memory and heart the great mercy of God in restoring to us our King and our ancient Government in Civils 2 To awaken both King and People unto serious reflection how since to this day it hath stood betwixt God and us with respect to his Commandments and our joyning affinity with People of those abominations The former every one may know for the word is very nigh them Deut. 30.14 Acts 17.24 by which they may discern how they have either broken or obeyed the Laws of God In the latter by Abominations I mean the evil Principles and Practices with which our State was so sorely afflicted and corrupted as you have heard By People of those Abominations I mean those now with us who are in temper principle or practice like to them heretofore by whom we suffered By joyning Affinity with them I intend accepting their Counsel and consenting to Attempts and Plots for execution thereof And if such be in Neighbour Nations by joyning Affinity with them I intend Correspondencies Leagues and all Assistances whatsoever whereby they are enabled to make havock or destruction on God's Creation to overthrow or change Constitutions and to invade or ravish the Rights and Properties of their Neighbours Let us then by the Occurrences since 60 to this day try how near we have been allied to People of these Abominations Vpon an impartial and serious search I doubt it will appear that upon some great Sins of ours that for one it may be of not improving unto mutual Love and Charity the Opportunity given us at his Majesties first Return to us whereby we might have been fitted joyned together compacted and in growing towards perfection as you have heard I say for this and other sins committed by us the Devil having gained leave to sift us hath shaken again our late restored Constitution that I fear it will fall into perdition so that there will be no remnant nor escaping Sect. VII 3 The Attempts made the 20 years last past to heal us wherein I find 1 Some of excellent tendancy thereunto Of these most especially were His Majesties gracious Letters and Delarations from Breda his Commission for a Treaty at the Savoy and his Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs I wish them wrote in letters of Gold for future Ages and that the present Neglecters who therein are despisers of them may see repent and amend thereby For so it is nothing yet done proves effectual to our Cure 2 Others in their attempts to heal as I would hope have hurt afresh or opened but have no way tended to close our wounds Whether any late made Laws in England or Scotland do so is no Inquiry for me His Majesty single or where he is greatest in Parliament may inspect and remove when and as he pleaseth What Subjects therein have done may as I think be considered by me In them I find Partiality in some Hypocrisie in others and Defect of Charity in most I will instance a few in Church and State 1 In the Church One attempts the mischief of Separation and omits that of Imposition Another strikes at the mischief of Imposition and strokes that of Separation One appears as he saith for Union with mouth opening Curse â—e Meroz as if he would kill and slay all flesh but his own for Unity sake Another sets forth the Plotters Doom as a Son of the Church the more effectually to wound his Mother In this last I intend only a part of his Sermon the other being very useful All of them I find defective in Charity writing as one would think to scourge or vex rather than to amend their Brethren rather to enlarge than lessen our distances They are Schismatically and factiously for the Church forgetting as I said that truth must be spoken in Love 2 In the State It may not be convenient for me to represent the blame-worthy or defective attempts herein The best of the Attempts are those which comport with and strengthen His Majesties frequent and gracious Assurances of Ruling according to our Constitution Whether within 20 years past any alteration hath been made therein I do not enquire True Old English looks so lovely that I turn me from New things as most deforming and as a return thereunto so the corroborating of it is most sanative to King and People Remove not the Ancient bound is the advice of the King of Kings by Solomon Prov. 22.28 Any change herein will not only deface but well nigh kill us for to propose exalting a Political Head so as not to be a Member of the Body Politick is as it would be in the Natural to set a man's Head that Collar may not touch Chin some inches from his Neck And to propose the other way would be as edifying and comly as to pull the Neck awry and to crook the Body so that some parts of the Hunch'd-back may level with the Head We all know who look one way whilst they row the other I wish they were as much exposed who among us put a Crowned-Head too high for his Body on design to out him quite or to bring us again to Hunch'd-back level These or any other departure from Old English be it excess or defection are against the interest and grain as of an ingenuous and generous People so of the most noble and true Prince Therefore Counsellors thereunto ought to be treated as Murtherers of Princes and Traytors to Kingdoms They who wish a King hated or deposed are prone to give him such Advice For not daring to Poyson or Stab they contrive this way to bring him to Self-murther and let their