Gospel and the surest way to Enthrone Christ in the Hearts of the Sons and Daughters of Men. And I say the contrary and will prove that there is no such thing in Religion as Liberty of Conscience such a Liberty of Conscience I mean as for every Man to serve God after what way and manner pleaseth him best It is easier to keep Sin out of the Conscience than to cast it out when it is in If that Light which is within us naturally for God hath lighted up a Candle in every Mans Conscience be darkned with Spiritual Errors how great must that Darkness needs be The Devil is the Prince of Darkness but he can Transform himself into an Angel of Light He is a fiery flying Serpent and if he can but get in his Head he will quickly winde in his whole Body How many Virgin Professors have lost their Spiritual Chastity in an hour by gadding abroad to trim their way by thinking to go in a cleaner Path than the High-way of Salvation is and so in a trice deprived themselves of that Peace of Conscience which they have not recovered again whilest they have lived O take heed then of being Humorsom and Selfwill'd under your Profession of Religion and Pray that the Lord will not leave you to your own Wills nor to the Councils of your own Hearts nor to the Wisdom of your own Spirits nor to the Nerves of your own Strength nor to the Steps of your own ways nor to the course of your own Natures nor to the Liberty of your own Consciences for if he should ye are in the High-way to eternal Destruction FINIS A POSTSCRIPT To all sorts of DÃssenters From the Church of ENGLAND As it is now Established by Law COme my Brethren and Friends let us Reason together and as the Lord of Hosts the Lord Jesus by Haggai the Prophet hath commanded Consider our Ways Chap 1. 7. And that which I humbly conceive may be most advantagious for us all in this Affair will be by comparing our ways wherein we walk with those Antient Paths wherein the Servants of God did walk in of Old My Reason for this Conception is grounded upon the Word of the Lord by the Mouth of the Prophet Jeremiah Ch. 6 ver 16. Thus saith the Lord Stand ye in the Ways and see and ask for the old Paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall find Rest for your Souls Now I beseech you my Brethren consider that this Prophet was not sent only to the Jews but also to the rest of the Nations and therefore the Words of his Prophecy belong to us as well as to them for when he wrote this Prophecy he inserts his Commission which runs thus Chap. 1. ver 4. 5 6 7. Then the Word of the Lord came unto me saying Before I Formed thee in the Belly I knew thee and before thou camest out of the Womb I Sanctified thee and Ordained thee a Prophet to the Nations Then said I ah Lord God behold I cannot speak for I am a Child But the Lord said unto me say not I am a Child for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak Then the Lord put forth his Hand and touched my Mouth and the Lord said unto me behold I have put my Words into thy Mouth See I have this Day set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down and to build and to plant I have read the Book of this Prophet very frequently in my daily Course of reading the Holy Scriptures and have taken diligent notice of the Measures he took in delivering it which I humbly conceive to consist mainly in these Six Heads 1. He gives them a Breviate of his Call and Commission from God to his Place and Office 2. Gives them a Draught of his Charge against them for their manifold Sins Iniquities and Transgressions which with gries of Heart and with Checks bedewed with Tears he frequentlyrepeats 3. A Demonstration of God's just Judgment against them for such their Tranâ—gressions 4. Exhortations and Admonitions Tears and Intreaties to for sake their own evil Ways and so prevent the Execution of those Judgments which he Denounced against them 5. The Way and Method he took to persuade them there unto 6. The nature of the Punishment to be inflicted on them in case they did not return and leave their ill Courses Now it is very remarkable that before he chargeth them with any gross Polutions of the Flesh or Prophane Debaucheries he begins with their Faults of Spiritual Wickedness and amongst the many Particulars these following are some 1. He chargeth them with their unkindness and indiscretion in forsaking their first Love to the first Principles of their Profession of Religion Chap. 2. 1. 2. in these words Moreover the Word of the Lord came unto me saying Go and Cry in the Streets of Jerusalem and say Thus saith the Lord I remember thee the Kindness of thy Youth the Love of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the Wilderness But now they were no such People they knew better things or at leastwise were resolved so to do they were now for some Novelties they must have Quails to their Manna which put the Lord to this Expostulation Ver. 5. What Iniquities have your Fathers found in me that they are gone far from me As if the Lord had said what Evil do ye find in the Law and in the Ordinances thereof which I set before you as a Rule to walk by 2. He charges them with their Delight and Pleasure in changes Aarons Bells made no Musick in their Ears except they Rung the Changes Chap. 2. 