it self would be as ready if they durst to joyn with some of their own Spirit in the Prayers which were justly made Treason Anno 1. 2. Q. Mar. cap. 9. That God would turn her Heart from Idolatry to the True Faith or else shorten her days and take her quickly out of the way And the Act says That never such a Prayer was heard or read to have been used by any good Christian against any Prince though he were a Pagan And therefore in abhorrence of the Crime it condemns the Authors of such libellous and malicious Prayers together with the Procurators and Abetters of them to be guilty of High-Treason And so they are before God who takes every Injury done to his Vicegerents as done to himself Satyrs are bad every where but worst in the Pulpit be it in Prayers or Sermons where Men are to speak the words of Truth and Soberness as becomes the Embassadors of Christ and not to use any petulant Girding or Reflections upon any much less upon the Father of their Country nor to dress up any of his perswasion in such indecent Forms or to make them appear far worse than they are for this is as great a Sin as to make Widows more desolate We are in Conscience and Prudence oblig'd calmly and modestly to inlighten the Minds of our Hearers though they count us heavy Men for our pains rather than by expressing more heat than light to thunder in their Ears such dreadful Apprehensions of the Religion of our Prince as may claw their itching Ears and raise their Humours and Passions into such a violent Ferment as to transport them into the pangs of some furious Zeal against him and all of the same Perswasion with him Our Religion obliges us to be jealous of every Thing or Motion which tends to the Disunion either of Subjects from their Sovereign or of the People among themselves which that it may be permanent and cordial which is the only thing that can disappoint the Designs and Counsels of our Enemies nothing can conduce more to our present or future Safety than the deposing of all Animosities Rancor and Ill Will against one another upon the account of Differences in Religion and the going on chearfully in the narrow Path that leads to eternal Life without fighting with every one that does not keep the same way though he be also travelling to the same place which has such a spirit of Opposition Contradiction and Pertinacy in it as speaks Men to be of distemper'd Brains turbulent Passions and corrupt Hearts rather than of Tender Conseiences That there should be so many pretended Admirers and profest lovers of Peace and so few Followers of it in this Kingdom so much noise of Religion and so little Charity and especially that Christianity which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quiet and gentle Institution intended to soften Mens natural Asperities should spend it self in those Quarrels which are the greatest diminution to its interest imaginable That the Holy Spirit should bring the Gospel down from Heaven in the shape of a Dove and that yet there should be no more stinging Serpents than the Professors of it one to another and that after more than Sixteen hundred Years Preaching the glad Tidings of Peace there should still be such distractions and wranglings in the Church such seditions and convulsions in the body Politick such sidings and divisions in every Town and such jarring and dissention as we see and lament in private Families and that the warmest Zealots should by Enormities of this kind run farther on the score of divine Vengeance than Turks and Infidels do upon the bare single Security of being Christians are such prodigies in Manners as may justly startle the wisest of Men and force them to conclude That the best Religion has the worst Professors of it and Pretenders to it in the World Might not the Pagan Turk and Atheist upon the sight of our manifold Heats Violences and Intemperances which are too visible in Christendom reasonably cry out Where is now their God and where is their Religion Are these the Men that pray for Peace or do they ever mean to purchase it Are not their Practices the great shame and confutation of their Professions and is not the Name of God blasphem'd through their Miscarriages Is Christianity become an Enemy to Humanity and turn'd Incendiary Is Zeal grown such a Cormorant as to eat up Charity And are the Elect of God who should put on Bowels of Kindness Humbleness of Mind and above all Charity which is the Bond of Perfectness grown so fierce as to fly upon every thing which Custom and Education hath not rendred familiar to them Are they impatient with all who do not see with their Eyes and will they set themselves in battle array against all who are not Wise enough to be of their Judgments and damn all who are not of their Opinions Could there be such needless and endless Contentions among them if they were not carnal Is this to sight under Christ's Banner who was the Prince of Peace Does not this incontinency of Disputing make Rents in the seamless Garment rather than Reformation If they were as sollicitous to save their own and their Peoples Souls as they are to propagate their Opinions they would not trifle away and lavish that time and pains in needless Controversies in which they might make their Peace with God and Men nor take more pains to prove the Pope to be Antichrist