the conscience is past feeling then it is past cure The onely method is prevention here the onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep the conscience tender then it will be sensible of every the least touch of guilt check at whatever we shall do amiss Conscience is the eie of the soul now tenderness is a disposition very proper to the eie it is the tenderest part of the whole body and if the conscience be right that is so of the soul the smallest spill or mote is restless agony to the eie it never leaves to force out tears both to bewaile the torment and to wash away the cause I am sure our Savior calls a sin of the least size or guilt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 7. 3. things that should make the conscience as restless fret into lamentings prick passages for repenting sorrow The conscience of Converts always does so Acts 2. 37. When they heard this they were pricked in heart and indeed this is the necessary constitution of Soul for them that ever hope to have their conversation holy he whose eie is not tender 't is not useful if it be not sensible of spills that get into it it cannot be sensible of objects such a callum as will make it not feel will make it not see and when it cannot perceive pain then it cannot direct or light and so the conscience if it feel no grievance from thy vices it will never boggle at them but when it is tender as the eie then it will rowl and weep if any thing disturb it 't will be restless till it free it self Let other Souls be tickled when they feel the pleasures of a sin but Lord let my heart smite me then the stroke and smart may make me fly the cause Let sin that and cruel Serpent sting stab wound me thus for then it will make outlets for its putrifaction it will draw tears to cleanse me from it self and sure after the bloud of Christ there is no other laver to wash away the foulness of my sin but that which gushes from those wounds of spirit nothing else will quench the power of it This tender conscience will preserve the whole conversation pure if its respects be universal if its cares reach to the whole latitude of its object if it be void of offence both towards God and towards man which shews the extent of its obligation and is my next consideration of which in a few words Void of offence towards God and towards men a conversation unblamable in all things that relate to God or man both these must be join'd the Honesty without the Godliness is but Heathen Morality and the Godliness without honesty but Pharisaical Hypocrisy 'T is just that which our Savior describes and sentences Matt. 23. 14. Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye devour widows houses and for a pretence make long praiers therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation as if their long and earnest praiers pull'd down nothing else but woes and condemnation on them and their more religion gain'd them but more hell The one of these for all his honesty if he have not piety he is without God in this world nor shall have any thing of his heaven in the other whose life did not look thitherwards but aim'd no further than a conversation that was regular betwixt man and man The other the dishonest man notwithstanding his Godliness shall be without God in the world to come for sure he is not fit to live with God in that who is not fit to live with man in this who will not behave himself honestly must not think he can live religiously nor can that help him towards Gods rewards that does but help him to the greater condemnation So that they must be join'd and our conscience must be void of offence towards God and towards men and that not onely as the objects of our duty but the rules That Gods Law is the rule of conscience that we are bound to do what he commands I think I need not prove in this I have onely to wish our practice were as orthodox as our opinions But that man can oblige the conscience that laws however just of our rightful Governors are a part of this rule and we are bound in conscience to observe what they would have us do many men doubt there bene qui latuit bene vixit a close offender does not sin and if they come not under the lash of the Law they think the conscience hath no whip for these offences yet Scripture is express Rom. 13. 5. Wherefore you must needs be subject not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake again 1 Pet. 2. 13 15. submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake for so is the will of God I do not here set down that humane Laws oblige the conscience immediatly it is enough for me they do it by Gods constitution that what we do so is for his sake and 't is his will that we should do it and then he that does not obey he breaks the will of God and so does that which a good conscience must needs tell a man he must not do I know some have found out a subterfuge that onely passive obedience is required in conscience not active and tho this interpretation would secure the Magistrate for men must not rebel against that rod which they are bound to submit to yet 1. 