harmless in comparison but the abomination of idolatry and superstition most loathsome to that infinitely pure and spiritual Nature I come in the next place to consider how far time place distinction of persons in religious worship are within the cognisance of the law and light of Nature For I omit out of choice any discourse of sacrifices which some have contended came in by natural instinct as too copious for the present intendment concluding they were ordained by God chiefly to typifie the true ever breathing sacrifice of Christ which service having performed they expired in it not only repealed by the Evangelick Law but no doubt through the superintendency of Providence grown into disuse throughout the world which together with those strong solid Reasons against their valuableness in themselves given by God Psal 50. 9 10 11 12. Mic. 6. 6 7 8 9. Heb. 9. 10 c. sufficiently argue they were not of natural notion nor of the everlasting Righteousness of that Law Let us therefore waving them go on to debate the dictates of Primitive rules concerning time and I find but two things I can suppose injunctions of so ancient a date pertaining to it 1. That the time be sufficient capacious enough for the receipt of Religious duty and action sufficient for the making ample inquiries and searches into Divine things for the souls commoration and rest upon them for the discharge of Religious business and duty and so suitable and agreeable to the testification of our honour to the supreme Majesty by offering such a proportion of our time together such frequency of returns with the favour of season and redeeming season when it seems to fly from us that in all we may have a liberal space for so grand a business in our more stated and occasional performances 2. That in what concerns publick worship the time be commensurate as in the former particular to all the ends and purposes of publick worship the occasions and advantages of it and particularly that it be known agreed and indicted for that service But for the seventh part of time though undoubtedly pitcht upon with infinite wisdom justice and â—quity in the fourth command respecting Divine honour and business on one side and humane occasion and diversion on the other yet it must certainly be said the original â—allowedness of it is founded in Divine command and must bâ— conveyed by undoubted tradition of that command having no more natural in it than the general compromise of the world in the distribution of Time into Sevens or weeks seldomer than which no reasonable sense of Religion could allow for the recurrency of solemn publick worship mix'd with continued private devotions as in extraordinary to every days service Else I cannot perceive it could be defin'd by the laws of natural understanding For place these two things are also necessary 1. That places be as agreeable as may be to the end secret and retired places for retired and secret worship places of domestick coveniency for Families and publick known and agreed for publick worship 2. That places for Divine Worship have the decency gravity and solemnity that is suitable to such a degree and quality of business as is there to be negotiated not as any part of Divine Worship or so much as having any influential conduciveness upon the mind in such action but solely as the result of humane prudence adjusting every thing to its proper use and service and with the decorum most natural to it For time and place having no influence upon Religious actions more than upon all common humane actions by any peculiar vertue of their own they cannot without a peculiar Sanctification from God with which he by his revealed will acquaints those upon whom he is pleased to enjoin the observation rise any higher than themselves Nor can humane appointment extend them beyond expediency and decency the ordinary rules by which all things civil and humane are squar'd Devotion can mount nothing higher than its own true elevation as to the nature of the thing Devotion I say and zeal ascend up to God yet they leave the things they use behind to rest in their own station It being a Divine power that makes any thing Divine or Sacred or efficacious to any such productions Without this every thing rests upon its own basis of natural aptitude observed and imployed by reason to those ends and purposes whereunto that aptitude serves Time and place rated beyond themselves become injurious to religious services receiving more of the minds attendance and respect than is due to them which being wholly oblig'd to a total sole and single determination upon the Divine Majesty it self must not look off from it but under the peril of moving that jealousie God expresses in the Scriptures and if not thus yet they beget in men injurious thoughts of God as if he dwelt in Temples made with hands and the presence of the Lord of Heaven and Earth confin'd there whereas except by his own choice upon certain reasons as among the Jews all places are alike and He equally accepts those that worship him in spirit and truth He that inhabits Ubiquity is no more offended Joh. 4. 21 23 24. or disdains mean and unadorn'd places for his service than stately Structures To misdeem so of God hath a degree of that folly that would restrain his Omnipresence lest it should be defil'd with the sordidness of some receptions nauseous to us not knowing that Infinite Spirit feels not the passions of body our Saviour made use of any place for Heavenly Discourses and Prayers to observe days or times carries a suspition that he who inhabits eternity and is Lord of time is not all times the same and therefore the Heathen that had corrupted natural Religion watcht for some days as more lucky and avoided others as unluckly in their attendances on their mock-deities Yet doth God allow to men the wise and prudent choice of their own conveniences in his worship both for time or place not presuming to sanctifie any thing to him that he hath not first sanctified to himself for who knows how to chuse for him or who is able to give to him first This must needs be the determination of natural reason if it use its own light and discharge its own trust Having spoken thus briefly of time and place I come to the third thing Distinction or separation of persons for Divine offices how far it is directed by natural Religion under these three Heads 1. In the first Ages of the world Patriarchal Eldership nearness to the Creation and continual acquaintance with the History of Gods Treaties and dealings with men together with the Power Gravity Authority resident in it carried the most fit administration of Divine Things along with it so that the Pontifical Prophetick and Royal Authority accumulated upon them this seems unquestionable in Reason Scripture History and universal tradition 2. After the multiplication of Families into Nations and
that men are otherwise guilty in not receiving the Faith we offer them is only this that they do not receive it 3. If this punishing men for not receiving a Revealed Religion were only for not receiving substantial Christian Religion it were the more tollerable though as I have said not desirable to any true Christian Protestant but when it 's stretch'd out to False Religion to every nice Opinion Ceremony or Mode of worship it is a burthen mankind could never bear being most intollerable And so I have done with this second Argument Argum. 3. I proceed to a third Argument Justifying Natural Religion to be the term of universal peace and concord so far that if that be secur'd men should acquiesce in peace one with another in things that concern Religion Magistrates allowing common protection and people the common benevolence of Humanity as upon a ruled and determined case that Reason and Truth ought to have according to the Divine Will and the very Laws of Nature a Through fare in the world free as the Air and Light and that by an Ordinance as early as of the day Before I argue this I premise That all Religious Freedoms are under the intire acknowledgment of Princes within their own Dominions in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil in the very sense of the Church of England supreme Moderators and Governours As also that it is more desirable all things of a Religious concern should have the countenance encouragement and example of Authority and the Symphony of Communities Yet still with this condition it is the Birthright of every man to be avowedly and publickly Religious according to those Rules he believers agreeable to the Divine Will Natural Religion being Judg. And that this is according to the very institution of God himself and no way inconsistent with the Laws of subjection to Magistracy or being a commodious and agreeable member of a Community For if there be not such a Natural Freedom there is no way left since that general corruption of Religion in the world for a man ordinarily to reduce himself and induce others to reform themselves and their open profession of God to true and regular thoughts and acknowledgments of God his worship and service and the ways of pleasing him in order to the eternal enjoyment of him For it often falls out in the world that Magistrates and People sit in their Idol-Temple of a false Religion guarded with their Laws for Uniformity environed with their own Canons and Constitutions and threatning severest penalties to any disturber Though we have reason to bless God our lines are fallen in pleasant places yea we have a goodly inheritance of Religion by our Laws which very much bribes our judgment of the Duresse of Impositions in Religion because we only consider it in ceremonies impos'd and do not turn our selves to behold the abominations in other Nations not only committed but framed by a Law But Imposition is imposition in the least things in Religion not natural and opens the way to it in the greatest If it be not therefore before hand taken care of by such an Immunity reserv'd to Humane nature notwithstanding Government and Subjection to Rulers that most fundamental principle of Natural Religion in Piety towards God issuing it self in declarations of his Name Truth and Glory in charity and compassion to the souls of men whose case though not themselves cry out as the man of Macedonia in Paul 's vision Come and help us must lye still as a Talent Act. 16. 9. hid in a Napkin and buried in the earth or must encounter and fall foul with another Law of nature viz. of Subjection and Obedience to Magistrates in their Religious Laws But if their right to command only in and according to Natural Religion the best most honourable and safe command that God thought fit to deposite with men that they should hold the Golden Reigns of Godliness Righteousness Soberness far greater than of ceremonies and safer than of Revealed Religion a chariot too divine for man to govern If this I say be the case men need not cloister Religion in their breast for fear of violating so awful a Sanction as that of Magistracy Nor while they confess it neither afraid nor asham'd of the publick discountenance do any thing injurious to Divine Disposition of power to Rulers If this were not the true natural legal state of things in relation to Religion and Magistrates and the very Ordination of God in Creation concerning them this further grand inconvenience would follow That the most excellent Religion of our Lord and Saviour so careful of all just rights and duty Dividing to Caesar the things that are Caesars and reserving to God the things that are Gods yet that Luk. 20. 