11. Hath a Nation changed their Gods which are no Gods But my People have changed their Glory for that which doth not profit Except they might have Alterations and Amendments in the High-way of Salvation agreeable to their own Humors they resolve not to walk in them any longer This made the Lord Expostulate with them again after this manner Chap. 2. 31. O Generations see ye the Word of the Lord have I been a Wilderness unto Israel A Land of Darknes Wherefore say my People we are Lords we will come no more unto thee That is we are our own Masters and at our own liberty to serve God how and when we please and as for the Antient ways of God we will know them no more so as to walk in them any longer And further at Ver. 33. the Prophet asketh them this Question Why trimmest thou thy way to seek Love Therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy Ways i. e. to forsake the High-way of Salvation And then at Ver. 36. He reinforceth this charge saying Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy ways Hence it is very remarkable that in this 2. Chap. the Prophet gives the unstable Israelites the
Heart he gave to Jerusalem a little befere they were carried away Captive into Babilon Chap. 6. 8. Be thou Instructed O Jerusalem Least my Soul depart from thee least I make thee Desolate a Land not Inhabited 'T is true that such Offences will come but woe be to them by whom they do come o ye think that Christ the Prince of Peace will Patronize your Divisions Will ye lay the Burthen of Spiritual Wickedness upon his Back and by force of strange Arguments compel him to bear another Cross This would be one way to Crucifie him afresh and to press him down as a Cart is pressed with Sheaves Are the Divisions of Christians pleasing to God Do ye think that Christ takes it well at your Hands to Foment so many Divisions as ye have crumbled your selves into since ye have left our Church Is the Study of Divisions the visible mark of Christianity Is this to do the Will of God on Earth as it is done in Heaven Are there any sort of Dissâ—nters there No. The Angels were never known since the Fall to fall out amongst themselves either in Heaven above or in any Service that they have been imployed in for Christ upon Earth There is no Strife or Contention amongst them they serve Christ with one Consent and Praise him with one Voice they all Glorifie his name in one Form of sound Words and Perseverance in the same Those two Servants of Christ the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah and the great Evangelist St. John do both agree in their Testimonies concerning this thing The Testimony of the Prophet is written in Chap. 6. 3. And one Cried unto another and said Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his Glory The Testimony of the Evangelist is written in the Book of the Revelation Chap. 4. 8. And they Rest not Day and Night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come You may plainly perceive by these Sacred Records that there are no Dissenters in Heaven that the Angels do serve Christ in Unity of Spirit and in Uniformity of Words So that we may easily gess who were the first Dissenters even the fallen Angels and therefore the name of a Dissenter can be no Glory to the Professors of the Christian Religion But that the fallen Angels were the first Dissenters from the way of Truth The Blessed Jesus in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge hath put the Question out of Doubt in his Discourse with the Pharisees in John 8. 44. Where after they had told Christ that Abraham was their Father and that God was their Father Christ tells them plainly that they were Related to neither but that they were of their Father the Devil and the Lusts of your Father will ye do for he was a Murderer from the beginning and abode not in the Truth From these Words of our Saviour we may understaud what the Devils Sin is for which they are Reserved in Chains of Darkness unto the Judgment of the great Day Also From Christ's Words here it is evident that the fallen Angels did know the Truth and by their Unbelief fell from it and of pure and upright Angels became unclean Spirits and Devils For as no Man can be blamed for not abiding in a House wherein he never was neither would Christ have blamed the Devils for not abiding in the Truth if they had not known it and been Instructed in it Wherefore did Christ call Judas Devil Have I not chosen Twelve and one of you is a Devil Was it not because he knew the Truth and Preach'd the Truth and afterwards became an Enemy to it and betrayed