of their Hearts into the Schism and Faction as I make no question there have been some let your Eyes be now opened and behold the prospect of your Folly into which you have been miserably seduced by your Leaders and Guides and as you tender your own safety to withdraw from the Tents of Chorah that State of Schism and Antichristianism as the Ancient Fathers accounted it Come out of this Babylon and renounce with Abhorrence all Seditious and Factious Tenents and Opinions all disloyal Principles and Practices whatsoever and return into Communion of your Mother the Church of England For however invincible Ignorance heretofore might extenuate your Crimes yet now it will not when it will certainly be no less than Sin against Knowledge and Experience it will be wilful and affected Ignorance shutting your Eyes against clear Evidence and Demonstration which will no more excuse you notwithstanding your pretences of Conscience than it did the Jews in Crucifying our Saviour or those that killed the Apostles because their wicked Consciences told them That therein they did God good Service And it cannot but be matter of great wonder that after such clear and evident Discovery and Detection of the abominable Hypocrisie and Wickedness of Fanaticism That ever there should remain any one among us at this day Those therefore that still remain such must needs be looked upon as having most prostituted and malicious Souls who are in Judgment given up to a reprobate Mind whose end is Destruction as the Apostle speaks And it is a matter of great wonder That there are so many in our days still to remain so sottish as when they make use of the Rules of Prudence and Discretion in all their other Concernments yet as to their greatest Concernment their Immortal Souls they lay them aside and every or any pitiful Schismatick and Imposter or any piece of Folly Ignorance Peevishness and Ignorance must serve their turn be the Director and Guide of their Souls and yet nevertheless they will profess to believe That Miracles are ceased in the Church To perswade us all now to learn to be Dutiful and Loyal Subjects to our Prince and Liege Lord the King our Gracious Sovereign Let us consider as one of late hath well observed That the Worth Excellency and Providence of a Prince are not sufficient to make a Kingdom or Nation Happy His Subjects ought to Contribute their Proportions also to it Let us therefore abhorr and detest and cast away those Seditious Principles of the late times That we may do Evil that Good may come and That a lawful Prince may be withstood and resisted when-ever they themselves shall judge that Religion and Property is invaded or in Danger For when these dangerous Opinions prevail among Subjects in what Circumstances must needs that Prince be when-ever an Opportunity offers it self our late times have sufficiently verified by plain Demonstrations Let us entertain therefore in our Minds the Honest Christian Loyal Principles of the Church of England Let us be obedient Sons unto Her Let us be of humble peaceable and complying Tempers for this is an undeniable Truth That it is a far less Crime to commit an Error on the right Hand that is to say in a peaceable Compliance with just and lawful Authority to promote thereby Order Government Peace and Vnity Than on the left that is to say to commit an Error in disobedience to just Authority in this sence it may be well said Melius est Humilitas in malis quam Superbia in bonis For as the first proceeds from Humility and dutiful Subjection to Authority and is the Preserver of publick Order Government Unity and Peace wherein the Welfare of Mankind principally consists in this World So the other is the product of Pride Presumption and Insolence and over-turns all Government Order and Peace in the World and brings in nothing but Disturbances Strife and Contention Rebellion Blood and Ruin and in short if Subjects would be Loyal Kingdoms could not be miserable But I would not herein be misunderstood to plead for Sin in any case for the obtaining the greatest good although a Heathen once said Iniquissimam pacem justissimo bello antefero he preferr'd an unjust Peace before a most just War But this I am confident of We cannot be innocent when-ever we disobey a just Authority except the unlawfulness of the thing commanded be as clear and apparent as our Duty of Obedience is And for my own part I would chuse rather to run to the utmost extent of what is lawful before I would refuse Active Obedience to a just and lawful Authority either in Church or State and I think I have the Holy Christian Religion on my side to justifie me herein And I am ready to think also that according to this Rule all our Dissenters and Fanaticks will be Tryed one day at the Great Tribunal when their Proud Ignorant Pievish and Froward Consciences shall be no excuse to them It doubtless therefore very much concerns us to consider seriously of the great danger there is in those no small Sins of Heresie and Schism to such as are really and truly such And we are more easily deceived in these kind of Sins in regard Satan herein is notably transformed into an Angel of Light And such Persons who are not so easily tempted to Intemperance and Debauchery yet herein greedily swallow down his Baits and spiritual Pride that is ready to attend such Men as are free from Debauchery and Prophaneness many times helps forward the Temptation likewise the greatest Hereticks and Schismaticks that ever were in the World have had very fair outsides at least I mean of good and pious Conversations How much therefore doth it concern us to have a great Care of that Sin that attends such as are possibly otherwise good Men but nevertheless of all Vices is one of the greatest and most pernicious For as one well said Whereas all other Vices proceed from some ill in us some sinful Imbecility of our Nature This alone ariseth out of our good Parts Now to let us know what these Sins are Calvin speaketh thus in his Institutes They are called Hereticks and Schismaticks who making a Division do break in sunder the Communion of the Church which is contained in two Bonds viz. The Agreement of true Doctrine and Brotherly Love whereupon St. Austin saith he putteth this difference between Schismaticks and Hereticks because the latter viz. Hereticks corrupt with false Opinions the sincerity of the Faith and the former viz. Schismaticks even where there is like Faith do break the the Bond of Fellowship But yet we are farther to consider to make an Heretick There must be not only frror in Intellectu but Pertinacia in Voluntate not only Error in the Understanding but Obstinacy in the Will for as St. Austin speaketh Qui sententiam suam quamvis falsam atque perversam nullae pertinaci animositate defendunt quaerunt autem cauta sollicitudine veritatem