25. this Religion came in as it were treading upon the necks of Princes and their Laws and disacknowledging that power entrusted with them by God the power of first Decreeing Religion though it were allowed He intended only the true Religion For it is most evident Christian Religion came into the world against the will of all Humane Powers I know it will be said Our Saviour and his Apostles in regard of their immediate commission from Heaven of which Miracles were their Credentials could not in the least violate Humane Power which falls before the Divine as the lowest Magistrate among us before the Supreme I confess this is most true yet still it is to be consider'd what great care God hath of his Moral Natural Fundamental constitutions and it is not at all to be believed he would in so weighty a concern as Christianity have so far neglected his Ordinance of Magistracy as not at first to have presented that Doctrine and the miraculous evidences of it to the Vicegerents of his power here upon earth that at least they should have been guilty of a peremptory refusal before their deputation in the propagation of Christian Religion had been waved by God I cannot therefore account the Supremacy of Divine Power above Humane the chief reason that God took no more notice not of Magistrates only but of Magistracy it self when he brought in the first begotten and his Religion into the world and that he did not say Let all these Angels of God on earth worship him in the first place We see in all things that could but have the appearance of being under their proper jurisdiction how cautious our Saviour was not to offend as in the case of Tribute though he as a Son over the Temple or supreme Prince was free yet Mat. 17. 24. he wrought a miracle on purpose to defray it Besides the propagation of Christianity was to out-last the immediate commission of the Apostleship and Miracles and to survive in ordinary preaching and discourse while the Princes of the world were yet enemies to it What then does this argue but that the enforcing of true pure Natural Religion only is the
highest elevation is but Created and Created is not firm and sure enough for a Foundation nor can it raise an Assent noble and generous enough for a Faith in that which is Divine All that can be summon'd may be an outward Fortification or Introduction but the Rock of Truth is the Son of God Divinity it self Upon this the Church is built that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it Quest But are there no Parts of Scripture that receive greater Service from Humane Testimony than others Answ There are some Parts of Scripture that are but Ministerial and almost Servile in comparison of others And that these are found in all Authentick Copies and have been delivered down from Age to Age with the Sacred Rolls may depend more upon Humane Testimony especially where the Connexion with the more Divine Parts is not evident For these being but as the Body and some of them of the more remote Parts from the Soul of Scripture cannot sparkle that Divine Light and Heat the Spirit of Scripture does and so may stand in need of borrowed Light from the Superiour Luminaries of Sacred Truth and in many Cases may like the Moon need Reflexions of Light from our very Earth but the Sun of Scripture receives the Highest Testimony by the strongest Reflexions of its own Original Beams Quest How comes it to pass that there are such different Degrees of Scripture-Excellency in the several Parts of it and that it is not one Even Form of Doctrine methodically laid together and of the same Tenour of Discourse Answ In this seeming Disorder appears the great Wisdom and Majesty of Divine Contrivance that without obliging it self to the low and even pedantick Laws of Humane Discourse it raises so great a Record of Truth upon variety of Occasions and by an Infinite Foresight predetermining to it self the several Measures and Ends of Scripture raises them out of a great variety of Accidents and in such an Order as seem'd best to it self for those Ends so as to give easie and ready Advantages to him that runs to read and gather Instructions of weightiest moment and also of quickest and suddenest sally upon his Mind of greatest aptness to fix upon the Memory without loading it and yet in the mean time to lay the Obligations of all Degrees of Search and Diligence to join one part of Scripture to another so as to comprehend the whole Complex of Divine Doctrine and extract the Order of History For by a most natural free and unaffected occasional way all Truths to make wise to Salvation and a complete Sum of all Goodness is to be found in Scripture with infinite Varieties of Address all the ways possible to the Understanding Will Affections Conscience Memory Imagination suited to all Capacities States Conditions full of plain and obvious of most retir'd secret and farthestreach'd Wisdom which no Mind can fully grasp nor Tongue express And with these Things of main Importance runs along such a Chronology of the Dealings of God with the World and especially with his Church as serves the main Design All Learning and Knowledge in the mean time attending with lowliest Submission and not with pompous Appearance Now from this Supreme Dispose of all things to the Ends of God in Scripture out of such a variety of Emergencies of all sorts arises such a diversity of several Excellencies in the Parts of Scripture that yet all meet in that Great Center of the Glory of God in a Communication of his Counsels concerning Man and that turn round those Two Globes that little one of the present World a Point like this Earth and the other that vast Circumference of Eternity Quest But is there not as great a difference arising from the various States and Conditions of the Writers of Scripture and the so different Periods of Time they were upon Answ That there is and must needs be a difference is undeniable yet to the great Glory of Scripture and assurance it is from God even those smallest and lowest things last spoken of are all treated with all the Purity Gravity becoming the Penmen of the Holy Spirit and with all the Usefulness their Nature can extend to Even so the Holy Men used by God in this Service how various and differing soever in their several Ages and Times of writing in their Circumstances of State and Condition in this World High Low Rich Poor Learned Unlearned how distant soever in their Times of Writing in the outward Forms and Modes of their Worship of God in the Things that fell under their Account and Relation before the Law under the Law in the Days of the Messiah after his Death yet there is the same Spirit Scope Chastness of Style Majesty and Authority in the Contexture one Aspect upon the Glory of God Obedience to him Desire of his Favour as the whole Happiness of Man the same Reflexions upon the great Evil of Sin and the consequent Misery and even of their own Sins So that where any Combination or Conference to concert things was impossible yet there is such an Union without a set Uniformity as assures the One Hand of the Divine Spirit and Guidance upon All. Quest Is not the Church of God the Trustee and Depository of Sacred Oracles Answ It is so in Divine Ordination and the general Course of Providence but yet it adds nothing to them but receives all from them The Church is known to be the Church by the Scriptures not the Scriptures by the Church except declaratorily only The Church is the Pillar and Rest of Scriptures where God is pleas'd to fix them that they may be exposed to Publick View but their Authority is of God evident in themselves Quest Do we then attribute nothing more to the Church in which we were Baptiz'd and received the Knowledge of Religion Answ A very great Favour it is of God that when he writes up the People he counts that we were born within his True Church where all the Springs of Salvation run but as to the Proof of Religion or the Records of it it can be no more than a Private Proof For till we make a true Judgment by what is Divine and Publick and of God in the true Church it does no more than equal other Societies walking with Confidence and Assurance with great Awes and Devotion in the Name of their God in the Profession of their Religion Till therefore there is a Trial of every Religion and the Records of it all such Societies are upon the same Level When the Religion and Oracles of every Religion come to be tried and duely examined the Church of God rises to Heaven and all else except so far as they joyn in any Parts of the same Truth sink down beneath Quest But how can we know that every Book of Scripture is Scripture but by the Testimony of the Church or that we have all the Books of it but by the same Testimony Answ That the Books we own
by Faith and Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God It is the sword of the Spirit that is to make the way and not the sword of the Magistrate that is to cut it Christianity substantial fundamental Christianity hath the best claim to the Edicts of Principalities and Powers for it there being no other Revelation except that in the world but what is counterfeit and spurious no other Religion so inducible upon truly Natural Principles and in Christianity it is the substantial Christianity not every nice Dispute or Definition much less additional Mode or Ceremony that hath this claim And yet notwithstanding such a claim I make doubt whether ever any sober Christian would wish Christianity propagated with Force much less with Blood and Cruelty like the Popish Conversion of the Indians I believe no true Christian no truly Protestant Christian ever did desire it or think it agreeing with Christianity And let not the Compulsory Laws of Jewish Religion plead a coerciveness for the Christian upon the Reason that a better Religion more deserves it for First The better the Religion the better Methods of introducing and recommending it are desirable as much therefore as Instruction excels Brutish Force as much as sincere Compliance of Judgment Reason and Understanding excel Hypocrisie and feigned Conformities as much as Divine Impulses and Suasions of the Holy Spirit excel the Power of Laws enforced with Penalties or being of the Religion of the Prince for Mode Compliment or Preferment so much ought the way of introducing men into the most excellent Religion of Christianity exceed and surpass all other ways that can be devised to draw men to any meaner Religion than it and as much easier may be the effect In Natural Religion men are not to be drawn into it they are created with it they are and must be of it and are only punished for not acting suitable to it In Revealed Religion their own judgment and choice moved by suitable Arguments both enters and retains them in it though as I have before observed the case of the Apostate from main Christianity arguing an offence against Natural Religion may be of a different consideration Further In the Jewish Religion the immediate government of God that liv'd as a Prince in the midst of them made their case different from any other that ever was in the world their Messages from Heaven being so immediate and distinct their consultations in cases of doubt with the Divine Will being so near at hand and the Evidences of all being so clear and undoubted that the sensibleness of them equalled the very assurance of the Laws of Nature The Objections that I can foresee against this Argument lye these two ways If the Laws of Nature are so clear and evident how comes it to pass there is so great a darkness and ignorance in multitudes of persons yea in Nations concerning these Laws And yet how much less is the Obedience paid to them And lastly how comes it to pass there never was such a Concord and Agreement in them In Answer to this I should only briefly rejoin these two things 1. That notwithstanding this there always hath been and will be such Evidences of the Truth Righteousness Reasonableness and Naturalness of these Religious Principles that no more can they be banished out of Humane nature than the Notions of Health Beauty Happiness can be extinguished in the world notwithstanding all the disease