Integrity may as well be deceived as Mr. Chilling worth was who once thought that our Religion of the Church of England was not a safe way to Salvation though he died of another and better Judgment And why may not others as Prudent Pious and Consciencious Men as he be deceived and misled into Popery by Men better skill'd and instructed in the Controversies than they are They are Christians still though crring ones and Members of the Catholick Church as well as we and can their errors in Judgment which are injurious to none but themselves forfeit their Civil Rights Or those in Practice except they be such as are destructive of humane Society Would not the Primitive Christians do you think have been well contented that their Emperors if they had been of the same Communion of Rome should with all of the same Communion have injoyed an uncensur'd use of their Religion and been ready to make Addresses of Thanks for the peaceable Enjoyment of their own Let the same mind be in you as was in them and that will adorn your Christian Profession We cannot but bewail it as our great Calamity and a just Punishment of the last Age's Disloyalty which most horridly Murder'd the best of Kings at Noon-day before the Gates of his own Royal Palace and banish'd his Royal Progeny and drove them into Foreign Parts to seek for that safety from others which their own Unnatural and Blood-thirsty Subjects would not afford them That our Gracious King was then tempted above measure and hath since joyn'd himself to the Roman Church and lives in the Practice of a different Worship from us But since God in his infinite Wisdom hath permitted it to be so it is our Duty to acquiesce therein and behave our selves towards him so as may be most consistent with his Honour and our Duty in the present Circumstances and that the rather because we may be well assured that our Gracious Sovereign had no Design nor Interest to serve in the changing of his Religion but an eternal one in the saving of his Soul To embrace a Religion when it was decry'd and kept down by Penal Laws is in the Judgment of Charity a great Argument of Sincerity and Christian Resolution when it was sâ—culi reatus the greatest National Crime of which he could have been guilty To embrace a Religion when it was every where spoken against out of Fashion and decry'd When a Man follows Christ to Hierusalem in Triumph he may be an Hypocrite but certainly if he follow him to Golgotha as he is going to the Cross you have reason to believe him a Sincere Disciple Our Gracious Sovereign's joyning himself at such a time to the Church of Rome when it brought his very Tule to the Crown in question and made his Life insecure and uneasie was an instance of his Gallant and Great Soul and much resembled on the part of the Person the courage of the First Christians who were well aware that in the very Prosession thereof they bid adieu to worldly interest and Tranquillity This beâ—ing apparently done out of no lower Principle than the Glory of God and the Salvation of his own Soul though not the Deed yet inslead of it the Sincere Will is favourably accepted with God and should be so with all good Men. Seeing it is an Observation of Lactantius and St. Augustin concerning a Religion Infinitely worse that Almighty God was pleased to take kind notice of the honest Meanings of those grosly mistaken Worshippers for though an Erroneous Conscience could not bind to the Act yet if after all possible due Enquiry it act Erroneously it doth not certainly bind to Punishment God winked at the days of Ignorance especially when accompanied with that Integrity of Heart of which God gives such an acquitting Character in the Case of King Abimelech and if this were not so it would go ill with the Men of the highest Intellectual and Moral Vertues who confess themselves to be as truly short of being perfectly free from all Sins of Ignorance as they are from those of Frailty When thus much hath been said concerning his Majesty's Religion it may be added That his Change proceeded not meerly from an easie Well-meaning but from Arguments however they be less weighty to us which had prevail'd with many Wise and Good Men and had an advantage perhaps in his Case from some Early Doubts hardly to be avoided in that Conversation into which the Rebels who had impudence enough to call themselves English Protestants had driven him as I before told you against whom and not against our Gracious Sovereign should the disrespects of all the True Sons of the Church of England be turn'd The King thinks us in the wrong and so pities and prays for us That God would bring us into the right Way and 't is a groundless and uncharitable Jealousie that he will ever hurt us because it would neither be for his Honour nor Happiness to make them miserable who have always been his best Fricâ—ds such mischiefs may be fear'd by some but will never be felt by any Let us rather depend upon God's wise and gracious Providence in the use of Lawful Means and put our Trust and Confidence in his Power and Goodness not doubting but he â—areth for us rather than be jealous of our King without Cause and so far as God sees it conduce to his Glory and our Good he will deliver us from all our Fears Let us commit the care of our Religion Lives and Estates to him And indeed Where is our Faith if we will not trust him with the defence of it but seek to prop it up and support it by base and unwarrantable Arts as if every thing were lawful that