self-same Act is no less than a plain Traitor to his Deputy So that as for Subjects to take up Arms against their Kings is by the Doctrine of St. Peter and St. Paul in all cases damnable so specially to do this in point of our Religion which so much commends and blesseth Patience and Sufferings and Martyrdom either upon pretence to plant it where it now is not or to reform it where it has been planted is of all other kinds of Contentions or Wars the most Turkishly Antichristian And therefore to avoid Quarrels and Blood 't was Hezekiah the King who here reforms the Church of Judea But yet durst he adventure alone upon an attempt so sacred and so great No you 'l easily find in the circumstances of the Text that he had both a Council and withal a Rule to direct him for if you read the 30 and the 31 of the 2 d of Chron. you 'l see this Reformation was made in the time of a most solemn Passover where the Priests and Levites the Princes and the People met and when saith the Text chap. 30. ver 30. Hezekiah had spoke comfortable words to all the Levites that taught the good knowledg of the Lord. Yea Josephus seems to put into this Kings mouth a Synodical Oration in the ninth of his Antiquities I say when upon the Kings encouragement the Levites had once taught that good Knowledg then upon such counsel such direction as this then came the Reformation For so Moses was plain in the blessing he gave upon the whole Tribe of Levi They shall teach Jacob thy judgments and Israel thy Law Deut. 33. at the 10. And as he had a Council so 't is as plain by the self-same words he had a Rule too to go by 't was the good Knowledg of the Lord which is in Moses phrase his Judgments and his Law And lest he should perhaps err in the Interpretation of that sacred Text he had the help of the best Comment too as you but now heard from the 22 d of Joshua 't was the sense and practice of the Hebrew Church whilst she was yet Primitive That the Church of England was reformed by the Power Royal by a Power that made use of the like Counsel and like Rule is a truth I think none here doubts of if any do 't will be soon clear'd both from our Stories and our Laws that first Our Liturgy which Reform'd Gods Publick Service was compos'd by Bishops and others ' of great Knowledg in Antiquity many whereof attained the Honour of Martyrdom And then the Book of our Articles which reformed the Theological Tenets the common Doctrines of our Church were Compiled by Synods by Convocations by the two Solemn Provincial Councils of London or if you will the two National because both our Provinces concurr'd in the same truth in the years 52 and 62. And that our Rule was the same they here used in Jewry Gods word interpreted by the Sense and Practice of the Ancient Church appears in the next Synod after where 't is decreed in plain words That whosoever undertakes to teach any truth as necessary to salvation which he is not able to make good by Text as 't was understood by the Fathers and the Ancient Church shall be expos'd to Ecclesiastical Censure and Canonical Correction And we cannot think our Church would enjoyn a Rule to her Sons which yet she had not kept her self In this Point then we are hand in hand with Judah the same Power the same Council the same Rule I go to the next following The Extent of the Reformation 't was only set up in his own Territories Judah and Jerusalem Indeed Hezekiah wrote Letters and sent to the remains of the Ten Tribes to joyn in this great Action with him but they for the most part contemn'd his Message and slighted his Attempt 2 Chron. 30. The King did exceeding well For 't was to be much wished that in a Design so highly pious as this all Israel would have been unanimous But yet if Ephraim and others will refuse to hear Judah must mend alone How generally a Reformation was desir'd in these parts of Christendom by men of the choicest Note both for Learning and Piety 't were no hard Task at all to shew you Nay in the very Council of Trent Ten several Kingdoms and States desir'd the Cup for the People both by their Ambassadors and their Prelates Many press'd for a Redress of Service in an unknown Tongue many for many other particulars All were refus'd and the Reason plain Order was there taken you may guess by whom that there were more Italian Prelates sometimes by Twenty sometimes by an Hundred than there were of all the World besides so that in effect all this Christendom would have reformed her self had not Italy oppos'd it Nor can that be call'd a General Council 't was but Patriarchal at the largest since the Bishops of the East and other great Churches were not there no nor those Three long since so most famous Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria and Antioch who though they may be deceiv'd in that Tenet of the Procession of the Holy Ghost yet whatever Error they are in in that point they are in no Heresie as is confess'd by P. Lombard himself and has been oft made unanswerably good by Men as well vers'd in controversal Points as any Christendom has bred But 't is the Artifice of the Western Church to perswade the World that those ancient parts are now fallen from the Church that so within the Curtains of their own Patriarchate she may have General Councils and an universal Church and so though she now make not near a Third part of the Christian World yet with the Donatist she dares profess her self the only Catholick Church and so damns all Mankind without her Neither yet do I deny nay I affirm it rather That a true General Council could best prescribe Remedies unto so large a Disease but to convoke that was extreamly difficult and we are all sure 't was not done For what Christian Princes can now give safe conduct to the Bishops and Patriarchs of those remoter parts of the Church So then if neither a true General Council nor free Patriarchal could be had were 't not strange Imprudence to refuse a Cure because we could not use the best Physicians In this case no doubt it unquestionably holds what Gerson the Learned Chancellor of Paris has spoken out without Limitation and he as Bell. affirms was Vir doctus pius he was a learned and a good man too and you shall hear that good mans words Nolo tamen dicere c. I will not say saith he but the Church may be reformed by parts yea this is necessary and to effect it Provincial Councils may suffice and in some things Diocesan 't is in his Tract de Gen. Con. unius obed And indeed Particular Churches have gone farther in this kind than our dear Mother e're
't was done as well by teaching truth as by reforming corruptions He took away the High Places and he said Ye shall worship before this altar at Jerusalem First of the Prime Agent Hezekiah the King. But to remove these Abuses here did not this Prince first abuse himself to fit his hands for this work Did Hezekiah the King make his Person no less than plain Head of the Church of Judah Were some Modern Tongues to have supplied Rabshakeh's place this is the Theam and this is the Phrase they 'd have chosen And yet I assure my self this pious Prince would have stood to 't that he was supreme Governour in all Causes and over all Persons so that upon provocation given he could no doubt have depos'd the High Priest as Solomon once did Abiathar But yet I beseech you observe 't is one thing to burn Incense another to enjoin that this Service be still duly done One thing to offer Sacrifice another to command that no Sacrifice be offer'd but on that one Altar at Jerusalem The first of these belonged unto Aaron's Sons the other to the Heirs of David To bar Hezekiah this Power in the Church were to impair his Royalties and to deny that to the Crown of Judah which all Princes have still challenged yea those without the Church the Kings of Nineveh and Monarchs of Assyria Their Swords were Ecclesiastical Thus that King proclaims a Religious Fast Jon. 3. And Nebuchad Dan. 3. 29. Thus from the beginning Christian Princes have still done the like and have let us see by their Laws that in point of Coercive Power they still kept the Church-supremacy as clearly appears in the Theodosian Code and in that of Justinian in the Capitulars of Charles the great and such other collections Justinian in an Ecclesiastical Novel comes fully home in this point Jubemus beatissimos Archiepiscopos Patriarchas i. Senioris Romae Constantinopoleos Novae Romae We command saith he and as some Copies have it under the pain of Deposition too the most blessed Archbishop and Patriarchs i. of Old Rome and of Constantinople then call'd New Rome c. If that Emperor might command all the Patriarchs themselves and that in a business Ecclesiastical too where then lay the Church-supremacy And these Novels of his were in so high esteem with St. Gregory the great that 't is plain in his Epistles he decides Church-causes by them and that with an Ita decrevit Dominus noster Imperator Our Lord the Emperor hath thus rul'd it in his Laws Besides most plain it is that the Old Hebrew Kings held the Work in my Text to belong to them as in chief And this Opinion God himself confirm'd for throughout their whole story you 'l find that Kings only are check'd when the Church was corrupt and they only prais'd when she mended In those Scriptures we read but of Three Noted Reformations and they were all done by their Kings By King Asa by this King in my Text and the last by King Josiah Those High Places alone were pulled down by Asa which were