'T is strange a man should not be bound in conscience to obey the Law yet should be bound in conscience to suffer for the not obeying it What reason for this difference Sure if either 't is most reasonable to escape the punishment if he can But 2. What sense will they make St Paul speak * wherefore ye must needs be subject not onely for wrath if wrath mean punishment as it certainly does and be subject signify submit not actively but submit to punishment as they will have it then it means therefore a man must submit to punishment not onely for punishment or for fear of being punished but also because he is bound in conscience to bear the punishment now 't is indeed impossible that a man ought and is necessitated to submit to the penalty of the Law for fear of the penalty of the Law be bound to suffer a thing for fear of suffering that very thing or that he may escape that very suffering which he is bound in conscience too to suffer These are contradictions But of the active obedience the sense is plain we must obey their just Laws not onely that we may avoid their punishments which we shall suffer if we obey not but because we are bound in conscience to obey All the Apostles instances also being of active obedience and the whole reasoning of the place evincing it might serve for further evidence but this shall suffice me for proof and St Paul truly seems to take in these here in the text for amongst several
it would A setled tendency a resolv'd inclination to sin that presseth with its utmost agitation is that weight which though it may perchance be stop'd in its career yet it tends to the Abysse its center and will not rest but in that Pit that hath nor rest nor bottom the Heart in this case is as liable as it can be because here it hath done its worst and such a Will shall be imputed to its self And now I need not tell those who are still designing sin or mischief in the heart although it never dares come out of those recesses how far they are removed from the goodness of God to Israel A Father finds a way to prove such souls have larger doses of Gods Vengeance who when he had asserted that the soul does not die with the body and then was ask'd what it did in that long interval for sure it is not reasonable that it should be affected with any anticipations of the future Judgment because the business of the day of Judgment should be reserved to its own day without all prelibation of the sentence and the restitution of the Flesh is to be waited for that so both soul and body may go hand in hand in their Recompences as they did in their demerits joynt Partners in the Wages as they were in the Works To this he answers The Soul does not divide all its operations with the Body some things it acts alone and if there were no other cause it were most just the Soul should there receive without the Body the dues of that which here it did commit without the Body That 's for the former sort of sins those meerly of the Heart And for the latter sort the Soul is first engaged in the commission that does conceive the sin lays the design of compassing and does contrive and carry on the machination and then why should not that be first in Punishment which is the first in the Offence Go now and reckon that thy outward gross Transgressions are the only dangerous and guilty ones and slight thy sins of Heart but know that while thy flesh is sleeping in the quiet Grave at rest and ease thy Spirit then 's in Torments sor thy Fleshes sins and feels a far severer Worm than that which gnaws thy Body Poor Soul Eternity of Hell from Resurrection to For-ever is not enough to punish it all that while it must suffer with the Body but it must have an age of Vengeance besides particularly for it self to plague it for those things it could not execute and punish it for what it did not really enjoy only because it did allow it self to desire and contrive them and it must be tormented for those unsatisfied desires And though indeed desires where they are violent if they be not allayed by satisfaction are but so much agony yet do they merit and pull on them more these Torments shall be plagued and the soul suffer for its very passion even from Death to the last Judgment and 't is but just that being it usurp'd upon the pleasures and the sins of Flesh it should also seize on and take possession of the Vengeance appointed for those sins it should invade and should usurp their condemnation But why do I stand pressing aggravations against uncleanness of Heart in an Age when God knows Vice hath not so much modesty or fear to keep within those close and dark restraints Instead of that same Cleanness which the Text requires we may find Purity indeed of several sorts but 't is either pure Fraud or pure Impiety the one of these does make a strange expression very proper pure Corruption for so it is sincere and without mixture nothing but it self no spots of Clean to chequer it but all stain The other is pure white indeed but it is that of whited Sepulcres a Life as clean as Light a bright pure Conversation but it shines with that light onely which Satan does put on when he transforms himself into an Angel of Light and it is but a glory about a fiend But yet this shines however whereas others do stand Candidates of Vice and would be glorious in wickedness and that is such a splendor as if Satan should dress himself with the shine of his own flaming Brimstone and make himself a glory with the streamings of his Lake of Fire And yet thus is the World we do not onely see men serve some one peculiar vicious inclination and cherish their own wickedness but they make every Vice their own as if the Root of bitterness branch'd out in each sort of Impiety in them such fertile soyls of sin they are here insincerity were to be wish'd and where there is not cleanness that there were a Mask that there were the Religion of Hypocrisie We may remember God was good to Israel of old by Obligation and performance the one as great as he could enter the other great to Miracle and astonishment when after seventy years Captivity and Desolation he did rebuild a Temple where there was no Monument of its Ruines and raised a Nation and