. In times of common infection, they ſay, all diſeaſes turn to the Plague; and in the univerſal paroxiſm of railing at Diſſenters, even Sermons that ſhould be Remedies, turn into the diſeaſe of railing: But what have the Nonconformiſts to do with the Exhortation given to the Conformiſts? even as much as the Doctor had to do to preach againſt them at Guild-Hall Chappel. But let us hear their crime however; They blame (ſays he) the Government; but if themſelves were in place, or thoſe they love or eſteem, then the Government had been a very good thing: thus do mens judgments vary as their intereſts do. As if a Weathercock ſhould preach from the top of the Steeple one day, What Charter has Chriſt given the Church to bind men up to more than he has done? Iren. Epiſ. p. 8. And the next day ſhould tell us, that what is lawful may be made a duty; and then I am ſure the Church has power to bind us up to more than Chriſt ever did: yet it ſeems, if the Nonconformiſts might have been all made Biſhops, they had liked Epiſcopacy well enough; for my own part, I like it ſo well, that where there's one Biſhop, I wiſh there were five hundred; and yet I have heard of ſome that might have worn the Miter, but that they would not purchaſe repentance ſo dear: But he goes on! We find uniformity and order condemn'd as tyrannical, till men come in place themſelves, and then the ſame things are very good: Where the Doctor found this, except in Panciroll de rebus perditis, I cannot imagine; I never heard Ʋniformity condemn'd as tyrannical: but the rigorous forcing of Chriſtians to an affected uniformity in humane crotchets; an uniformity in practiſe, without uniformity in judgment. If all mens feet were of the ſame ſize, I ſhould never complain if their ſhooes were made of the ſame Laſt: but to pinch a foot of the ſlovens twelves, into a ſhooe of the childrens three…, is to put conſcience into the ſhoomakers ſtocks, which next to thoſe of Biſhop Bonners Colehole, are the word one can ſit in: Nor do we abhor Order, but Innovations introduced under that ſpecious title; nor did I ever find that the Nonconformiſts were in the Biſhops Thrones, though ſome odd fellows got into their Lands; without which, perhaps neither one ſide nor other would be very ambitious of the places.
Let the Doctor then take an occaſion, or no occaſion, little or great, to revile us; to miſrepreſent us, I am ſure his brethren are beholden to us, for by our means they have ſcaped a fine ſcowring; and the edg of that Reproof which ſeem'd to bear hard upon the Conformiſts, is turn'd directly againſt us, which the Doctor might have forborn for two Reaſons; the one, that there were none out of Communion with the Church to hear his Juniper-Lecture; and the other, becauſe he promiſed to read them their leſſon by themſelves, which they now are expecting.