set up to the worship of a false God. Hezekiah goes farther and destroys them too which were set up for the false worship though of the true only Deity Josiah goes on and removes the Groves and such devices as those which Solomon and other Kings having of old set up they were again renew'd in the wicked Reign of Manasseh But grant a Christian Church to be indeed corrupt or that really men think it is so is 't not allowed by Christ's Law either for Subjects or others against the Will of the King into whose care she 's put by force of Arms to constrain or beat her to a Purity A case of conscience you 'l find whereby to resolve this decided by our Saviour's own Mouth in the 9th chap. of St. Luke where entring saith the Text into a Village of Samaria the Inhabitants were so far from receiving the Doctrine he intended to preach that indeed they endur'd not his Person Hence James and John the Two Sons of Thunder begin straight to shew their Temper What! not receive Christ nor the Christian Faith Master shall we command fire from heaven For if Perswasion will not draw men unto the Gospel thou bring'st it must be done by Fire or by Sword. Our Saviour replies Ye know not of what spirit ye are Ye understand not at all what thing 't is to be a Christian. I came not to destroy mens Lives but to save them I came not to plant a Religion in Blood no I leave that to Turks and to Mahomet Had that been my Intent you James and John had been no Apostles for me I would then have made choice of Commanders from an Army not of Fisher-men from their Nets And yet in these times have not we the like Sons of Thunder What I will they not receive the New Holy Discipline the very Scepter of Christ the Throne of his Mediatorship and indeed they could do little if they knew not how to cloath their new Fancies in good Words Lord shall we command Fire from Heaven or if you will Fire from Hell Shall we raise a Rebellion Shall we by a Covenant swear Christ into his Throne or forswear the King out of his What think ye will be replied to these and the like kind of men but ye know not of what spirit ye are It 's not lawful by Blood to bring in Christian Faith and is it lawful by Blood to bring in that thing which they of late call a Christian Government It 's not lawful to plant a Church by such Force and is it lawful thus to reform it They who think it is truly for my part I neither at all know of what spirit they are no nor of what reason neither This I well know of what spirit they are not they are of no spirit Evangelical So then to attempt to reform a Church in despite of the Prince whom God has now placed her under is to invade Royal Power and can be indeed called but a more zealous kind of Rebellion since tôs cure a Church by such drenches as these is no doubt at the same time to give Poyson to a Kingdom and 't was therefore decreed in that most ancient Council of Eliberis twenty years before that of Nice That if in hatred to Idolatry if self a private man would needs pull down Images he should by no means be esteemed a Martyr if he lost his life in that service And the Fathers there give their Reason because we have no example for this either from Prophets or Apostles No 't was their part to preach down High Places or Idols but they well knew 't was the Duty of Kings of Supreme Powers to remove them And he can be no Martyr for the first Table of the Law who is in the same deed a Transgressor of the second nor will God at all thank him as a Reformer of his Church who in the
Patriarchal and so meerly of Ecclesiastical Right not of Divine Institution A Power which in the Ancient Church had been set up by Emperors as that of Justiniana prima by Justinian in his 11 th Novel Nay 't was openly maintained in the great Council of Chalcedon that all the Patriarchs had gain'd their Power meerly by Custom and by Imperial Countenance So that 't is a Power that may be taken away without all doubt taken away otherwise Gerson the wise Chancellor of Paris would not have written in France De auferibilitate Papae England went farther and did indeed remove that which others did but say was removable but removed it was before the Reformation that removed it not as men well know that know our Laws and so we were left but under our own Synods only so that now besides a General Council which we are willing to hear we can resist no lawful Pastors but our own Lastly Take Schism for that monstrous height of uncharitableness when with the Donatists those men who are but a part of the Church dare call themselves the Church Catholick and so dare damn all the rest of Mankind who refuse to imbrace their opinions I could name you those who are guilty of this but I am sure our Dear Mother is not