which he doth continually defile with with his intemperances and uncleanness And this truth being granted which is not to be denied and scarce to be disputed it must needs follow that 't is impossible there should be an absolute infallibility of Faith in any man till there be in him an absolute impeccabilitie of life for from the corruption in manners will proceed the corruption in doctrine and from corruption in doctrine corruption in manners so that the doctrine cannot be the form and the duty the matter of Religion since the false doctrine corrupts the duty and the defective duty corrupts or depraves the doctrine and we must allow the substance of Religion to be altogether incorruptible and because there can be in it no corruption 't is evident there is in it no Physical composition Secondly There is in Religion no Logical composition ex subjecto accidente for no part of it but is substantial and essential Faith can no more save without good works then good works can be without faith It seems the man had faith who came running to kneel to our blessed Saviour and to ask him What he should do to inherit eternal life sure a better faith then any of our Solifidians have who neither run nor kneel nor ask yet our Saviours answer is Thou knowest the commandments S. Mark 10. He saith not Thou knowest the faith in Christ and yet without doubt he included it but so it is Christ himself teaching us to go to heaven by obedience doth plainly shew there can be no true faith without it and Bona opera sunt perniciosa ad salutem is a most pernicious blasphemous doctrine though Amsdortius broach'd it out of zeal to the doctrine of Justification by faith in Christ and out of opposition to the merit of condignity in good works for 't is not the right way to build up faith by pulling down obedience since the Apostle himself telleth us that the truth of the Gospel was made known to all nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16. 26. and 't is evident that faith it self is an act of obedience and a duty enjoyned in the first commandment so that we cannot take away faith from obedience but we must take away obedience from the first and great commandment that most requires it which will not be so much as good Judaisme and therefore sure cannot be good Christianity for the Jews did of purpose in their doctrine as it were entangle the commandments one with another to shew that one could not be violated alone and that our obedience was alike due to all therefore did they teach that the preface I am the Lord thy God was directly on the other side answered by the sixth commandment Thou shalt do no murder for he that kills a man destroys the image of God The first commandment it self Thou shalt have no other gods but me was directly answered by the seventh Thou shalt not commit adultery for idolatrie is a spiritual fornication The third for it seems they looked on the second as included in the first Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain was answered by the eighth Thou shalt not steal for he that will be a thief will not stick to forswear himself The fourth Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day was answered by the ninth Thou shalt not bear false witness for he that will not keep the sabbath doth bear false witness of God that he did not rest on the seventh day The fifth Honour thy father and thy mother was answered and as it were seconded by the tenth Thou shalt not covet for he that gives the reins to his concupiscence shall beget a son that shall dishonour and disobey him Salomom Iarchi in Cantic cap. 4. v. 5. Thus did they make one commandment not onely as a second to vindicate and avenge but also as a principle champion to fortifie and strengthen another that we should pay the readier obedience to them all for they did not this to confound our dutie towards God and our duty towards our neighbour but to shew that though these several duties might be distinguished yet they might not be divided nor separated for that no one commandment of the Moral Law was accidental but all alike substantial in that obedience which God doth now require and will hereafter reward so that there is no composition of Subject and Accident in Religion Thirdly and lastly There is in Religion no Metaphysical composition ex actu potentia of act and power for though this Metaphysical composition is in the Angels yet 't is not in Religion 'T is in the Angels for they have not all their essence and perfection together but as it were successively some after other so that in this respect Religion hath a prerogative above the Angels and therefore may not stoop down so low as to worship them for that hath its whole perfection altogether the Old the New Testament differing onely in modo not in re for the same Faith Hope and Charity saved Abraham that still saveth us and hence it is evident that all is either superstition of faction which cannot consist and be maintained without addition to the text the onely rule of Religion though it pretend not to be addition but onely exposition or declaration As for example When Christ hath said Drink ye all of this that the Laity or Clergy not administring are not bound to drink of it may pretend to be a declaration of the Church Ecclesia declarat nullo divino praecepto Laicos aut Clericos non conficientes ad bibendum obligari Concil Trid. Sess. 21. cap. 1. but it is indeed a depravation of the truth by way of addition Again when God hath said Thou sh'alt not worship any graven