diligent Execution of his Apostleship Feed my Sheep And the Method which our Lord here prescribes to Peter must be observed also by us in advancing the Kingdom of God When thou art converted says he strengthen thy Brethren We must first set up the Kingdom of God in our own hearts before we attempt to erect it in others As he is unfit to be a Teacher that is not first well instructed himself So he is not fit to be a Reformer that is not first reform'd himself for his Evil Manners will certainly defeat his Sermon and instead of making others righteous by his preaching he will render himself ridiculous 'T is a Noble Undertaking to bring others to the fear of God but 't is an indispensable Duty to serve God our selves says S t James He that converteth a Sinner from the Error of his ways shall save a Soul from death that 's an Heroick Action and shall hide a multitude of Sins that 's a necessary Concern Self-reformation is the most Effectual Step we can make to promote God's Glory 't is such a Giantly Step as I may say as reaches from the Setting out of the Course to the End of it 't is like the first Step of the Sun above the Horizon which darts Rays to the furthest Circumference of it and fills the whole Hemisphere with Light and Vigour which these Words of our Lord seem to allude to Let your Light so shine before men that they may see your good Works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Nothing so illustrates the Gospel nothing so powerfully converts Sinners and brings them to glorifie God as the Holy Lives of the Faithful But I urge not this to exclude other Endeavours to propagate Righteousness but to shew the great Force and Prevalence that Righteousness has to produce Righteousness I proceed to the Objects of our Love which are two God and our Neighbour 1. God Saint John speaks as if there were some difficulty in this Part of our Duty Our loving God says he He that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Implying though the Ear be Janua Scientiae the Gate of Knowledge the Eye is Janua Amoris the Gate of Love and that to excite this Passion 't is requisite some Visible Beauty be display'd But we may say to this Though we do not see God yet we may love him by what we see and hear of him nay with good reason we may be the more enamour'd on him because his Perfections transcend not only our mortal Senses but even all humane Conception and thus we may fall in love as Blind Men often passionately do by report and hear-say But more particularly there are three Motives why we should love God comprehended in the very Object The Lord thy God 1. Because he is God For that 's the Name of the highest Excellence and Perfection and they are only Glorious and Illustrious things that stir Love and Admiration in us we run not out to gaze upon Common Persons but upon those that are famous for Greatness Learning Beauty Prowess and the like Now there is nothing Rare or Admirable of any kind but 't is in God in its Fullness and Perfection and for this reason Epicurus though he believed no Providence or that Men received any Good or Evil from the Gods yet he adored them and sacrificed to them merely because they were Glorious Beings Had we no other Cause to love God but for the Stupendous Perfections that are in him it were sufficient But we have greater reason to love him from the Second Motive Because we have the Honour of Relation to him he is The Lord Our God The Psalmist thought it a high Obligation to praise him because he was created by him I will praise thee because I am fearfully and wonderfully made But we have not only the Obligation upon us of Creation and Conversation which is a kind of continual Creation in common with all Creatures to love God but other Extraordinary and Distinguishing Favours viz. his calling us to the Knowledge of the Faith and the Blessed Consequences attending it and this ought to tune our Harps yet higher and to be the Subject of many Hymns and Psalms more But then Thirdly Our greatest Motive of all to love him is Because he Redeem'd us after we were lost restor'd us when by our Sins we were in a manner uncreated again when we had defac'd the Image of God in us our Innocence and Righteousness forfeited all our Felicity and were become the Bond-slaves of Satan then he rescued us from Eternal Damnation and made us again the Children of God So that as he is Deus or God to all Mankind to Christians he is also over and above Dominus a Lord i. e. a Redeemer and Saviour There is nothing so much obliges as Love and Benefits Celsus the Physician speaking of Philtres or Love-potions says Amor est naturale Philtrum Love is a Natural Love-potion and more powerful than those that are compounded of Drugs and by Incantations The most stupid of Creatures the dull Oxe and Ass the wildest and fiercest the Lion and Tyger are brought to love by good Usage though they know not the Nature of a Man they know if they receive Meat at his hands and be well treated by him and will love him and be obsequious to him And men were more insensible than the Brutes if when they have received of the Riches of God's Bounty and Goodness they refuse to love him because they have not seen his Person and cannot comprehend his Essence And God Isai. 1.3 complains of this stupid Insensibility in Israel The Oxe says he knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib but Israel doth not know my people do not consider We love God as S t John says because he loved us first he