tends to keep out Popery This will cast such a Reproach and Insamy upon our Religion as can never be wip'd off it will open the Mouths and sharpen the Pens of our Enemies shall we take more Liberty to our selves than we will allow the King What safety can our Sovereign expect if he cannot be allow'd the free Exercise of his own Religion without his Subjects repining What Reputation can he have abroad or what Reverence at home Is this to provide things honest in the sight of all Men Will this put to Silence the Ignorance of Foolish Men to turn our Religion into a Cloak of Maliciousness to prove our selves Wolves in Sheeps Clothing Cannot we abhor Idols without flying into his Face who is the Image of God upon Earth Is this to keep Innocence and to take heed to the thing that that is Right Is not this rather the ready course to create in him and all the World besides an ill Opinion of us and our Religion We may be just and dutiful to the King without being unfaithful to God and if we be so our Religion will not only keep its Ground but make new Conquest and spread it self further in the World nor shall any Policy of Men or Devils
have not the Faith of the Church of England In a good Cause the fairest Language is most advantageous a modest and friendly Stile suits best with the Truth which like its Author usually resides not in the blustering Wind the shaking Earthquake or the rangeing Fire but in a soft and still Voice III Language is doubtless a very preposterous Method of Perswasion being likely to raise such Clouds of Passion as will obsâ—ure the clearest Arguments and render their force unperceptible to the provoked Reader or Hearer on which account I cannot but appland that saying of the Jews That we ought not to blaspheme any thing which others venerate for a God Railing therefore against Popery cannot produce any good Effect and at this time it may easily produce many bad ones among which none can be worse than the Contempt which it will throw upon the King himself on whom all III Language against his Religion does ultimately redound to the debasing of him in the esteem of his Subjects When the Powers of the World were Heathen the Christians in their Apologies do not presume to cxpose the Religion of their Emperors to Contempt but only with great Modesty and Deference to vindicate their own from the unjust Criminations of their Adversaries as may be seen in both the Apologies of Justin Martyr and of Tertullian And as I think it would be a Comandly deserting of a very good Cause if the Learned Men of our Church should suffer the busie Romanists to charge her with Schism Heresie or other Misrepresentation without appearing in her just and necessary Vindication and cannot but applaud some of the late modest and strenuous Apologies which their Provocations have extorted from the Press So I must confess that I cannot see any present Necessity of troubling our Pulpits with these Controversies the Mysteries of our Faith would be best held in a pure Conseience which is peaceable and by Practical Discourses we may best preserve our People from those Vices which only can provoke God to give them up to strong Delusions And if we perceive any of them warping towards Popery there will be more hopes of reducing and confirming than by personal Conferences applyed to their particular Scruples than by shooting at random at so great a distance in general Harangues which tends not so much to arm the Hearers against Popery as to possess them with an hatred of their Sovereign for professing it Since then we are bound in Duty to abâ—â—ain from every thing which without a Sin may be omitted that tends to the Dishonour and Contempt of him whom God and our Religion oblige us to honour I doubt not to conclude That as Railing against Popery was never lawful so Preaching against it farther than by the Canons and his Majesty 's own Gracious Directions we are obliged to do is at this time unseasonable and so far as it is prejudical to the Government utterly unlawful too We least of all fear the Seduction of those Members of our Church who practise strictly that excellent Religion which they and we profess The best Service then we can do to prevent the Growth of Popery will be to perswade Men all we can to become better Livers and better Subjects upon which account Practical Preachers will do the Church more Service than Polemical and the Government no Disservice nor the King no Dishonour 'T is below them who think themselves in the highest form of Christians to sit down in the seat of the scornful they are of their Father the Devil wheresoever such Changelings are found 'Pray' tell me and tell me no more nor no less than your own Consciences will tell you Is this Fooling the effect of that Faith which was once deliver'd to the Saints Or is it not rather a wounding of Christianity it self to the very Heart Who of this Rank if he were at Constantinople would make it his Business to tell the Great Turk that his Prophet Mahomet were an Impostor or as some Oppressed Greeks think him Antichrist or to ridicule the Alcoran And why will they make more bold with a Christian Prince and their Lawful Sovereign than with an Insided This certainly is a foul Offence and as much against a good Conscience as Christian Prudence Why are Men more inrag'd against those who agree with them in most things than with them who different from them in all Christ will not give his Spouse a Bill of Divorce upon every Error and Mistake