variation from the exact model of Beauty and lastly the Vnhappiness Misery and Complaint so universal in the world so that though there is not any Example of the perfection of any of these in this world and very great and general Deficiencies from them yet the Notions of every one are whole and intire and such representations and approaches to what we mean in them are so visible as to take away all doubt of the things themselves and of the desirableness of them even so it is in this Natural Religion 2. The whole disadvantage then of Natural Religion objected must be imputed to the miserable depravation of mankind to that degree that the most excellent things so lose their effect as even to seem to lose themselves yet still they remain and so remain as to require and even exact their acknowledgment and so demand that due effect and that so powerfully that the justice of the demand pressed home cannot be denied and thus it is in Natural Religion 2. Object It may be objected fâ—r the enforcement of Revealed Religion by severities That when the Reasons of it are laid before men as of the true Christian Religion lying in a straight and even line from Natural Religion to it it can only be the Brutishness and Obstinacy of men that they do not receive it which may be justly punished as against the Laws of Nature and the interpretation of Punishment shall be not as intended to compel them into the Christian Religion but to chastise their Beast-like Senslesness or Obstinacy In Answer to this I would re-enforce these three things 1. As to the main of the Objection there is so great a difference between Naturals that will certainly rise up at earnest and vehement summons being within already though they may lye hid and deep and what is purely from without and must enter through those multiform Meander'd twisted and twined passages of mens Vnderstandings and intellectual Belief through varieties of Tempers Educations Principles men have most convers'd with and rivetted their whole souls into that it is impossible for any but God alone who searches the heart to know where the guilty obstruction lyes when the screws of truth and the receptacles of mens minds do not reciprocate and answer one another where the key of Truth and the wards of mens thoughts so dissent as not to be reconciled so that this must be left for ever as to Divine Omnipotency in the efficacy so to the Divine Judgment where the fault is of mens not receiving what is so graciously offered from Heaven 2. Therefore to pretend to judg obstinacy or insensibleness or whatever other faulty Reason we have prepared of mens not receiving the Religion we would impose is to assume Divine prerogative to our selves and to become Judges in His peculiar Court or to contrive an Artifice to cheat an acknowledged Principle viz. not compelling Revealed Religion of its due Obedience and lastly to cloath innocent persons for any thing we know with the Sambenito painted with Devils or Beasts skins wherein they may appear guilty with the disguise we have put upon them though out of that they cannot with Charity be concluded nocent or guilty of those particulars we charge them with All this is to be understood when the offence and the particular offence it being not enough in this case to say there is some offence without special matter charged against Natural Laws is not as evident as in any other case of humane judicature and where the only proof
before God from the guilt and destruction of those that may be yet heinously guilty before God as Jonah's Mariners did from the Blood of that Prophet consigned over to the Sea by his own Sentence Oh Lord lay not this mans blood to our charge who have Jon. 1. 14 done all it pleased thee to command us When Soveraigns and Nations have considered the Wisdom Rationality and Heavenliness of Proposals in Religion and setled upon what they find of the highest Character as the Religion of their Nation by Law to be established to which they allow the encouragement of their publick Honours and Maintanance and taken care for the propagation of it by Instructions Arguments Reasons and good Examples they have done all that God expects from them to do and so have delivered their own souls That which was of their free judgment and arbitrement as proper to them as to families and persons to dispose of their own they have placed as they thought upon due consideration most to the glory of God and the good of the people but to deprive men of their native rights or to punish them in their Persons or Estates who are not Offenders against Natural Religion for the sentiments of their minds of which they have only a humane judgment is not a Power wherewith they think themselves invested of God and so forbear it This is indeed the Religion of a Nation of Men a Nation of Christians a Vertuous an Honourable Government and more hopeful to propagate true Christianity than that which writes its Laws in Blood And this is to Rule over men and not over Beasts bound up as men should be with the cords of a man in Natural Religion in what is beyond that as revealed from God with Bands of Love to serve the Publick Blessed are the people who are in such a case blessed is that people whose God is thus the Lord Jehovah Object 2. What Peace can there be in the world amongst private and particular persons while there are several opinions in Religion how many Disputes and Calumnies and Invectives are continually flying up and down by reason of differences in Religion and how much better are all compelled into Vnion Answer All these evils are but so many Arguments of depraved Nature which creates its own occasions out of every thing and if the mischiefs of Compulsion or the ill state even of those parts of thâ— world where the voice of Religion is all one laâ—â—â—â—ge were cast up I doubt they would be found to ballance the worst that can be charged on differences in Religion But yet Natural Religion and most evidently Christian Religion is most severe and positive against all Strife Envy Railings evil Surmisings and bends men upon Peace Love Meâ—kness Quietness Charity towards all men and especially Christians as is after to be shâ—wn and therefore undoubtedly those evil effects where they grow to excess may be restrained by Civil Magistracy as in any other case and the rather that True Religion so much disowning them they are more inexcusable in that cause than any other for though we find Scripture severe in its language in great cases as St. Paul against the Bigots of the Law yet we must also consider the Infallible Spirit that guided Sacred Writers who alone knows how to direct those sharp arrows and what effect they shall take Object 3. This clips off the Royalty and Prerogative of Princes if they have not the command of mens Sentiments or at least of their outward Actions and Practises in Religion Ans The unjust Enlargements of Earthly Power into the Divine Sanctuary hath been always fatal to Princes Vzziah's rude entrances into it were punished by God with infamous Leprosy Herods Letting that sacrilegious acclamation It is 1 Chron. 28. 18 19. Act. 12. 22 23 the voice of a God not of a man sink into him was presently reveng'd with a dreadful hand of Judgment Humane Power is safest keeping it self within the verge of Divine Institution beyond that though it may seem greater yet it becomes only like a swelling wall the bigger it is the more ready to fall or a tottering Fence expatiating to ruine Their Honour is great in being nursing-Fathers if God had intended Civil Magistracy to govern in any Religion but Natural they should have had as certain Rules to act by as they have in Natural Religion Besides what is the good of being great Masters in Religion except in that wherein God hath shewed every man what is good seeing the greater Judgment waits for such Thus the Apostle James James 3. 1. My brethren be not many masters imposers or prescribers in Religion that is do not affect it knowing we shall receive a greater Judgment Object 4. But it is impossible to govern with any security if Governours hold not the Reins of mens Consciences if they have not the Rule of that Helm that turns about so great Bodies of people which way soever they that have that Pylotry please with what vigor and courage are men animated while the Principles and Rewards of Religion are in their hearts and eyes If therefore the Prince rules not in these his Command is but Cypher Answer 1. Religion is too great and noble a thing to be but an Expedient of Government 2. The History of Christianity assures us no Princes have had more obedient Subjects a more valiant Souldiery than Heathen Princes of Christians True Religion knows its obligation to Government and pursues the Laws of it though that Government hath stood distinct from that True Religion And this is the standing-Rule of Christians Object 5. But what Tumults Factions Seditions have been rais'd under Religious pretences when Subjects have not yielded themselves to the Empire of Princes in Religion Answ These evils as they are falsely pretended by men of turbulency to be for the service of Religion so they are unjustly charg'd upon it There can be therefore no severity too great upon those that so abuse so excellent a thing But the sâ—mâ— care that secures against ambition sedition rebellion in one shape will do it in another without taking away lawful liberties Nor is there any remedy so specifick against the great Hypocrisie of covering Rebellion with Religion Faction with Faith as the severest Regiment of men according to the indisputable Laws of Natural Religion and allowance of the greatest Tolleration in what no way contradicts that For then is the artifice strongest when it is planted in the oppression of mens consciences so great an illegality against Natural Principles Take away severe Impositions and what have such Politicians to work upon Object 6. But what a Hydra a many-headed Monster of Opinions will Religion become by such a Toleration Answ 1. Severe Natural Religion enforc'd and strictly pursued will so rebate mens corruptions besides the hopes and expectations of Divine Blâ—ssing accompanying so vertuous a Government that there will be a much greater retrenchment of Opinions than can be