image for any man to say Thou shalt not worship the graven image of Venus or Bacchus or Jupiter but thou mayst worship the image of Christ and of the saints seems to be a declaration but is indeed a down right depravation by way of addition and yet this is the fleight whereby Baronius endeavours to elude the second commandment and why may not we as well say Thou shalt not kill that is Thou shalt not kill a Romane Catholick but thou mayst kill an heretick Thou shalt not steal that is Thou shalt not assault or invade the property of a brother one of the godly party but thou mayst of one that is a malignant or a reprobate and yet not be guilty of stealing In a word to instance in the fifth commandment which hath been alike trampled upon by the two grand factions of Christendome Honour thy father and thy mother saith God that is If he be not an heretick saith the one side for then he may be excommunicated deposed and killed If he be not a reprobate saith the other side for then he may be dishonoured and disobeyed and destroyed for having no share in grace he hath no right to
coalescere Unio Gentilium Iudaeorum insimul habitantium Iudaeis enim propter antiquam consuetudinem suffocatum sanguis erant abominabilia Comesti autem immolatorum simulachris poterat in Iudaeis suspicionem ingenerare circa Gentiles quod scilicet redituri erant ad Idololatriam ideo ista fuerunt prohibita pro tempore illo in quo de novo oportebat convenire in unum Gentiles Iudaeos procedente autem tempore cessante causâ cessat effectus manifestâ doctrinae Evangelicae veritate in quâ Dominu◠docet quòd nihil quod per os intrat coinquinat hominem Mat. 15. nihil est rejiciendum quod cum gratiarum actione percipitur 1 Tim. 4. Fornicatio autem prohibetur specialiter quia Gentiles non reputabant eam esse peccatum The Apostles forbad things strangled and bloud and meats offered to Idols not to oblige the Gentiles to the observation of the Ceremonial Law but to bring the Jews and Gentiles now living together into one peaceable Communion that the Gentile might not offend the Jew by eating bloud and things strangled which had been forbidden by their Law nor the Jew suspect the Gentile as relapsing to his former Idolatry if he should eat things offered unto Idols therefore those three things were forbidden for that time onely till there might be a right understanding and a firm agreement betwixt the Jew and the Gentile but in process of time when the Gospel came to be fully published the cause ceasing the effect likewise ceased with it for then both Jew and Gentile were taught that nothing that entreth into the mouth defileth the man S. Mat. 15. 11. and that every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanks-giving 1 Tim. 4. 4. But as concerning fornication that was especially forbidden meerly in relation to the Gentiles because though it were a sin in it self yet was it not so in their opinion Thus the Angelical Doctor determines concerning this decree of the Apostles and to shew it was the undoubted judgement of his Church which in some things clearly sways him against the strength of his own reasons he again in effect renews the same determination Fornicatio illic connumeratur non quia habeat eandem rationem culpae cum aliis sed quia poter at esse similiter causa dissidii quia apud Gentiles Fornicatio simplex non reputabatur illicita propter corruptionem naturalis rationis Iudaei autem ex Lege divinâ instructi eam illicitam reputabant Alia verò quae ibi ponuntur Iudaei abominabantur propter consuetudinem legalis conservationis unde Apostolica Gentilibus interdixerunt non quasi secundum se illicita sed quasi Iudaeis abominabilia 22. qu. 154. art 2. resp ad 1. Fornication is there reckoned up with those other things not that it had as little sin as they but because it might have produced as great a cause of contention for the Gentiles through the corruption of their natural reason accounted fornication as no sin which the Jews knew to be a sin having their reasons enlightned and rectified by the Law of God and as for the other things they were forbidden not as unlawful or abominable in themselves but only as abominable to the Iews And indeed we cannot put fornication into the same bed-role of indifferency with the rest if we do but consider that the Apostles intent was not to give to those new beleevers a rule of life but a rule of peace not directions for their conversation but for their communion not to set down what was fit for their action but what was fit for their Union not what was conducible in it self but what was conducible to their present agreement in the first respect their Decree had been a very imperfect catalogue of things unlawfull a very imperfect rule of abstinence but in the second respect we have great reason to suppose that neither as a catalogue nor as a rule it needed any greater perfection And this was the judgement of the Latine Church concerning this matter though the Greek Church in the Trullane Council can 67. seem to be of another opinion and forbid all manner of eating of bloud but the reason is evident those of that council looked upon this decree as a command of the text and not as a condescention of the Apostles which doubtless was a mistake the like to which had been in the Asiatick Church before concerning Easter whence in process of time sprang up the heresie of the Quartadecimans for whereas S. Iohn the Apostle and some other Apostolical men had out of compliance with the Iews in Asia whose Church was