The Interest of England in the Matter of Religion, Essays 1 · Section 9 – Section 10
Section IX.
That this numerous party will not vary from its self, or vanish upon changes in Government or new Accidents, doth hence appear, in that it doth not rest upon any private, temporary, variable occasion, but upon a cause perpetual and everlasting. Those forementioned Principles of science and practice, which give it its proper Being, are of that firm and fixed nature, that new contingencies will not alter them, nor length of time wear them out. They are the great things of God, which have a great power over the spirit of man And they are imbraced by such as highly prize them, not for temporal advantages, whereof they have no appearance, but for an internal excellency discerned in them, as being necessary to the glory of God and the salvation of men. And consequently to these men it is not satisfactory, at all adventures to be of the State-Religion, or to believe as the Church believes. Neither will they be dissolved or much weakned by the declining haply of some principall Ones, who being bought off by preferment may turn prevaricators: For notwithstanding such a falling off, the inward spirit that actuates the whole body of them, and knits them to each other, will remain in full strength and vigour. And though many others through weakness or mildness should stagger and give ground in the points of lesser moment and more controverted, yet the root of the matter may remain in them, and as to the main they may be still where they were. But what are those great things for which this sort of men contend? Surely they are no other then the lively opening of the pure Doctrine of the Gospel, the upholding of all Divine Institutions, particularly the strict observation of the Lords day, a laborious and efficacious Ministry taking hold of the Conscience and reaching to the heart, a godly Discipline correcting true and real scandals and disobedience; in a word, all the necessary and effectual means of unfained faith and holy life, that the Kingdom of God may come in power. And for these things sake they are alienated from the height of Prelacy and the pomp of Ceremonious Worship. This was well known and provided against by the swaying part of the later Prelatists; For in as much as they could not quell the Puritans by the rigid injunction of Conformity, that they might give a blow at the root, Lectures were suppressed, afternoon Sermons on the Lords day prohibited under pretence of Catechizing (which was only a bare rehearsal of the Form of Catechism for Children, without explication or application of those principles) a Book for sports and pastimes on Sundays enjoyned to be read by Ministers in their Parish Churches under penalty of deprivation, sundry superstitious Innovations introduced, a new Book of Canons composed, and a new oath for upholding the Hierarchy inforced. Far be it from me to impute these things to all that were in Judgment Episcopal; for I am perswaded, a great, if not the greater part of them disallowed these Innovations. Nevertheless those others that were most vehement, active, watchful, vigorous, did not by all the aforesaid means advance, but rather weaken their Cause, and lessen themselves in the esteem of observing men, and the oppressed party increased in number and vigour. It is therefore evident that this Interest, for which we plead, is not like a Meteor which after a while vanisheth away, but is of a solid and firme consistence like a fixed Constellation; And the injuries done unto it are not of that nature, as to be acted once and for all, and then to pass into the grave of oblivion, but they are lasting pressures to a perpetual regret and grievance. And should not these be done away, especially when the occasions thereof wil be found not necessary, but superfluous?
Section X.
There remaineth yet some greater thing which strikes deep into this Enquiry, which at the first glance perhaps may seem a fancy, but by impartial judgement will be found a manifest and weighry truth; namely, that as this Interest will never vary from its self, so it will never be extinguished, while the State of England continues Protestant. I do not now argue from Maximes of Faith and Religion (as that the life and power of Christianity shall never fail, that after the greatest havock of the true Church, there will be a remnant, a seed, that shall spring up to a great increase after a little season) but I have here entred upon a way of reason, and let men of Reason judge. Suppose that the Persons now in being of this strict profession were generally ruined and rooted out, yet let but the Protestant Doctrine, as it is by Law established in the Church of England, be upheld and preached, and it will raise up a genuine off-spring of this people, whose way is no other then the life and power of that Doctrine, as it is not onelyonly received by tradition, education, example, or any humane authority, but also imprinted upon the spirit by a lively energy and operation. And this I further say and testifie, let but the free use of the Holy Bible be permitted to the common people, and this generation of men will spring up afresh by the immortall seed of the Word: For that pure, spiritual, and heavenly Doctrine pressing internal renovation, or the new Birth, and the way of holy singularity and circumspection, and being written with such Authority and Majesty, must needs beget, though not in the most, yet in may, a disposition and practise in some sort thereunto conformable. This is evident in reason, if it be granted, that the sacred Scriptures are apt to make deep and strong Impressions upon the minds of men; And whosoever denies this, as he is in point of Religion Atheistical, so of Understanding bruitish? For even those impious Politicians who in heart make no account of Religion, yet will make shew of giving reverence to it, because it is alwaies seen to have a mighty influence upon men of all ranks and degrees. Wherefore upon the grounds aforesaid I hold it a matter of unquestionable Verity, that the way in scorn called Puritanism will never utterly sink unto Protestantism it self shal fail, and Popery be set up with a bloody Inquisition.