SOBER and SERIOUS CONSIDERATIONS Occasioned by the Death of His Most Sacred MAJESTY King Charles II. Of ever Blessed Memory AND THE Serious Time of LENT following it TOGETHER With a Brief Historical Account of the First Rise Progress and Increase of Phanaticism in England and the Fatal Consequents thereof Now made Publick in tendency to the Peace of the Kingdom By a Gentleman in Communion with the Church of England as now by Law Establish'd Pudeat pudeat illos nomine tenus Christianos quibus quod ad hanc rem attinet Ethnici rectius sapuerunt Hiper LONDON Printed by John Leake for Luke Meredith at the King's Head at the West End of St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXV TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE Lord DARTMOVTH Master of the Horse to His Present Majesty c. My Lord YOur Lordship 's favourable Reception some Years since of my Character of an Honest Man whether call'd Whigg or Tory and Vindication of the Succession then presented by my particular order into Your Hands by the Bookseller hath now emboldned me to affix Your Lordship's Name to this Serious and I hope Seasonable Discourse The Design whereof being the promoting of the Honour of the Supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth of True Religion and Vertue of Loyalty and Love to our Gracious Sovereign of Truth and Justice Vnity and Peace among us at Home yea throughout Christendom Which therefore although but a small and mean Pamphlet may humbly crave Your Lordship's Patronage Be pleased however to vouchsafe Your Lordship's Pardon to him who cannot but still persist in the Detestation of all Knavery and Dishonesty whether Civil or Religious and endeavour to approve himself Faithful to GOD affectionately Loyal to his Prince a True Son of the Church of England in its present Establishment And therefore as such he takes the Boldness to subscribe himself My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble and Devoted Servant P. A. SOBER and SERIOUS CONSIDERATIONS Occasioned by the Death of His Most Sacred MAJESTY King Charles II. ALTHOUGH I may say in the words of a worthy Author That in our times there have been many good Books which may be said to echo one another this Age being as fruitful in Words as barren in Works enclining to speak much and do nothing Nevertheless in matters of Devotion or Honour of God as the said Author saith it is apparent that a Man can never say too much that which he can never do enough and that in so great scarcity of worthy Acts we should not be sparing of good Words To which I may further add That where a People have been much corrupted and poysoned with false wicked and seditious Principles there is great need of sober serious and sound Discourses to rectifie the said evil and to prevent and hinder the mischief thereby threatned to the Nation for else wicked and seditious Principles will produce whenever opportunity is offered wicked and rebellious Practices Now in the way to serious and sound Considerations which God by his Providences seems to call upon us for at this time it cannot be unfit although by way of digression to commend the usefulness of the time of Lent that time of seriousness and consideration The Antiquity whereof as a late Author observes is such It is like the River Nilus we can scarce find the Head it being mentioned by Ignatius and Irenaeus two of St. John's Scholars by Origen who lived not long after them by the Famous Council of Nice where they mention the forty days of Lent as a thing known and long observ'd before their time as also we have the Precedent of Fasting from our Blessed Saviour and he enjoyning the same as a Duty to his Apostles And certainly no Man who believes he hath a precious and immortal Soul to save can make any doubt or question Whether a Solemn time of Religious Fasting and Abstinence a time of calling our selves to an Account a time of Repentance and sober Consideration can be unsuitable but highly Advantageous as to our Eternal Welfare and therefore cannot look upon it otherwise than as an excellent and wholesome Constitution of the Christian Church in requiring a Religious Observation of Lent in Commemoration of our Blessed Saviour's Fasting and Temptation and accordingly our Mother the Church of England hath excellently expressed the use of it in the Collect for that Sunday in Lent O Lord who for our sakes didst Fast forty days and forty nights give us Grace to use such Abstinence that our Flesh being subdued to the Spirit we may ever obey thy godly Motions in Righteousness and true Holiness to thy Honor and Glory c. We also know well that the grand Reason and Ground of the prevalency of Vice and Wickedness in the World is chiefly and primarily from the want of sober and serious Consideration for this is an undoubted Maxim That inconsiderate Men are wicked Men for it must needs be so when Men are led by their sensual Appetites which stick close to them their Reason lies as it were asleep It had need be therefore awakened by serious Consideration for if Reason be out of Act and Exercise Sin will be committed Now how hardly are Men brought to this necessary duty of a serious view and reflection upon themselves their Lives and Conversations especially if they be evil and in order to their highest and greatest Concern the Salvation of their Souls is too evident to any considering Man as if they thought their Souls were the vilest and worst part of themselves least worth regard Let us further consider That it is found by Practice and Experience the best Instructer that the religious Observation of this time of Lent hath proved to be a mighty restraint to Prophaneness and Debauchery yea even where men are most exquisite in wickedness That it hath been a matter of wonder to Travellers to see what an Appearance at least there is of Demureness Sobriety and Seriousness generally all men take upon them at this time I shall give it you in the words of a worthy Gentleman of our own Church and Nation a great Traveller and Observer in foreign parts when speaking of Italy he saith That notwithstanding their Vice during the time of Lent the People of all sorts are much Reformed no such blaspheming nor dirty speaking as before their Vanity of all sorts laid reasonably aside their Pleasures abandoned their Apparel their Diet and all things else composed to Austerity and a State of Penitence They have daily then their Preaching with Collection of Alms whereto all men resort and to judge of them by their outward shew They seem generally to have very great Remorse of their Wickedness insomuch as I must confess I seemed unto my self in Italy to have best learned the right use of Lent there first to have discerned the great fruit of it and the Reason for which those Sages in the Church at first did institute it Neither can I easily accord as the said
beyond Example but Belief as a late worthy Author hath observed which Crimes it is much to be feared are not yet expiated although forgot but cry aloud to Heaven for Vengeance especially considering how many there have been among us in this Nation who were so far from Repenting of the said horrid Villainies that they owned and avowed those very Principles of Sedition and Disloyalty which promoted and were the cause of the same and with audacious Impudence proceeding many steps onwards in the same Path of Disloyalty and towards the perpetrating of the same Wickedness again Let us consider also of our Pride and Wantonness in Religion our running greedily into Errors Heresies and Schisms with the Consequences of them Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Sedition Envyings Murthers the loss of true Religion Peace and Unity and how we have by this means cloathed Religion and that which some would call the Protestant Religion in a deformed Dress in a Fools Coat made it Ridiculous yea Loathsom to all sober and considering Persons in the World And therefore now to make us sensible of the Wickedness of the late times and especially considering there is a generation risen up since who are many of them ignorant of the same I shall make a short Scheme Draught and Representation of the Rise Progress Fruit and Effect of Fanaticism and Schism We may understand That there was a happy Reformation of Religion perfected and compleated in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth of Blessed Memory by the Wisdom Moderation and Judgment of our Wise Reformers the Reverend Learned and Pious Divines the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England in Convocation Assembled who proposed to themselves the keeping of the Golden Mean Reforming no farther from Rome than