Rome and the Reformed Churches Although I have a just value for all those renowned labours of the great lights God hath raised up in the Protestancy a very rational and Christian entertainment of the Writer and Reader Yet I must profess the unshaken Assurance I center upon in all those Controversies is a short Conclusion of the matter That Romish Religion not only is not but cannot be true it is impossible it should be of God if Scripture and our Faculties are true if Natural Religion or Christian Religion that we have in the Scriptures be true And this I take to be a ready and sure Antidote against Popery to all that are equally concern'd to know which is the True Religion Catholick Religion falsly so called Popish Religion or Protestant Religion though they have not opportunity to acquaint themselves with all the Learning so plentiful so valuable at this day in the world for the decision between them 2. That great Principle of Natural Religion Hear Oh Israel the Lord thy God is one Jehovah and Thou shalt love Deut. 6. 4 5. the Lord thy God with all thy soul with all thy mind with all thy might and strength And that great Principle of Christian Religion If any man love not the Lord Jesus let 1 Cor. 16. 22. him be Anathema Maranatha these two joyned together assure me beyond doubt Our Mediator upon whom our Love Trust Service is to rest and that at such a distance as is Heaven from Earth cannot be but the One God with the Father and so I am resolved in the Socinian Controversie And further if he be the Eternal Son of God and his offering up the Humanity united to him a sacrifice I know it must be of infinite value and not a martyrdom not an example only 3. By Natural and Christian Principles united I am convinc'd the great foundations on which the Controversies between the Arminian and Calvinist as we use to express them rest must have great truth on both sides but they being related to those judgments of God that are as a great depth it is impossible to find them out to perfection for how can Finite wade in Infinite without being swallowed by it We need not therefore stay till these two things can be reconcil'd in our Judgments the infinite soveraignty and dominion of the Almighty over every particular immortal spirit that he hath made so that it cannot be dispos'd of or dispose it self without the counsel and foreknowledg of God and yet that no one is prejudg'd by any determination of God in the true liberty of a rational creature much less determin'd to sin and misery upon it by any over-ruling power We may safely with respects to both sides be profoundly abased in the sense of Incomprehensible soveraignty over us in a self-condemnation wherein soever we find our selves degenerate and fallen into sin as knowing our destruction of our selves Nor need we stay till supreme grace and our own free-will are reconcil'd in dispute we may safely on both sides make our humblest and most lowly appeals to him that worketh in us both to will and to do We must do so and are under the same security and obligation in stirring up our utmost Phil. 2. 13. Ezek. 18. 32. powers in turning our selves that we may live in working out our salvation with fear and trembling And all beyond Phil. 2. 12. these two conclusions are but Speculation in which we may imploy and entertain our selves in considering infinite wisdom and glory and searching as near as we dare approve its holy and gracious ways but need not be angry we can't agree in things out of our depth so as to be certain 4. In all the Disputes concerning Forms of Church-Government Modes of Worship we have thus much of resolution from the consent of Christian with Natural Religion Whatever is most substantially good is fittest to be the center of Agreement and Vnion and other things doubtful allowed to particular reason and choice with mutual tolleration and charity As is further to be shewn us under the next Head of Discourse Having now spoken so much of Natural Religion I think it necessary before I quite leave it besides the survey I have taken of it to add these Characters concerning it that it may not possibly be mistaken 1. It is that which depends upon nothing particular but must be the same to all Nations and times it is all essence and hath no accidents or circumstances as it is natural To pray is Natural Religion that is to lift up Desires to God with humility and hope this is and must be the same without any variation to every man in the world Now whatever can be suppos'd to pertain to it if it be not the same every where is not Natural Religion There can be but one nation of a God to all the world there can be but one Justice Sobriety throughout there can be but one notion of sin or of the pardon of it of Judgment to come as they are natural Till you come to Essence you come not to Natural Religion 2. It is that which cannot be demurr'd to but with the failure of all sober reason nor indeed without a consciousness of it while denied I am fully assured no man can deny a God a distinction between good and evil a future state without a strong recoil of the Natural Faculties returning as by an Intellectual Moral Elastick force 3. It is that whereof if any of the Principles be taken away grand inconveniencies and absurdities will follow like taking away light air or water out of the natural world What an infinite necessity is there of God of Prayer to him of Praises of him of his pardoning-mercy since sin of Judgment to come Take away these and universal nature flys in pieces runs every way upon so great a vacuum as the want of any these Principles immediately makes This is Natural Religion and nothing else is Natural Religion but this Having discours'd what a foundation of Vniversal Peace Christian Religion hath laid in not only assuming to but uniting with it self Natural Religion I shall come now to present as in perspective Christian Religion it self and shew the admirable contrivances for unity peace and love it hath found out and most earnestly prest on all its Disciples so infinitely wise reasonable and good so efficaciously insinuated so strongly argued and enforc'd so awfully commanded so to the life the very Divine life of it even Hypostatiz'd in our Lord that it is indeed the inexpiable shame and guilt of the Christian world that it is so unlike the Divine Philosophy the Laws the grand Exemplar of it That I may pursue this Intention with greatest advantage I shall propose under several Heads how this design is laid by the infinite wisdom of our Saviour much different from what is ready on all occasions to offer it self to Humane Imagination that is Vnity in Vniformity without which as
Christianity have found it most to their advantage of Edification to unite with such a Congregation of Christians All these or any of these may create an obligation to such conjunctions But because the hottest disputes in relation to Christian Practise so as to conserve Peace and Order have risen in this very juncture of particular Societies of Christians I will endeavour to settle upon an indisputable state of things and leave out what is more intricate and controversal that we may see how far the Laws of Christ extend here to Love and Peace in these following Assertions 1. That Our Lord hath given Rules for such Holy Grave and Honourable Societies under the name of Churches as must needs invite all of the same excellent Christian Temper into their Communion according to the opportunities they have to joyn with them their Doctrine Worship and Practice so Pure and Heavenly so evidently for the good of mens souls so composed to all true Decency Prudence and a Discipline so Humble Natural Strict only to the truest benefit of those that are under it that it cannot look like a secular Dominion but for the service of Faith the help of Joy the safety of Souls and their eternal Interest This I am sure every one will yeild is the Frame and Constitution of a Christian Church let it be found whereever it can be found Let every Church see to it self whether it be so Tempered and Constituted or not How then does it seem possible that when there are such Societies Christians should not fly to them as the Doves to the windows seeing Christianity improves the sociableness of Humanity into the truest publickness of Spirit and desire to enjoy Good with more than in solitude 2. It is the express Command of Christ and his design in all his institutions that there should be such Assemblies of his people and servants for the Glory of his Father for his own Glory for the Salvation of his People for Divine worship for the discharge of the several Duties of Christians for the Communications of their Gifts and Graces so that the forsaking of the Assemblies of our selves together as Heb. 10. 25. the manner of some was is very little distant from Apostacy it self How can there then be but Churches where there are Christians seeing so much of the concerns of Christianity lye therein and who indeed possess'd with those concerns does not rejoice in them and bless God for his unspeakable Gift in the Constitution of them 3. Yet is there no Law of Christ that main force should be us'd upon men to bring them into any Assembly of Christians at all much less into one rather than another especially when the main Reasons or Motives of uniting with Assemblies according to the Laws of Christ present themselves to mens Apprehensions and Consciences more in some than others Indeed mens over-zealous Affectation of some and unworthy neglect of others as one for Paul another for Apollos another for Cephas another for 1 Cor. 1. 12. Christ as if these Ministers by whom they believed were to set up for themselves as Heads of Christianinty and to rival Christ himself as if but upon the same level with them was very justly and severely chastiz'd by the Apostle but a true value for all the Stewards of Divine Mysteries and 1 Cor. 4. 1. Churches and a particular value for those Pastors and Congregations wherein God hath vouchsafed especial Blessings for mens Souls or gives opportunity to receive such is very agreeable to the Gospel as the Apostle though he refus'd undue measures of Honour yet assumes that of being 1 Cor. 4. 15. 1 Cor. 9. 2. a Father as above thousands of Instructors Christianity and the Ministry of it being so Holy and Humble a state that no one acting according to it either Arrogates or Envies so he that hath much of the Honour of it hath nothing over or above the measure of a Steward and he that hath least should have nothing under that measure if he be found Faithful So the Congregations have the equal Glory of being of the Body of Christ and Churches to be little Representations of and imbodyed with his own Catholick Church in the grand Vnion of all Christians with the Head Here then is the ground of Christian Peace and Union in Churches 4. It is a Principle in Nature and much Confirm'd and Exalted by Christianity that the Worship of God and the Salvation of mens Souls should be made as Publick and Vniversal as may be Go Preach the Gospel to every creature and Baptize all Nations was the very Commission Christ gave to his Apostles and first Embassadors and is continued to all his Ministers to the end of the world not of Mat. 26. 19. the world of that Age only but to that end of the world which is till his second coming until which he hath promised his presence The Great Congregation is the most natural Receptacle of Divine Truth the state of Religion under the Gospel is rarely spoken of especially when declared Psal 100. 1. 117. 16. 1 c. in its Magnificence with a less Publick Character than All People All Nations All Lands the Round World in its whole Circle from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same All the Earth True Religion aspir'd to it even under the narrow Dispensation of the Law and in this very sense it is most true that the Apostle said in his time The whole Creation groaneth and travelleth in pain until Rom. 8. 19 c. now and the earnest expectation of it waiteth for the Adoption the Manifestation of the Sons of God to be gathered together under the whole Heaven Nor will some of every Nation satisfie the full intention of this Magnificence but that Nations as Nations imbodyed and Kingdoms as Kingdoms shall become the Lords and his Christs is the plenary sense of the Divine Spirit when even as of Israel an indisputably National Church God shall say of Heathen Nations as of Egypt and Assyria known to Israel so well and known so well as Rankly Heathen and therefore chosen as Representatives of the whole Heathen world Yet of these God shall say Blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the work of my hands and Israel Isa 19. ult my inheritance for in that day Israel shall be but a third with Egypt and Assyria and there shall be a High-way through them All and they shall serve together there shall be a free passage of Truth through All. A High way of the Gospel throughout and an Vnion of Worship So then if we find so much for a National Religion in the Prophecies of the times of the Gospel in the Old Testament which grasp more than those passages in the New Testament which relate to the then matter of fact only if our Saviours Commission for making disciples and preaching the Gospel extend to all Nations if the Prophetick book of the New