began with us and our Love to him is at best a Gratitude or Retaliation if therefore the innumerable and inestimable Benefits of God work no return of Love in us to him we deserve not only to have our Names rased out of the Number of Men but to be allowed no place among the better natur'd Beasts but to be rang'd with Devils who are the only Enemies of God for his Goodness and Haters of him for that which is Excellent and Amiable in him The next thing I am to shew is In what Measure or Degree we are to love God The Words of the Commandment are Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Soul with all thy heart and with all thy mind On which three Expressions Commentators have many Observations and Criticisms but more nice than profitable for as Saint John says of the three that bear witness on Earth the Spirit the Water and the Bloud these three are one so I may say of these three Expressions in the Commandment however diversify'd that in importance they are but One and may be summ'd up
and righteousness before him all the days of their life That men therefore may not mistake the principal Design for which Christ came into the World our Apostle plainly declares it at the 8 th Verse For this purpose says he the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil Christ came not only to pardon Sin but to destroy it not only to absolve a wicked World but to make a righteous to take away the condemnation but the commission of Sin And therefore the second way I named of Christ's taking away our Sins From within us ought to be taken into our highest consideration For can it be imagined that he should descend from the Bosome of his Father and visit the Earth for no other end but to make a Gaol-Delivery as I may say to reprieve so many Rake-Hells only and condemn'd Persons and to turn them loose again into the World to commit more villanies The whole Tenor of the Gospel speaks otherwise that Christ was born in the Flesh that we might be regenerate and new-born of the Spirit that he was crucified that we might crucifie our vile Lusts and Affections dyed for the Guilt of Sin that we might dye to the Practice of it suffer'd to excuse us from suffering but not to excuse us in any wickedness he cast out the Hand-writing or Accusation of Satan against us to no other end but that we should cast out Satan himself and his Kingdom out of our hearts and erect in the place God's Kingdom or the Kingdom of righteousness So that the manifestation of Christ in the Flesh to take away our sins imports no less than his rectifying that ugly confusion and disorder which Sin had wrought in the Universe and the deposing Satan from his Usurpation over the World than the restoring God to his Dominion and his Creatures to his Obedience the repairing his Honour and giving satisfaction not to one Attribute only his Justice but to all his other Attributes his Wisdom Truth Goodness Holiness c. And this was a Design worthy of the Incarnation of the Deity of the travel sufferings and all the other Glorious Works of the Messiah of his unhinging and unframing the Course of Nature by his Miracles for it was to no less end than to re-establish it again in the beautiful Frame and Order which God at first created it in before the Devil had disfigured and deformed it And for this Cause the Evangelists in relating the Passages of Christ's life often take us off from looking too intently on the Events which they record and call upon us to consider the Purposes of them rather than the Events themselves bidding us regard the Prophecies that went before of them frequently repeating that it might be fulfilled that it might be fulfilled that was spoken by such or such a Prophet And if we will make the best advantage of Christ's Incarnation we must not look so much on the Fact as on the design of the Fact what it intimates and preaches to us viz. the extinction and extirpation of Sin not only of the Guilt but of the reigning Power of it According to what S t Peter says As he has suffered for us in the Flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that has suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin This arming-our selves with the same mind and ceasing from Sin in the Flesh was that which God chiefly aimed at in his Manifestation of his Son in the Flesh To the end as the Apostle goes on that we should no longer live the rest of our time in the Flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God And to shew us yet further that the bringing of men to live righteously was the great aim of God in all Ages of the World says St. Peter For this cause was the Gospel preached also to those that are dead i. e. to those of the old World that they might live according to God in the Spirit Let every Christian therefore that professes the Faith of Christ's coming in the Flesh to take away Sin and yet lives in it hearken and attend to this Admonition Remember thy End In the Place where the Son of Syrach utters these Words he means the End or Consummation of our Days as we are natural men which is good Wisdom But remember thy end i. e. the Design and Purpose of thy Christian Profession and the Mysteries of it for this is yet a higher degree of Wisdom And before I yet leave this Point I shall give caution against two sorts of Men who greatly pervert this Advice And first Against the Papists who play and trifle with the weightiest Passages of our Salvation as Poets and Romance-Writers do with serious Histories turn