was fit necessary and commendable and indeed no farther receding from Rome than she had receded from her self and from Antiquity and therein doing no more than what had been the desires of many others famous and worthy Men who nevertheless lived and died in Communion of that Church and what was thought upon good grounds That other Parts of Christendom would have attempted and effected if they could have had a lawful Oppertunity and Authority for the doing thereof as we had in England In short as the Worthy Dr. Fearn truly states the Case of our Reformation in England We said he had just Cause to Reform and so had our Adversaries the Romanists We in Reforming did what we ought if they had done what they ought and had cause to do no breach or division had followed And further We in doing what we ought preserved the Faith entire together with Charity they would neither cast off their Errors which clogged and corrupted the Faith nor retain Charity but cut us off as much as in them lay from the Catholick Church So that it is clear saith that Worthy Author to whom the Division must be imputed Now we must understand presently after the compleating of this happy Reformation of Religion in Queen Elizabeth's Reign there arose a discontented and dissatisfied Faction although curb'd and kept under by her called a while after Puritans which were like Mothes in a Cloth eating and fretting the same continually murmuring against the said excellent Reformation finding great fault with Government Liturgy and the Reverend Bishops and Governors of the Church instead of being thankful to God for the same and of their ready and chearful Subjection as good Christians ought to this Excellent Constitution Yea the said Faction did proceed to repine and complain against the same refusing to Conform to it and so continued to do all King Jame's Reign abusing the Favor and Indulgence of that good Prince granted to them in the Conference at Hampton-Court increasing and growing more numerous by their pretences to Piety and Purity of Religion with their frequent Sermons and Lectures then superstitiously accounted the Main if not the All of Religion and then also very much perverted and abused to promote Faction and Discontents against the Ecclesiastical Government until at last growing to a Head about the middle of the Reign of King Charles the First they then arrived to the height of Boldness and Insolence and by the means of that black Parliament 1640. in the Choice of whose Members of the House of Commons that Faction had a great hand together with the Rebellion of their Brethren the Scots they became like an impetuous and overflowing Flood and carried and bore down all before them in the Nation And as the only pious and godly People and true Protestants fit to Rule and Govern the Kingdom that Parliament having by importunity and specious Pretences obtained of their Sovereign a Confirmation for their sitting as long as they pleased boldly then managed a War and Rebellion against their Sovereign and when by this means this Nation not to mention Ireland had lain divers years weltering in Blood God in just Judgment upon the Nation suffering them to prosper in their Wickedness they then seized into their hands all the Royal Prerogatives the Revenues and Lands the Jewels and Goods of the Crown the Supports of the Royal Dignity deposing and most barbarously Imprisoning their Liege Lord and Sovereign Charles the First of ever Blessed Memory who then flying to his own Country-men the Scots for Protection was sold and Betrayed by them and retaining Him in Prison in Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight not suffering Him to enjoy so much as one of his Servants or Chaplains to Attend Him Then also forcing into Banishment the Royal Family to live upon the Charity of Roman Catholicks and what some Loyal Subjects in England secretly conveyed over to them with the peril of their Lives That Faction then further proceeded on to overthrow the Government of the Church to cast out Prelacy as a piece of Popery totally dissolved all Church-Government sacrilegiously sold all Church-Lands and Revenues also casting off as Popish and Antichristian the Holy Feasts and Fasts of the Church as Christmas Easter c. turned Churches into Stables also in the mean time all-a-long miserably debauching and corrupting the Christian Sound Doctrine as that wise Prelate Arch-Bishop Bancroft charged them with long before in his Survey of the Holy discipline His words are these That the Puritans did pervert the true meaning both of Scripture and Fathers to serve their own turn especially in these particulars following Not to mention that Opinion of God's designing from all Eternity the greatest part of Mankind to destruction merely from the good pleasure of his Will a Doctrine highly dishonourable to the Divine Majesty First That we are saved by Faith alone when yet they saw this was so interpreted as if they did define Righteousness by the sole Opinion or Perswasion of the Mind and did seclude good Works That we are justified by the imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us as if we had fulfilled the whole Law our selves and that we are cloathed with this Garment of our Elder
Brother and so accepted That the Apostle St. Paul in the 7th of the Romans 14 verse to the end of the Chapter speaks of himself in his Regenerate State and not as unregenerate the bravest Cordial for an Hypocrite that possibly could be That we are led by the publick Authority of the Spirit of God in his Word common to all Christians Hence saith every Sect is the Word of God Pure and Sincere according to the Sense of the Holy Spirit That nothing is to be admitted in or about the Worship of God but what there is a direct Rule and Direction for out of the Scriptures that all things must be according to the Pattern in the Mount That provided we give God the Worship of the Heart it matters not whether we give him bodily Worship And that bowing in the Church and Worshiping God and Christ is Idolatry or at least Superstition and Will-Worship That Forms of Prayer are unlawful or at best to be used as Crutches to such as are lame and cannot pray without them That Schism and Sedition are very venial Sins if Sins at all laying such a stress upon Preaching as to use the word of a Foreigner upon his coming into England That our Religion was turned into All Preach Nothing but Preach as if reading of the Scriptures Prayers Thanksgiving and Praising of God could not be the main of the Worship of God except it were accompanied with a Sermon Most abominably neglecting to Celebrate the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper for several years together in many places discouraging and scaring Men from their Duties therein by Preaching That Kings and Princes are intrusted by the People and when they failed in their Trust the People might fail in their Duties to them and resist and oppose them and call them to an Account for their breach of Trust and at last lawfully depose them These with many others abounded among them thus they prophaned all that was Sacred And further proceeding and prospering in their Wickedness they fell soon after at variance among themselves many other Factions arising out of the former especially one great Faction called Independents who then scuffled with their Elder Brethren the Presbyterians for the Government abominating Presbytery as much or more than Episcopacy got into their Hands by the Assistance of the then Army who by Force kicked their Masters the Parliament out of Doors That Assembly being then justly punished by God Almighty in the same kind that they had sinn'd themselves by the Insolence and Rebellion of their own Servants