Testament the Apocalypse foretel the kingdoms of the world in the very state of Kingdoms becoming the Lords and his Christs All these things argue a great encouragement of Nations receiving and making a publique profession of the Gospel as Nations even as Families may and ought as Families And though it be undoubtedly the great Honour and Glory of Nations to come as near and as exact and close as may be to the Laws and Order of Christ in the Government as in the Constitution of their National Christianity yet because there will and generally falls out to be a mixture of National Customs in such publique Administrations a Comprimise of them to the Laws and Government of Nations hence it also comes to pass there may be a dissatisfaction in many of the subjects of such Nations to comply with their National Constitutions of Religion Hence there is apt to arise Discomposure and Disquiet if Princes or Powers exceed that exercise of Power allotted to them by God as we have before discours'd and also by the very essential constitution of Christianity seeing Christ hath made none Lords of his peoples Faith or Divine Worship and Princes are no more than Nursing-fathers The quiet therefore and peace of Nations is most advanced by setting up nothing in Christianity but what is absolutely necessary according to the Laws of Christ and yeilding the tenderest and opening the most bountiful hand to the professors and Ministers of essential Christianity Covering all the faulty divisions of Christians with their Royal and compassionate PVRPLE This is most Princely Generous and Great this is most exalting of Christianity it self But if this cannot be obtained the next Best and that which is indeed as I have already made out but Just is That no native Rights and Liberties be defaulked nor punitive oppressions inflicted but that the Honorary Rewards of Nations and Princes be adjudged to men who are of the Publique Sentiment in their Administrations in Christian Religion And this indeed cannot be excepted to it being the Right of National Powers to dispose of their own according to their own Reason and Judgment Yet is there still an obligation upon Christian subjects beyond these Considerations to examine all things with the greatest prejudice for and on the side of the National sense especially when they find the substantials of Religion secure and in safety and besides their private adjustments of Christian performances in particular Societies according to the exacter Rules of Christianity as they are Judges for themselves to encourage also promote and as far as possibly they can communicate with National Religion putting the fairest and kindest interpretation and Hope upon all things tolerating all that can without disobedience to God be tolerated observing Rites and Customs of Nations as far as they can with security from vain worshipping of God by the commandments of men both because of the Honour Christianity gives to Magistracy according to Natural sanctions and also and more especially because of the esteem Christianity hath of a Publique and National Religion Let me then resume upon the whole matter And it plainly appears Christianity notwithstanding the Freedom it allows to every man's conscientious sentiments is no Enemy but a Friend 1. To Society 2. To the Order and Peace that bind Society Yea and strictly commands them and hath given positive Institutions for them 1. For first It unites all its true disciples in that common ample universal center of Love Peace and Order God and Christ to whom the first dedication of a Christian is made and in whom it always rests 2. It unites them with that most publique wise rational and most holy Assembly under Heaven the Catholick Church even all that are that one Body acted by that one Spirit united in one Hope one Faith one Baptism In all which every Christian being one with the whole desires and rejoyces in the encrease of that one Body the advancement of that one Faith communicates in the prayers and praises of that one Body sorrows in its Afflictions ministers to its necessities and if opportunity be offer'd communicates in Spiritual Gifts and Services with any member of it and values not their particular Rites as any obstruction while they agree in Essentials And indeed every Christian should be suffer'd to drop that Mantle of Ceremonies as he pleases when he ascends in holy offerings of himself â—o God 3. 〈◊〉 to particular Societies or Churches of Christians in whiâ—â— the Essentials of Doctrine and Worship are preserved uncorrupted and so they must be or else such Societies deserve not the name of Churches and when they are in such a neighbourhood to the true Christian that he may freely enjoy his choice he considers these two both recommended by the Word of God 1. Private particular Congregations that cannot conform to publique settlement such must needs be the first Churches when Christianity had no publique allowance such may be still 2. The most publique Settlement of Christian Religion and wherein he may do it he uses both promiscuously wherein he must divide he considers upon the Ballance of his most humble and impartial judgment which tends most to the glory of God to publick edification as well as his own and so as not to do evil that good may come If he chuses that which is more particular as best according to his Sentiment he is yet careful to do all he does with the greatest vigor of Charity Inoffensiveness and desire of promoting of that publique worship as it contains the Essentials of Christianity If according to the sincere sense of his mind he prefer the publique Appointment either as publique and in that regard overweighing smaller doubts and so taking the best advantages afforded therein as to all the Duties particular Congregations seem most adapted to or that the whole composure of the publique is most agreeable to his Sentiment he considers the more private as being of the same body and cannot be severe to the Retirers thereto knowing every man hath the proper sense of his own mind and what Essentials Christianity consists in and therefore would not forcibly hale any into the publique but remonstrate to them as he sees reason with mild and Christian arguments the disadvantage of separating from it beyond plain necessity 4. In the differences of judgment of publique Societies and private in relation to one another or the differences of private among themselves the true Christian still keeps himself upon that Love Mercy and Peace Christianity teaches him and in the midst of those diversities considers the higher tyes worth and value of those Vnities wherein they all meet 5. If a Christian fall into such places where the Essentials are corrupted he esteems Religious solitude the best Communion yet refuses not to improve any thing of Truth he can extract from such Corruption or if there be any parts of publique worship not so adulterated but to admit a possible separation in the exigence of present service
And I am sure this in all Justice Humanity and Reason tends to Peace for what can move to it more than a sole design of doing Good in them that are at the top and an evident Assurance to them that are below that that Good is offered to them and continually â—laborated for them what can more quiet and addulce mens Spirits than to see an inâ—ire Contrivance and Composure of all things to their Eterâ—â—l Salvation as the Apostle did all for the Elects sake that they might be saved 2 Tim. 2. 10. Such Ministerial Rulers are therefore the peculiar gift of Ephes 4. 11. Christ and speak the Magnificence of his Ascension They are given for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying the body of Christ all great ends in a Christian computation and as there were then extraordinary qualifications immediately given by Christ so now there ought to be such in the ordinary methods of Divine blessing upon Reading Study Meditation to which they that desire to serve Christ in the Ministry are wholly to give themselves that their profiting may appear to all Church-preferments as we call them and Ecclesiastick Dignities are often otherwise bestowed and serve other ends and yet too very often the Donors design these excellent ends and when they are otherwise intended yet are in many instances over-rul'd by God into great subserviency to these ends by the excellent Abilities and Labours of Holy and Learned Ministers of Christianity But be those things as they are under human Dispose as they fall out the foundation of God standeth sure having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his Great ones even his true Ministers And let him that calleth himself by great names in Christs Kingdom see that he make them good by his Service and Ministry Not by serving tables I understand any meaner service than feeding the sheep of Christ A prudent Governour for Church-Orders Rites and Ceremonies a great Improver of Church-Revenues however good they may be in their kind will not rise high enough nor answer the account Not a cunning Disputer a witty Haranguer but a Workman that need not be ashamed rightly dividing the word of Truth is Christs Minister 5. In appendage to this Head follows the Fifth account of the Peaceable Intendment of Christianity to the world and that is The Method of Chastising Correcting and Reforming the known transgressions against the Laws of Christ and they so far as they are stated to the use of after-ages are according to the nature of the offence Admonitions Warnings Reproofs Rebukes Avoiding Rejecting from Communion esteeming as Heathens and Publicans casting out of the Church consignation over to Divine Judgment All these of a spiritual nature fitted to edification and not to destruction 2 Cor. 13. 10. to touch the Conscience to affect the Mind to work self reflection shame self-condemnation repentance and amendment or else Divine Judgment must be awaited It is the Rational as well as Christian Expedient of purging a Society from the scandal of offendors from Infection and Contagion of keeping it pure and honourable viz. to disavow them when gentler means are ineffectual It is a most natural Instrument for Reformation and Amendment and if it do not work so when upon just causes and by an unerring key is not only an appeal to Divine Judgment but a Predamnation I know it is debated by Learned men Whether the Apostolick 1 Cor. 4. 2 1. Rod and delivery to Satan did not operate by corporeal infliction as in Ananias and Sapphira and possibly in the Incestuous person in a lower degree I will however allow It did or might yet sith it was extraordinary it was immediately from heaven much more convictive of conscience than human processes wherein are often found much of mistake and injustice It was without noise or violence nor did it allow recrimination and complaint and therefore much more fit to go along with so spiritual Doctrine than Worldly Judicature and possibly necessary for primitive times to give authority to the Doctrine of Christ newly set out in the world So that still here 's none of that barbarous hurting or destroying in all Gods Holy Mountain and most probably the infliction fell upon those that were guilty of great offences against Natural Religion Acts 5. 1. Acts 13. 11. 1 Cor. 5. 5. 2 Cor. 12. 21. Chap. 13. 2. 1 Tim. 1. 20. as Ananias's falshood of the deepest dye Elymas his Sorcery the Incestuous Corinthian those that had not repented of their Fornication Lasciviousness and Vncleanness Hymeneus and Alexander who had put away a good conscience and then broke out into Blasphemy 6. The peacefulness of Christianity is most evidently seen in its deportment of it self towards Magistracy of which having spoken much in that which concerned Natural Religion taken into union with Christian I shall only present these following short mentions of particulars wherein Christianity manifestly designs Universal Peace under this Head 1. It every where confirms and assures the Divine ordination of it 2. It states its Power in inforcing all Natural Religion and Goodness In restraining all that is impious and evil 3. It craves nothing of it but to have Justice done it according to those sanctions nor prophecies any thing in the greatest outward happiness of Christianity but that Princes and Nations shall be sprinkled by it and Supreme Princes Isa 52. 