them into Gauds and Entertainments of the Fancy make Models and Representations in their Churches of Christ's lying in the Manger at this holy Season and of his rising from the Grave at the Feast of Easter with all the circumstances belonging to them as if such Puppet-Shews were adequate and sutable Returns of Devotion for these Divine Dispensations Again they gather and hoard up the Nails and Fragments of our Lord's Cross as if they treasured to their Souls the Benefits of his Passion hug his Crucifix and weep over the Pictures of his Wounds as if this express'd a Seraphical Affection though they hug also at the same time the grossest Sins The second Caution is against those among our selves who yet worse abuse the Purpose of the Manifestation of Christ in the Flesh making it to be more for the encouragement than the taking away of Sin fansying that he died to excuse them from holy living was made subject to the Law that they might be freed from the Obedience of it perform'd all righteousness that they should need to perform none and these men pray as they believe O Lord say they do thou all in us and for us and take thou the glory Thus exempting themselves from all Obligations to the Commandments and making the Faith a jest and scorn to Libertines and Unbelievers while they talk only more of a holy Life than they but practise it as little make the Cross of Christ not a Sanctuary to Penitent Sinners but a refuge for Hypocrites and Cheats in Religion and yet none are so righteous so much in God's favour in their own opinion as these But they will find at last to their great confusion That Christ was manifested in the Flesh not only to take away our Sins From us but also to take them away Out of us or from within us And he does this by three Means or Expedients By his Spirit by his Word and by his Example First By his Spirit After the Manifestation of Christ in the Flesh his Suffering and being laid in the Grave he was quickned or raised to life again by the Spirit of God and exalted to have the Power and Prerogative of sending down the Spirit
prophetick and presage the Vertue they ascribe and make him the Person they proclaim him S t Paul says Charity believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things i. e. those who have this Grace are easily induced to believe the good of another which they do not know to hope that which they do not believe and to suffer even when they can neither believe nor hope And if any man be not able to walk upon this profound Sea of Charity why does he like Peter rashly and unbidden cast himself into it Why does he presumptuously Intrude into his Masters company Who supported by a Divine Power shall stride Majestically o're the Waves and march through the storm in safety while the other disorder'd by every Gust and amaz'd at every Billow poorly sinks in the danger his Fancy only fram'd Will not such an one another day like him in the Parable that wanted a Wedding-Garment be speechless i. e. have nothing to say for himself when he sees his Prince as far above him in Glory as he was in his Station in this life And when 't is objected to him as 't was to Peter O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt But to proceed God set David on his holy hill of Sion Not to say that instead of one Fort of Sion God has garded our King with many strong-holds and Castles or yet to boast the Advantages of an Island above a Hill which is not only to be ascended before it can be assaulted but to be Sail'd to before it can be approach'd and fought for before it can be Sail'd to being defended by moveable Bulwarks stout Ships which must be subdu'd before the Inhabitants can be grappl'd with upon equal terms But to come to the Point in which the chiefest strength of Sion consisted in that it was a Moral and Spiritual Fortification a holy hill and God's hill If the Church of Christ be not inferior to the Old Tabernacle the Gospel to the Law the substance to the shadow when God not only set our King upon his Throne but restor'd the True Religion and plac'd him within the Protection of it he set him upon as Holy and consequently upon as strong a Hill as he set David and we may rest assur'd he delights as much to dwell here and that 't is as desperate an Enterprize to assault this his Habitation as 't was to assault Sion But alas some will say with a deep sigh Would we found these things to be so But what for a long time has been more infirm and unstable than the Condition of this Nation Not only ready to be broken in pieces by any Impression of an Enemy but even to dissolve and fall asunder of it self and the supports of Religion have been as weak as those of the Arm of Flesh. To which I answer This has not happen'd from the Weakness of the Divine Assistances which God has given us but from our neglect and contempt of them Religion does not guard men like a Palladium or Charm preserve those who have the luck only to wear it and be possess'd of it but those who practise it and live according to its Precepts they are not Sextons and Sacrists that are chiefly protected by Heaven those that keep Divine things under Lock and Key but that treasure them up in a faithful heart When David by sin dishonour'd God and defam'd Religion his fourfold Fortification little profited him but that security which the power of the Heathen united with the disaffection of his Subjects could not shake his rebellious Son alone drove him from and he fled ingloriously and left his