Government of which there was no Reliques And yet at last when the Religion of some turned into Faction of others into Prophaneness when the strictest Sect of them the Pharisees became most holy outwardly to have the better means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to mischief those that were not of their Party and got a great opinion of Sanctity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as to be believed in whatsoever they did speak against the King or chief Priests and that so far as to be able openly to practise against both and raise Commotions They are Josephus's words of them and when another Sect the Zelots the most pernicious of all saith Bertram did commit Murders Sacriledg Prophanations and all kind of Villanies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with good Intentions saith the same Josephus and when those who did not separate into Sects but were the Church of Israel became lukewarm supine and negligent in their Profession yea and licentious and Prophane fit only to be joyned with Publicans in Christs expressions when sin grew generally Impudent when they did live as if they would be Scandalous as well as vicious as if they lov'd the guilt as much as the delights of sin and cared not to be wicked to themselves but must debauch as if they did enjoy the ruine of other persons sinning just as the Devil does who does not taste the sin but feasts upon the Sinners Condemnation Then did God execute a Vengeance whose prediction was fit to be mistaken for that of the Day of Judgment and whose event almost fulfill'd the terrors of that day I need not draw resemblances shew how Gods goodness to our Israel does equal that to them applying to our selves their Raptures how when the Lord turned the Captivity of our Sion we also were like them that dream surprized with Mercy Indeed as in a Dream Ideas
the world or any cheif ingredient of its making should have chang'd its operations and by consequence not be it self but the disorder and the pest of all the other We seem indeed astonisht seeing heavy bodies to put off their nature and ascend and we rack principles to find out causes when the vicious man that acts daily against his reason is the same constant prodigy the man that pours down streams of intemperance until they mount into the throne of reason and quench the little spark that 's seated there is as unnatural a thing as a stream climbing up a wall and every Sinner is as much a monster as a stone falling upwards do's as much against his nature reason is indeed a greater monster For when those other things do leave their nature 't is either from some violence in the efficient if water mount 't is by the force of engine or some other pressure or as some say from violent impulses of a final cause 't is for the preservation of the whole community of natures for if it be to avoid vacuities it is so and it do's against its own inclination onely for the strong concern there is for the benefit of the Universe but the wicked man that lives against the dictates of right reason his own nature is urg'd to it by no violences but those of wilfulness is pusht on by no engine but a naughty heart nor hath he any higher ends that make impulse upon him but he is onely passionate for unworthy ruine violent for an unreasonable destruction The Heathens were so sensible of Natures obligation in man to live virtuously according to reason that they call'd the doing so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if there had bin an engagement to it in his very constitution and being and his principles and frame did promise for him he should live so and therefore Arrian upon Epict tells a man that did a thing injuriously or with passion and impetuosity or but without consideration or to gratify his lower appetites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast destroy'd the man in thee in having not kept nature's word but broke the promise which thy very being made for thee As if mans nature undertook as solemnly he would be virtuous as the fire's nature does assure that it will burn But we who profess also to believe that God made man in his own image consequently must needs grant that so far as he imprest on him the likeness of that nature whose perfections as they are most infinite and immutable so they are a necessary and unchangeable rule of goodness to those beings that are transcripts of his being so far therefore he hath planted in us rules of good which since they are deriv'd from our supreme Lord and Creator must have the force of law to us and are that which the Scripture calls the Law written in our hearts whose dictates howsoever slightly vain men think of vertue that it is but an emty name or at the best but politic contrivance without any real grounds in nature have yet their causes as eternal are themselves as immutable not onely as mans nature but as Gods of which mans is the draught and image and are justly call'd participations of those forme of goodness that are in God of which they are the prints and amongst them none more lively then the rule of Mercy the thing that God do's prefer here when he sais I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice Whence we observ'd that amongst all those actions which have an intrinsic honesty and are of their own nature in themselves morally good and well-pleasing to God those of Mercy are in an especial manner such the second thing I was to speak to for I will saith he have Mercy The word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies benignity and by it is meant all love and kindness the exercise of the habit