15. become its Nursing-fathers 4. It enjoins upon all its servants and professors upon unjust sufferings to return nothing of violence but blessings and prayers for injuries and with patience to resign life it self 5. It interposes not in deciding the bounds between Princes and people but leaves that to Laws of Nature and particular Laws of Nations Compacts between one and the other neither straitning nor enlarging Prerogative neither swelling nor abating Power nor on the peoples side curtailing or stretching Liberty It leaves these things to be disputed in their own Forum to be debated in their own proper Senate For its own sake it moves no Land-marks either way It tears up no sences As it therefore is horrible injury ro Christianity to proclaim as some speak King Jesus to the disturbing Earthly Kingdoms when his Kingdom is not of this world So is it a huge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a grand extreme on the other side and inconsequence to argue from the Commands of Christians sufferings when Human Laws and Regular State-Constitutions adjudged them to such how unjustly soever then indeed no resistance is to be made for the sake of Christian Religion But it is vastly inconsequent to infer hence any man is bound by the Law of Christianity tamely to resign those Rights even those Religious Rights that are establish'd to him by the Fundamental Laws and Statutes of a Nation wherein the whole Power of Kingdoms and States Princes and People have concurr'd For Christian Religion as Christian Religion undermines no Laws whether for Princes
prerogative or peoples Liberties but leaves every thing as it finds them to their own just rights according to Law and if it self come to be one of those Rights It doth not repeal from any the Legal Right of it self which is the greatest and surest Rule that a Religion can guide it self by not to disturb but to extend peace to the world The Prince the People being for it or any thing it teaches or does most secure of their own interest though it fall out oftentimes to the greatest sufferings of its servants in all worldly Interest even loss of life it self and that with all circumstances of painful dying which yet it is able to râ—â—â—mpence in the resurrection of the just that better resurrection There remains nothing to compleat this whole Discourse of the excellency of Christian Religion in the Foundatioâ—â— of Peace it lays but the Universal Goodness Holiness â—urity Mercy and all the most generous fruits of thâ—se it is so concerned in and enjoins with so much absoluteness the heavenly and eternal glory it directs the earnestness zeal and highest ardor of all Christians upon so that while they are in the way of well-doing seeking honour glory and immortality they have all the arguments of love and peace working within them and governing all their outward Actions But I have so every way prevented my self in this part that I shall not at all further pursue it but recollect this whole Discourst into the Conclusion of it And in the first place it carries upon this very sad and melancholy Contemplation The so great and nice preparation of Natural Religion of Christian Religion for the peace and quietness of the world How monstrously unsuccesful hath it been among men What great Heats and Disquiets have Differences in Religion been still both the true and unpretended Occasions and the pretended only and counterfeit Causes of in the world What Blood and Cruelty what Slaughters and Massacres what Exquisite Torments and Artifices of Barbarity have been call'd for Contrived and Executed in this Qâ—arrel On one side men have made Religion a cover and shelter for Sedition Rebellion Commotion and Change of Government perfectly against the whole design of it On the other side Wordly Powers have charg'd all offers of a Religion never so true never so peaceable as if it was bringing out the Engines of Destruction for the blowing up States and therefore judg'd most reasonable the Authors and Proselytes of it should be pursued with severest punishments And without any Relation to these Concernments the very different apprehensions in Religion have been thought worthy of the extreamest Hate and most barbarous Persecutions of Racks Wheels and Tortures as if men having destin'd one another to Hell in another world on these accounts thought it but fit the Hell should be begun here or else which hath been sometimes a pretence for this savage method they would pull them with violence indeed out of that fire or save them from those flames yet so as by fire cruelly forcing them thereby into the Religion of their Judges Now how contrary this is to the nature of True Rational or Christian Religion I have all along shewn But however multitudes of the Votaries of Religion whether true or false have with incredible patience and oftentimes with joy and triumph embrac'd their sufferings and gloried in their death and torments esteeming their pains Martyrdom a name of honour in this world and of great expectations in the world future So that a very considerable part of Story is fill'd up with great undertakings upon account of Religion with the severity of Laws against any thing strange or innovated in the profession of Nations and the Martyrologies of those that have suffer'd for being otherwise perswaded Now if a man values and estimates things by this worlds peace happiness and quiet he would be ready to praise and applaud Atheism and Irreligion and wish there never had been the name or notion of any other in the world to give origin to so much mischief and injumanity Especially considering the Christian Religion the most excellent tender Religion most compassionate of Humane Nature most Clear Intelligible Rational Vertuous freest from Ceremony most aliene from Superstition most modest and humble most submissive to Government at its first entrances into the world endur'd the whole weight and body of malice and cruelty against it was sown in the Blood and grew up as from the Graves of the Confessors and Martyrs of it being first founded in the death of the Author though he indeed gave proof of the Truth and last issue of it in a Glorious Resurrection And since it hath possess'd it self of the acknowledgment and Authority of Thrones Princes Laws and Governments Baptiz'd whole Nations into its profession it hath been most strangely perverted from its whole design and intention into the same instrument of Ambition and Cruelty upon the various accounts and occasions that Church-History and other Chronologies swell and labour in the Relation of Yea even small and valueless things if weighed upon its own just Ballance have yet given fury to the greatest Animosities and Dissentions which have not been washed off but in an Ocean of Blood In sum this of all Religions hath been first most persecuted hated and oppos'd by Grandees and Chiefs of the world in its first approaches to the world and since by the several Dissentions within it self been the Field of Blood made use of sometimes by design sometimes by angry power but so as that the purest and most sincere Professors have been mostly dyed in their own gore so that by the same standard of worldly interest next to Atheism and Irreligion Antichristianism or denial of Christian Religion would seem next to be chosen But when we more wisely and justly apprize the mighty and unconquerable Reasons for Religion in general and the particular vast and momentous Arguments for the reception of True Christian Religion it must needs lead us to other much more serious and reconciling Considerations And who that is a Grave Thinker having been first put into an amaze then into the most melting and relenting Commiserations that the world should be so unhappy in that wherein its greatest happiness consists that there should be such deplorable instances of rage and even Hellish cruelty that cannot be drawn out or exprest in any suitable and condecent language upon the account of that Religion that professes every where of it self it came not to destroy mens lives but to save them even then when the mistaken Zealots of it would have had Fire from Heaven in a present revenge upon those that would not receive the most compassionate founder of it the greatest lover of Humane Nature that ever was in the world Who I say that ponders these things would not set himself to find out the causes of these evils and sadly bethink himself how they should so generally fall out among Christians themselves And indeed he
Religion in the Word of God as I have proved 2. The Errors suppos'd in such a National Constitution Now Reformation of National Constitutions in Religion are uncontestably in the Supreme Power of a Nation what then shall we do till these suppos'd Errors of such an account as the High Places are remov'd we must either not worship in consent with our Nation which seems as natural as with our Families and much countenanc'd by the Scripture or we must wait the seasons of publick Reformation in the mean time attending publick Worship and avoiding with all the Wisdom and Prudence we can the Dint of Errors in such a Constitution as we suppose The seven thousand in Israel did not in far greater Corruptions omit certainly all sorts of publick Worship besides the Temple-Worship at Jerusalem and yet bowed not their knee to Baal nor kissed him Gross Corruptions are indeed positively to be refused and abhorred such as those of that time such as those of Popery such as are all though not complete Popery yet too near it lesser Dissatisfactions may be waryly avoided and yet National Religion as far own'd as we can without sharing even in those smaller Errors And it is some relief to us herein that allthough it is evident National Laws cannot bind any mans Conscience in Religion any further than they agree in the sense of that mans Conscience with the Word of God for they cannot save him harmless at the last Tribunal and therefore in no Reason can bind him yet I say it is a relief in that Obedience a sober Christian desires to pay to Humane Laws so far as agrees with Scripture and the regards he would yield to National Religion that he may well take the Benefit of any Connivence or Relaxation of Humane Laws in their prosecution as all men how Conscientious soever concerning Humane Laws do we see every day where the Law is not pressing nor the injury any although it be no other but ordinary common liberty that is restrained for if Authority be not despised if publick Good be not incommoded Humane Laws do not bind the Conscience as Divine Laws do and therefore much less in Religion wherein except Natural their Power hath not a further obligation than as the Conscience is sensible of Divine Authority concurring Thus then a man may without offence withdraw himself from such observances and yet joyn in publick Worship 2. There are the Customs and Vsages of a Nation entring into their publick Administrations of Religion as into other National Solemnities there are their Laws and Appointments of what they think Grave Decent Orderly Rationally promoting the Knowledg of Christian Religion with Condescension to the meanest Understandings of their people and security for some parts of Divine Worship to be certainly performed with that Advantage as Liturgies and reading Scripture and it may be added these things may be intended as Cementations of men in civil Government which is a lawful End if it be a Subordinate End and regulated by the Highest Now though there should be a mistake in all this yet upon the account of National Conjunction in Divine Worship we should Tolâ—rate them to the utmost we can or they may be interpreted into the nature of civil Appointments civil Order and Decency or National Custom For if nothing may be Tolerated if nothing may be favourably Interpreted there is no use of Charity 1 Cor. 13. 