Secondly Whose Kingdom do they belong to who negotiate the affairs of Souls after another manner than Christ did Who aim at Superiority in the Church with a Design to Lord It over Christs Flock and exercise Tyranny over the Consciences of men Who take upon them the Ministerial Function to gratifie their Avarice and Ambition and make the Patrimony of the Church subservient to base Secular ends Who if once arriv'd to a pretended unappealable degree of Hierarchy presently exalt themselves above all that is called God These are so far from being Faithfull Subjects of Christs Kingdom that they are the very enemies of Christ For if the Governours of the Church of Good Shepherds become Ravenous Wolves And instead of Reducing the Strays to the Flock in the Spirit of meekness they shall by their Pride and Haughtiness Drive the Sheep from thence what a sad account will they have to make hereafter to the Great Shepherd of Souls How guilty the Pope and his Ecclesiasticks have been of this Charge I shall not need declare But so long as the Governours of the Church execute their High Calling according to Christs Prescript the Practice of the Apostles and Primitive Bishops with Humility Sobriety Hospitality Gravity and Moderation there is yet great hopes that the Governed the People may yet bring forth the blessed Fruits of Love Peace Joy Obedience Long-suffering Goodness Faith Meekness and Temperance Thirdly Let us enquire whose Kingdom they belong to who would destroy all those whom they account the Enemies of Christs Kingdom with other weapons than He hath allowed of Of all Feuds those about Religion are the fiercest And therefore 't is well the Captain of our Salvation hath told us what kind of Armes we are to use in its Defence otherwise the Christian Camp through the Perversness of the Commanders had made but one common Field of Bloud Lukewarmness in Religion or an Indifferency to All Religions is as bad as if we profess'd none at all To maintain our Religion by Cruelty or Injustice is worse than if we profess'd none at all He who denies a God only proclaims himself a Fool But we want a name to distinguish him by who makes God the Author of Impieties or his Religion a Countenancer of Injustice He who out of Zeal to God robbeth Caesar of his Dues were it in his power would de-throne God and set himself up in His Room Jesus answer'd My Kingdom is not of this world What then shall we think of His pretended Vicar who impudently claimeth a Right to all the Kingdoms of this world Who whilst he hypocritically stiles himself a servant of the meanest of the servants of Jesus Christ Usurps the Power of deposing Kings and disposing of their Kingdoms To deal sincerely with you I think this Impious Practice to be one of the most Irrefragable Arguments to prove him to be The Anti-Christ That whereas some have taken a great deal of Pains to prove Him so from the obscure Prophecies of Daniel And others with great Labour and Difficulties have applied all the Phaenomena and Characters of the Apocalyptical False Prophet to the Pope This is a more sure and compendious way of stamping upon him the Mark of the Beast Christ was both a King and a Priest His Priestly Office in the most solemn manner He conferr'd upon the Apostles His Kingly He left where He founded It Delegated by His Father upon the Emperours of the world and confirm'd that Delegation to us by His own Obedience to Them Now then if the Pope out of Great solicitude for the Churches committed to His charge makes any unjust Attempts upon their Regalities He strikes at the Kingly Office of Christ and endeavours Solvere Jesum the Dissolution of Jesus as the Vulgar Translation and those Greek Copies it follows have it Now since He dares not pretend to this Power immediately from Christ for He cannot find any such Donation amongst all the Rights He pretends to as St Peters Successor His Indirect Power and in Order to Spirituals will not serve his Turn For to suppose the worst That the Kings of the earth should stand up and take Council together to destroy Christs Kingdom shall therefore his Holiness add Impiety to their madness by Deposing them and absolving their Subjects from their Obedience If he does he is so far from being Christs Vicar That he is a Barabbas and though he may escape as Barabbas did Punishment in this Life yet that eternal Vengeance which pursues Robbers and Murtherers will overtake him in the other All that the Governours of the Church can do in this Extremity is to Advise Admonish Rebuke with all Gravity and Humility to set before them the Folly and Danger of such Councils and the certain Destruction which always attends them And if such with all other Christian means prove ineffectual they having