station in his Kingdom their relation to him or their pretences point never so fair to the contrary yet do they at heart wish themselves and his Kingdoms rid of him Never any Kings in England perished by fury of the People but by the Treason or Flattery of such as did either in desire or fact succeed them Neither was there any Motive urging so forcibly the Death of our late King as Fear lest the People should stir in his quarrel Monarchies saith the incomparable Lord Bacon need not to fear any curbing of their Absoluteness by mighty Subjects so long as by wisdom they keep the hearts of the People who will be sure to come in on their side For A good form of Government as the Great Sir Walter Rawleigh saith sufficeth by it self to retain the People not only without assistance of a laborious Wit but even against all devices of the greatest and shrewdest Politicians every Sheriff and Constable being sooner able to arm the Multitude in the Kings behalf than any over-weening Rebel how Mighty soever can against him The moderate use of Sovereign Power being most effectual to secure the People to their Lords and consequently in the establishment or enlargement of Dominion Sect. VIII The Maladies yet on us and the proper Cure or Remedies for them The Maladies are Extreams He must be a Stranger in our Israel
on the Extreams of Devotion towards the close of which are these words I thank thee O God that thou hast given me a desire to walk even between these Extremities As I would be ever in a praying disposition to thee so I would not willing break hours with thee I would neither sleep nor wake without praying but I would never pray without feeling If my heart go not along with forms of words I do not pray but babble and if that be bent upon the matter of my Suits it is all one to thee whether the words be my own or borrowed Let thy good Spirit ever teach me to pray and help me in praying c. and then if thou canst send me away empty Accordingly in those days we attended and used both the Forms and Extempore as occasion offered or charity invited thereunto declining all particular Communions which did bar our being so Catholick He is also one who would have men leave off Contention before it be meddled with And is as you may see troubled that there are Contentions and Strivings amongst us about Ritual Observances and a New-modelled Divinity made up of foolish disputings for purer Administration to the neglect of or trespass upon the weighty matters of Christianity whereby men spend their time and zeal on Vanity or Vexation i. e. on that which neither themselves nor others are the better but the worse for I hope neither side will persist therein for being they are in the most holy office 2 Tim. 2.24 St. Paul saith to them The Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men If yet they shall go on they will appear to be in that Snare of the Devil as those are who are taken captive by him at his will And to future Generations will be signs or significant Ceremonies i. e. instructive to them as that of Lot's Wife so horrid and dismal that they shall wish you never had been or that you had been as it were Horn or Glass as the Antidote hath it i. e. any innocent or insensible thing rather than to have had and to use so evilly the Noble power of Man I have been Eye and Ear-witness of the Authors Loyalty to his King and adhaesion to the Church of England in Charitable conformity thereunto farther than which he deems factious in the Body His Loyalty hath been without any spot or blemish except this that in the heats of Zeal and Love to our present King and to his Father he hath now and then gone too far in hating as it were those who were too little for them falling short of that Pattern the Honourable and Loyal Lady set who being told The King would not like her feeding some of the Parliaments Army then ready to perish with hunger Replied to this effect I had rather answer to my King for feeding than to God for not feeding his and my Enemies Also forgetting the Exhortation which saith Dearly Beloved avenge not your selves Rom. 12.19 20 21. but rather give place unto wrath for it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. Therefore if thine Enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good I call this a Spot in his Loyalty because it is a defect therein one of the highest degrees whereof is our conformity to God and to the King in that of a gracious nature or a readiness to do all good That this is in God we are all witness and that this is or ought to be in a King the Royal Prophet sheweth when he saith They rewarded me evil for good Psal 35.12 13 14. to the spoiling of my Soul But as for me when they were sick my clothing was Sackcloth I humbled my self with fasting and my prayer returned into my own bosom I behaved my self as though he had been my friend or brother I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother He always passionately desired his Majesty might escape as the Sons of Zerviah so that base rascal sort of People who are worse than Knights of the Post I mean Flatterers to be undone by whom Princes and Women are most obnoxious For the greatest infelicity that can happen to a King is to believe that all things are lawful or to hope they may issue well that he can do and that pleaseth him So soon as he consenteth