Our author, on the other hand, shows in this tract that in reality the Church of England — dreaded at the Court of Eome, and respected by Picfonned Churches abroad, as the representative of British Protestantism — was not confined within the pale of the Established Church, but consisted of " the body of Christian people professing Protes- tantism, with a detestation of Popery." It is next his object to show that the hierarchy of England, or, more generally, " the authoritative national church-state," was a source of weakness rather than a tower of strength to the Protestant interest, on account of (1.) its encroachment on the civil rights and government of the nation; (2.) the oppres- sion of Nonconformists in order that its claims and dignity might be upheld; and (3.) the spirit it fostered of subserviency to royal aggrandizement, in order to secure a shai'e in the preferment which is under the patronage and at the disposal of the Crown. So long as the Anglican church was maintained in its claims, it was " vain to expect peace and union among Protestants." He proceeds farther, and afiirms that Popery may seize possession of it, and make use of it for its own pm-poses, tiU the whole nation be insensibly "betrayed into Popery, as it were, they know not how."
In the absence of a National or Established Church, Protestantism would not be en- dangered, if the State gave civil and public securities for the maintenance of the Pro- testant religion. He specifies the secm-ities requisite for this puiiiose: — a national renunciation of, and protest against, the errors of Popeiy ; a confession of faith, to be subscribed by all enjoying a public ministry; and the exercise of magisterial authority to the encouragement of Px'otestantism, in providing for the suppoi-t of the gospel, and in protecting the church in the enjoyment of its spiritual power. He contends that the church should be protected in the exercise of its spiiitual power by spiiitual means only._
His design, accordingly, in this tract, is not so much to enforce the duty of imion among Protestants, as to indicate the danger which, in his judgment, threatened the Protestant cause from the "national church-state," or, to come nearer the modern phrase, the state-church ; though, from the view he takes of the duty of the magistrate to support Christian ordinances, his objections to it have not much in common with the opposition now offered to the pi-inciple of a state-church. The subject of the tract is continued, and his views in regard to the course which apostasy to Rome might take, are more fully developed, in the succeeding treatise. — En.
SOME CONSIDERATIONS
UNION AMONG PROTESTANTS,
1. The protestant religion, introduced into this nation by the apos- tolical way and means of the hohness and laborious preaching of its professors, confirmed with the martyrdom of multitudes of all sorts, being now thoroughly fixed in the minds of the body of the people, and confirmed unto them by laws and oaths, is become the principal interest of the nation, which cannot be shaken or overthrown with- out the ruin of the government and destruction of the people. No- thing, therefore, less being included in the attempts of the Papists, with all their interest in Europe, for the re-introducing of their reli- gion amongst us, the nation hath been constantly filled for a hun- dred years with fears, jealousies, and apprehensions of dangers, to the great disturbance of the government and disquietment of the subjects; nor can it be otherwise whilst they know that there is a pregnant design for their total subversion, together with the ruin of the protestant religion in other places, which would have ensued thereon. But, —
2. This religion, so received and approved by the people as the only true way to salvation (accompanied with an abhoiTency of the superstition, idolatry, and heresies of the church of Rome, })artly on. the general account of their own nature, and partly on particular reasons and provocations, from the attempts of those that belong unto that church for the ruin of them and their religion), and jointly pro- fessed in the same confession of faith, hath been preserved by the means of a faithful, laborious ministry, under the care, protection, and outward government of the supreme power, as the greatest bulwark of the protestant religion in Europe.
3. The only weakness in it, as the interest of the nation (before it was infested with novel opinions), was the differences that have been
520 SOME CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT
amongst many of the professors of it, from the very first beginning of the Reformation, and which are continued unto this day.
4. These differences, though consisting now in many particulars of less moment, arose originally solely from the constitution of an au- thoritative national church-state. For some would have it to be of one sort, namely, episcopal ; some of another, namely, presbyterian ; some would have it of a divine original, others of a human, which must be the judgment of the king and parliament, who know it to be what they have made it, and nothing else ; and some judge it a mere usurpation on the power of the civil government and the liber- ties of the people.
5. It is therefore acknowledged that the body of Christian people in this nation professing the protestant religion, with a detestation of Popery, having the gospel preached unto them, and the sacraments duly administered, under the rule of the king, are the church of England. But as unto an authoritative national church, consisting solely in the power and interest of the clergy, — wherein the people, either as Christians, Protestants, or subjects of the kingdom, are not concerned, — such as is at present established, farther inquiry may be made about it.