and Souldiers and only about Forty or Fifty profligated Villains of the then House of Commons the said Army's Creatures suffered to Sit and Vote in the House of Commons were declared by the Power of the Sword to be the Parliament of England the Representatives of all the People of England By which pretended Authority but contrary to all Law Justice and Reason yea Common Sense they proceeded to the full height of their Villainy most impudently under pretence of Law and for the Security of the Protestant Religion and of the Godly Party and the Liberty of the Subject disannulled Kingship arraigned their Soveraign Prince before their pretended High Court of Justice condemned and executed him most barbarously before the Gate of his Royal Palace of White-Hall sold all the Jewels of the Crown all the Crown-Lands and Revenues and having made his Loyal Subjects Delinquents forced them to compound for their Estates and sold the Estates of many of them In short thus kill'd and took Possession and all this abominable Wickedness was committed under the Shew and Face of Religion Godliness Justice and Right But as One well observes One of the greatest Tragedies acted in the Life of Man which makes Curious Persons to question Wise Men to wonder Good Men to groan and the Wicked to Rejoyce is To see an Innocent Man oppressed by Colour of Justice But a while after the said two Grand Factions the Presbyterians and Independents those Brethren in Iniquity falling again together by the Ears they very soberly and seriously killed one another especially at Dunbar in Scotland where Thousands of the Presbyterians were slain by Cromwell and his Army some of whom as I was at that Time credibly informed in cold Blood and after Quarter given and the Fight over And afterward innumerable Factions more arising out of the former every Day having run down all Church-Government whatsoever and every Body being left to the Liberty of his own ignorant wanton Mind and Conscience as they call'd it every Man was left to do what was Right in his own Eyes there being no King in Israel there was nothing but Confusion among them saving that by a long Sword held over them they were restrain'd from killing one another All the Reverend Prelates of the Church of England and most of the Orthodox Clergy then reputed and accounted either Papists or Popishly affected Particularly that worthy Man Dr. Cousins Dean of Durham who was forced to fly into France who being so accused was therein resolutely defended by Monsieur Dailee the Protestant-Minister at Charenton by Paris who writes thus over into England Tuus Cosins imo noster admodum probatur Bestiae sunt quidem Fanatici qui eum de Papismo suspectum habent They are Beasts or Fanaticks who count Dr. Cousins a Papist Thus they were good Men grievously persecuted and driven into Prisons Dens and Holes or forced into Banishment Yet of all our worthy Prelates in midst of their great Sufferings and Banishment among Papists I have heard of none of them who ever deserted the Church of England in her forlorn Condition but only Dr. Goodman Bishop of Glocester Who as Bishop Gauden relates it was it seems by extremity of ill Usage driven beyond his Pace and something beyond his Patience For thus provoked beyond all Measure and Merit as he thought by those who much professed Reformation and yet much in his Sense and Experience did deform and destroy the Church of England it is no wonder if dying and dejected he chose rather to depart in Communion with the Church of Rome than to adhere to the Church of England which as Isaiah he thought now decayed and dissolved at least In this desperate State of the Church and Kingdom at last to compleat this lamentable Tragedy that Monster Cromwell did ascend the Throne and took upon him to be Lord Protector Thus in short as a worthy Author expresseth it When a Flourishing Nation had been embroyled in a bloody War and as vertuous a Prince as ever sate upon Throne had been Murther'd and Martyr'd an Establish'd Church had been Plunder'd and Dissolv'd and Fellow-Subjects had been enraged against each other with implacable Zeal and Cruelty and shatter'd into numberless Schisms and Factions And as the Pious and Learned Doctor Hammond hath observed When the Declination of Christian Practice was at last so great among us as to tear up the very Root and
Doctrine Worship and Government and so to degenerate from its primitive Purity and Integrity and was made use of as a Means and Instrument of acquiring Honor Splendor and Riches and of promoting those great Vices of Pride Covetousness Idleness and Luxury and this instead of making Men Virtuous and Good and rectifying their Lives and Directing them in the Ways of Holiness and Peace conducting them to Heaven Thus I humbly conceive from the Pope's Primacy of Order arose the Supremacy of Jurisdiction and from thence Papal Tyranny packing of General Councils corruption in Doctrine and Practice with innumerable other Mischiefs to the Church the great dividing and endangering Christendom and laying it many times in War and Blood And on the other hand how this Holy Religion of JESVS Christ hath been miserably corrupted and abased by Sectaries and Fanaticks how hath it been made absurd and ridiculous to all the World by their Pride and Folly their ignorant Confidences Peevishness and Animosities Who out of a mad blind Zeal against Popery never could think themselves safe and far enough separated from Rome until they fell into Religious Frensy yet would then notwithstanding account themselves Protestants yea the best of Protestants and what a long train of dismal Consequences there followed the same the World can witness and more especially of late Years we in England as you have heard before Oh! may I therefore exhort us again to bewail our Follies and abandon them to Renounce all Schism Contention Fanaticism that Plague of the Reformation and living vertuous and good Lives and in Conformity and Subjection to our Mother the Church of England her wholesom and Excellent Constitutions Oh! Let us learn this most commendable Duty from our Adversaries the Romanists who are very Respectful towards their Ecclesiastical Governors and very Conformable to the Constitutions of their Church and abhor to do any thing that may prejudice the Order Peace and Welfare of the same in any kind for which I cannot but have a great respect for them and in which I shall endeavour to follow their Example in the Church of England wherein I was born and for so doing they cannot I hope justly blame me And although they are possibly led by a blind Obedience or Impicit Faith as we call it and are thereby many times misled yet their fault arising from a diffidence of themselves and obedience to their Superiors will be very pardonable especially of such as are born and bred in that Communion it being a fault on the Right-hand and far less than what our Fanaticks and Sectaries are guilty of who out of Pride Ignorance and Presumption refuse Subjection to the Spiritual Governors which God hath set over them and thereby break the Unity and Peace of the Church Let us therefore heartily pray as our Mother the Church teaches us Almighty God who shewest to them that be in Error the Light of thy Truth to the intent that they must return into the Way of Righteousness Grant unto all them that are admitted into the Fellowship of Christs Religion that they may eschew those things that are contrary to their profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen I shall conclude and say sufficit tentasse Let it suffice I have done my Endeavour in a good Cause For certainly if the Promotion of the Honour of God the Advancement of True Religion and Vertue if the Promoting of Loyalty and