discharg'd their Duty must commit Themselves and Their Cause to God in Tears Fasting and Prayers And in those very Prayers they must remember more especially their Persecutors Lastly if God so willeth in a Patient suffering the Loss of Life These are the only justifiable weapons by which the Church of Christ opposeth Her Enemies And now give me leave in a few words to bring all home to our selves None of us have been so closely Immur'd in our Studies but we must have observ'd something of the present State of Affairs How that our Church hath two Potent and Restless Enemies to Encounter the Romanists and the Presbyterians with all the Inferior Sects that fight under their Banner We have been sufficiently Alarm'd by the Hellish Plots of the one And we have by sad Experience felt the unsupportable Tyranny of the other Yet God forbid that we should serve Them as they would do Us Defend Our Religion by the same unwarrantable Practices by which they would Destroy It. The Reformed Religion of the Church of England as it has the most of Primitive Purity in worship Doctrine and Discipline so hath it of Christian Loyalty of any other Religion in the world And 't is our Happiness to live under as Gracious a Prince as ever Sway'd the English Sceptre since the Conquest Who has through his whole Reign been more Tender of the Liberty and Property of the Subject than of his own Prerogative Whence then these Hideous Murmurings and Complainings in our Streets Whence these Daily Outcries and Fears of being led into Captivity Are they not from hence that there are a sort of restless ungratefull people amongst us who under pretence of Securing the Protestant Religion would ruine the Church of England the best and surest Guard against Popery Who by wheadling the People with the specious Names of Liberty and Property would undermine Monarchy the strongest bullwark against Tyranny and Arbitrary Power But is it possible that the same cheats should pass twice upon a Nation in the same Age Have we so soon forgot the Miseries and Desolations of the late Usurpation or
Character which they had fram'd of their Messias therefore they would not submit their Stubborn Necks to his easie Yoke the Romans afterwards thought to have ruined His Kingdom by a total Massacre of his Subjects and they also pretended reasons of State But the true reason was they could not comply with the Doctrine of the Cross which they thought would interrupt their pleasures and Eclipse their Greatness And at this day how is the world divided about the great Business of Salvation The Turks would ascribe this glorious work to their false Prophet Mahomet and the Jews expect Salvation from an imaginary Messias yet to come and Christians are too much divided amongst themselves But after all Christ will accomplish the End of His coming into the world which was to bear Testimony to the truth He will distinguish between the true and the false Believers And His Kingdom shall at last shine forth in an utter Abolition of the Kingdom of Darkness I have only this to add further Be the times never so perilous our dangers never so great next the Protection of the Almighty a Christian Holy Life our stedfast Obedience to the King Conformity to the Church will be found our surest Refuge For the King cannot will not forsake that Faith of which He is the glorious Defender nor those Subjects who by the Tenure of their Religion think themselves obliged to defend Him with their Lives and Fortunes And of this we as well as the rest of the Nation have had a very late confirmation in His Majesties Gracious Reply to that Eloquent and truly Loyal Speech made in behalf of the University To which His Majesty was pleased to answer That He was fully satisfied of the Loyalty of the University and that He did not at all doubt but we would always act according to what we there declared His Majesty likewise told us That He would constantly Own and Defend the Church of England as by Law established This He bid us be assured of for He would be as good as His word whatever Representation either had or should be made of Him to the contrary Being farther pleased to add That there was no other Church in the world that Taught and Practised Loyalty so conscientiously as that did O Let us and all that hear me this Day make good this gracious Opinion which His Majesty hath conceiv'd of Us and Our Church That so both King and People supporting each other and Both uniting in an Holy Conspiracy for the good of the Church We may yet Emerge a Glorious Flourishing Kingdom to the utter Disappointment and Confusion of all our Enemies whether Papists or Fanaticks whom God in his infinite Mercy either convert or in His Infinite Power bring to Condigne Punishment that so Justice may be no Longer Obstructed but that Righteousness and Peace may joyn in an Holy Kiss Amen The End Joh. 18. 35. Job 1. 22. Isa 53. 9. Luk. 23. 47. Heb. 1. 23. Joh. 18. 37. John 19. 11. 2 Cor. 10. 4. Eph. 6. 12. 1 John 4. 3. Luk. 3. 14. Rom. 13. 4. Tert. De Ido Cap. XIX Isa 2. 4. Micah 4. 3. Judg. 5. 23. Psal 105. 15. Rom. 13. 5. James 1. 27. Dan. 6. 16. Dan. 3. 20. Matth. 16. 18. Rom. 132. Matth. 5. 10. Matth. 10. 18. Matth. 5. 9. Mark 12. 17. 1 Cor. 2. 2. Luk. 19. 22. Isa 49. 23. Matth. 10. 18. Luke 12. 4 5. Matth. 10. 16. Act. 23. 6. Psal 145. 13. Psal 149. 8. Matth. 4. 9. Psal 2. 2. Luk. 19. 14. John 18. 37.