who has been so mild to those that have most highly oppos'd Her that besides the Reproaches of Novelty and Schism you all well know she hath been long reproached for her Charity And yet when St. Cyprian being Primate of Carthage did in his full Synod against the sense of the whole Church set up plain Rebaptization St. Austin defends him from the Tax of Schism only because he began that Provincial Council with this charitable Clause Neminem damnantes nec a jure Communionis quempiam si diversum senserit removentes We decree this saith he but yet we damn no man nor do we bar any from the Communion of Africk though he think the quite contrary And how punctually have we observed this Rule of good old St. Cyprian In these late Church-Controversies Opinions indeed and Actions we condemn and so did that Father too but yet we damn no mans Person For 't is he Tenor of God Laws Thou shalt love thy Neighbour his Person as thy self but 't is not said Thou shalt love his Deeds or Opinions For though what men act or opine may be in it self damnable yet where they are not wilfully perverse customary breeding joyn'd with ignorance or the like may excuse the men from damnation And how far we have been in such differences as these from debarring any Man or Communion yea even those that heretofore did oppose and now perhaps do disdain us I appeal to the first twelve years of Queen Elizabeth where men apparently known to have kept their old opinions were not only received into the Service of our Church but were admitted to the Eucharist it self the very highest act of Communion And now I have gone through my Text and shall only add That I scarce know any Scruple any Query they make that may not well be solv'd from this Parallel They ask why their opinions should be condemn'd for Errors if we know not the precise time when they rose yes the High Places here were gross Errors and yet the most learned dare not say whether they rose in the time of the Judges or in the days of King Solomon They ask whether our Forefathers were damn'd who we grant dyed in their Religion And we demand whether for so many hundred years were all the Jews damn'd that did worship God in High Places I think they were not if they liv'd pious lives and kept themselves from all wilful ignorance For then tho the Errors of both Churches the Hebrew and the Christian too were in themselves no less than damnable yet by ignorance or by the like Apology with this tho they made no express repentance for a sin they knew not yet by the ordinary dispensation of Divine Grace the men we think escap'd damnation But I have one Query more a Case of Conscience to leave with you Suppose a Jew that had been rightly bred in the Reformation of King Hezekiah should at length fall back to do Sacrifice in the High Places upon confidence that his Forefathers might well be saved in that Service whether were not this man indeed guilty of murther Lev. 17. 4. and so not in state of Salvation unless by express Repentance he turn back to God for this very Apostacy The Resolution is easy it scarce needs Levi's help and I beseech you let it be thought on and then I hope to turn Apostate from a true Reformed Church will be held no slight trivial matter All this is to let you see the great Likeness betwixt the two Churches I have nam'd Judah and England both were reform'd by a Power by a Council and Rule most approvable without Schism without Rebellion in both the Ceremonies remain'd decent the Service of God dayly and honourable and which is more than this tho they both remov'd the forbidden Altars yet both kept the old Priesthood too And since God in so clear Text did approve the one why should any man ever doubt the other And yet Judah in my Text was almost eaten out by the Sword Alas we are in this but too like her Although perhaps we are more like this poor Church when she was yet more miserable when she mixed her tears with the sad tenor of those words Ps. 13. 7. By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembred thee O Sion For let me assure you 't was a distressed reform'd Church they there remembred and no marvel then if that memorial were in tears either in tears of Repentance that their own foul sins had brought on this great Desolation or else in tears of longing to see that famous Church once restor'd to see God again serv'd in the beauty of holiness that their Ravished Souls might once more ascend in Prayers and Hymns or Hallelujahs in one of the Old Songs of Sion Let us but sow in such tears as these and I should certainly hope we should e're long reap in joy in joy temporal to see our King and our selves in Peace and in joy spiritual to see that Church of God re-established Which God c. FINIS