of mind that disposeth a man to do all the good he can to every man in what condition soever Now to prove that human nature hath implanted in it principles of universal kindness and propensions to have friendship to have pity on do good to one another I shall not urge what St Paul saith that God made of one blood all the nations of the earth tho certainly in that one kindred there be an obligation to the dear affections of near relatives But if all would grant that one blood it would I fear prevail not much for now adaies nearness of kindred is not apt to make close friendships and concernes for one another if an interest chance to interpose however one blood when it is divided so and scatter'd hath not force to warm and spirit strong affections or to cement much But this I will take confidence to urge that in the latitude of creatures none is born with so much need of mercy as a man none wants so many helps to be brought forth none leaves the parent that did bear it and should nourish it in so weak and helpless a condition I speak as to the generality 't is merely others pity and assistance that they live and then if mercy others help be the most pressing and the first necessity of humane nature the return of mercy pitying and helping others is the first and the most pressing obligation on that nature To go forward as this state of infancy demonstrates nature did intend him for society since without that 't is not onely most impossible that he can be that rational creature ever can exert the faculties of speech and the discourse of reason which yet 't is plain nature hath fitted him for but also most impossible that he can be brought up to be so when he is so 't is society alone that still preserves him and 't is onely mutual good offices that preserve society Nam quo alio tuti sumus quam quod mutuis juvamur officiis saith Seneca l. 4. de Benef. c. 18. and mans life subsists is furnisht and rose onely by commerce of kindnesses by helping one another take him single and what is he but the prey of any beast almost vilissimus facillimus sanguis the cheapest blood and easiest to be spilt Those creatures that are born in deserts and born for them are all arm'd but nature gave no strength to man besides the kindness and assistances of other men take away them by which alone it do's subsist and the whole kind must perish But so far you labor to take them away as you believe not to be good kind merciful and assisting is not a thing of it self ill and unnatural which it must needs be and the contrary most natural when as nature hath provided onely that as instrument of its security and preservation So far is the accursed principle of self interest and of mans just right to do what e're he lists to others howsoever mischeivous it be if he conceive the doing of it useful to himself from being any principle of nature that
likeness of his death by being made conformable to that in crucifying of our sins we are inoculated as it were and both together ingraffed in into the Cross and so there is deriv'd to us the vertue of that Stem that Root of Expiation and Atonement and by this insertion being as the same S. Paul says Phil. iii. 9. found in him we have his Righteousness That poor Soul that does throw himself down in the strict humiliations of Repentance at the footstool of the Cross and there beholds his Saviour dying for him and that is himself by Penitence incorporated into him graffed into his Death and planted in his very Passion as Origen and Thomas interpret He may take confidence to say Behold Lord if the satisfactions of thy Eternal Justice be acceptable to thee if the blood of God that is offer'd up without spot be a well-pleasing Sacrifice look down at once on thy Messiah and on my poor Soul turn not thy face from me for whatever my guilts are I have an equal Sacrifice those are my satisfactions and that blood my Offering the Passion and propitiation of the Cross are 〈◊〉 I am Crucified with Christ. We have gone through all the Parts all the Considerations of this Expression and have no more now to take notice of but this that all of them must go together that they never are fulfill'd asunder but he only whom the efficacy of the Cross of Christ hath wrought on to the Crucifying of sin he onely hath the satisfactions of the Cross imputed to him he is planted with ingraffed into Christ For if any man be i◠Christ he is a new creature old things are done away 2 Cor. v. 17. Whosoever is not such he hath no interest in the Jesus of that day He may perchance in some one of those easie Saviours which these times afford wherein Opinions call'd holy or a sanctify'd Faction give such interests and to be in a party is to be in Christ or else he may depend upon that Christ that may be had with meer Dependance that is ours if we persuade our selves he is so Now sure he that is persuaded he is Christ's is either truly so persuaded or else falsly if but falsly that will not advantage him for God will never save a man for believing a lye but that he should truly be persuaded so without this Duty is impossible for he that is Christ's hath crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts therefore by good Logick he that hath not crucified them is not Christ's and evidently whosoever is not crucified at all he is not crucified with Christ. And sure I need not put you in remembrance that the man in whom sin reigns and whensoever his Lusts and Passions bid him go he goeth or come he cometh or do this he doeth it that the body of sin is not crucified in him that which were nailed and fetter'd on the Cross and slain there could not command