take up Arms in the Defence of a most Gracious afflicted Prince did nevertheless Preach Sedition and sound Rebellion so loud from their Pulpits till at last they were able to form their deluded Disciples into a Religious Army who under the holy cheat of fighting the Lords Battels setting King Jesus on his Throne establishing the Purity of the Gospel and purging away all Superstition and Prophaness barbarously murthered his Anointed spilt the bloud of his Prophets laid waste his Vineyard polluted his holy Altars and turn'd his House of Prayer into a Den of Thieves who rob'd God of his worship the right Heir of his Kingdoms and the Church of Her Revenues And because we have such manifest Proofs that the restless Enemies of our King and Church are ready to act the same Tragedy over again it cannot be unseasonable to consider my Second Position That 't is not Lawfull but highly impious in Christians to Rebel against their Sovereign or disturb the Government under the specious pretence of defending their Religion And this Position is usually prov'd from the truth of another more general viz. That it is not Lawfull upon any pretence whatever to resist the supream Power and This commonly prov'd from the Law of Nature from the Law given to the Jews but more especially from the Evangelical Law and the Practice of the Primitive Christians which will be found the best interpreter of those places of Scripture which command absolute Obedience and which though there were no other argument does sufficiently confute all those pernicious Proviso's audacious Limitations all those Pretences in Ordine ad spiritualia that Subordination or Co-ordination of Power the resolving it finally into the People at least making it accountable to the Inferior Magistrate in short all those monstrous Schemes and Deformities of Government which either Rome Geneva Scotland or the Republicans of England have sent forth into the world to the scandal of the Authors and the Christianity they profess For if the Precepts of Obedience are made Sacred by the forementioned indispensable Ties then are they least of all to be violated upon the score of Religion Because 't is impossible for any Power upon earth either to force his upon or take my Religion from me Consider then with your self how you will ever be able to expiate the impiety of resisting the Magistrate under pretence of defending that which is not in his power to take from you Is the command of Subjection which St Paul hath made Sacred upon a twofold account Wrath and Conscience to be trifled withall will you stop your ears against the charms of Conscience and provoke the Wrath of him who beareth not the sword in vain for nothing at all Or rather is not the Religion about which you make such a clamour only some outward hypocritical Profession some Politick Disguise to advance your self by pulling down those who are set over you by the Lord Is not the Liberty you contend for Licentiousness a freedom to do what you list The Yoke you would throw off that of Order and Obedience Would you not exchange Decent significant Ceremonies for rude unseemly Gestures Would you not turn Godly and Primitive Discipline into Anarchy or Tyrannical impositions Sound and ancient Doctrine in all points agreeable to the written word of God into novel enthusiastick Divinity Inspired stated Prayers into vain Repetitions extemporary and yet laborious effusions And instead of a Reverential and awfull Administration of the Holy Sacraments would you not introduce obscene Dippings and take the Cup of Salvation with less Ceremony than if you were only drinking in Piam Memoriam of some Deceased Friend If this be the Religion for which you express so sensible a Tenderness it were better suppress't than tolerated But pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father which is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep your self unspotted from the world Which is to relieve the oppressed feed the hungry clothe the naked visit those that are sick and in prison which is to live Godly Righteously and soberly in this present world which is