the clearer splendor snuff it so nearly that they extinguish it quyt and leavs us nothing but the stink of its snuff like some curious Physicians who purge so frequently that they destroy the body entrusted to their cure We in this Island have met with some of these Charletans who I am confident purged oftner both Church and State then Luke the beloved physician would have prescrived if we had had the good fortune to have been his Patients The talest witt is not able to reach heaven albeit I know many disjoint their witts in stretching them too high in the inquiry of its mysteries Neither impute I our short-coming in the knowledge of these mysteries solly to their obstrusness but I believe our meditations are more clouded in relation to these then really they need to be because of their innate frailty for we see that some who are masters of much reason in things humane betray much solly in their devotions wherefore I am induced to believe that it fares with the soul in this as usually it doth with the body whose pulls are proportionally the weaker as the thing grasp'd-after is plac'd above its true reach And so these arrogant Pretenders pull but faintly because they raise their meditations too high on their tip-toes whereby they are disabl'd from imploying all their naturall vigour in pulling at these weighty and sublime Truths which they catch not by that corner which is nearest as meanner witts do and so are more successfull but endeavour a fetch at what in Divinity is highest by which effort their endeavours are fainter then these whose spirit is of a lesser size And these colossus witts become the greatest Hereticks as these ordinarily are most burnt whose fingers oftest stir up fires and as Chirurgians have moe cuts and wounds then any other Mechanicks who handle not so oft these wounding tools It is not fit that mortal man should wrestle too much with these mysteries least his reason like Iacob be forc'd to come off halting Nothing hath more busied my thoughts then to find a reason why the Heathens who were as assiduous and zealous too in the worship of their gods as we Christians did never frequent Sermons nor knew no such part of divine Service whereof probably the reason was because their Governors whose commands amongst them were the sole jure-divinoship of all Ecclesiastick Rites feared that Church-men if they had been licenc'd to harangue to the people would have influenc'd too much that gross body which was the reason likewayes why in the primitive Church as one of their Historians observes ex formula populo praedicabant tantum antiquitas timebat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They preached only approved Sermons so much did antiquity fear these leaders of the people a practice as is reported lately renewed by the Duke of Russia and this seemeth also to have been the reason why all Liturgies have prick't texts for their Preachers lest if they had been left a freedom in their choice they had chose such as might in the letter have suited best with such seditious Libels as are now obtruded upon the people in lieu of pious homilies at remarkable or festival occasions Yet I think that our late Doctors who can find all Doctrine in any text would easily have eluded that canonick designe If we should parallel the homilies which these renowned Fathers have left as Legacies to posterity with these which our age runs after we would find that the first were pointed lessons of mortification which like Moses rod could draw gushes of tears from the rocky hearts of the most obdured sinners whereas many of these last are but State-gazets wherein the people are informed what are the resolves of the civil Magistrate And whereas their first institution made them Ambassadors of glad-tydings betwixt God and His people they have made themselves Heraulds to denounce warres betwixt God's Vice-gerent and His subjects Thus Peter's successors will oft times like himself rather draw the sword then watch for their Master And since our Saviour hath disarmed them as He did Peter and filled their hands with the keyes these who offend them are sure to get over the head with these I confesse God hath not left His Church without some skilfull Pilots to lead in His servants with security to the harbour of Salvation to whom this Discourse and it's Author shall pay all respects Most of all Churches do like coy maids lace their bodies so strait that they bring on them a consumption and will have the gates of heaven to have been only made for themselves and as this nigardliness hath possest Churches so from that root hath stem'd the churlishness of some private Christians who will allow God but a most inconsiderable number of these whom He hath admitted to make up His visible Church Thus some Pastors will only admit two or three to be guests at the Lord's Table allowing no wedding garment but what is of their own spinning and others with their uncharitable hands blut the names of all their acquaintances out of the Books of Life as if they were keepers of His Registers and Rolls and will only