Fidelity the Honour and Happiness of my Gracious Sovereign if the Detestation of Errours of Atheism and Prophaneness Vice and Wickedness of Fanaticism Hypocrisie Schism and Rebellion and representing them in their proper colours if promoting the Peace and Happiness of the Church of England as now by Law Establish'd the best Christian Church in the World of Piety and Unity amongst all her Members if promoting the Peace of Christendom and more especially the Honour Happiness and Prosperity of this Nation yea of all his Majesties Dominions I say if the honest endeavours of the same be a commendable and worthy Design it is all I intend in the Writing and now making Publick these although sudden yet serious Thoughts Therefore I hope I may meet with a pardon for the meanness and unworthiness of the performance to so good an end And as for any one that shall find fault with my weak and unworthy management of so worthy so good a Cause it is no more than what I do my self Let him but be pleased to undertake the Cause and manage it better and I assure him I shall be so far from being offended with him That I shall be infinitely well pleased and rejoyce therein and return him my thanks And it is yet my Hopes this Essay may animate and encourage eminent and able Champions in so worthy a Cause which without doubt is the most excellent most honourable most worthy the best in the World and merits the assistance of the ablest Heads Pens and Tongues that are extant among us FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by Luke Meredith at the King's Head at the West End of St. Paul's Church-Yard AN Introduction to the Old English History comprehended in Three several Tracts The First An Answer to Mr. Petyt's Rights of the Commons Asserted and to a Book Entituled Jani Anglorum Facies Nova The Second Edition very much enlarged The Second An Answer to a Book Entituled Argumentum Antinormanicum much upon the same Subject Never before Published The Third The Exact History of the Succession of the Crown of England The Second Edition also very much enlarged Together with an Appendix containing several Records and a Series of Great Councils and Parliaments Before and After the Conquest unto the End of the Reign of Henry the Third And a Glossary expounding many Words used frequently in our Antient Records Laws and Historians Published for the Vindication of Truth and the Assistance of such as desire with Satisfaction to read and truly understand the Antient English Historians and other Pieces of Antiquity By Robert Brady Doctor in Physick A Loyal Tear dropt on the Vault of the High and Mighty Prince Charles the Second of Gorious and Happy Memory By Henry Anderson M. A. Vicar of Kingsumborne in Hampshire The Songs of Moses and Deborah Paraphras'd with Poems on several Occasions Never before Published To which is added A Pindarick on Mr. L'Estrange A Dialogue between a Pastor and his Parishioner touching the Lord's Supper Wherein the most material Doubts and Scruples about Receiving that Holy Sacrament are removed and the Way thereto discovered to be both plain and pleasant Very useful for Private Christians in these scrupulous Times By Michael Altham The Second Edition To which is added Some short Prayers fitted for that Occasion and a Morning and Evening Prayer for the Use of Private Families Two Treatises The First Concerning Reproaching and Censure The Second An Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure-Footing To which are annexed Three Sermons Preached upon several Occasions and very useful for these Times By the late Learned and Reverend William Faulkner D. D. Rhetoricae Libri Duo Quorum Prior de Tropis Figuris Posterior de Voce Gestu praecipit In usum Scholarum postremo recogniti infinitisque poene mendis expurgati Autore Carolo Butlero Magd. Artium Magistro Sir Edwin Sands in his Europae Speculum
wickedness of the Nation they live in and supplicating God for pardon and more especially pouring forth their Souls in fervent and frequent Devotions both publick and private in Reading Meditation and good Conference in renewing of their Vows and Covenants with God resigning themselves up to their Lord and Master the ever Blessed Jesus and participating of that Blessed Feast the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of their Crucified Saviour there receiving the Pledge Seal and Assurance of the pardon of their Sins the Favor and Love of God and from that Blessed Feast of Easter that time of Jubile run with Alacrity and Chearfulness of Heart like the Sun in his Course that Blessed Christian Race the end whereof will be an eternal weight of Glory which will as far exceed all our Thoughts and Hearts as it now exceeds our Deserts Now when these things are duly considered none I hope will cry out with Judas What means this Wast for can we take too much of wise sober serious Consideration about our eternal Concernments the principal Business of our Lives And although good Christians do this at other times also especially before they approach the Holy Sacrament yet why not now also more solemnly and seriously together with holy Abstinence and Fasting joyned to it which adds advantage to our Prayers as it did to the Prayers of Cornelius And some Men may possibly be possest by long custom in Sin such a stubborn Devil who will not out without Prayer and Fasting as our Saviour speaks Mark 9. 29. And by this means make this time highly Advantageous to us for the promoting of Piety in our Souls and making Religion not only our Profession but especially at this time our Trade which indeed ought to be the great Business of our Lives our greatest end and design we drive in the World Let us all now consider That God Almighty by his extraordinary Providences calls upon us to be serious when the Cedars fall and those who are his Vicegerents and are Stiled by him Gods on Earth do dye like Men when he hath signified his Displeasure against us for our great Sins and Provocations and hath bereft us as it were of the Light of our Eyes and the Breath of our Nostrils deprived us of our late Gracious Sovereign the best of Princes But yet nevertheless in midst of Judgment remembring Mercy hath richly again supplyed that great Loss unto us which nothing but the furnishing us with such a Just and Gracious Prince we now have upon the Throne could have made up to us a Prince who hath often when a Subject hazarded his Life for our Honor and Defence and hath freely of his own good Will and Pleasure given us such great Assurance of Confirming to us the present Establishments both in Church and State such a Prince as I have read Plato discribes Under whom we may expect true Quietness and Remedy from all Evil in whom by Divine Ordinance from above there meeteth in one Person the Right Majesty of a King and the Mind of a Wise Philosopher to make Vertue Governess and Ruler over Vice for Men as he speaks seeing the true Image of Vertue in their Prince and in the Example of his Life do willingly grow to be wise of themselves and do fall in love liking and friendship unto it and do use all temperance and just dealing And thus the Divine Goodness by the intermixing of Judgment and Mercy designs to break our stony Hearts and seems to speak to us as he did once to the People of Israel Oh! that there were such a Heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my Comandments always that it might be well with them and with their Children for ever Deut. 5. 