than they do to prove themselves to be Christians or make others so nor tread true Piety under Foot in scrambling for that which hath nothing of it nor like it but the Name Would not their Congregations be more edified by the Church-Catechism than a Controversie Or how many have you seen heal'd by being lead into these troubled Waters though mov'd by the best Angels of the Church No doubt but it is a Truth which the Mufti told his Grand Seignior That where the publick Exercise of Religion is allow'd 't is judg'd that a liberty is granted to defend all the distinguishing Points of it without reflecting on that of the Prince which would be more unpardonable in us than in any Men in the World because he is graciously pleased to act with us upon the Square and forbids his own Preachers to make any tart reflections on ours Now the fault too common is the intemperance of most warm Disputers for Religion who if once they begin to declaim or write against any thing think they can never make it odious enough and that they may defame it the more effectually they will hale and force Consequences as on a Rack to confess what the Principle never meant and to catch greedily at some violent Mans over-shooting both the Cause and the Communion and to lay this to the Charge of the whole Church though it professes never so solemnly against that private Doctor 's Opinion whereas as great Champions as they would
They are not Christians of a sound Constitution who labour under such Fits of unnatural Zeal nor have they their Conversation in Heaven For this is not to Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which none shall see God who searches the Secrets of the Hearts and loves weak Sincerity better than strong Hypocrisy which is the Original of all such Vnchristian Heats Every Man as well the Prince as the Subject is bound to stand up in his own way for the defence of that Religion which he verily believes to be True And when the Foundations of Faith are shaken either by Superstition or Prosaneness he who puts not out his Hand as firmly as he can with Justice and Charity to support it is too wary and may come to be condemn'd at the last Day for his Neutrality and for having more care of himself than of the Cause of Christ and it may prove a wariness which in the end will bring more danger than it shuns We think our selves therefore oblig'd to lay aside the Rule of a late Philosopher of our own Country That every Prince is God's Interpreter and so consequently That His Religion ought to be Ours For except Contradictions could at the same time be true it would make God the Author of all the Religions in the World of which there are many so called which are neither Pure nor Vndesiled But the Enquiry is saving our own Integrity and walking Humbly and Vprightly with God who hates Juggling and playing Fast and Loose concerning a sort of Brotherly Forbearance and good Manners to which Christ was never thought to be an Enemy Let us seriously consider what shall be done to that Religion which the King desires to honour and which He embraces as the best in his Judgment To which I answer 2 dly That the True Sons of the Church of England of what Quality or Degree soever ought not to have a less Respect for the King for being of another Church or Religion because as Dominion is not founded in Grace so neither is our Duty grounded upon having a Religion common both to the King and his Subjects Neither will it suffice to say That though we cannot pay him the same high Respect that we would if he were of our Church and Faith yet we will still be Loyal For this High Respect is a main part of the Thing and as fast as this lessens and cools the remainder of Loyalty will proportionably grow fainter as to its outward Exercise And if Religion be once set up against Loyalty they will both be spoil'd Though the Prince be of one Religion and the People of another yet he will be Gracious if they are Loyal and they may live very quietly together if they do their Duty to God and Him The Elector of Brandenburgh is himself a strict Calvinist and most of his Subjects Lutherans and a late Duke of Zell was a Papist and his Subjects of the Reform'd Religion and yet liv'd in all Love and Concord as we may do I am sure in this Kingdom better than any People in the World if we are not wanting to our selves And therefore he is neither a Good Christian nor Subject who does not do all things that are Lawful and Honest which his Sovereign expects or requires with all Alacrity and Respect without Murmuring Disputing or Repining Or who would limit his Prince's Pleasure where God hath not done it 'T is no good Religion whose Principles destroy any Duty of Religion or give any Disturbance to the Government or alienate the Hearts of his Subjects from the Supreme Governor Ours I am sure will not suffer it nor matters it what Religion any Man is of that is a Rebel The Opinion of his Sect will neither satisfie the State nor save his Soul Whatsoever is Peevish Disrespectful Vnthankful or Dispising of Dignities is against the Form of Sound Doctrine which Christ and his Apostles have taught us Lex Christiana neminem suo jure aut dominio privat non eripit mortalia qui regna dat coelestia And our Law is as clear as God's in this Point Nemo de factis suis praesumat