mainly fixed in those parts kept the fourteenth day of the first moneth according to the law of Moses for their Pass-over Polycrates afterwards and the Clergy of his Churches taking that for an example or president which was onely a compliance or condescention would have perswaded the whole Christian Church to keep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Scaliger cals it to keep a Pass-over rather in remembrance of Christs Passion which was upon a week day then in Remembrance of his Resurrection which was upon a Sunday the Reason was the Churches of Asia had mistaken S. Iohns condescention to the Iews for an approbation to themselves as if what he allowed onely to the Iews he had also approved and by consequent established for the Christians The like mistake seems here to have been amongst the Fathers in Trullo concerning eating of bloud whereas the Greek Church had otherwise a right judgement concerning Apostolical condescention which is not to look upon it as a dogmatical sanction for so Theodoret in his argument upon the Epistle to the Galatians tels us that some Iews had perswaded the Galatians to stick to the Iewish ceremonies of Sabbaths new moons and circumcision saying they should not follow S. Paul who was of yesterday but rather S. Peter and S. Iames and S. Iohn which had been with Christ and did not forbid Circumcision nor those other Ceremonies whereupon Theodoret thus declares his judgement or rather the judgement of his Church for he was neither heretical nor schismatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And true it was that those Apostles did not then forbid Circumcision because they thought it requisite for that time to condescend unto the Iews but these men concealing the cause laid hold of the practise and endeavoured by that means to turn the Condescention into a Constitution The like was also the judgement of Oecumenius on Act. 3. 1. where he tels us that S. Peter and S. Iohn went up to the Temple at the hour of Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not that they did care to Iudaïze but that they might condescend to gain the Iews so that we may safely conclude notwithstanding the Canon of Trullo as well as the practice of the Asiatick Churches that the judgement of the Catholick Church
was builded these many years agoe we desire not to lay one stone more nor one stone less then was anciently laid onely we are not willing to mistake a false for a true Antiquity Id verum quod primum that is the truest which was the first And it was our Blessed Saviours own way of reasoning Non sic fuit ab initio It was not so from the beginning and yet it had been so for a very long time before Secondly S. Paul had the comfort of his Religion in that he worshipped the God of his Fathers for his Religion entitled him to the same God his Fathers had before him who had shewed great mercy to them and had promised to shew mercy to their children for their sakes the Jews had comfort in their Fathers when they had not in themselves Moses useth three Arguments why God should not destroy the children of Israel for their Idolatry Exod. 32. 11 12 13. The first was his former benefits lest they should seem to be lost and thrown away The second was his own glory lest that should be obscured and his Name blasphemed and neither of these two Arguments prevailed his former goodness had been too much abused his after glory might be otherwise repaired But then follows his third Argument his Promises to the Fathers and that prevails then immediately saith the Text And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people ver 14. Gods veracity is indispensable and must be indisputable And thus Jarchi glosses upon this third Argument If they have sinned against all thy Ten Commandments yet remember Abraham was upright in his Ten Temptations let Ten go for Ten nay more If thou hast purposed to burn them or kill them or banish them yet remember Abraham and Isaac and Israel thy servants thou wilt not do it Remember that Abraham at thy command exposed himself to burning when he went to Ur that is Fire in the Chaldeaens Isaac exposed himself to killing Jacob exposed himself to a long Banishment to a wearisome Pilgrimage And thus God himself comforted Hezekiah Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy Father I have heard thy prayer I have seen thy tears Is. 38. 5. So willing so ready is God to shew mercy that he will find a cause to shew it to the Children for their Fathers sake when he cannot for their own doubtless it is to teach them not to trust in their own righteousness if they be righteous nor to distrust his mercy when they have been captivated under the dominion of sin unrighteousness And thus much concerning the worship of God the first substantial part of S. Pauls Religion The second substantial part thereof still remains undiscussed and that is his Faith Concerning which we may observe two things First That it was the Catholick Faith Secondly the Proof that it was so First That his Faith was the Catholick Faith Beleeving all things A Christians Faith may be called Catholick in a two-fold respect either essentially or accidentally essentially in the substance of it when he beleeves all those Christian Truths that God hath revealed as necessary to salvation and beleeves them because of Gods Revelation for as the second Epistle of Saint Iohn is called a Catholick Epistle though writ to a private person because it is Catholick or universal in its Instructions though