29. And therefore have we not great Reason now to be serious and to consider our Ways and Doings all our great Sins and Provocations and to abhor our selves in Dust and Ashes for the same especially in consideration of that national Guilt that we lie under which cries aloud against us to Heaven Let us seriously consider that general great Contempt of God and Religion which so much abounds in the Nation as if we had lost that natural instinct of a Deity if I may so call it that Sense of God which the Law of Nature hath imprest upon the Minds of all Men. Oh! the Atheistical Discourse of wicked Men which we meet with in every place their prophane Merriment drolling upon God and Religion the Sacred Scriptures as if Men were resolved to defie their Creator and to hunt and chase God and all Religion out of the World What a general most audacious Contempt of the Divine Laws with a high hand as if we had no dependance on him and were not his Creatures and our breath in our Nostrils the great Contempt of his Ministers and Messengers the Reverend and Worthy Clergy of the Church of England although our Saviour saith He that despiseth you despiseth me The great Contempt of his publick Worship and Service among us as if he were an Idol and not the Living God Alas if we look into our Churches may we not see nay how can we but see in most of them the Abomination of Desolation as I may call it either horrid irreverence in our Gestures and Behaviour there in those Sacred places rather many times like people at a play than at their Devotions trifling with the things of God and Religion or may we not see many times the publick Worship and Service of God in the Churches Celebrated and Performed almost to the very bare walls of the Church attended by the Poor the Halt the Blind and the Lame a few of the meanest of the People especially if there be no Sermon to Attend and Sanctifie the Solemnity and yet there being so many people among us who have their time lying so upon their hands that they know not well how to dispose of it But this mischief was I conceive much occasioned from erroneous and wicked Principles and Opinions of our late times of Usurpation as that we were not obliged to give God the worship of the Body as well as of the Heart and that it was very scarce if at all the Worship of God without a Sermon to attend it Let us consider seriously those horrid Sins of Murmuring against our Governors speaking evil of Dignities our Seditions and Rebellions against our Sovereign Prince and the sad and dismal Consequences of the same in the late times of Usurpation the Deposing Dethroning and Murdering of the Lord 's Anointed and exposing the Royal Family to infinite Dangers and Hazards the Destruction of thousands the Devastations Misery and Ruine of the whole Kingdom Let us consider with Horror and Amazement the Insolence and Wickedness of those Rebel Saints whose very best pretences were a more desperate Affront both to Government and Religion than perhaps any Age or Historian can parallel but whose worst Practices were villainous not only
Foundation all Natural Moral Justice and Honesty and in place thereof to set up a New Body of Carneades his Philosophy instead of the old Heathen dry Principles of Integrity and Uprightness that one Law of Interest and Passion and Self-Preservation So that as Machiavel thought Religion would emasculate and enfeeble Common-wealths We have more reason to complain saith he That it hath debauched and corrupted Lives That Christian Men are the impurest Part of the World That Sathan's after-game hath proved more lucky and prosperous to him than his first Designment did That his Night-walks hath brought him more Proselytes than his unlimited Range of going up and down to and fro over the Face of the Earth That as Sin by the Law so Sathan by the Faith of Christ hath taken occasion and so deceived and ruined us more desperately more universally than by all the National Idolatrous Customs of Heathenism he hath been able to do And let us seriously consider That all this complicated Mass of Wickedness not to be parallel'd under the Sun was committed and done in the Face of the World by those who stiled themselves and would needs be accounted the only Protestants of the Kingdom Things being brought to this Conclusion and upshot What an easie Perswasion might prevail with sober and considering Honest-hearted Men in Exile forthwith to abandon and renounce this Protestant Religion as a Religion to be abhorred by all Men as being as opposite to the true Christian Religion and what likewise in truth was professed by the Church of England as Darkness was to Light And a great part if not all this Mischief arose and was carried on as I humbly conceive with submission to better Judgments from a furious and mad Antipathy and Averseness against Popery and Papists which made them to imagine they never could run far enough from Rome until they came to Munster Where I will leave them with their Fellow Protestants if all such who are opposite to Rome must be Protestants as of late many in England would have made them and that by a Law also But Alas these abominable and horrid Impieties what honest and pious Heart can seriously consider of and not dissolve into Tears and humbly and affectionately beg of God not to lay these Sins to England's Charge but to wipe out the Guilt thereof from the Nation More especially considering what a loud Cry innocent Blood yea the Blood of The Lord 's Anointed hath to Heaven for Vengeance especially upon Fanaticks and such as retain the fore-said wicked Tenents and Principles which were productive of all the said Villainies Let them further seriously consider Mr. Baxter's own Words in his last Answer to Bagshaw pag. 30. cited by a Worthy Author Nothing saith Mr. Baxter that I know of in the World doth so strongly tempt some sober Consciencious Men to think Popery necessary for the Concord of Churches and a violent Church-Government necessary to our Peace as the woful Experience of the Errors and Schism the mad and manifold Sects that arise among those that are most against them To which purpose the Worthy Dr. Parker speaking of the Phanaticks endangering Religion several ways saith thus I know no other grounds of Fear or Danger from them unless this may prove one at last That by their wanton and unreasonable Peevishness to the Ingenious and Moderate Discipline of the Church of England they give their Governours too much Reason to suspect That they are never to be kept in order by a milder and more gentle Government than that of the Church of Rome and force them at last to scourge them into better manners with the Bryars and Thorns of their Discipline Let us further consider seriously the abounding of Debauchery and Wickedness among us at this Day which can portend nothing but Mischief to us the horrid Oaths Blasphemies and Curses that continually fly about our Ears almost in all Companies and in every Place more or less yea as we pass along the Streets enough to amaze us What abounding in Swinish Drunkenness and Excess How have our Times curiously studied to find out variety of Liquors to make an Acceptable Sacrifice thereof to Bacchus What Fulness of Bread and Idleness what Intemperance Gaming Uncleanness and Lasciviousness and the Consequents of these Quarrelling and Duelling having as it were lost the Sense of Good and Evil our very Natural Modesty and Shame we are become impudent and exquisite in Sin And which is most sad to consider these are those Rotten Bones as one hath well observed which would lie hid under the Painted Sepulchre of Honor These some would make the Accomplishments of a Gentleman The Learned Doctor Hammond observes That many irrational Sins through some Local custom have gotten the Reputation not only of sinless and lawful but of laudable also as Duelling and in favour of Sins of Uncleanness whereby it is become a more creditable thing among us To have been guilty of defiling and invading another Man's Bed than to be the