have seats kept in the Church triumphant for three or four Sisters who are so srugal of their devotions as to spare them at home to the end they may be liberal in publick But both these should consider that the new Ierusalem is said to have moe gates then one that Iohn in his Revelation tells us that numberless numbers were seen following the Lamb and that it is not probable that the wise Framer of the world made such a spacious dwelling as heaven to be inhabited by so inconsiderable a number whereas hell in the geography of believed tradition is only the small kernel of this small shell the earth I know that many are called and few chosen and that the way is strait and few enter in at it But we should consider that these chosen are said to be few in respect only of these many who are called Which is most certain for ten Parts of eleven are Pagans or Mahumetans and all are called of that elevnth part many are malitious Hereticks and amongst the residue many are flagitious and publick sinners So that albeit the greatest part of the regular members of the visible Church were sav'd Yet the number would be small in comparison of these others The body of the visible Church must like all other bodies be compounded of contrary elements And albeit I am not of opinion that this body should be suffer'd to swell with humours yet I would not wish that it should be macerated with purgations It 's nails though but excrementitious parts should not be so nearly pair'd as that the body may bleed yet they should be so pared as that christians may not scratch one another They should feed not upon blood but milk and they are unmannerly guests who will not suffer others to sit at their Masters table with them It pleases
albeit our Saviour in His Gospel assures us that men shall come from all corners of the world and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob. And John in his Revelation tells us that multitudes of all Nations Kindreds and Families were seen following the Lamb. Upon this same block do these likewayes stumble who put the bolt of their uncharitableness upon the gates of heaven to debar whole Professions such as Lawyers and Physitians from entring in thereat notwithstanding that the abovecited place tells us that there were only twelve thousand of the tribe of Levi the Priest chosen and the like number was prickt in the tribe of Judah the Law-giver Aaron the Priest did mould the golden calf and not Moses the Iudge and Korah and Dathan were Levits and yet mutined against their Magistrates I say not this to disparage that holy Function For none shall wish Aarons rod to flourish more then my self and ordinarily these who love not to touch the Lords anointed will likewayes be sure to do His Prophets no harm but I say it to take off an aspersion which hath stain'd too long and too injustly these of my own profession Is not the Church our common Mother albeit I confess she is likewayes their Nurse in a more particular way and since there is heavenly Mannah enough to aliment us all why should Christans de ny to admit their brethren to an equal partage It grieves me sore to see my mother the Church tortur'd like Rebecca by carrying strugling twaines in her pained bowels And seing all Christians are but pilgrims here I admire that these pilgrims should leave off to journey and stand skirmishing and fighting with all such as will not travel their road And albeit we acknowledge that the Spirit of God takes pains and is sufficient for leading all men in the way wherein they should walk yet we must compell them as if either He needed our help or we resolved to share with Him the glory of their conversion Thus God who loves us all infinitly better then one any of us doth another leaves us upon our own hazard a freedom in our choice albeit we poor miscreants compell one another denying to our fellow-creatures that freedom which he allowes all the Creation I wish we would consider how each man eats drinks cares for his family and performes all common duties rational enough without any compulsion and yet in the affairs of Religion wherein doubtless man is led by a far more infallible assistance there are many slips committed daily and grossly notwithstanding of all the pains taken and force used by one man towards another Thus it fairs with us as with Patients whom when the Physitians stints to a narrow dyet then they loath even that food which their unreined appetite would never have rejected And this makes me apt to believe that if Laws and Law-givers did not make Hereticks vain by taking too much notice of their extravagancies the world should be no more troubled with these then they are with the Chimeras of Alchimists and Philosophers And it fairs with them as with Tops which how long they are scourged keep foot and run pleasantly but fall how soon they are neglected and left to themselves In order to which it was wittily observed by our great King James the Sixth that the Puritans of his age strove with him and yet ceded at first in a difference between them and the Shoe-makers of Edinburgh For