it be onely particular in its occasion so is the true Faith the Catholick Faith though it may be continued onely among some few true Beleevers for what hath been already may be again and this case hath been in the days of Athanasius because it is universal in its Obligation though perchance almost singular in its Profession And in this sense the Catholick Faith and the Christian Faith are both one whence Athanasius calls that the Catholick which others have called the Christian Faith although he insist most upon the true doctrine concerning the Blessed Trinity even as the Imperial Edict cited in the Code in the Title de summâ Trinitate Fide Catholicâ gives the name of Catholicks to those Christians who had a right belief concerning the holy and undivided Trinity not onely as we may suppose because the chiefest hereticks of those daies had erred in that doctrine but also because they who erred not in it could not easily erre in denying any Fundamental of the true Christian Faith And thus Aquinas very briefly and plainly tels us what is this Christian or Catholick Faith even that Faith which brings us here to the saving knowledge and will bring us hereafter to the blessed enjoyment of our Saviour Christ. Credibilia de quibus est Fides secundum se quae directè ordinant ad Vitam Aeternam Nam Fides est principaliter de his quae videnda speramus in patriâ Heb. 11. 1. Ut Incarnatio Christi Trinitas At alia sunt de quibus non est Fides secundum se sed solum in ordine ad priora sc. ad manifestationem eorum ut quòd Abraham habuerit duos silios 22 ae qu. 1. Those truths do properly and of themselves belong to the Christian Faith which do immediately and directly order and dispose the beleever to eternal life for Faith is principally of those things which we hope to see and enjoy in heaven Heb. 11. 1. such as are the Incarnation of Christ and the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity But there are other truths which do not properly and of themselves belong to the Christian-Faith but onely in order to these to wit as far as they conduce to the manifestation of them as that Abraham had two sons As for the first of these they are to be explicitly beleeved of all Christians alike As for the second it sufficeth if they be implicitly beleeved by those who have not the means of an explicit Faith concerning them so that we may thus gloss S. Pauls words Beleeving all things that are written viz. either explicitly or implicitly all things explicitly that are revealed to me and all things implicitly that are revealed in the Text For every good Christian hath a preparation of his soul to beleeve whatsoever is contained in the whole word of God and a resolution of his soul to beleeve it as soon as it shall appear to him to be so Thus again the same Angelical Doctour Nam Fidei objectum per se est per quod homo heatus es sicitur per accidens autem secundariò omnia quae in sacrâ Scripturâ Divinitus traditâ continentur 22 ae qu. 2. art 5. The object of Faith essentially in and of it self is that which brings a man to the beatifical Vision for Faith is to end in Vision as Hope in Comprehension and Charity in Fruition But the object of Faith accidentally and secondarily is whatsoever is contained in the holy Scriptures that have been delivered to us from God As for the first every Christian is bound to beleeve them by an actual and
concern the substance of Religion so the fourth wholly concerns the exercise of it and as the first Commandment teacheth us the duties of faith hope and charity towards God to believe in him to fear him and to love him with all our heart with all our minde with all our soul and with all our strength and the second and third to worship him to give him thanks to call upon him to honour his holy name and his word so the fourth commandment setteth us a time and other circumstances for the exercise of these duties teaching us to serve him truly in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life for it is a gross mistake of some who make the fourth commandment a limitation or a restriction of the first as if he that required our love with all our heart to shew that we ought sooner to be without our heart then without his love did require the publick profession of that love onely one day in seven no we must know and profess the contrary for it is impossible that the greater should be limited by the lesser and our Saviour himself hath told us that Thou shalt love the Lord is the first and great commandment Saint Mat. 20. 38. Wherefore all the rest which have their greatness from this cannot add any greatness to it much less can they take away any greatness from it and consequently the fourth commandment must needs lose its greatness if it be brought to oppose this that is to say to confine this love of God by restraining the exercise of Religion to the Sabbath as if Religion were made for the Sabbath and not rather the Sabbath made for Religion they who look upon Sunday as the onely Sabbath do in effect say That Religion was made for the Sabbath they who look upon other Festivals as Sabbaths also do in effect say That the Sabbath was made for Religion and without doubt they are of the surer side which is the drift we should aim at in all controverted points who say Days were made for duties and not duties for days for these men do say That the substance of Religion is above the exercise of Religion which God himself hath taught us in the very method of the commandments putting the greatest