disquirere multò minus contra sactum suum venire saith the Learned Bracton who was Lord-Chief-Justice Twenty Years under Henry III. And therefore 't is no new Law of new Judges of a Popish Prince's putting in but the old Law of England Nullus est qui ab eo factorum aut rationes exigere possit aut poenas 'T is not Tyranny Infidelity Heresy or Apostacy that can discharge the Subject's Duty to his Prince as we are truly instructed in that Excellent Book which was formerly and ought still to be read in our publick Schools called Deus Rex Neither Priest nor People must lessen their Respects to the king upon these or any other Pretences whatsoever The deportment of the Saints of God towards the persons of Princes was always Humble and their Behaviour Respectful Nathan the Prophet bow'd his Face to the Ground before David the Mitre always stoop'd to the Crown And when the Prince sits on his Throne the Prophet himself must lie at his Footstool Nay when Princes were themselves Vnholy the Saints of God shew'd them all Respects imaginable not as Sinners but as Sovereigns Saul was none of the best of Princes to any especially to David to whom he could never afford a good Word and yet David calls him My Lord the King and that not out of Flattery and Courtship but of Loyalty and Duty Nor had he behav'd himself like a Saint nor a Man after God's own Heart if not like a Subject and been afraid to speak evil of Dignities the worst of which even Pharaoh himself was of God's raising up and ought to be to his Subjects as an Angel of God in Mephibosheth's Judgment Nay the Immortal King calls them Mortal Gods I have said ye are Gods tho Devils in Practice they are Fountains and Objects of Honour Nero as well as Augustus Julian as well as Constantine not as Holy for Dominion is not founded in Grace but as Supreme not for their Goodness but for their Greatness for they are at worst more worth than Ten thousand of us They are the Lord-Treasurers of Heaven put in Places of more Trust and Honour than other Men they arc intrusted with our Estates liberties and Lives with our Religion and Souls they are the Churches Nursing-Fathers and God's Vicegerents his Prime Ministers And who may say to them What do'st thou 'T is not who dares say but who may lawfully or ought to do it with Impunity For so Elihu Interprets it Is it sit to say to a King Thou art Wicked and to Princes Ye are Vngodly It is not only unsafe in respect of the danger but it is an unsanctified and sinful Saying it is damnable and next to Blasphemy 't is a Wickedness against God and a Wound to our own
Integrity may as well be deceived as Mr. Chilling worth was who once thought that our Religion of the Church of England was not a safe way to Salvation though he died of another and better Judgment And why may not others as Prudent Pious and Consciencious Men as he be deceived and misled into Popery by Men better skill'd and instructed in the Controversies than they are They are Christians still though crring ones and Members of the Catholick Church as well as we and can their errors in Judgment which are injurious to none but themselves forfeit their Civil Rights Or those in Practice except they be such as are destructive of humane Society Would not the Primitive Christians do you think have been well contented that their Emperors if they had been of the same Communion of Rome should with all of the same Communion have injoyed an uncensur'd use of their Religion and been ready to make Addresses of Thanks for the peaceable Enjoyment of their own Let the same mind be in you as was in them and that will adorn your Christian Profession We cannot but bewail it as our great Calamity and a just Punishment of the last Age's Disloyalty which most horridly Murder'd the best of Kings at Noon-day before the Gates of his own Royal Palace and banish'd his Royal Progeny and drove them into Foreign Parts to seek for that safety from others which their own Unnatural and Blood-thirsty Subjects would not afford them That our Gracious King was then tempted above measure and hath since joyn'd himself to the Roman Church and lives in the Practice of a different Worship from us But since God in his infinite Wisdom hath permitted it to be so it is our Duty to acquiesce therein and behave our selves towards him so as may be most consistent with his Honour and our Duty in the present Circumstances and that the rather because we may be well assured that our Gracious Sovereign had no Design nor Interest to serve in the changing of his Religion but an eternal one in the saving of his Soul To embrace a Religion when it was decry'd and kept down by Penal Laws is in the Judgment of Charity a great Argument of Sincerity and Christian Resolution when it was sâ—culi reatus the greatest National Crime of which he could have been guilty To embrace a Religion when it was every where spoken against out of Fashion and decry'd When a Man follows Christ to Hierusalem in Triumph he may be an Hypocrite but certainly if he follow him to Golgotha as he is going to the Cross you have reason to believe him a Sincere Disciple Our Gracious Sovereign's joyning himself at such a time to the Church of Rome when it brought his very Tule to the Crown in question and made his Life insecure and uneasie was an instance of his