his Lord and Master that had taught and Instructed him in it as by his Confession before he Hanged himself it was too manifest A Christians Eternal Happiness consists chiefly in two things A true Faith and an Holy Life A Judgment rightly inform'd in matters of Faith and a Conversation rightly ordered in the Practical Duties of true Holiness Those Men and Women whose Lives and Conversations are Holy are Baptized with the Holy Ghost and they that are truly Zealous for the Honour of God's Holy Name are Baptized with Fire so that to be Holy in our Lives and Zealous in our Spirits for the Glory of the Holy God is an outward Testimony of the inward Baptism of the Holy Ghost and with Fire precedent to which is the Baptism of Water the Gate of Enterance into an outward Profession of the Gospel Now both these Pillars of the Christian Religion are apparently to be seen in the Doctrine and Prayers of our Church to all that have not shut their Eyes against it nor turn'd their Back upon it I am bold therefore to say that the Service of God in our Church is Holy because it is Founded in the Holy Scriptures Composed of Precepts Examples or Commands Collected out of the Holy Scriptures Therefore many of our Prayers are called by the Name of Collests because they are Collected out of those Portions of Holy Scripture that are Appointed to be Read that Day that they are used All the Hymns that we use both at Morning and Evening Prayer are the very Words of the Holy Scriptures or clearly deduced from them Those that Composed it and set it in that Sacred Order as it is now Established by Law were Dr. Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Dr. Ridly Bishop of London Dr. Hooper Bishop of Gloucester Dr. Latimer Bishop of Worcester Dr. Thirlby Bishop of Ely Dr. Day Dean of Chichester Dr. Tayler and Dr. Cox Almoner to King Edward 6 th with divers other Pious Learned Holy and Faithful Men who out of a Godly Zeal and Sacred purpoâ—e to advance the Glory of God the Gospel of Christ ' and the Salvation of Souls Formed these Prayers for the Service of Almighty God that his Houâ—e might be called as Christ and the Prophets foretold An House of Prayer for all People suitable to the State and Condition of all sorts of the Sons and Daughters of Men High and Low Rich and Poor Bond and Free Wise and Foolish Learned and Unlearned Saints and Sinners and all that Profess the Gospel of Christ may in one pure Language and Form of sound Words call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent for the only Wise God hath promised it by the Mouth of the Prophet Zephaniah Chap. 3. Ver 8 9. Therefore wait ye upon me saith the Lord until the Day that I rise up to the Prey for my Determination is to gather the Nations that I may assemble the Kingdoms to pour upon them mine Indignation even all my fierce Anger for all the Earth shall be devoured with the Fire of my Jealoucy For then will I turn to the People a pure Language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one Consent If all Scripture given by Inspiration is profitable for Doctrine
to you to see so populous so famous and so antient a City as Bristoll is on a light Flame Your Hands bound with Cords and your selves hall'd along the Streets like Fellons and delivered into the Custody of cruel and hard-hearted Men with infinite more mischievous and unknown Miseries that attend Wars whither civil among our selves or Foreign by Invasion of Strangers Are there none of you left alive in this City that can testifie what the unspeakable Miseries were which this distracted Kingdom endured in the time of that Scism that so grievously wounded and disturbed the Peace of the Church in the Reign of that pious Prince King Charles the I. if there are as doubtless there are many ask them and they will tell you what horrible Confusions there were both in Church and State and the Government of both utterly subverted till God in Mercy restor'd them to us again and will continue so till the same Spirit of Faction and Scism do for our Sins give us another overturn Oh England England once the Mistress of Islands if a true list and number of those thy Natives which most cruelly slew one another in thy late civil Wars should be brought to thy view And if all the Christian Blood then shed to satisfie the Factious Humours of some Men had been exhall'd by airy Vapours and now shour'd down upon thy fertile Fields and populous flourishing Towns and Cities thou wouldst see strange and prodigious Sights If those deep Sighs and Groans which thousands of excellent and vertuous Ladies and Gentlewomen utter'd from their afflicted Souls and standing with Petitions in their Hands at the doors of a company of Thieves that called themselves Committees praying from day to day from week to week and from month tomonth to buy their own Estates their lovely Cheeks bedew'd with a flux of brinish Tears from their tender Eyes