Moderation a Virtue, Treatise
A VINDICATION OF Moderate Church-men,
SUpposing Moderation to be a Duty, Every Christian ought to be zealous for this Grace, and against all such Persons and Things as are Enemies of it, said the Reverend and Worthy Bishop Wilkins, answering an Objection in his Sermon of Moderation, pag. 416.
Our Archers that handle the Bow, shoot at three Marks: 1. The Pope, and his Legion. 2. The Dissenter, and his Divisions. 3. The Moderate Conformist.
They have shot through the Triple-Crown, pull'd out his Eye, disarmed him of his two Swords, spoil'd him of his Keys and Pontificals; in a word, as good as killed him, and buried him with White-bread, and the Popish Plot: Yet from an old Antipathy against him, we make an historical Remembrance of him; and that which remains of him alive, is confin'd to his own Territories, or so obnoxious to the Penalties of the Law, that he will keep away for his own Safety, or use a Temper, out of a sense of his Impotence and Interest. He cannot do us a Mischief, with any safety to himself.
2. The Danger is greatest from the Dissenter: Because, (1.) An Enemy in our own Bowels. (2.) By a long Indulgence grown numerous and head-strong. (3.) By subtil Insinuations got the repute to be a Protestant. (4.) Hath so great a share in the Vessel of Trade, that he can remove the Mart where almost he pleaseth: And by this 'tis thought necessary to forbear him, lest we lose by breaking him; and this makes him proud and insolent, until he be grown intolerable, because great and dangerous. The Schism is pernicious to the Church, and the Republican Principle to the Government. The Shower of the barbed Arrows, with the Thunderbolts, are poured upon them; there is no relaxation of the Bow, unless they submit, or leave a Church to which they cannot conform, to them that can, to enjoy her own Peace and Order.
3. There is another pernicious Party, of ambiguous Men, that are listed under our Banner, and receive the Churches Pay, but serve our dangerous Enemy, the Fanatick and Dissenter. These are they that will betray the Church, that are making Terms for themselves, and will, by their Compliance with the Dissenter, bring in the Papist, which might despair of entring in, if these two did not open him the Door. These are pointed out, that the Rulers may know them, and cashier them, or not trust them, and by some stronger Test deliver us from them. You may know them by their halting Moderation, and many other Marks affix'd upon them, to be seen by and by.
It is too visible, that some Men can never be quiet as long as there is a moderate Man left in the Church. These very Men admire and commend the Moderation of the Church, and yet declaim against Moderation in them that conform to it, whether they be Clergy or Laity. And really, if Moderation were dress'd up, and disguised upon the Stage, and hiss'd at, it were more excusable, for Men of little Vertue to represent it as a Vice, than to see it painted according to the Fancy of prejudiced Preachers, and hung out of the Pulpit, as an odious or a loathsom Monster; or by Head and Ears forced into a Discourse, and brought forth before the Magistrate, as a Cheat, or Underminer of the Government, to be watched, and severely inspected, as an Enemy in the Loyal Churchman's Habit.
I have long observed a Displeasure against Men of this Character of Moderation, and past it by, being as unwilling to engage against them, as I would be to draw a Company of Boys about me, by throwing back their Crabs at them, which they wantonly throw about, and hit me with by chance. But now hearing the Warning-piece shot off, to awaken the Magistrate to stand up in defence of the Church, and warned of this intestine Church-Traitor, and feeling the Heat and Sharpness of this flashy Zeal, why should we lie under the Reproach and Jealousy of these Watchmen, and not be as zealous for Moderation, as any of them can be against us? And why should we not appear for it, in its just defence, seeing it so publickly traduced, presented, and indicted.