much less should we deny her to be our Mother because she is not of our Mind this will justly bring our Christianity as well as our Prudence in Question These are not the Sons of the Church of England but the Standard-Bearers of Sedition who take no care to govern their Tongues nor Pens who have no regard to the King or his Ministers to Truth or Charity Justice or Honesty which whether they intend it or not hath a derect tendency to the defaming of our yet untainted Religion They who will not offer up a Peace-Offering to the Magistrate are none of our Communion and 't is to be hoped That the Fathers of our Church will correct those Ill nurtur'd Children who are of such surly peevish and insolent Tempers that others may not grow immodest by their uncontrol'd Extravagancies Authority must at any rate be redeemed from Contempt since the very Life of Government is Reputation and if you teach the Rabble to scorn the Religion of the Supreme Magistrate they will not continue long to reverence his Person or Authority If you will prove him to be an Idolater they will soon reply that St. John reckons such with Murderers Dogs Sorcerers and Whoremongers which love and make Lyes Rev. 22.15 And St. Paul ranks them with Sodomites and Thieves 1 Cor. 6 9 10. That they hate God Exod. 20.5 Desile the Sanctuary Ezekiel 5.11 Commit Adultery with Stocks and Stones Jer. 3.9 Isa 16.17 Worship Devils Rev. 9.20 and that as they shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven 1 Cor 6.10 so we are not to come among them Josh 23.7 but they are to be utterly destroy'd by Commission from God Exod. 22 20. that they are Sons of Belial whom we are to smite with the Edge of the Sword till they be utterly destroy'd Deut. 13.13 14 15. What is all this but Sedition under disguise of Zeal Let the Men look never so honestly they drive on an Interest against Peace and Charity and though Truth may be justified of her Children so it be done with Moderation and Judgment when Necessity compels us or Authority calls us to it yet they who can find no better treatment for their Auditors than to prove all Papists to be Idolaters as if they had no saving Truths to Preach them but such as are full of disgraceful sawcy and insolent Reflections upon their Prince which hath already cost this Nation so many Millions of Money and such Rivers of Blood to the shame of Christianity
whom all Kings Reign who are not the Peoples Creatures but his Vicegerents not intrusted with theirs but invested with his Authority The Powers that be are ordain'd of God and as he that resists them resists the Ordinance of God so he that dishonours them dishonours God's Ordinance and by consequence God himself And as respect for the King's sake is to be paid to all such Persons as he deputes to sustain his Authority and represent his Person so much more for God's sake is honour to be paid to the King whom God hath commission'd to be his Deputy on Earth and invested with the largest share of his Authority Besides God hath expresly commanded us to honour the King and twice joyn'd it with a Precept to Fear Him to denote that none can deny the King Honour but such as have no fear of God before their Eyes and that without Disobedience to God we cannot refuse to honour the King both as a Christian and a King And here once for all let it be observ'd That when St. Peter wrote his first Epistle and therein gave Christians that Precept of Honouring the King he who then govern'd them was none of the best but perhaps one of the worst in the World who ever wore an Imperial Grown a profest Enemy not to Christianity alone but to Morality too Nero was at that time the Roman Emperor who was not only an Heathen and of a different Religion from them but also as Tertullian stiles him Dictator Damnationisâ—nostrae the first Persecutor of the Christian Religion which shews him to be of none at all And yet such a King they are commanded to honour which may assure us That 't is the King's Authority abstracted from his personal Qualifications which we are to honour be his Religion what it will be it any or none at all if he be our King God requires us to consult his Honour in all things and without Disobedience to God I hope I have sufficiently prov'd that we cannot do otherwise Every True Son therefore of the Church of England who acknowledges his Majesty's Title to the Imperial Crown of these Kingdoms to be unquestionable must conclude it to be an indispensible Duty which he owes to Almighty God to say and do all that he lawfully may for the King's Honour 2 dly 'T is a Duty which we owe to the King and that not only because God hath by the divine Law given him a Right thereunto but also because the Benefits which we enjoy under his Government deserve if Do we not enjoy publick Peace and Preferments and the free and publick Exercise of our Religion which is a blessing infinitely more valuable than any of which we can be ambitious on this side Heaven He hath not only indulg'd that to us but by many most gracious solemn and reiterated Promises engaged his Honour and Fidelity to protect us in it which we must honour for the Church's Magnâ Chartâ the more transcendent act of Grace because not extorted by Rebellion and a security more firm than any Law which cannot tye a King who is declared the supreme Judge of the Law and above it so fast as the Obligations of his own Royal Word and Honour do it And is there nothing due for so high a Favour Are not we to be extreamly