impregnable Sion and all the Pledges of Gods favour and residence with him behind him confessing that when he had violated their Sanctity he had invalidated also their Power of Protecting and though he possess'd still the Curtains of the Tabernacle the Deity was fled from him And little will it profit us to have the Gospel among us nay to have it more purely Preacht than to any other People under the Sun if we are the worst Auditors of it of any other People under the Sun to have the Sacraments more rightly administer'd if we are the wickedst Receivers of them 'T is the holy Use of holy Ordinances that makes them a guard and defence Righteousness as 't is the Honour of the Soul so 't is the best Armour of the Body and does not only as the Psalmist says Bring peace at the last but as the Apostle teaches safety at present For who is he that shall harm you says he if you follow that which is good 'T was the Custom of the Ancient Heathen when they Besieg'd a City in the first place to endeavour to entice out the Guardian Deity by alledging the Injustice of the Inhabitants and inviting it to reside with a more holy People ut habeat te Vrbs melior acceptiorque Holding it impossible to prevail against the Out-works when this Divine Inward strength stood firm The Sanctity of a Christian is this little retir'd Deity in the Chappel which if it cannot be charm'd or entic'd out by Temptation the Malice of Earth and Hell cannot prejudice the Person in whom it dwells The Prophet Eliah was call'd The Chariots and Horsemen of Israel but much more deservedly may Justice Piety and Sanctity be styled The Chariots and Horsemen of a Kingdom And when God by the Restauration of his Majesty and true Religion gave us the Opportunity of exercising all Vertues Civil and Divine he put it also into our hands to be as safe and well fortifi'd as we cared or desir'd to be he made our Condition as secure as a Mortal condition could be made and if our Mountain be turn'd into a Wheel our Rock into a Rolling-stone 't is our sins that have unfixt and loosen'd its Roots and while we are led by Vanity what wonder is it that the Kingdom fluctuates after the manner of the Seas that surround it If we consider Lastly how great and difficult the work was to set the Kingdom again upon its Basis after it was so utterly subverted to raise up the Truth and Splendor of the Church so long a time deform'd and Opprest by Schism and Sacriledge we may allow God also as high nay a higher cause of Glorying in our behalf than for establishing the Church and State of Israel But the time suffers me not to insist on this particular neither is it very necessary to do it we having all here been Witnesses and Partakers of what was pass'd and this will be the properer Task of another Age. Instead therefore of dressing up a Triumph for God into which also our own Vanity or Spleen may be apt to insinuate it self I shall imploy the few words yet allow'd me to speak to excite our Thanks for these things And if the Benefits we have receiv'd are such as are worthy of God's Glorying undoubtedly they are Worthy of our highest acknowledgments I say of Ours
fansies him also Wicked as those words spoken in the Person of God Psal. 50. do shew Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self And in the last place it concludes him to be Nothing at all The fool hath said in his heart There is no God Infidelity first entertains Mean thoughts of God doubts of his Attributes and afterwards of his very Being Infidelity moved God to send upon the Israelites in the Wilderness almost as many and grievous Plagues as he had sent upon the Egyptians And many Christian Professors are so possest against this Sin that they have not doubted to aver That as there is no Vertue that justifies but Faith so there is no Sin that condemns but Infidelity And that the Jews were highly guilty of this Sin in reference to Christ there is no question for though he had wrought so many Miracles among them as the Evangelist says they believed not on him They might have known who he was if they had not been wilfully blind by the Rule given them by Moses Deut. 18.12 to discern a True Prophet from a False and again at the 18 th ver to distinguish the Messiah from other Common Prophets yet blinded with Pride Malice Envy and the like the Great Council it self of the Sanhedrim condemned the Lord of Life for an Impostor and crucified him affirmed That by a Confederacy with the Devil he cast out Devils So that this their Unbelief and perverse Proceeding might be a very just Cause of the Descent of the third Person in the Trinity to vindicate the Injury and Outrage done to the second after a Judicial Manner to arraign and convince the World of Sin i. e. of Infidelity and Injustice to the Son of God But though there was Infidelity in the Case I conceive they do exactliest hit the meaning of the place who make not our Lord's Words point so much at any particular determinate Sin after his Coming as at the General Sin wherein all the World lay before his Coming viz. the Sin of Adam in which both Jew and Gentile were concluded and from which 't is said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Now the Holy Ghost when he came into the World to bear Testimony to all that Christ did reproved and convinced it that is all Unbelievers that they lay still under the Old Condemnation of the First Man seeing they embraced not the Means of Grace and Pardon offer'd by Christ in the Gospel nay and