in the first place and that the exercise of Religion was ordained and appointed to preserve and maintain the substance of Religion but by no means to restrain or hinder the same Therefore it is safest explaining the fourth commandment not by way of limitation or restriction as if it limited and restrained the three former to it self which those men do seem to be guilty of who put down all other Christian Festivals as unlawfull and superstitious but by way of specification or application as shewing the necessity of exercising that Religion which is taught and commanded in the three former and not leaving it in our power to omit or neglect that exercise This being laid for a sure ground that we have Gods absolute command not onely for the substance but also for the exercise of Religion it must needs follow that they who regard not the exercise of Religion cannot regard the substance of it and consequently whosoever is unsetled in the exercise of Religion whether it be in the profession or in the practise thereof cannot be thought well grounded in the knowledge and love of God For Divinity is a science that teacheth man to live to God and therefore he that most lives to God is the best Divine the best scholar may be he that hath best ordered his study but the best Divine is he that best ordereth his life and this Divinity St. Paul requireth alike of all Christians who profess to believe in Christ that they have a life answerable to their faith a conversation answerable to their profession Rom. 6. 9. Knowing this that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more there 's the principle of faith and verse 11. Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord there 's the duty of life He is the best Divine he hath the most Christian Logick that most makes such collections for Divinity treats onely of the spiritual life whereby man lives in to him by whom he lives And as the natural life hath two acts the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby it gives life the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby it gives motion so hath also the spiritual life two acts The first consists in the knowledge and love of God the second in the profession of that knowledge and in the practise of that love Of these two acts consisted Abrahams Religion of these two parts consisted his Divinity even of Faith in God as saith S. Paul and of Works according to that Faith as saith S. Iames and if we hope to get into Abrahams bosome we must first get into his study This was Davids Divinitie Psal. 37. 3. Trust in the Lord there 's the knowledge and love of God for no man will trust him whom he doth not know and much less him whom he doth not love and do good there 's the profession according to that knowledge and practise according to that love and we must be men after Davids heart if we desire to be men after Gods own heart In a word This was the Divinity Christ left unto his Church S. Matth. 28. 19 20. First teaching all nations to know God then teaching them to observe his commands and we cannot be good Christians unless we be members of Christs Church and if we be good Christians our faith will make us live in Christ and our conversation will be according to our faith which was the admirable prayer of the ancient Church upon Ascension-eve and I cannot better conclude this discourse then with a prayer nor have I learned to reject a good prayer because I finde it in the Mass-Book no more then I may learn not to say Eli Eli that is my God my God with my blessed Saviour because some out of ignorance others out of malice will say This man calleth for Elias S. Matth. 27. 46. Praesta quaesumus omnipotens Pater ut nostrae mentis intentio quò Unigenitus Filius tuus Dominus noster ingressus est semper intendat quò side pergit conversatione perveniat Grant Lord we beseech thee that whither our Saviour is ascended we may also with heart and minde thither ascend and whither we ascend by our faith there we mayalso dwell by our conversation even in Heaven Amen CHAP. 5. The assurance we have of the substance of Religion in that it is spiritual and resembles God the authour of it in his incommunicable properties of Simplicitie and Infinitie as also in his Immutabilitie and Eternitie which are the two consectaries of Infinitie also in his Omnipotency All-sufficiencie and Omnisciencie which are the three consectaries of his Eternitie THat Religion is of a divine
not in but upon the Temple or Church of God non in Templo Dei sed in Templum Dei sedet tanquam ipse sit Templum Dei quod est Ecclesia as saith S. August l. 20. de Civ Dei c. 19. where also he expounds this Anti-Christ not of one single person but of a whole body of men or a mixt multitude and I pray why may not Anti-Christ reign rather in an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a Government of the many-headed then in any other kinde of Government since this alone is a Government not of Christs making Surely no one character of Anti-Christ but will more exactly befit this then any other Government and if we will suppose which is very probable that those Parables which do shew what Anti-Christ was in the Jew may also teach what he shall be in the Gentile then persecution of those who are sent unto the people much more of those who are set over them by Christ murder committed upon their persons and rapine upon their inheritance must be his chiefest qualities See S. Luk. 10 11 12 13 14. verses where we haue a perfect embleme of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when servants rule their Masters Subjects their King which is the pestilent spawn of that viperous doctrine Dominion is founded in the people and without all question 't is more immediately Anti-Christian to oppose Kingship then to oppose Kings since this may be onely against the persons who are men but that must be also against the authority which is Gods whence they are called his Kings his Anointed 2 Sam. 22. 