Gallant and Great Soul and much resembled on the part of the Person the courage of the First Christians who were well aware that in the very Prosession thereof they bid adieu to worldly interest and Tranquillity This beâ—ing apparently done out of no lower Principle than the Glory of God and the Salvation of his own Soul though not the Deed yet inslead of it the Sincere Will is favourably accepted with God and should be so with all good Men. Seeing it is an Observation of Lactantius and St. Augustin concerning a Religion Infinitely worse that Almighty God was pleased to take kind notice of the honest Meanings of those grosly mistaken Worshippers for though an Erroneous Conscience could not bind to the Act yet if after all possible due Enquiry it act Erroneously it doth not certainly bind to Punishment God winked at the days of Ignorance especially when accompanied with that Integrity of Heart of which God gives such an acquitting Character in the Case of King Abimelech and if this were not so it would go ill with the Men of the highest Intellectual and Moral Vertues who confess themselves to be as truly short of being perfectly free from all Sins of Ignorance as they are from those of Frailty When thus much hath been said concerning his Majesty's Religion it may be added That his Change proceeded not meerly from an easie Well-meaning but from Arguments however they be less weighty to us which had prevail'd with many Wise and Good Men and had an advantage perhaps in his Case from some Early Doubts hardly to be avoided in that Conversation into which the Rebels who had impudence enough to call themselves English Protestants had driven him as I before told you against whom and not against our Gracious Sovereign should the disrespects of all the True Sons of the Church of England be turn'd The King thinks us in the wrong and so pities and prays for us That God would bring us into the right Way and 't is a groundless and uncharitable Jealousie that he will ever hurt us because it would neither be for his Honour nor Happiness to make them miserable who have always been his best Fricâ—ds such mischiefs may be fear'd by some but will never be felt by any Let us rather depend upon God's wise and gracious Providence in the use of Lawful Means and put our Trust and Confidence in his Power and Goodness not doubting but he â—areth for us rather than be jealous of our King without Cause and so far as God sees it conduce to his Glory and our Good he will deliver us from all our Fears Let us commit the care of our Religion Lives and Estates to him And indeed Where is our Faith if we will not trust him with the defence of it but seek to prop it up and support it by base and unwarrantable Arts as if every thing were lawful that tends to keep out Popery This will cast such a Reproach and Insamy upon our Religion as can never be wip'd off it will open the Mouths and sharpen the Pens of our Enemies shall we take more Liberty to our selves than we will allow the King What safety can our Sovereign expect if he cannot be allow'd the free Exercise of his own Religion without his Subjects repining What Reputation can he have abroad or what Reverence at home Is this to provide things honest in the sight of all Men Will this put to Silence the Ignorance of Foolish Men to turn our Religion into a Cloak of Maliciousness to prove our selves Wolves in Sheeps Clothing Cannot we abhor Idols without flying into his Face who is the Image of God upon Earth Is this to keep Innocence and to take heed to the thing that that is Right Is not this rather the ready course to create in him and all the World besides an ill Opinion of us and our Religion We may be just and dutiful to the King without being unfaithful to God and if we be so our Religion will not only keep its Ground but make new Conquest and spread it self further in the World nor shall any Policy of Men or Devils
will look like a giving away your Religion It may look so to some Pur-blind People Who see but little before them and then the Reason is no better than Popularity which is now adays grown amongst Persons of Quality as common and great a fault as Oppression was formerly But how is our Religion given away by your consent to that which your dissent cannot hinder It is our Interest as well as Our Duty not to be wanting to them whom the King esteems and honours in any acts of Friendship which are consistent with a good Conscience and to susser our City Gates to stand wide open for them that they may go in and out at pleasure and partake of all the Benefits and Privileges which we enjoy No Man ever did a good turn of Friendship to another but at one time or other he himself eat the Fruits of it Let it be remembred in what good condition the Protestant Religion is in many Government within the German Empire by allowing Privileges to those of the Church of Rome How well assured the Governments are of their containing entirely Faithful when these People have equal assurances with other Subjects of their remaining safe Waving many Instances which that Empire affords let us look into that of Brandenburg the Religion of which Country is Lutheranism and is so preserv'd by the Elector though he many years ago became a Calvinist nor will this Change seem small to those who are acquainted