that their Infidelity added a new and worse Guilt to the former they lay under the Guilt of refusing Offer'd Redemption which would make their Condemnation yet heavier For though Hell be the ultimum Supplicium the utmost Punishment the Divine Vengeance can inflict yet as there are Degrees of Sins so there are Degrees of Torment and as 't is said Hell shall be a second time heated for those that leave their first Station so we may say it shall be a second time heated for those that refuse the Salvation offer'd by Christ. The second Particular the Spirit shall convince the World of is of Righteousness But how must this be understood Shall he convince the World of Sin and of Righteousness both Yes de Peccato proprio Justitia aliena as S t Augustine distinguishes of its Own Wickedness and of an Others Righteousness the Spirit shall convince the World that 't is sinful and that Christ was Righteous And thus our Lord afterwards interprets his own Words He will convince the World of Wickedness because I go to my Father The World spared not while Christ was on Earth to spend their rash Judgments of him He is a Good Man say some Nay say others but he deceiveth the People Others again He is a Samaritan and hath a Devil and the like But his going to the Father stopt the Mouth of all Slander For as this was an approv'd Maxim which was utter'd by the Man that was born Blind God heareth not Sinners So this was a Truth likely to find a more Easie and General Admittance God translateth not Sinners miraculously and visibly to Heaven Enoch and Elias were thus translated but 't is testified of the first That he pleased God and of the last That his Zeal for God's Glory exceeded Christ therefore being translated to Heaven it was an irrefragable Proof of his Righteousness But how did the Holy Ghost convince this Why by his very coming into the World had he born no other Testimony For Christ had said in the Verse before my Text If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you The Descending of the Holy Ghost was the Consequent of Christ's Ascending But then the Righteousness which the Spirit shall here convince the World of must be understood in a greater Latitude than only of the Inherent Righteousness in Christ's Person it comprehends also the Transient Righteousness that past from him to others As S t John says in another place That he was not only a Glorious Light in himself but the Light of the World and the Light of Men. A Righteousness of greater Concern and Importance than his Inherent Righteousness for that made his Person only Illustrious but this brought Utility and Benefit to Mankind and as the first spoke him the Son of God the last also the Saviour of the World Christ's Righteousness is therefore here to be understood Causativè that he was the Author or Cause of Righteousness not only that he was Righteous but Righteousness unto others and that two Ways First In respect of his Doctrine that was Righteousness the very Rule and Standard of it the perfect Will of God able to conform us to his Likeness and the World rejected it only because their Deeds were Evil. And this the Holy Ghost when he came convinc't the World of viz. of the Desperateness of its Condition that it had refused the True Light and for no other reason than for that which was named Because their Deeds were Evil and they hated to be reform'd Secondly Christ was Righteousness in respect of the Justification of the World as he was Justitia nostra the Lord our Righteousness as the Prophets had foretold And indeed this was the Chief Office and Business of the Holy Ghost at his coming to convince Men That there was no other Name under Heaven by which they could be sav'd but only by that Name That neither the Contemplation of things Divine together with the Practice of Moral Vertues which was the Gentiles Way nor the Plea of being Circumcised and descended from such and such Parents which was the Jewish Way avail'd any thing towards the obtaining of Justification without the laying hold of Christ's Righteousness The third Particular the Spirit shall convince the World of is of Judgment S t Bernard understood the Words Actively viz. That the Spirit shall convince the World of its
of Violence But Good God! how great was now the Change all the late harmonious Courtship was turn'd into Harshness and Discord the Blessings into Anathema's or Curses nothing was heard but the Reproaches of Heretick Apostate Accursed Woman nothing but Fulminations Excommunications Interdictions which may be call'd Rome's Spiritual Violence Foreign Princes were stirr'd up against the Queen open Invasions set on foot by Sea and Land secret Conspiracies plotted at home Insurrections Poysonings Assassinations Treasons of all kinds fomented and encouraged which by Divine Providence being also rendred bruta Fulmina idle Thunder that made a Noise and did no further Hurt the Great Enemy of our Church and State and his Complices had recourse In the Third place to Stratagem to carry on their Designs in tenebris with the dark and hellish Contrivance of the Powder-Treason this Day I will not say with the Psalmist They put the Arrow upon the String that they might privily shoot at the Vpright in heart Alas Bows and Arrows are an antiquated and despicable Artillery in these days being so far out-done by the Newer and rarer Invention of Execution and Cruelty Guns that they deserve not to be named for destroying Foundations to be compared with the Still and for a