and rule him so Or if sins dominion be not so absolute but God hath got some footing so as that his Law hath power in the man's mind so as to make him make resistances against his sin and he dislikes it but alas commits it still yet what he does allows not but returns to do it at the next Temptation afterwards would fain be good yet does not find how to perform something governs in his members leading that Law in his mind into captivity to the law of sin this man although he hath the body of death yet 't is not crucified and slain for it does live and exercise the greatest tyranny upon him forces him to serve and to obey against his mind it overcomes his own heart and all inclinations to good and conquers God within him Till men have left off the custom of the works of sin and all gross deeds of the flesh it were as vain to prove they are not crucified as that he is alive that walks and eats Those works they are the fruits of the flesh the off-spring of its lusts and were that crucified and we by likeness to Christ's death planted into the Cross we could no more produce them than that dead Tree the Cross could bear fruit or than a Carcass could have heat to generate the Grave become a Womb or the dust bring forth Secondly Yea more they perform not the outward actions of life who have but the image of death on them and a man asleep works not yet is alive his fancy and his inwards work and if sin be onely kept from breaking out and men commit not gross deeds of the flesh but yet indulge to these things in imagination and the heart cherish them in phansie and design and wish onely restrain the practice or indulge to spiritual wickednesses you may as well say that a man is dead because he does not walk abroad because he keeps within doors and lives only in his Closet or his Bed Chamber as say that sin is crucified which while it stirs but in the heart it is not dead Thirdly Once more we part from all acquaintance with the dead the Corps of one that had the same Soul with us howsoever we may have some throes of grief to leave it yet we put it from us we admit it to no more embraces but if 't were the loathsom Carcass of a Villain Traytor that was Executed we turn from the sight as from a Fiend it is a detestable and accursed spectacle And so he that hath put his Body of sin to death would have great aversations to it yea how dear soever it had been he would no more endure the least acquaintance with it than he would go seek for his old conversations in the Chambers of Death he would shun the sight of any the most bosom custom as he would the Ghost of his dead Friend he would abandon it as a most ghastly dreadful spectacle he would also bury these his dead out of his sight Thus he must needs be dispos'd that hath crucified his Old man And they that are thus dead with Christ shall also live with him yea those that are thus crucified with him he hath already rais'd up together and hath made them sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus There already in their cause and in their right and pledge and there hereafter in effect and full enjoyment The Tenth SERMON Preached at CHRIST-CHURCH IN OXFORD Novemb. 5. 1665. LUKE IX 55. Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of THE state of that great Controversie which the words suppose between the Jews and the Samaritans as it then stood seems briefly thus Those that were planted in the Regions of Samaria by Salmaneser however great Idolaters at first having admitted in a while the God of Israel among their Gods and after having an High Priest of Aaron's Line a Temple too built on that place where Abraham and the Fathers of the Hebrews friends of God did chuse to offer Sacrifice and on that
utmost that they understood if so be that there were no Treason to discolour it and they that did inflict all this appear but Christian Dioclesians and stand at that sad Day in the train of the Persecutions on the same hand O then those Fires which these Boutefeus called for and kindled shall blaze out into everlasting burnings And now it may seem strange that they who most of all pretend the Spirit of Christ are yet of the most distant temper in the World from that of Gospel always endeavouring to do that which our Saviour here checks his Disciples for proposing and did threaten Peter for attempting There are among our selves that seem to live by Inspiration that look and speak as in the frame of the Gospel as if every motion were impulse from Heaven and yet as if Christ had fulfilled his promise to them without Metaphor baptized them with the Holy Ghost and fire onely that they might kindle fire and the unction of the Spirit did but add Oyl to those flames as if the cloven Tongues of fire in which the Spirit did descend were made to be the Emblems of Division and to call for fire these mens life their garb their very piety is faction they pray rebel and murder and all by the Spirit 'T is true indeed they plead now what we seem to say that they should not be persecuted for not being satisfied in their Conscience so they mince their breaking of the Laws for which they suffer But do these know themselves what manner of Spirit they are of or are we bound not to remember when they had the Power how they persecuted all that would not do at once against their King their Conscience and the Law And we do thus far know what Spirit they are of and if they have not yet repented of all that then it is plain if they can get an opportunity they will do it again nay they must by their Spirit think themselves obliged to do it But these are not all those that above all the World pretend to the