to honour the King to fear and love God above all things and your Neighbour as your self which is that of the heart and not of the tongue only is such a Religion as no Power upon earth can take from you I will suppose the worst that can be supposed That the Civil Magistrate should be so impious as to forbid the worship of the true God and command the Adoration of an Idol make a Decree against the Bible and establish the Alcoran His Impiety does not cancel your Obedience or Legitimate Rebellion Here 't is that the derided Doctrine of passive Obedience takes place neither will the Leviathans wicked Evasions stand you in any stead The Retaining God in your heart whilst you deny him with your mouth will not serve your turn neither can you excuse your self by resolving the Guilt of your Apostacy into the Authority of the Commander you must obey God rather than man by sustaining the utmost that man can inflict for Gods sake This must be acknowledg'd a very sharp and grievous Tryal yet no more than has been born by others before you for we have read of Daniel in the Lyons Den Because he would not obey the Idolatrous Decree of Darius of his three companions in a burning fiery Furnace because they would not worship the Golden Image Nebucad-nezzar had set up And we solemnly commemorate in our daily Office the Goodly Company of the Apostles and the Noble Army of Martyrs We have heard that the mouths of Lyons were stopt the Flames of fire quench't for the wonderfull Deliverance of the former and what is yet more to be had in Admiration two impious Idolatrous Kings converted by their Heroick Constancy And that the later glorified God by their Deaths and for a recompence receiv'd a Crown of immortality And to be sure the precious Bloud of those Martyrs of the first Magnitude became the fruitfull seed of the Church In short Religion is an inward Principle and keeps its chief Residence in the Minds of Men and they may as well have their Understandings ravish't their Wills forc't as be depriv'd of it The Professors may but the Faith it self cannot suffer violence from men Rational Motives may persuade a Vision from above may enlighten a Voice convert the cooler Breathings of Heaven the Gentle and Kindely Inspirations of the Spirit may captivate those understandings Subdue those refractory Wills which are Proof against all external Force and defie the utmost Rage of Men. 'T is as much beyond the Power of any Tyrant upon earth to impose any One single Article of Faith or make me embrace his Religion in the Gross as 't is for him to impart an Identity of Thoughts or an Individuation of Souls Let no man then dare to Rebel under the specious pretence of defending Religion for that cannot be
Antidotes which they prescrib'd against the Contagion of Hereticks show me one that has the least composition of Force or Violence in it They endeavour'd to convince them the Hereticks from the Autority of Christ the Apostles and the Deference paid to the Apostolical Churches the Novelty of the Hereticks Doctrines their palpable Corruption and interpolation of Scripture their irregular Lives and Scandalous Dissentions the Unanimity of Catholicks the consent and Harmony of their Doctrines and the sufficient knowledge they had of the Apostles and first promulgators of the Christian Religion and the sufficient Instruction which the Apostles receiv'd from Christ These were some of those wholsom Remedies which they thought fit to prescribe against the Hereticks of their times And happy had it been for Christendom if none of a different nature had been made use of since only those enforc't by Civil Sanction for what has Rome got by her modern bloudy Inquisition Or Geneva by her Tyrannical Usurpations over the Consciences and Common Liberties of mankind What did the Council of Constance get by their uncanonical treacherous cruel proceedings against those poor men Jerom of Prague and John Huss Their putting the later to death contrary to promise and the publick Faith widened the Schism brought an odium upon the Council and they will never be able to wash away the stain of so Barbarous an Act. They seem'd indeed sensible of it when 't was too late for in the Ample-safe-Conduct granted in the XVIII Session of Trent under Pious IV they recede from the Practice and Decree of Constance or of any other Council prejudicial to safe Conducts But then they mince the matter in these words In hâc parte pro hâc vice derogamus c. So that even this Recession was rather extorted from them by the necessity they lay under than any willingness in those pretended Infallible Doctors to retract or own that they had done amiss 'T is true He who renounc'd all Sovereignty here on earth that so the Princes and Emperours