to this thought of good he is made wicked Now this Opinion is settled in them by Flatterers who never cease to preach to them the greatness of their Power though never of their Duty Vpon this account is it that he hath said so much of it as is said in this Book I must not proceed lest I should appear Author and Publisher too What I have here said may be instructive to Cup ophron and wherein he needs further the Book will thereunto help him I will only subjoyn in this further to him and to all the good Company and to every Reader as a Cast of my Office or Calling as I am a lover of God and of Jesus Christ and of the whole Creation the Exhortation that lieth on you as Christians in opposition to the Heathens which saith Let it not be once named amongst you Eph. 5 3 4. neither filthiness nor soolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks i. e. as the Learned Doctor Hammond paraphraseth these words All unclean gestures and obscene talking or unsavoury Jests to cause laughter which are all unbeseeming Christians but purity chastness graciousness of language opposite to the filthiness before or else blessing and praising of God a far fitter Subject for our rejoycing Or that Col. 4.6 Let your speech be alway with grace seasoned with salt i. e. Pure or pious with sweetness and pleasantness to speak good things well not as some who are sowr and censorious and tend only to fling dirt on those who are not of our Party or Perswasion To discourse of Heavenly things with the same chearfulness we do of our most profitable Voyages or Designs here below e. g. How happy and how pleasurable is it to be and to do good How rich is the faithful and contented man What an ornament is true Religion to us See with what a manly Courage the Pious refuse Honour and Profit to escape Sin Oh! how joyful and perfect shall we be when with God in Heaven when we shall there be like him and see him as he is c. It must be also seasoned with salt i. e. wholsom discourse nothing putrid or noysom to holy ears not corruptive of others or prophane in deriding true Religion or ordinarily to laugh at what others deem Sacred not Censorious discoursings whereby men gossip a Neighbourhood or Company into disorder and confusion God forbid any should deem this Fanaticism it is a sign Religion is not understood and received or that it is very much decayed where it
not less worthy but the Temper the Principles or Ends of the Electors in Choosing I mean the determining part of them are the Objects of my mind Who therein were as most united so 1 Most affectionate and loyal to the Person and Government of his Majesty in that it was to prevent his being led into an Opinion That his great City may be brought to any Novelty or Change than which no Opinion is more pernicious to him and to his Government at this time 2 To Retrieve the ancient Order and Beauty of Upper and Lower Form in One School which Bench Usurpation had well nigh made Two thereby preparing the City either to forget that it had but one Master or to be as if they had none in disorder and squabble 3 To give needful Rebuke to a new Sect called Vndertakers who as is supposed reveal Secrets and who before Election days do warrant the Point or Question some without doors desire may be gained 4 To six all mens Faith in this That London is now resolved to be for God for the King for the Brotherhood and will not be cheated again by Rascals or Levellers i. e. will meddle no more with Men given to Change or to Deceit My humble Advice to them is To be looking diligently lest any Root of Bitterness be springing up in them In special that of Revenge or Ill-will Also that of being brought to one extream by or in opposition to the other which men cunning in Craft lay wait to deceive them into Against all which or other mischiefs no better security than Uprightness i. e. that we in every thing perform to each other as plain-hearted or honest men As those who have made our Neighbour our very Self and the Publick Good preferrable to our Private That no one fancy himself Lord of Mens Birth-right because he hath given them a Mess of Pottage Or that Commons in Common Counsel assembled signifie next to nothing because some by the expence of being Sheriff are gotten to be Aldermen i. e. to sit on a Bench somewhat exalted in the same Court A calm a modest and an impartial inspecting and then debating of their Constitution in a Committee chosen out of both parts of that Court might effect their composure and of desired issue I should not doubt would they but resist external direction or insluence Octob. 21. 1680. An Advertisement THough the Analysis in Pages 22 and 27 with the discourse thereupon from page 23 to page 29 be remote to the Title of this Book and the Author's design therein yet for the benefit of some who are Related to him and because he will not again be in print he hath put it forth with the rest That the Reader who is either not concerned therein or who is indisposed thereunto may escape it in reading this notice is given Errata EPistle page 3. line 18 read Antidoter p. 5. l. 18. Suit p. 6. l. 19. Powers Preface p. 2. l. 29. deserving p. 5. l. 21. Anno 1661. Book p. 1. l. ult mischief p. 13. l. 28. dele at Westminster being p. 15. l. 28. to receive with me p. 21. l. 7. tending p. 35. l 8. as Prince l. 17. the same p. 46. l. 26. For to say orthink l. 27. very much higher l. 28. to fix and to permit l. 31. will be lost under the one l. 33. things by the other Extream leads unto extream p. 65. l. 30. 