The English Nonconformity Under King Charles II and James II, Chapter 48
Chap. XLVIII. Point V. The discountenancing the fear of sin, and the practice of serious godliness.
M.
V. I will add next this aggravation which comprehendeth many parts of Conformity.
No true Christian doubteth, but seriousness and diligence in serving God, and making our Calling and Election sure, and Obedience to Gods Law, and fear of sinning, are of absolute necessity to Salvation. And how greatly the Laity is discouraged and frightned from all this by the course of Conformity is notorious.
L.
Who doth discourage them? Do not all our Ministers Preach for Obedience and Godliness? Doth not our Liturgy pray that the rest of our lives hereafter may be pure and holy, that we may attain Eternal Life?
M.
Yes, and more than so, you read the Scripture which is all for holiness: The deeper is the guilt of Hypocrisie and Malignity in them that seek to root it out: Out of their own mouths will they be judged, and beaten with many stripes. Judge by these instances.
1. How Children are Baptized with God-fathers, and how Confirmed after, and Admitted to Communion, and forced to it, I shewed before.
2. So many humane Institutions are imposed on Men as necessary to Communion, that he must be a Man of more Learning and Understanding than I have, or with all the study of my Life could obtain, who can discern them all to be Lawful: And he that calls any of them sinful is Excommunicate ipso jure.
3. It is certain that a great part of the Laity understand not the Creed, and those few that set themselves to seek for saving knowledge, attain so little in their secular course of Life, as that we must be glad if they understand all the Catechism, the Creed, Lords Prayer and Ten Commandments, and take such for extraordinarily wife: And yet if one of these think a Form, a Ceremony, a Lay Chancellors Discipline, &c. to be repugnant to the Word of God, and say it, he is Excommunicate.
4. By this it is absolutely necessary that the generality of men, even all England that know not more than I do, must blindly believe as the Canon and Priest bids them, barely on their Word, or else they must falsly pretend to believe them, or be all liable to Excommunication. And so an implicite Faith in the Canon-Makers and Bishops is become the necessary Religion of the Land. And then if the Bishops turn we must all turn with them.
5. By this means wilful ignorance is made necessary. For it is a dangerous thing (as I have found it) to study for knowledge in Gods Word, lest it should lead us to differ from something in the Canons, Liturgy or Bishops, and then we are liable to ruin. And so they that will be Church Members must take heed of studying Gods Word, or searching after Truth.
5. If for thinking and saying any of the Impositions are amiss, they be once Excommunicated, or but noted as Dissenters, they are rendered odious to the Church-Courts and Priests, and by them to the credulous Obsequious Herd; and it's likely that in the Pulpit they will be proclaimed Hypocrites, Schismaticks, unquiet Spirits, Phanaticks, and in as much danger of Damnation as Murderers or Adulterers, who are as safe as they.
6. By this means fear of sinning, and the danger of dissenting being so usually conjunct, the avoiding of sin is made Puritanism, and a suspicious sign, if not a common scorn.
7. By this means ignorant Youth is quite discouraged from serious piety and fear of sin, lest they fall under common scorn; and it's well if they follow not the multitude and be scorners of Obedience to God themselves. And the very plea of Conscience (which is but obeying God) is made a disgrace or mockery, and a tender Conscience, made equivalent with a self-conceited Schismatick.
8. It is no danger to meet by hundreds at a Play-house; or by great numbers at Taverns, Ale-houses, Coffee-houses, Horseraces, &c. But if a few Neighbours meet to Pray or Excite each other in the Love of God and Heaven, you know what the danger is.
9. If any Minister will but leave Preaching the Gospel of Christ, and turn Physician, he may be quiet; tho' hebe of the same judgment that he was before; the forbearing of his Ministry may preserve his peace. There are now in this City ejected Ministers who have forsaken their Function, and are Doctors of Physick, and they live in great wealth and acceptance: There are Physicians and Ministers of the same judgment, and perhaps dwell together in the same House (it was the case of Dr. Micklethwait and me.) The Physician is honoured, and the Minister call'd and used as a Rogue, though they were of the same mind. There are some Nonconforming Ministers, that tho' they are Doctors of Physick, yet dare not cease their Ministry, but practice both: These are welcomed to the Sick, but the Healthful banish them or hunt them away, notwithstanding their acceptance as Physicians, the hatred of their Preaching being more prevalent.
L.
Sure they Preach some dangerous Doctrine.
M.
Not a word of such is charged on them, tho' malicious Persons come to hear them, and inform against them. Their writings tell the World their Doctrine. Dr. Clifford was one of them who hath written of the Covenants: Dr. Gilpin is one of them who hath written of Temptations, driven from Newcastle.
Some ejected Ministers Educate their Sons to Physick, and tho' they be of their Fathers mind, the Sons are highly esteemed and honoured, and the Aged Fathers laid in Jayl: This last Week old Dr. Grew that is about 80 or 79 years of Age, and almost Blind, and hath lived there 36 years and more, (known by some writings) a Man of a calm, quiet, sober, peaceable Temper, was sent to the common Jayl at Coventry for dwelling there, and sometimes exhorting his old Hearers to fear God; and he hath here a Son, and a Son-in-Law, Doctors of Physick, deservedly honoured, who if they did but Preach the Gospel might speed as ill as he.
10. If an ejected Minister would but teach the Children of the Laity, tho' it were but to read, and tho' there be no other School-master near, the people must rather have their Children untaught, and must not be suffered to have so needful a help.
11. If a Minister would give over Preaching, yet if his old Hearers desire his Neighbour-hood, that they may have the benefit of his Conference, they must not enjoy it, lest he whisper Nonconformity to them, but he must be Banished five Miles not only from Corporations, but from every place where-ever he Preached these twenty years. I know some such who have travelled much abroad, who can hardly find a place in that part of England that is not within five Miles of a Corporation or some place where they have Preached: And those few places have seldom any untenanted Houses: And if rarely such a House be found, it's like enough that the Landlord will have no such Tenant: Or if he would, it's ten to one the Minister is not able to take it and pay his Rent; besides his undoing in removal, and putting off his former House and Goods.
12. If any one that feareth sinning by Conformity, be never so falsly accused, he usually accounteth it his Wisdom to suffer patiently whatever Men will say or do, without Self-defence: I saw two Warrants against a Lay-man this Week, which express'd his Hearing two Ministers as Sworn by two poor Beggarly Women; when I can witness that both their Oaths were false, and that neither of those Ministers Preach't at the time and place that they Swore they Preached: For my House being at the next Door, I heard that it was not they that then Preached. But I suppose its all one: They dare not question it.
I heard of one that said he woulp Swear Treason against a Nonconformist: and being ask'd, What he said, and whether ever he heard him speak? He said, No; but he heard him whistle Treason: And being ask'd, How whistling could be Treason? He said, That he whistled the same Tune that a Ballad was Sung in, that they said had Treasonable words in it.
13. In the mean time, let but Men be utterly void of Conscience and Fear of Sinning, and what can hinder them from Saying, Covenanting, Swearing, Doing, any thing that is required of them in order to a Benefice, or to the Estimation of an obedient Son of the Church. And then he can Preach down Nonconformists as intolerable Rogues.
And thus the Laity that will fear Sin, and search the Scriptures, and have a Faith of their own, must go through all these Discouragements, if they be not so unhappily happy, as to attain to assurance or belief that all the Impositions in Conformity are lawful.