with the mutual slender Amities of those two Perswasions the Men of Ink and Gall on both sides blackning one another and interchangably representing the opposite Opinions to be sowler than Popery it self in their Eyes But yet in this Electorate such was the Wisdom of his Highness that he freely gave in assurance to keep the publick Relâ—gion as he found it and such has been his Faith and Honour that he has been sacred to his Ingagements On the other part these Graces have been suitably received by his Subjects that as he makes them happy so they and his own Prince-like Vertues have rendred him the most glorious Prince that ever Brandenburgh enjoyed and if we do our part like them ve have no occsion to question his Majesty's doing His. Though he keeps many Calvinist Ministers about him and make use of the Laity who Worship in his way yet the others do not repine at it much less ought we to grudge them he Fruits of the King's Favour who were as Loyal Actors in the late Times of Rebellion and gâ—eater Sufferes than we they who suffer'd with and for him might modestly have expected to have been restored to their Privilegs of True English Subjects before now and to have been rais'd above Contempt and Danger I speak not this to teach our Senators Wisdom but shall pray to God who stands in the congregation of Princes and observes not only all their Ways Acting and Proceedings but even the most secret Designs and Intentions of the Hearts of every one of them from whom alone cometh all Council Wisdom and Vnderstanding that when by the Authority of our Sovereign Lord the King you shall be lawfully gather'd in his Name to Consder Debate and Determine this and other weighty Matters both of Church and State he would send down his Heavenly Wisdom from above to direct and guide you in all your Consultations That having his Fear always before your Eyes and endeavouring to lay aside so far as humane Frailty will permit all private Interests Prejudices and partial Affections the result of your councils may tend to the glory of his blessed name the maintenance of True Religion and Justice the Saâ—ety Honour and Happiness of the King the publick Wealth Peace and Tranâ—uillity of this Realm and the uniting and knitting together of the Hearts of all Estates and Persons within the same in true Christian Love and Charity one towards another which will be your greatest Honour here and the way to eternal Glory hereafter But if any in your high Station should say such I mean who sit upon the same Bench with you we are so far from grudging Papists the Power into which his Majesty has been pleas'd to put them that we will leave all to them and we will be ever Loyal but we will not act in the same Commission with them either Civil or Military These Men who are such Neâ—er-passive Loyalists may do well to consider That this their peevish Resolution is disagreeable to their Allegiance at large to their Duty by Law and to the Interest they espouse Their Principle is wholly destructive of Loyalty for to be Loyal and not to serve the King when requir'd is a plain Contradiction since Loyalty is not like a civil Ceremony but an Obligation laid upon us by the highest Law to obey those placed over us against whom he does passively rebel who is unactive in their Service And therefore the Primitive Christians obey'd their Emperors though Heathens with the hazard of their Lives and Fortunes and shall We that are the Sons of the Charch of England resuse the lawful Services of a most Christian and Gracious King whom we are obliged to serve without Ifs and And 's as well when he Frowns upon us as when he Favours us for this is the only way to be God's Favourites as well as his and to prove our selves Members of Christ as well as of the Commonwealth 'T is a known Maxim in the civil Law That Subjects ought not only to obey the Government but to be Instruments of it too without which the Government could not be carried on and the greatest Princes would have less effectual Authority than a Centuriom has who says to one Go and he goes to another come and he comes and to a third Souldier do this and he does it And our common Law has therefore establish'd this Sudalternacy of obeying and bearing part in the Government of which Sr. Thomaâ— Overbury's Case and Imprisonment is a pregnant Instance 〈…〉 n it be justly said That it was an over-stretching of 〈◊〉 Prerogative for the like was after practiâ—'d upon Sr Peter Hâ—â—â—â—n who for behaving himself â—â—ke some other mutiâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 â—ons in one of the last Parliaments of King Chaâ—â—◠〈…〉 was sent against his â—iking on â—r E 〈…〉 tinate and though the w 〈…〉 ce in the Parliament of Fâ—ay 〈…〉 at that or any other t 〈…〉 him an illegal No Prince could 〈◊〉 a K 〈…〉 ouâ— this Right of compelâ—ing his Subjects to m 〈…〉 respective Offices under him And as to acting in the Commission of Peace the Great Chancellor in the late King's time in the Case of an Irish Noble Man seated in England and refusing to take the Oath of a Justice of Peace declared That he ought to do it and every Man else nam'd in the King's Commission and therefore they are unpardonable to dispute it now who have already taken their Oaths and acted many years accordingly Nor is it less against your Interest