Innocent Person which hath been thus robb'd by the Adulterer Now Let us consider seriously of these things as a Divine of our own hath well observed How that Atheism and Enthusiasm are apart and by themselves the most desperate and dangerous Causes of Misery and Calamity and Ruin to Mankind And that when ever they should combine Interests and joyn Forces what Government can withstand their Fury in that there is no Wickedness that is necessary to the carrying on the Cause that they will not undertake Do we not therefore stand in great need of Sober and Serious Consideration and of humbling our Souls before God in Dust and Ashes for all these before-mentioned Abominations and making our Peace with an offended Majesty and by frequent and fervent Devotions imploring his Mercies and in the Language of our Church upon Ash-Wednesday say Almighty and EverlastingGod who hatest nothing that Thou hast made and dost forgive the Sins of all them that are Penitent Create and make in us new and contrite Hearts that we worthily lamenting our Sins and acknowledging our Wretchedness may obtain of Thee the God of all Mercy perfect Remission and Forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord And further to enlarge our Devotions to God That He would please to bless and prosper our Gracious Sovereign Lord the King's Majesty and his Gracious Consort and all the Royal Family That He would furnish his Majesty's Royal Heart with Wisdom to go in and out before this great People committed to his Charge by the Supreme Lord of all the Kings of the Earth That God would support and strengthen him under that great Weight of Government that now lies upon his Shoulders in the Governing of a Licencious People very much tainted with with Schismatical Seditious and Wicked Principles which can be no pleasing Task for any Prince to undergo ThatGod would be pleased to direct and guide his Counsels and cloath his Enemies with Shame and Confusion and That upon his Head
his Crown may flourish And in the next place abhorring that which is evil let us cleave to that which is Good for I hope we need not be exhorted not to be again Authors of our own Ruin And that as we cannot be so senseless but abominate the horrid Crimes afore-mentioned and earnestly desire our own Welfare and Happiness so to lay aside all Murmuring and Discontent all Schism and Faction all Sedition and Rebellion to yield all Loyal and Faithful Subjection to Our Gracious Sovereign the Lord 's Annoynted according to the Pure and Sound Doctrine and Principles of Christianity of our Mother the Church of England whose true Sons have as one speaks been ever found by Experience to be Cordial Friends to the Crown of England and which Church is the greatest Example of Loyalty that perhaps ever appeared in the Christian World unto whom let us submit our selves as the worthy Dr. Hammond admonishes us His words are these Uniform Obedience is due from us to the Commands of that Church wherein we were born the Church of England which of all others in the Christian world hath most adhered to the universal Church of the first and purest Ages Let us Conform our selves therefore to this best Constituted Church in the World who hath kept to that Excellent Rule Quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus receptum fuit and adhered to the Scriptures and true Antiquity Let us live peaceable and quiet Lives in all Godliness and Honesty and adhere to our Holy Christian Religion in all things and make our Religion the great Business of our Lives For Inter Christianos Gentiles non tantum fides debet sed etiam vita distinguere we ought to be distinguisht by our Lives and Conversations as well as by our Faith and Profession For this is most certain That true Piety Vertue and Goodness Integrity Humility Loyalty and Peaceableness are the most proper Fruits and Effects of a well-instructed pure Religion of a sound Faith and Perswasion As it is therefore doubtless the Great Interest of Princes to Protect Countenance and Support the true Religion of Jesus Christ which is repleat with nothing but Humility Fidelity Justice Wisdom Moderation Temperance Sobriety Subjection Loyalty Peaceableness Unity Love and Charity So also it is their great Interest to take care to propagate among their Subjects good and sound Principles of Religion Subjection and Loyalty and to that end That there be a total Suppression of all erroneous and seditious Books and Discourses and that together with the Sacred Scriptures and good Catechisms there might be permitted none but sound Tracts of Practical Divinity well and wisely composed to come into the Hands of their Subjects according to which there should also be constant Means of instructing all Men by Preaching but more especially the Youth and younger sort by frequently Catechising them This being well secured it were no matter what became of a many Tracts of Religion currant amongst us if they were committed to the Flames which do but distract and disturb many of them mislead if not poyson Peoples Minds with bad Principles and by those means in time there might be made a happy Reformation of Men's Minds and Manners Let us in the next place consider That it is the great Interest of Subjects to Copy out the Holy Christian Religion in their Lives and Conversations and then most of our great Complaints would without question cease all Disorder and Confusions be no more heard of in the World If Men whom the Most High hath differenced from Beasts by Rational and Immortal Souls would not lay aside their Manhood their Reason and degenerate into Beasts and be led and hurried by their Senses Appetites and Passions They might therefore easily be perswaded to entertain what would certainy promote their True Happiness and Interest the Excellent Religion of the Holy JESVS it being the great Design of God in sending his Son into the World to promote the Welfare and Happiness of Mankind throughout the whole World And can any one not void of all common Reason or Sense think that ever God gave us Wise and Understanding Vigorous and Active Souls merely to animate Human Bodies to Eat and Drink and Sleep to gratifie our Senses our brutal Parts to provide only for our Bodies to be mere Sensualists and Epicures and to acquire and heap up Riches Doubtless our Noble Excellent and Immortal Souls were given us for more noble and excellent Employment and End to be raised up above these things to be busied and taken up with the Contemplation of God of our Glorious Creator his Excellencies and Perfections and all his wonderful Works to Adore Love and Honor Him in all that we are or have That whether we Eat or Drink or whatsoever we do in Word or Deed we should do all the Praise and Glory of God and in all things to be regulated by his Laws Now shall we forget God and be more degenerate than the Beasts which Perish For the Ox knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib To come more close to us We that own our selves Christians do we believe the Religion we Profess If we do why doth it signifie so little to us as it doth Why do we not live somewhat answerable to it Or if we do not believe it Why do we own the Profession Either we must be guilty of abominable Hypocrisy or of Atheism and Irreligion And once take away Religion and the Sense of God out of the World you do as it were take the Sun out of the Firmament you take away the Distinctions of Good and Evil bring your selves to be Beasts wallowing in all manner of Filthiness and Sensuality You reduce the World into its first Chaos of Confusion destroy the Happiness of Man overthrow all Rule Order Government and Peace in the World It hath been found by universal Experience in all Ages of the World the great Peace Happiness and Prosperity which hath always risen to the World from Religion and the true lively affecting Sense of God and Obedience to his Laws from the Exercise of Vertue and true Goodness And that on the contrary when Atheism and Prophaneness prevailed that Mens Lusts and Passions quickly disturbed the World and overthrew the publick Peace of States and Kingdoms brought in War Mischief Blood and Ruine turning a Fruitful Land into a Barren Wilderness For how is it possible that such men as are unfaithful to God should be True and Loyal to their Sovereign his Vicegerent upon Earth That such as are men of no Religion men of no Principles and walk by no Rule but are Slaves and Drudges to their Appetites and Lusts should ever in time of Danger and Tryal stick fast to the Crown and Government and perform the Duties of Loyal and Obedient Subjects and dye for their Prince And as for such among us as have been led away by the specious Pretences of Fanaticks in the simplicity and honesty