It were much to be wished, that such a Man as the Reverend Dr. Tillotson would undertake the Vindication,To the Reader, before the Fifteen Sermons of Bishop Wilkins. who hath adventured to commend the excellent Bishop Wilkins for his Moderation, and to say: Notwithstanding that this Vertue, so much esteemed and magnified by wise Men in all Ages, hath of late been declaimed against with so much zeal and fierceness, and yet with that good grace and confidence, as if it were not only no Vertue, but even the Sum and Abridgment of all Vices; I say, notwithstanding all this, I am still of the old Opinion, that Moderation is a Vertue, and one of the peculiar Ornaments and Advantages of the excellent Constitution of our Church, and must at last be the Temper of her Members, especially the Clergy, if ever we seriously intend the firm Establishment of our Church, and do not industriously design, by cherishing Heats and Divisions among our selves, to let in Popery at these Breaches. So far that great Man, who observes how Moderation is used in these Days.
But it is not necessary so great a Champion should maintain this Cause; for Moderation is qualified with Wisdom, Fortitude, and Patience to defend it self, even silent; and a Man of a lower Size is tall enough to look the Opposers in the Face; and to put them to prove their Accusations, is to put them to silence.
Yet that we may not pay them in their own kind, and shoot in their Bow, they do not shoot at Moderation, but pelt the moderate Men; they do not expose the Vertue, but the Men that are denominated from it.
If you would see the Effigies which they hang, take a Copy of it out of some Pieces of Tapestry, and Oratorical Painting, and the Picture is a Chimaera, a Draught of meer Invention and Fancy. Is there such a Man in the Church? If there be, tire him with Apparitors, and make some real Being of him, something existent, either a Conformist, or a Nonconformist.
We have a sort of Men, who are neither for Liturgy nor Directory, Canon nor Covenant, (sweet harmonious Jingle!) part Church-man, and part Schismatical; having one Leg for a Tub, and another for the Pulpit; one Hand subscribing to separate Worship, and the other to the Church of England; such who conform to the Benefice, (not to the Canon) and, Pope-like, cancell all their solemn Obligations to the Laws, and give themselves a Pardon for their barbarous Irregularity against the Ecclesiastical Constitutions. Ex animo in their Subscriptions, signifies Lukewarmness and Neutrality; an unfeigned Assent and Consent, is a deep Hypocrisy; decently, is a Compliance with a Faction; and foreign, according to Moderation, and (too frequently) according to Subscription. — He is your only Man of moderate Principles, whose Conscience is a Composition of five precious Ingredients, the Pride of Diotrephes, the Interest of Demas, the Treachery of Judas, the Hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and the Disobedience of Devils. — (I dare not reprint the rest.) — These are your blessed Episcopal Covenanters, Canonical Comprehenders, Clergy-Merchants, and Regular Renegadoes. — (Now for sound-sake, why not Read me a Riddle, or Rattle, rattle, rattle?) — Again, their Religion consists in the Overthrow of Church-Discipline and Government; and their Moderation is a wilful Omission of the Rites and Offices of the Church of England. The same again repeated, pag. 18. Thus some Men pourtrayed by Rhetorical Oppositions, the Creatures of an unhallowed Imagination, and I think not to be found, by Mr. Will. Gould, preached at a Visitation in Exon, dedicated to Bishop Sp. and for the goodness of it twice printed, or for the badness of the Sale, the second Edition of the Title-Page put out before it; but whether printed the second time or no, concerns the Bookseller more than any other Man. I will only answer what I have transcribed, by denying the Accusation, and look upon it as a publick Pulpit-Slander. It is pity (tho it contains some Threads of Gold, and Shreds of richer Stuff,) that a great deal of it was ever thought of; or if invented, ever put to Paper; or studied, that it was ever preached; or preached, that it was ever printed; or printed, that it was ever sold or read, except to bewail that any Preacher should speak so unlike an Oracle of God. If moderate Men could not contain, they might anger Mr. Gould, and others, by shewing their Hands and their Legs, some not having as much as one Leg for a Pulpit, &c. But I will not irritate, but wish we were all Followers of Christ, qui fecit quod docuit, as Cyprian speaks.
There are many others that send about their Characters, to provoke the Magistrate to a Jealousy of their own Friends; and it is time to offer a Vindication, if it will be admitted. And that I may contain my self within some Bounds of Method, I will,
I. Vindicate the moderate Clergy and Laity, from the fanciful Aspersions cast upon them by some.
II. I will endeavour a true Character of a moderate Conformist.
III. Vindicate him from the Censures of those that are offended with him.