7. in those Excellent Acts of it the Apostle Records viz. Charity believeth and hopeth all things that can with any Symmetry to Truth and Discretion be hoped or beleived It beareth all things it endureth all things that can be endured without our own sin though sinful in others as commanding with Rigor or over-esteeming things not necessary 3. It seems by our Saviours Command to his Disciples to observe the Pharisees Precepts speaking out of Moses his chair and yet at other times to beware of the leaven of Pharisees which is expresly expounded Mat 23. 1. Mat. 16 12. of the leaven of Doctrine that a man may joyn in publick Acts of Worship where the main part is of Divine Institution and yet not be so immers'd in the whole but that he may separate between the pure and corrupted parts in relation to himself by his own private act And indeed if a man could not do this I know not how he should join in any Humane peformance as I have noted before or how he should allow his own worship of God seeing he must needs condemn himself in Particulars wherein he allows himself in the general every thing Humane being imperfect I know it may be said There is a difference betwixt evils of unavoidable incursion and those that are fram'd and deliberated into a Constitution But even in this case it appears a man is under no necessity when he joins with the solemn actions of others to take all things in the sense they do when there is a good and lawful account of such actions besides their ill ones There is nothing more abhor'd by Scripture than eating things offer'd to Idols in the sense and with the conscience of those that offer d to the Idols And yet the Apostle allows the freedom of eating things so offer'd and even in an Idols Temple where a Christian has the 1 Cor 8. 10. knowledg that an Idol is nothing in the world and there is not any other in danger to be scandaliz'd or drawn into sin that has not that knowledg and yet is imbolden'd to eat with conscience of the Idol 4. A very great good to be donce or received will recommend to us the use of things unnecessary without an eye to that good and in some cases unlawful and forbidden as appears by what the Apostle says That to the Jew he became as a Jew to them under the Law as under the Law c. that by all means he might save some It appears too by what he did in the Circumcising Timothy by his intending and relaxing his Discourse Act. 16. 3. Act. 21. 26. concerning Jewish Rites It appears by our Saviours commanding the Disciples hearing the Pharisees though they endangered themselves with the leaven so that had it not been for the regard and reverence due to Moses his Chair in all proportion of reason our Saviour had not allowed it And whereas our Saviour was at other times very severe as in the Tradition of washing hands as in the young Mat. 15. 1 c. Mat. 19. 17. Gal. 5 2. 4. 9 10. mans calling him good and the Apostle concerning Circumcision and Jewish Rites it was upon great accounts of preserving pure and safe the main points and design of True Religion and Christianity when they were in danger And this is the first Consideration I have propos'd with the several Branches of it not that I have any thing as the Apostle said to accuse my Nation of by all Act. 28. 19. means to be shun'd with
in Hell If we could suppose a Society designedly united without Religion it would be like the Plot for building of Babel an endeavour of such a part of mankind to set up for its self and its own security as it were in defyance of Heaven A Society united in Civils and crumbled into Sects and Divisions in Religion that is in the main substantials of Doctrine Worship and Practice is a Babel as it was under the curse of Confusion of divided Language A disparagement of Religion which can be as it is indeed Religion but one as if its Name were Legion or as if in fundamental points it could not sufficiently evidence it self so as to be known to be the true Lastly a disanulling the ancient Law of Society which is principally for the Union of Religion so that if men could agree in all things else and were yet divided here it were not true humane society but would want the very noblest part or Principle of it Religion which is as a soul or spirit to it Yet too rigorous and severe a constraint of Uniformity is both to forget humane infirmity that does not allow so perfect an union in this world if a rigid Uniformity be indeed perfection and to forget also that every man is a complete Being within himself and makes a perfect Figure as he is alone and therefore to grant nothing to this consideration is rather to crowd men into a Little ease in Religion than to unite them and so pressing them too strait makes them fly out of that uneasie state for more room and dissolves the union that might else have been But in all the principal points of True Religion Union is so necessary that it stands good Humane society is for the sake of Religion yet in this state of Gods patience to the world Commerce and civil Conversation are no more than Property founded in Grace for then we must go out of the world yet still the supreme and prime end of Society is Religion Society in Divine Adorations is the state of Angels and Saints in Heaven It was designed to be the State of Innocency in this world It is a Law that cannot be repealed It is the perpetual Duty of Man Fallen Nature hath a violent inclination to it so that all societyes consent to walk in the name of some God though mistaken in the right object But the word of God and Christianity as they most clearly reveal the True Religion so the necessity of Union in it The publickness of Religion therefore that it is most choosable for the glory of it to God for the good it does to the souls of men for the blessing and acceptance it receives from God I shall plainly make evident from the reason of Scripture 1. For the Glory publick Religion presents to God it is evident although God in his Son and Spirit is a sufficient Spectator and Witness of and infinitely rich in his own Glory in the understanding of and his own eternal praises of himself so that nothing can be added to him yet it is most evident God is pleased to delight in the publickness of his service and the nearest approach of all his Creatures to him and that not in solitary service but the most conjoyn'd as if infinity received Additions of Glory from the openness and publickness of his Worship which yet we know is impossible But it is the abyss of his goodness that he delights in loving all his creatures and being universally known loved and served by them and that in the greatest Union herein that as he himself is the prime Unity and Universality and this is the perfection of his Being so his Creatures sprung from him may return to him in the same Universality and Unity in resemblance of himself which is the highest and truest worship of him In Heaven there is an Innumerable company of Angels and blessed Spirits in one general Assembly to praise and worship God The Scripture excites the praise of all the Earth of all the world of all Lands of all People Tongues Languages Nations Kindred and Families even the Heaven and Earth and things under the Earth and the whole host of them are called in to concert the Glory of God and nothing left out but Death and Destruction which cannot praise him because never made by him And when the Glory of God as it rises from his Creatures is represented at its highest pitch it is thus set out And I beheld and I heard the voice of many Angels round about the Throne and the Beasts and the Elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb c. And every Creature which is in Heaven and on the Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the Sea and all that are in them I heard saying as it were in one Quire Blessing and Honour and Glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever Thus David also musters up the whole Creation to join in the praises of God not to fill up and adorn the Divine Poesie but to shew the indisputable right God hath to the services of all his Creatures and that in those which are not able to pay it immediately by themselves every wise and prudent holy man is to observe that tribute of praise that is as it were marked upon them by the wisdom that made them and to offer it up for them when the service of God is represented as most glorious in its being most publick Every thing therefore in Gods Ordination of Religion tends to publickness Our Saviour will not appear but in the fulness of his Body the Church which does as it were compleat him For it is in this sense his Complement or Fulness though he fills all in all The knowledg of God would cover the earth even as water does the Sea and is restless till it does so the Preaching of the Gospel is to be extended to all Nations to every creature In Prayer there is to be a coming of all flesh to God Praise is to rise up as one pillar of Incense from the whole world The Church especially is to publish the name of the Lord and to ascribe greatness to our God Now the sense of this is that since God hath been pleased to place his Glory in the publickness of Religion in this Universality of it all good men are zealous and earnest to draw in the publick Societies of the world as much as they can to love fear serve pray to God and praise him together God does not allow his servants that out of choice they should retire to the Religion of a Cloyster or a Wilderness or a private separated Assembly as the greatest honour to him but delights in the most publick Assemblies of his Saints servants and creatures for though the reasons here of lye deep in the Divine
it becomes one great Family I know there may be some exceptions from this description of a Nation which will have their force upon National Religion also as it results from it For sometimes one Monarchy does as it were stride over more Nations sometimes one City or Free Town is distinguisht from the rest of the World by one Government one Civil Interest independent in its Government in its proper Interest upon any other Now in such a Monarchy as contains several People and Nations under it it does not properly give name to a National Religion while their Interests Laws Conversation and Civil Commerce are preserved and kept distinct as these are often allowed to be under some conquering Potentacy On the other side if a narrower compass of people than we properly call a Nation viz. a Region a Province a City hath its Interests its Laws its Government Conversation and Commerce intire to it self it is as to the purpose we are now upon as it were a Nation The sum then is this so far as Humane Society has drawn any People or Families into a close and more compacted state of Civil Interests necessitude one to another and Government running up to the highest point of Government in that compact state so far is the obligation of Union in publick Religion drawn upon them where these are freer that attendance to union in Religion is freer also any further than the common truth of Religion and the obligations of that bind even those at greatest distance and union one with another For thus Religion may and ought to unite all the true Professors of it at what remove soever from one another It may and ought also to pass upon whatever bond of union there is in the world but there is no such union as Laws Commerce Conversation common safety running all up to the supreme Government over that conjunction to