Infallible assistance of the Spirit our Church is bold in her Offices of this day to say do turn Religion into Rebellion she said it more severely heretofore and the attempts of this day warrant the saying when not like our Disciples that would call for fire from Heaven on the Village that rejected Christ these will raise up fire from Hell to consume their own Prince and his Progeny the whole line of Royalty the Church and Nation also in their Representative and all this onely for refusing him that calls himself Christ's Vicar There are I must confess among them that renounce the practice and say 't was the device onely of some few desperate male-contents wicked Catholiques and design'd by the Devil And they will allow their Father Garnett to have had no other guilt but that he did not discover it having received it in Confession And this gives me occasion to propose a story to your patience and conjectures Not long before the time of this Attempt a Priest of the Society of Jesus in a Book he publish'd does propose this case of Conscience Whether a Priest may make use of what he hath learn'd in Confession to avert great impendent mischiefs to the Government as for Example One confesses that himself or some other had laid Gunpowder and other things under such an House and if they be not taken thence the House will be burnt the Prince must perish all that pass throughout the City will be either certainly destroy'd or in great peril and resolves it thus 'T is the most probable and safe Opinion and the more suitable to Religion and to that reverence which is due to the Sacrament of Confession that it is not lawful to make use of this his knowledg to that end That his Holiness Clement the 8. had just before by a Bull sent to the Superiours of the Regulars commanded most studiously to beware they make not use of any thing which they come to know by Confession to the benefit of the secular Government He adds that in cases of Confession the Priest must not reveal though death be threatned to him but may say he knows it not nor ever heard it quia reverà non scit nec audivit ut homo seu pars reipub Yea he may swear all this if he but mentally reserve so as to tell you 'T is Del Rio in 6th Book of his Mag. dis 1. Cap. Sec. 2. It seems 't is safer to break all the Obligations to Allegiance and to truth his duty and his Oaths the Princes and Gods bonds than the Seal of Confession But I did not mention this to let you see the kindness these men have to Princes and their Government I shall avoid producing any the Opinions of particular persons howsoever horrid in my arguments this day but I onely ask whether it be not very probable this instance was the thing to be attempted on this day Whether the resolution was not publish'd the Pope's Bull if not made yet produc'd at least to caution any Priest that should receive it in Confession and should be so honest as to abhor the Fact yet from betraying it and hindring the Execution of it If it were the case this was not then any rash attempt of some few desperate malecontents but a long contrivance and of many heads and its taking its effect was the great care of their Church Well they are even with us yet and lay as horrid Projects to the charge of Protestants Among our other Controversies this is one whether are the worse Subjects bloody sayings are produc'd from Authors on both sides yea there is the Image of both Churches Babel and Jerusalem drawn by a Catholique Pen and then you may be sure all Babel's divisions and confusions make the draught of ours and are said to be the issue of the Protestant Doctrines Whereas such things are countenanc'd by some particular Authors of their Church were never own'd by any publique Act or Doctrine of a general Council to which they provoke us I must confess our Calendar can shew a thirtieth of January as well as a fifth of November There are indeed that say the Romanists hatch'd that days guilt and challenge any man to call them to account for saying so But whether so or not which Churches Doctrines such things are more suited to I will now put to trial that we may know what Spirit each is of And I will try it by the publique Acts and most establish'd Doctrines of the Churches and here undertake to shew the Church of England most expresly does declare against all practices against the Prince for the cause of Religion But the Romish in those acts wherein she hath most reason to expect infallibility of Spirit also in the publique Acts of the Church representative in General Councils does abett the doing them not onely for Religion but for the cause of Holy
Church First If the Church of Rome have reason to expect infallible assistance of the Spirit in any case it is as much in Canonizing of a Saint as in any other it being as unhappy to determine a false Object for Religious Worship to their Church as a false Article of Faith there is as much need that there should be an infallible proposal of the one as other for when she does Decree by the Authority of the Omnipotent God such a one is a Saint receiv'd in Glory and so renders him the Object of their Worship if he should chance to be a Reprobate to cause the People to fall prostrate to the Shrine of one that 's damn'd and call his flames to warm Gods Altar and the Votaries breast to make the whole Church worship one that is in Hell is liable to greater aggravations of impiety than an erroneous Opinion in very many of their points of Faith can be But it is known their Church hath Canoniz'd one of this Nation Becket who though he was indeed illegally and barbarously Murthered yet 't is not the Suffering but