If such things as these can be pleasing to any sort of profest Christians surely they are void of a right Understanding they are led not by Reason but by a Spirit of Madness which hath very little fence in what it acts Consider these things my Brethren in time lest ye repent it when it is too late And now lastly I pray you seriously to consider that there are no greater Enemies to the service of God in our Church Assemblies than the Apostate Church of Rome consisting of Monks Fryers Jesuits and Mass-Priests Can ye then do them a greater pleasure than to joyn with them in Hatred and Contempt of it Did they not burn both the Book it self and the choicest Persons of those that composed it and will ye throw their Ashes into the River they tied them to Stakes and will ye shoot at their Hearts with bitter words Next unto the sacred Scriptures I am bold to say that our Common-Prayer Book is the surest visible Bulwark to keep out Popery from ever being established by Law in this Kingdom any more for ever and will ye persevere in throwing dovvn such a Fortification and so let in again the Antichristian Beast of Rome to ruin and destroy us and to make us and your selves an everlasting Reproach and a perpetual shame O do not rob those Martyrs of that Honour vvhich they purchased at so dear a rate for the Benefit and Good of their surviving Brethren and Friends that then vvere or thereafter should be made Members of the Body of Christ O do not disgrace their Labours by blotting and staining them vvith scurilous Language and thereby expose the Protestant Faith to the Scorn and laughter of a cruel Adversary for over your Shoulders do the Blood-thirsty Papists shoot at our Hearts O that ye vvere vvise that ye vvould consider these things and return to the high way of Salvation again What joy would there be in our Churches What loving Embraces What mutual Society What Gladness of Heart What inward Comfort and Consolation to our Immortal Souls What reviving of Spirits How sweet would such Unity Peace and Concord be to the whole Kingdom How mediately-secure should we be not only from all fears of a Foreign Invasion but from all doubts of a Civil War amongst our selves Then should we offer our daily Sacrifices of Praise and Thanksgiving and call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one Shoulder and one Consent Thus have I discharg'd my duty to all that profess the name of Christ in this Kingdom wherein I was born What the effect of it may be God knows for I do not I leave the issue of it to the only wise Saviour of the World in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge whose poor weak and unworthy Servant I am and hope to persevere therein Dum Spiritus hos Regit ortus And lest any Reader should here and there meet with a word or two in this Postscript which he may happily think hath a tang of Acerbity I have thorowly season'd and sweetned it with the judgment of a Martyr'd Monarch a Stedfast and Faithful Defender of the truly antient Catholique and Apostolick Faith Upon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer-Book IT is no News to have all Innovations usher`d in with the name of Reformations in Church and State by those who seeking to gain Reputation with the Vulgar for their extraordinary Parts and Piety must needs undo whatever was formerly settled never so well and wisely So hard can the pride of those that study Novelties allow former times any share or degree of Wisdom or Godliness And because matter of Prayer and Devotion to God justly bears a great part in Religion being the Souls more immediate converse with the Divine Majesty nothing could be more plausible to the People then to tell them They served God amiss in that Point Hence our public Liturgy or Forms of constant Prayers must be not amended in what upon free and publick advice might seem to sober Men inconvenient for matter or manner to which I should easily consent but wholly cashiered and abolished and after many popular Contempts offered to the Book and those that used it according to their Consciences and the Laws in force it must be crucified by an Ordinance the better to please either those Men who gloried in their extemporary Vein and Fluency or others who conscious to their own formality in the use of it thought they fully expiated their Sin of not using it aright by laying all the blame upon it and a total rejection of it as a dead letter thereby to excuse the deadness of their Hearts As for the Matter contained in the Book sober and learned Men have sufficiently vindicated it against the Cavils and Exceptions of those who thought it a part of Piety to make what prophane objections they could against it especially for Popery and Superstition whereas no doubt the Liturgy was exactly conformed to the Doctrin of the Church of England and this by all Reformed Churches is confessed to be most sound and Orthodox For the matter of