3 Unlimited Prerogative and Will p. 67. l. 6. He is for faithful and constant Advertisement of all things his own defects not excepted p. 73. l. 3. not only Prelacy but p. 89. l. 11. me p. 93. l. 27 read page 75 and 87. Postscript p. 1. l. 6. pag. 20. THE CONTENTS Of the Whole Epistle PHilotheus and Cuphophron their Character Pag. 1 A first Visit to the Philopolite Hasty Judgment is censured Daily Reconciliation and Charity is recommended Pag. 2 A second Visit Pious spending the Lord's Day and the Philopolite's Character Pag. 3 Family Religion practised Pag. 4 Extremities grievous Contention to be omitted Pag. 5 The Author's Loyalty in time past Pag. 6 His zeal against Flatterers because they endanger Kings Pag. 7 Pious and pleasant Discourse Our Duty Pag. 8 Preface THE past and present Condition of England in Church and State Pag. 1 1 In Church on two accounts Pag. 2 2 In State on as many Pag. 3 Ezra 9. ver 13 14. applied Pag. 4 Past Attempts to heal us Pag. 5 King's Declaration Anno 1661. ibid. What is now best for us Pag. 6 Maladies on us viz. Extreams Pag. 8 Book Chapter I. MAN Reasonable and Created his Business and Happiness single and in Society extended to the highest therein Pag. 2 Confirmed by voice of Nature Pag. 3 By Scripture ibid. to end of pag. 7 Chap. II. Adhering to Peace to Law to Charity the Interest of Man in Society Some practise contrary hereunto Instances Pag. 8 1 The Hellish and Romish Plot for our hoped for Deliverance is sung Dr. Woodford on the 124th Psalm Pag. 9 2 The Contest betwixt Conformists and Non-Conformists Doctor Stillingfleet's Sermon the Antidote against it Pag. 10 The Leaf-Gold and Ink-Glass belonging thereunto Pag. 11 Two elect Ladies Mrs. T. to the Conformists Mrs. R. to Mr. Alsop Pag. 13 Reflection on both An Address to England The deceit of Sin and its danger to us Pag. 16 Hebr. 3. ver 13. The Author's warrant to speak as he doth in this Book His expectation and design Pag. 18 Chap. III. The doing our Own Business a fourfold Knowledge requisite thereto 1 of God 2 of our Selves as in England Pag. 19 Analysis hereof of God Pag. 20 of Man Pag. 21 Farther account given of Man his Creation Fall and Recovery as it is sat forth in Supernatural Revelation Pag. 22 Some Heads thereof applied in order to practice Pag. 28 Third sort of Knowledge every Duty and their Subordination Pag. 31 Fourth the degree of performance Pag. 32 The Whole practically improved Pag. 33 The Author's Constancy in Loyal Affection to the King and his Father Pag. 34 He is no Papist or Rat-catcher c. His humble Address to Governours in Civils that they would secure King and Country by making and reinforcing good Laws Pag. 35 Objections Answered Pag. 38 The matter further argued pag. 41 The Clergy and Subjects in England called to their Business pag. 47 The Non-conformists also pag. 48 Chap. IV. To Love its nature c. Pag. 51 Proved conducive to the prosperity of Nations Pag. 53 Kingdoms founded and ruled thereby are as Psal 133. Doctor Woodford thereupon Pag. 54 The state and proceedure of such exprest in many particulars Pag. 55 The number of them few yet are chosen Ones and in proceedure to better Pag. 57 An Objection answered Pag. 59 A King who is Love is of great force to heal us Pag. 60 His Character or Temper Pag. 61 He is proved to be the Procurer of general Prosperity in that Happiness is connatural to his temper and practice Pag. 63 1 His Foundation ibid. 2 His Principles ibid. 3 His course of Actions Pag. 64 His Praise sang Pag. 68 Chap. V. England instructed by the Premisses God's Call to us to do our Own Business and to Love shewn in six Observations Pag. 70 In the Second of which are two important Expostulations Pag. 71 In the Third are six memorable occurrences of our Time Pag. 72 The Fourth of which being the discovery of the Plot three Questions are put Pag. 73 74 75 England in Love would be Omen of the healing of Nations c. Pag. 78 A wish that Kings would Kiss the Son c. Doctor Woodford on Psal 2. Pag. 79 A wish that England were the first Divine-Born Nation and that the glory and happiness of King Charles's Government may be as Woodford describes Psal 72. Chap. VI. Four General Directions 1 Avoid Roots of Bitterness Pag. 85 2 Covet the Divine Life the true and the pure Religion Pag. 86 3 Pray for the Spirit of Love and of a Sound mind Pag. 87 4 Entertain no Prejudice against ought of the Creation of God the Author's experiment herein Pag. 88 Where better directions are to be met with Pag. 89 Part of Bathynous's Song Pag. 90 The Author the same now as heretofore with respect to Form of Church-Government The Conclusion Pag. 92 He recommends Substance and Love Pag. 93 Postscript REason why the Author hath discoursed so ill one of which is because he could do it no better Pag. 1 Apology for his tasting and spitting out some of the Antidote Also further reason why he saith so much about good Laws Pag. 4 Aparticular Advertisement about the King's Declaration mentioned in the Preface and Book Pag. 7 Remarks on the present state of London Their Petitioning for the Parliament and their late Elections Pag. 8 Humble Advice to them Pag. 9 THE END