â—ender of his Honour who is so under of our Happiness as that he may justly be stiled the Defender of our Faith as well by Desert as by Inheritance as not only to protect it from real Dangers but also to protect the Professors of it from their own fears If a Nero be to be honoured much more a Titus or Vespasian If a Tyrant who was a disgrace to Humanity much more an indulgent Father of our Church and Country one whose Clemency makes him the delight of Mankind and one whole Royal Word gives his Subjects the belt Security of which they are capable 3 dly 'T is a Duty we owe to our Country The King is the Light of our Israel as David is stil'd and the more bright and resplendant this Light the more bright powerful and benign Rays and Influences will it diffuse among us He is the breath of our Nostrils and if our undutiful and indecent Behaviour towards him do eclipse his Honour by interposing any thick Body between him and his Peoples Hearts or taint the Nations Breath with an ill Savour it would be a sad Symptom of the decay of its Vitals Who knows not that the usual Methods of Treason and Rebellion have been first to blacken the Prince and make him seem vile to the People and then to tempt them to oppose and resist him First to represent him in some soul shape as the Heathen Persecutors did the Primitive Christians when they cloathed them in Beasts Skins and then expose them first to be derided and at last to be devoure'd And what did any Nation ever get by Rebellion but expence of Treasure and Blood Rapine Misery and Ruine In which Point if we are yet unsatisfied let us lit down and cast up the Accounts of ours from Forty to Sixty the summa totalis of which will be found to be nothing on the Balance but the loss of our Liberties Properties and Religion with the additional Interest of Slavery intailed upon us and ours for so many Years Can we then better consult the Kingdoms good at this time than by maintaining the Kings Honour or take a better course to keep it in Peace and Plenty than by keeping up a good Opinion of our most Gracious Prince among his Subjects or shew our selves greater Patriots or better Friends of our Country than by being zealous for our Prince's Honour and jealoâ— of all those Words or Actions which may secretly undermine it 4 thly Lastly This is a Duty we owe to our Dear Mother the Church of England from whose Breasts we have suck'd an untainted Loyalty and by whom we have been trained up to a most tender Zeal for the Honour and Service of our King without any relation had to his Religion It is well known That no Church under Heaven ever taught her Children more Loyal Principles or more constantly than she has done and therefore no Children on this side Hell would be more unpardonable for acting Distoyally than hers She never allow'd any pretence whatsoever to dising age us from our Loyalty nor did she ever absolve us when we appear'd to want it but upon sound and sincere Repentance The more inexcusable then were we if we should disgrace our Breeding and Education under her most excellent Instructions with any contrary Practices And the more indispensibly are we oblig'd to lay hold of those Opportunities which the Providence of God does now offer us to give the World such a convincing Testimony of our Loyalty as unless the True genuine Sons of the Church of England shew I question whether it will ever see Catholick Loyalty I mean not only bearing patiently but dearly loving and devoutly honouring our Prince though of a different Religion and not speaking ill of any thing of which he hath himself entertain'd a sacred or would have us have a good Opinion And thus far have I in Obedience to your commands expressed as plainly as I could the judgment of my own Mind about this important and seasonable Duty I am so sensible of my own unfitness for an undertaking of this Nature that nothing but Your's or a greater command could have drawn me to make such an essay least so good a Cause should suffer more by my Weakness than gain by my Zeal However such as it is I humbly submit it to your better Judgment not doubting but that whatever you judge to be said amiss will be by your Charity as if it had never been said by me and corrected by your Christian Prudence And if any thing be said that may be capable of doing his Majesty any Service you will conceal the Author least his obscurity prove an Obstacle to the efficacy of his Arguments Who will live and die a True Son of the Church of England a Loyal Subject to his Majesty and Your Humble Servant A. B. FINIS 1 Cor. 1.15 Laâ—ant â— 10. Tertul. ad Ment. 1 Sam. 15 30. 1 Cor. 10.31 1. Smith's Select disc 437. Ibid. 473. Ephes 4.2 Heb. 12.14 Sedulius Hymn Bract. de Leg Cons l. â— 8 n. 5. Ibid. p. â— v. 49 50. 65. ad 78. 1 Kings 1.23 1 Sam. 24.8 2 Sam. 19.27 Ps 82.6 2 Sam. 18.3 Eccl. 8.4 Job 34.18 Jâ—r 29.7 1 Pet. 2.19 20 21. Sherlock of Relig. asserts p. 144 Prov. 25.13 Num. 23.23 Juvenal Joh. 13.35 1 Kings 19.11 12. Josephus Aniq. 1.4 1 Tâ—n 3. â— 1. 2. Q. Mar. cap 9. Col 3.12 14. Can. 60 C. 75 Bramhall Repl. 229. Jer. 20.1 Ductor dub 190 250 Can. 14 Bp. Taylor 's Case of Conf. 1.3.192 Ductor dub 1.3 p. 238 Joh. 11.51 1 Cron. 28.3 2 Cron. 19.11 Ezra 7 25. Neh. 13.8 Samar revis'd 54 55. P. 58. 1 Cor. 5.12 Ductor dub p 143. â— 3.4â—8 R. 400. Jam. 1.7 Acts 20.31 Luke 9.26 Maâ—hia vel p 33â— Bp. Sanderson's 5. Cas p 18. Fergus Inter. of Reas 593. P. 487. Ifa 29.4 â—â— 11 9. Pâ— 8.15 Prov. 24 21. 1 Pet. â— 13 2 Sam. 21.7 Jer. 32.3