the Cause that makes the Martyr now he did not fall a Sacrifice for his Religion but was slain because he did disturb the State by suspending all the Bishops that upheld the Kings just cause against him so that neither King nor State could live in peace for him for opposing also those Laws which himself had sworn to Laws that were not onely truly Sovereign Rights but are maintain'd even unto this day as Priviledges by the Gallican Church and they not branded for so doing In a word he was slain for those actions which his own Bishops condemned him for as a perjur'd man and a Traytor And for persisting in them to the death he was Sainted Now whatever the estate of this man be in the next World I meddle not with that Yet for Disobedience and Rebellion to place one in Heaven whence for those things Lucifer did fall does seem to shew what Spirit they are of that Canonize such Saints For the Church to pray to Christ that by the wounds of this Saint he would remit their sins does express what rate their Church does set upon the merits of resisting Princes and disturbing States in the behalf of Holy Church When such actions make men fit to be joynt purchasers with Christ in the Redemption of the World But when the French Histories say 't was disputed long after in Paris whether he were Damn'd or Sav'd that the Church in her publique Offices should pray to go thither where he is gone to have his Society though it express their most infallible assurance of the condition of those men who for their sakes resist the Secular Powers yet O my Soul enter not thou into their counsels in this world neither say a Confederacy to whom they say a Confederacy much less pray to be in their Society who by resisting S. Paul says do receive unto themselves Damnation Secondly It is notorious that in their first General Council at Lyons Anno 1245. the Emperour Frederick the second by the Sentence of the Pope and the whole Council after long deliberation and producing several Arguments which they say are not sleight but effectual to prove the suspicion of Heresie is depriv'd of his Empire all his Subjects are absolv'd from their Oath of Allegiance and by Apostolical Authority forbidden to obey him Therefore that such things may be done in the cases of Religion hath the Authority of a General Council 't was that Council that Decreed Red Hats to Cardinals Hats red it seems not onely with the Royal Purple but with the Blood of Kings and of Royalty it self Thirdly I should have urged the well known Canon of the General Council of Lateran the greatest their Church ever boasted of which says That if the temporal Lord shall neglect to purge his Territories from such as the Church there declares Hereticks he shall be Excommunicated by the Metropolitan and if he do not mend within a year complained of to the Pope that so he may declare his Subjects absolv'd from their Allegiance and expose his Lands to be seiz'd by Catholicks who shall exterminate the Hereticks saving the right of the chief Lord Provided he give no impediment to this But the same law shall be observed to those that have no chief Lords that is who are themselves Supream This I should urge but that some say that penal Statutes which are leges odiosae tantum disponunt quantum loquuntur Therefore this Canon since it does not name Kings it does not they say concern them although 't is plain it do sufficiently enough But that there may be therefore no evasion Fourthly In the General Council of Constance that part of it I mean that is approv'd by their whole Church The Pope and Council joyn together in commanding all Arch-Bishops Bishops and Inquisitors to pronounce all such Excommunicate as are declared Hereticks in such and such Articles and that of Transubstantiation half-Communion and the Pope's Supremacy are among them or that favour ot defend them or that Communicate with them in publique or in private whether in sacred Offices or otherwise etiamsi Patriarchali Archiepiscopali Episcopali Regali Reginali Ducali aut aliâ quâvis Ecclesiasticâ aut mundanâ proefulgeant dignitate And Commands them also to proceed to Interdicts and deprivation of Dignities and Goods and whatsoever other Penalties vias modos Thus that Council though it took away the Peoples right to the Blood of Christ denying them the Cup in the Sacrament gave them in exchange the Blood of their own Kings making them a right to that And that they extend the force of these Canons to the most absolute Princes even to him that pleads exemption most to the King of France is plain because when Sixtus the fifth thundred out his Bulls against the then King of Navarre afterwards King Henry the fourth of France and the Prince of Conde depriving them not onely of their Lands and Dignities but their Succession also to the Crown of France absolving their Subjects from their Oaths forbidding them to obey them he declared he did it to them as to relapsed Hereticks favourers and defenders of them and as such fal'n under the Censures of the Canons of the Church Now there are no other Canons that do take in Kings but these which can touch him for that of Boniface the eighth which says the Pope hath power to judg all temporal Powers is declared not to extend to France Cap. meruit de priviledg in extravag communibus Thus by the publique Acts of their Church and by the Canons of their General Councils we have found in causes of Religion Deprivation of Princes Wars and Bloodshed and the other consequent Miseries are establish'd Rebellion encouraged by a Law And if Rebellion be as the sin of Witchcraft then we know what manner of Spirit they are of that do