not only pleases it their humour to contend where they may gain honour and can loss none but likewayes by contesting with Monarchs they magnifie to the people their pious courage assuring the world that such attempts require a particular assistance from heaven and when their jangling hath extorted some concessions from the Magistrate as ordinarily it doth then they press that success as an infallible mark of the Jure-divinoship of their quarrel Albeit I confess that when these not only recede from the canonized Creed of the Church but likewayes incroach upon the Laws of the State then as of all others they are the most dangerous So of all others they should be most severely punished Opinion kept within it's proper bounds is an pure act of the mind and so it would appear that to punish the body for that which is a guilt of the soul is as unjust as to punish one relation for another And this blood-thirsty zeal which hath reigned in our age supposes our most mercifull God to be of the same temper with these pagan Deities who desired to have their Altars gored with blood and being devils themselves delighted in the destruction of men whereas the Almighty who delights not in the death of a sinner but rather that he should repent and live hath left no warr and upon holy Record for persecuting such as dissent from us but even then when He commands that the Prophets who tempts others to idolatry should be slain yet speaks He nothing of punishing these who were seduced by them And why should we shew so much violence in these things whereof we can show no certain evidence as ordinarily we cannot in circumfundamental debates Are we not ready to condemn to day as Phanatick what yesterday was judged Jure-divino And do not even those who persecuted others for their opinions admire why they should be upon that score persecuted themselves So that victory depending upon event we legitimat the persecutions to be used by others against our selves by the persecutions used by our selves against others Our Saviour forbids us to pluck up the tears lest the wheat be pulled up with it and how can the most pious persecutors know that the Saints are not destroyed with the sinners It is remarkable that our Saviour disarmed zealous Peter even when he was serving Him in person in His greatest straits and against the most profligat of His enemies the Iews and that to prevent the irregular zeal even of the first and best of Christians the blessed Apostles their divine Master thought it fit to arme them not with swords but with scrips and to root out of their hearts all thoughts of violence did oft inculcat in them that His Kingdom was not of this world convinceing them by an excellent argument that He had no need of armes or armies for else He could have commanded thousands of Angells Did ever God command the Iews to war against any neighbouring nation because they were Pagans a quarrel which would have lasted till all the world had been conquered Or did our Saviour leave in legacie to his servants that they should force others to turn prosylits which doubtlesse he had done if he had resolved to allow such a rude mean of conversion All which makes me admire why in our late troubles men really pious and naturally sober could have been so transported as to destroy whom they could not convince and to perswade these who were convinced that Religion obliged them to destroy others My heart bleeds when I
my humour to contemplat how that albeit all Religions war against one another yet are all of them governed by the same principles and even by these principles in effect which they seem to abominat Thus albeit the cessation of miracles be cryed down by many yet do the most bigot relate what miracles have been wrought by the founders of their Hierarchies and what prophesies they have oraculously pronounced And seing all confess that God in our dayes breaks the prosperous upon the same Wheel on whose top they did but lately triumph making fortune adopt the opprest in their vice why should we talk so much of the ceasing of miracles For doubtless these effects are in policy as contrair to nature as are the swimming of iron or sweetning of rivers or rather more Seing in the first mans will is forc'd without which such revolutions could not be effectuated whereas in the last dull and sensual qualities are only wrested which as they are not so excellent so doubtless are not able to make such resistance as the Soul of man Yea I should rather think that the world being become old must doubtless be more dim-sighted as all old things are then formerly and therefore God doth now present greater objects of admiration to our eyes then He did formerly For man is become so atheisticall that if God did not presse His meditations with such infallible testimonies of the being of an irresistable power he would doubtless shake of all resolutions of submitting Thus we see that in all the tract of Iohn's Revelations miracles grow still more frequent the nearer the world draweth to it's grave and like all other bodies the weaker it becomes the more