51. or rather Christs authority for himself saith Mat. 28. 18. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth and is from him derived unto Kings whence 1 Tim. 6. 15. he is called the onely Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords for Kings are of Christs not of the peoples making the Text shews where Christ hath given his power to Kings but not where he hath given it to the people and consequently for them to assume it without his gift and against his command must needs be Anti-Christian so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are in effect all one to sight against Monarchy is to sight against God who alone originally and against Christ who alone autoritatively is the onely Monarch but to return again to the Church doth not this appeal to the people let in the Rabble over all that 's called God and over all that 's called Christ the Anointedof God and over all that 's called Christian the service of God credenda speranda facienda must we not beleeve and pray and live as the rout will have us or have no outward profession of our faith no publick exercise of our prayers and no communion or Fellowship of our life see what strange calves this rebellious Jeroboam this striver for the people for so doth his Name import hath already set up in this our Bethel the house of God Prayer thrown out of its proper dwelling the publick worship of the Lord forbidden on the Lords own day and in the Lords own house and all because the people will have it so for 't is not the publick circumstances of time and place can make a publick worship when the persons that perform it are not publick because they are no Ministers and the substance of the worship performed is not publick but meerly private both for the matter because the supposed Minister prays onely for his own party and according to his own humour for the form because the people nay most times himself do not know his prayer Is not this truly to prophane the Sabbath in stead of sanctifying it to cry up the day but to beat down the duty of it as if Religion were more in days then in duties more in accidents then in substances more in circumstances which are but shadows then in realities I cannot perswade my self but our late throwing away the publick worship of God exercised in such an excellent Book of prayer as was publick both in its form for known unto and admired of all Christians and in its matter for of such Petitions onely as equally concerned all and introducing a meer priuate worship instead of it if I may call that a worship of God which hath so little reverence towards his Majesty and so few evidences of his authority was the most sacrilegious profanation that ever any Christian people hath yet been guilty of people I say not nation for neither with us is this Apostasie yet become National and God forbid it ever should and yet the reason of all this and much more then this is onely that which formerly was the plea of Comedians not of Divines populo ut placerent quas fecissent fabulas that they might please the people at least with some new invention since they were displeased for some base worldly ends with their old Religion and it makes many a Christian heart tremble to think that we are very near a Babylonian Captivity and the truth of God is breathing its last gasp amongst us because we are come to that desperate condition of the Jews and are as ready as they were to endungeon our Jeremies that tell us of it described by the Prophet Jer. 5. 30 31. a wonderfull and horrible thing is committed in the land the Prophets prophesie falsly and the Priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so and what will you do in the end thereof there is a generation of false Prophets in the land and the Priests that bear rule by their means applaud their prophesying for so the 70 render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and my people love to have it so i. e. to have false Prophets in stead of Priests hoping thereby to save their tithes and what will you do in the end thereof as yet this horrible thing is beautifull in your eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Ezra but what will you do in the end when you shall know it will be bitter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is now a Naomi that is pleasant but it will then be Marah that is bitter and will say unto your souls Why call ye me Naomi seeing the Lord hath testified against me Ruth 1. 20 21. but I must leave this argument to some better head and more authentick hand I undertake to speak onely the heart of the true English Protestant who bids me tell you that Divinity alone makes him of the true Church which had its being before his Church not with it and much less from it Divinity of the new stamp if it may be called Divinity which hath man not God for its authour must needs on both sides turn faith into faction and Religion into Rebellion that man and the same reason holds in Christian Churches as in Christian men since a Church is but a Congregation of men I say that man