be doubted they will not especially when the Sin hath become in great part General and National For particular Persons are to expect their Judgment and Punishment in the other Life but Nations Kingdoms and Societies of Men cannot then be punished as such as our Divines hold And in consideration of the great mischief and danger in Schisms and Rents among Christians I mean such as profess to own that Name in the Christian World May we not therefore well Pray earnestly to Almighty God as our Mother the Church of England directs us for the Good Estate of the Catholick Church That it may be so guided and governed by God's Good Spirit that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of Truth and hold the Faith in Vnity of Spirit in the Bond of Peace and Righteousness of Life It cannot possible therefore favour of a Christian Spirit or Temper to be of peevish froward contentious Spirits but to study Peace at Home in the Church we live in And in the next place it is doubtless our great Duty as Christians not to be wid'ning the Christian Church's Wounds abroad but rather earnestly to endeavour if possible to heal them to promote the Peace and Unity of Christendom That all sober Christians throughout the World might be united together Although in regard of the Lusts and Passions of Men and that there are so few sincere and true Christians in Christendom it seems to be a Work next to impossible to be effected although indeed all good Christians could willingly joyn with that Worthy Man who said Who would not be ready with the loss of his Life to Redeem and free Christianity from that horrid Scandal of Discord and Dissention Mar. Bucer As for the Differences among Christians in the Christian World I heartily wish they were less than they truly are at this Day But this is most certain That by their Passions and Animosities on all Hands they are made greater than they truly are when we all agree in the main and principal Foundation of our Faith contained in the Three Creeds that of the Apostles the Athanasian and the Nicene Creed This one would think should make us more kind and treatable one to another especially not to damn one another to the Pit of Hell and Destruction as too many do But in this respect the Church of England by their Moderation shew themselves to be the better Christians who to their Honor abound in Charity to their bitter Enemies the Romanists and allow unto them a possibility though not without Difficulty of Salvation in their Communion who yet have nothing in return for their Charity but Hereticks and Damnation But certainly they very weakly and absurdly argue from it That therefore it is safest for us to go over to them Just as if I being in a tyte well-built and sound Ship should leave it and go over into an unsound and leaky Vessel upon this presumption That possibly I may with hazard and danger come safe to Land in the same But certainly we may better argue with them and say Amend the apparent Leaks and Faults in your Vessel and if there be any Faults in ours we are willing to amend them also that we may both with safety and in Christian Love and Unity accompany one another in our Course for the Celestial Port which we both porfess to intend and aim at And to this purpose let me present you with what the Worthy Dr. Brown in his Religio Medici speaks to this purpose I have not saith he so shaken hands with those desperate Resolutions meaning the Romanists who had rather venture at large their decayed bottom than bring her in to be new Trim'd in the Dock who had rather promiscuously retain all than abridge any and obstinately be what they are than what they have been as to stand in Diameter and Swords point with them And then speaking of the Reformation he saith As there were many Reformers so likewise many Reformations some angrily and with Extremity others calmly and with Mediocrity not rending but easily dividing the Community and leaving an honest possibility of a Reconciliation which though peaceable Spirits do desire and may conceive that Revolution of Time and the Mercies of God may effect yet that Judgment that shall consider the present Antipathies between the two Extreams their Contrarieties in Condition Affection and Opinion may with the same hopes expect an Union in the Poles of Heaven It is saith he as uncharitable a point in us to fall upon those popular Scurrilities and Opprobrious Scoffs of the Bishop of Rome whom as to a Temporal Prince we owe the duty of good Language I confess there is cause of Passion between us by his Sentence I stand Excommunicated Heretick is the best Language he affords me yet can no Ear witness I ever returned to him the name of Antichrist Man of Sin or Whore of Babylon It is the Method of Charity to suffer without Re-action Those usual Satyrs and Invectives of the Pulpit may perchance produce a good Effect on the Vulgar whose Ears are opener to Rhetorick than Logick yet do they in no wise confirm the Faith of wiser Believers who know that a good Cause needs not be patron'd by Passion but can sustain it self upon a temperate Dispute The true Sons of the Church of England consider this and that Passion and unnatual Heats and Transports never do advantage a Good Cause and that Uncharitableness and much more Cruelty is unworthy and unbecoming Christians and therefore avoid them But Alas their Adversaries the Romanists as if they were faultless and had not given just Occasion of Offence Retort in requital nothing but Damnation and most bitter Reproaches yea brutish Revenge and Cruelty which disingenious Dealing how much it hath been to their Reproach and Dishonor to the disadvantage of their Cause in the Christian World I shall leave them seriously to consider For honest and ingenious Souls are not to be imposed upon by Club-Law to receive for Articles of Faith such Doctrines and Opinions which have no Foundation from the Scriptures and the Antient and Primitive Church Alas The great Disorder and Confusion that is upon the face of the Christian World at this day is not to be so much wondered at if we consider the Corruption the Wickedness which abounds in the Hearts of most Men in the World which corrupts all things Why therefore should it not in process of time as it did among the very Jews themselves corrupt and deprave the Holy and Pure Religion of Jesus Christ especially in time of Prosperity that like Sun-shine Weather corrupts most things subject to Corruption even the very Humors of our Bodies and breed Abuses in the Christian Church Plenty and Prosperity strangely prevailing upon Men's Minds yea sometimes the best of Men to corrupt them with Pride Idleness Covetousness And by this means the Holy Christian Religion came to be debased to be corrupted both in