subject it is to all alterations and the less is nature able to resist And it would appear that if miracles were requisit at first for the establishment of Religion even when no older Religion was to cede to it and to make an exit at it's entry much more should miracles be necessar for fixing any Religion against the received constitutions of a previously settled Church But to prosecute my first design it is remarkable that albeit infallibility be not by all conceded to any militant Church yet it is assumed by all Neither is there any Church under the Sun which would not fix the name of heretick and account him almost reprobat who would refuse to acknowledge the least rational of their Principles and thus these Church-men pull up the ladders from the reach of others after they have by them scal'd the walls of preferment themselves That Church-men should immerse themselves in things civil is thought excentrick to their sphere even in ordine ad spiritualia And yet even the Capuchins who are the greatest pretenders to abstract Christianity and Mortification do of all others dipth most in things civil The Phanaticks enveigh against Presbyterian Gowns The Presbyterian tears the Episcopal lawn Sleeves and thinks them the whore of Babel's shirt The Episcopist slouts at the popish Robes as the livery of the beast The Antinomian emancipats his disciples from all obedience to the Law The Protestant enjoyn good works and such are commanded but place no merit in them The Roman-catholick thinks he merits in his obedience The Phanatick believs the Lords Supper but a ceremony though taken with very little outward respect The Presbyterian allowes it but will not kneel The Episcopist kneels but will not adore it The Catholick mixeth adoration with his kneeling And thus most of all Religions are made up of the same elements albeit their asymbolick qualities predomine in some more then in others And if that maxime hold that majus minus non variant speciem we may pronounce all of them to be one Religion The Church like the river Nilus can hardly condescend where it's head lyes and as all condescend that the Church is a multitude of christians so joyn all their opinions and you shall find that they will have it to have like the multitude many heads But in this as in all Articles not absolutely necessar for being saved I make the Laws of my countrey to be my Creed and that a clear decision herein is not absolutely necessar for Salvation is clear from this that many poor Clowns shall be saved whose conscience is not able to teach their judgments how to decide this controversie wherein so many heads have been confounded so many have been lost and so many have been shrewdly knockt against one another from which flinty collisions much fire but little light hath ever burst forth God by His Omniscience foreseeing that it was too dazleing a sight for the pur-blind eyes of man's soul to behold Him invironed with the rayes of divine Majesty did bestow upon us three mirrours wherein we might contemplat Him as we use to look upon the Sun in a tub of water not daring eye His native splendor the one was the mirrour of the Law the second is the works of the Creation and the third is the Soul of man which He Himself hath told us is framed after His own glorious Image As for the first mirrour the Law God knowing that instinct or as we terme it a natural conscience were compleat digests of all that man was to observe He did make that mirrour very little a volumne of only two pages but that mirrour is of late so mullered about by marginal Notes and Commentars that the mirrour it self is almost over-spread by them and it is very observable that in the holy Registers the Law is still abridged but we never see it enlarg'd For albeit the fundamental Laws of both Tables were packed up in narrow bounds yet our Saviour sums them in these two fear the Lord thy God with all thy heart and love thy neighbour as thy self And the Apostle Paul in his divine Epistles professes that he desires to know only Christ and Him crucified So that I am confident that if our Saviour were to preach in person once more to the world He would enveigh against our Casuists as much as He did against the Jewish Talmudists for the one as well as the other are equally guilty of burdening the shoulders of weak christians with the unnecessary trash of humane inventions For I remember to have seen a late Casuist dispute contentiously amongst his other cases whither Tobacco taken in the morning did break a commanded fast or not To which after a feaverish conflict his wisdom forsooth returns this oraculous answer That if Tobacco be taken at the nose it breaks not the fast but if it be taken at the mouth then it breaks the fast Which because I made a Collasterion betwixt the Casuists and the Talmudists I shall only mention out of the Talmude which was the Iews comment upon the Law a case exactly parallel to this wherein is decided that if a man carry a burden on the Sabbath day upon both his shoulders then he is guilty of breach of Sabbath but that he is not guilty if