of the world might have no suspicion of Him or his followers did nevertheless keep his Religion under his own Cognizance and exempt It from their Jurisdiction for he did not only teach promulge and practise it in opposition to the Laws and Customs then receiv'd in the very face of the Magistrate but moreover encourag'd his Disciples to the like confidence and Resolution He foretold them that they should be brought before Kings and Governours for his name before the Jewish Sanedrim and Roman Tribunals to bear Testimony to the Truth but bids them not be dismayed for He would be their Advocate and defend both them and It against all Opposition Not that hereby He grants them a Licence to Rebel to violate their Duty to the Publick in defiance of the Magistrate but only Instructs and encourages them in their Duty to God in despite of sufferings He bids them not fear them who can only destroy the Body but rather Him who can destroy both Body and Soul in Hell Thus they learn't Christ and thus they taught others Christianity Thus Christianity at first set out and accordingly found Reception in the world thus it made a glorious Progress and thus it shall finally Triumph over all the Powers of Darkness Which ushers in my Third and last Position That 't is the Duty of Christians patiently to suffer for their Religion when 't is their Lot to fall into Perfecuting times and this in most Cases the best in some the only Remedy left them For hereby we give the Dearest Pledges of an unfeigned Love to our Master that we have not only followed Him for the Loaves for any secular Ends or Advantages Hereby we make a Publick Declaration of the Sincerity of our Hearts Hereby we give the Noblest Proof of the Truth of our Religion Hereby it appears we are true Disciples when we can take up the Cross and follow Christ in the most difficult but most heroick Act of the Christian Warfare Hereby we shew that we have escaped the Pollutions of the world and that the Glory of God and our own Salvation hath been our Chiefest Aime Yet this Position however true in it self seems of very hard Digestion to our corrupt Natures And this is the true Reason why our Dissenters of late have made such Dismal Out-cries such Dire Presages and still continue to Alarm the Nation with Fears I hope of their own Creation And therefore I shall be very short with them The Religion for which they express so great Concern and about which they make such a stir that Heaven and earth have been disturb'd with their Out-cries is either from God or from Men. If it be from God He will either defend it from Persecution or else by His mighty Power enable the Professors patiently to suffer for it And which way soever shall seem best to his just Providence is fittest and most profitable for us And so we are safe If it be from men 't will come to nought 't is mutable as all other humane Institutions are and will rather veer to the Religion of the State than undergo the least Tryal of Persecution And 't is to me a manifest sign that those men who cry out so much of Persecution before hand And amidst the full Enjoyment of a dangerous Liberty as if they had a Faggot already Flaming in their Breasts never intend to resist unto Bloud or undergo the fiery Tryal if they should be really brought to it Their Religion is too Voluptuous and the Professors of it too Effeminate to court Martyrdom Let them choose which Part of the Dilemma they please and they are for ever silenc'd If then sober Advice might take place I would entreat them in their Zeal to Religion not to disturb the Peace of the State In their Fears of Persecution not to betray and desert the Cross of Christ In their just Exclamations against the Superstitions and Idolatries of the Church of Rome not to make Shipwrack of the Catholick Faith in a willfull Separation from their Mother the Church of England Let them not out of a commendable Indignation against the wicked and Hellish Practices of the Romish Emissaries to establish the Popish Religion become Guilty of the same in an Obstinate Illegal Unchristian Defence of their Own And if any one think I injure them by this Advice for I confess it implies a Guilt of the mischiefs caution'd against I recommend to his serious and impartial Perusal several late Collections publish't from their Originals And there He will find that the most pernicious Doctrines laid down by the Jesuits in their Morals are to be match't if not out-done For there He will find a Dispensation for Oaths taken Licences to take contrary Oaths Equivocation Lying Perjury recommended There He will find that the Saints alone had a Right to inherit the Earth that the wicked might be Slander'd Plunder'd Murthered and all this under pretence of doing God