time Silent Battery in the Cave but which when least expected thunders louder than the Heavens and overturns Towns and whole Cities with greater Violence than an Earthquake The Jebusites were but rude and ignorant Engineers in comparison of those who but with a little Change bear their Name the Jesuites these indeed are great Workers in Darkness none ever before them delved so deep to undermine Foundations we may apply to them the words of the Prophet Hosea These Revolters are profound to make Slaughter For the Jesuites did not only Acheronta movere stir Hell to promote their Plot but they dug to Hell to carry it on But their Stratagem I was going to say was blown up but blessed be God I cannot say so but is blown over and many more since to their own great Shame only and Confusion And now if we ask here Why was all this Transport of Rage and Fury against us Why all this restless and unwearied Malice 'T was still for the same Reasons that the Enemies of David were set on fire against him We had dispossest them of their Dominion retrench'd their Power supplanted their Religion derided their Lame and their Blind namely their Images detected their forged Miracles degraded their Mock-Saints their Hypochondriack S t Anthony their Fanatical S t Francis their Bedlam Ignatius their Chimera Giant S t Christopher c. and they could find no peace or rest in their Spirit till they had restored these to their former Credit and Reputation and that by making their Prophaners their Worshippers And by this we may see what would have been our Condition in case our Adversaries could have brought about their Design For as the Jebusites were Idolaters as well as the rest of the Canaanites and the Lame and the Blind with which they braved David and defy'd the Host of Israel were as the most Learned conjecture their Tutelar Gods Telesmatical or Magical Images So our Adversaries however they seek to purge themselves with their Distinctions are gross Idolaters and just such a goodly Change as David should have made if he had left the Eternal God to trust in Stocks and Stones is the Change we should make if our Adversaries could prevail to make us leave our Mountain or Church to fly to theirs of Rome And First In regard that our Mountain is a Clear Mountain enlightned by the bright Beams of the Word of God which darts its Rays into every Corner of it Or stands as I may say like a Mercurius directorius in every Path and points the Right-Way to all that go by bidding them to walk in it But the Mountain of our Adversaries is always wrapt in Fogs and Mists and yet as if it were not Dark enough those that profess to be Guides to it blind the Eyes of all that are to ascend it And as the Guards of Forts and Frontier Castles make those that enter into them first surrender their Weapons so these make their Disciples and Proselytes resign their Reason and lay down their Understanding at the foot of the Mount and go on for ever after in Ignorance and an Implicit Faith And they do wisely in taking this Course for 't is not possible that any with their Reason about them should make any long Progress where they meet so many gross Scandals or Stumbling-Blocks at every step where they see the Scripture not only misinterpreted in some hard places but in the most Easie industriously perverted to Countenance the foulest Errours even Idolatry it self and after they have swallow'd whole so many Contradictions no less to humane Reason than to Divine Writ where they are obliged to believe that the Church which imposes these Monsters cannot Erre nay that God has confirmed them with Miracles shew'd Signs and Wonders more and more glorious to overthrow the Gospel of his Son than he did at first to establish it Signs and Wonders cry'd indeed every Market-Day among them like the Fruits of the Earth i. e. the Relation of them but which were never seen by any Eye For as one well observes Whereas our Lord wrought his Miracles to make Believers the Church of Rome requires that men should be Believers before they see any of her Miracles i. e. should be trained up to swallow Lies and Impostures Secondly As our Mountain is a Lightsome and Clear Mountain so 't is also a Safe whereas that of our Adversaries may be likened to the Hills of Robbers which the Psalmist speaks of where nothing is heard of but Depredations the continual Pillaging and spoiling of Travellers men go up to Rome as to a great Fair where Themselves are bought and sold Confessions Pardons Penances Indulgences Dispensations Pilgrimages c. aiming all at the Purse and not at the Good of the Soul and who shall look no further than our English Chronicle will find that the Vniversal Pastor when he exercised his Usurp'd and Tyrannical Power in this Realm was not content to fleece his Sheep only but tore off the very Flesh from their Bones Thirdly Ours is our own Mountain we are in it but our Adversary's is more than a thousand Miles distant and many other Mountains are to be past over before we can come to it and those that with a tame Simplicity delight to pay Homage to the Usurp'd Majesty of that Mount travel many a dangerous and weary League before they can attain the Abuse they seek And sad was the Condition of this Nation when upon every great Controversie to be judged every great Preferment to be collated every great Sin to be absolved men were transferr'd to the See of Rome corpus cum causa themselves as well as their Cause and where if they sped in their Pretences they often