graft Religion upon All else is but consent in the same unity of one God one Lord one Spirit one Faith one Baptism which make the Catholick Church one Body and joining with one another presentially in the same acknowledgments of God when a concurrence of all things necessary happens to fall out as cannot be supposed frequent in parts remote one from another and of a divers lip or language The Catholick Church is indeed united as Humane nature is in one and the same true Reason and thereupon a readiness of wise and learned men to correspond one with another at a distance or confer one with another if at any time suitable concurrences favour it or as the world much more the Catholick Church is a Temple built to the Glory of the Creator and Redeemer wherein all good men meet from one end of the Heaven to the other in the unity of the same Spirit and in the same kind of worship and if opportunity allowed in the same actual worship The nearer therefore any parts of the Catholick Church are by the Neighbourhood of Nations by the frequency of Traffick the neareâ— the more frequent the correspondencies are the mutual assistance may and ought to be But now in the Dependencies and Interweavings of all Civil Interests in Nations there are not only those voluntary and contingent correspondencies but such as first grow out of the nature of Humane Society and bind of themselves to common true Religion and then have the favour encouragements directions obligations of Laws and Authority running like the same spirit into all the several parts of a Nation and recommending that National true Religion as it stands in this Union that is first commanded by God besides much more free ordinary Actual Meetings in one and the very same place and Acts of Worship It is true indeed the Worship of God allows our worldly callings and the provisions of the present life and Relation and therefore a Neighbourhood whether it be the more populous of Cities or Towns or the more infrequent of Villages hath the conveniencies of more solemn and stated Meetings the ordinary fit seasons of the Lords-day and other solemn times of worship thereupon National Religion is generally exercis'd in these lesser Societies even as the Justice and Execution of Laws and National Authority must be brought home to men in their particular Countries and Towns and not rest in the Capital Cities at a distance from their daily Business and Conversation and yet the standard of all things National is generally preserv'd there for the very sake of union Even so of National Religion not as Religion for the standard of that is Scripture only but as National so the Agreement in it is deposited with all other National Acts. So that National Religion hath the advantage in these two things First The Naturalness and Closeness of the Union of a Nation to all the Interests of Humane Society and therein it imitates the nearness and closeness of Families or lesser Incorporations as much as can be consistent with the second thing viz The Illustriousness Magnificence Honourableness of Religion as seated in larger Bodies but especially as upon the Soveraignties and Supremacies of the Great Incorporations of Mankind I shall only observe further That All this does most effectually exclude the pretence of an Vniversal Church-Monarchy as hateful in Religion as an Universal State-Monarchy in Politicks and Civil Liberty Both of which are indeed Tyranny The Imaginary Benefits of such sorts of Union are infinitely toilsome and tedious while they are expected and always in the issue found impossible to be enjoyed in their Fruits but in the mean time while the pretenders are labouring for and grasping at so vast a power they fill the world with the lamentable effects of their Ambition and do indeed destroy Humane Society because those Laws and Bands that tye it together being so over-strain'd fly in pieces and I am sure nothing is more contrary to Christianity than an Vniversal Head of Religion here upon Earth except Christ himself with an Ubiquity of Holiness Power and Influence came down to reign upon it An universal Union were indeed desirable and glorious if there were an Omnipresence of Vertues answerable to the Administration but that being too great for any creature too great in the present state of the World Religion and Christian Religion glide along with the Civil Union they find prepared as I shall presently evince beyond which is nothing but Usurpation I come now to the Arguments from Scripture and Reason for National Religion not afforded to any other Figure of Union in it The first Argument shall be that I derive from this prayer I Argum. 2 have chosen to discourse this point upon and I lay it thus The prayers in which Holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost rest upon some great Pillars and Principles of Divine Truth and Argument For particular cases in which they prayed are brought to those general principles by an understanding inlightned to understand in an humble sense even as God understands
then calling out of every Nation Converts into particular Societies and Congregations I shall make an Essay to level the line of them to Nations and Kingdoms as they are united into such Conspicuous and Illustrious Bodies of Mankind with their Principalities so form'd so compacted and not only a Diffus'd Catholick Church or small and invisible Congregational Churches 1. The Kingdom of Christ can no way attain that Greatness which it is prophecyed and foretold it shall attain if it does not allow Nations as Nations to associate themselves in the profession of it if it only gives Right to private and particular Churches or Congregations and a Diffusive Church that can no way congregate which though great in its Spiritual Union yet arises to no visible Greatness but as it moving into all parts of the world congregates it self according to any of the Laws or Advantages of Humane Society it falls into and finds prepared for it The Messiah then can never as is prophecyed of him have his portion divided him with the great nor divide the spoyl with the strong but must rest in a very low and under-condition of small private and particular Assemblies of his servants professing him but a National Christian Religion a Religion as Famous as the name of the most populous Cities and the greatest Princes and their Territories in honour to the Lords anointed must not be allowed no not according to his own Designation For though the Eminency of the Doctrine and the Appearance of God with it does infinitely surmount all created Greatness yet many places of Scripture compare the Honour and Glory of Christ as a Prince over Nations with other Soveraignties and prefer his not only in regard of the Heavenliness and Eternity of it but as it obtains an Interest and Command in the world For it is a Government over Nations as Nations over the Laws and Principalities of Nations and not of one only but many Nations not indeed in the way of Worldly power but Divine perswasion Evidences of Truth and Reason Vertue of Holiness and Goodness are the Scepter of this Kingdom the weapons of this Power and this Mountain shall grow greater and greater till all the Prophecies are exactly fulfill'd in the Soveraignty of Christ and the lowest subjection of all Kingdoms to him the greatest Mountains disappearing and becoming nothing before him when the fulness of the Jews and Nations are come into him Thus it is a Mountain set upon the top of the Mountains not only in the Eminency of its Doctrine but the professed subjection of the Governments of the world that are in Scripture call'd Mountains to it for his Truth Meekness and Righteousness sake But if Nations receiving and flowing into Christianity sink it presently into particular private Assemblies as it was while under persecution and that it should be of no more publique Honour than at such times the Mountain of the Lords house should not be above the Hills but shaded by them and that according to the very Constitution of Christianity it self for the Supremacies stand aloft but the profession of Christ retires into privacies yea the worship of the True God Creator of Heaven and Earth which after the appearance of the Son of God in the world is only in Christ must be so far from being exalted as is everywhere signified that it must be abated and brought low by the Depression and falling down of the Mosaick Frame for then it was setled upon one of the Principalities of the world and though it be now more diffus'd yet if it not only be not but ought upon its own principles to be Established in and upon the publick profession of a Nation It has not nor can have such an Eminency as among the Jews when it had the Awfulness and Majestickness of a Kingdom devoted to that true Worship making it thereby of much greater notice in the World And if Religion may be National even as Nations themselves are united in a way of order so must National Religion also be by order compos'd into its Nationalness and this by the Rules of Scripture and Right Reason But let this be no pretence to that Tyranny in Christian Religion that great Usurpation of Popery for it is a Sacrilegious Displacing the Honour from Christ upon oftentimes a most unworthy Mortal those Princes then that are Minores Coronae that lessen themselves by giving their Kingdom and power to the Beast must needs diminish the Honour of their profession of Christianity seeing they have so far stripp'd themselves of their Principalities that they have them not to dedicate to Christ The retaining their Honour unvouch'd unviolate by any creature and presenting to the Honour of Christianity a Supremacy unprostitute is the true Glory done by Christian Princes to Christianity 2. If there were not the Liberty allowed to Nations to espouse Christianity to their Government and to receive the Honour to themselves of being Religious and Christian as Nations the Condition of Nations were worse than that of the Jews under the Law For now People as in the Body of a Nation may not be so happy as to have the Lord for their God They may not crown themselves with the chief Glory of Nations viz. True Religion Moses we know often magnifies the State of the Jews to themselves in this particular viz. the Excellency of their Religion He uses it as a great Argument that God loved the Nation He told them it was their Wisdom and Honour before the rest of the Nations round about them who had reason to defer to them that they were a great and a wise Nation an understanding people that had such Deut. 4. 8 c. Statutes and Judgments Now seeing Christian Religion hath the undoubted Evidences of Wisdom Truth and Goodness not only so superior to all the Religions in the world as to be the only true Religion but much superior to that under Administration of the True Religion it self among the Jews It must needs be the happiness of Nations to enfranchise it as the publick National Religion by the same Authority whereby they make valid any other Law or Act so as to become the act of the Publick And we have reason to believe those many expressions of Ephes Eph. 2. 14. c. 3. 6. 2. 14. c. 3. 6. Breaking down the Partition Wall and admitting all Nations to be the People of God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Body together are intended not only to signifie that they may unite in lesser Congregations but in the fullness of National Associations else they are not received into the same freedoms and immunities that the Jews had nor could Aegypt and Assyria be so equal with Israel that Israel should be but a third with them whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless all alike with no more variation than Aegypt my People Assyria the work of my Hands and Israel my Inheritance Isa 19. We may find Christianity intended to embrace all
Inducements fâ—om Scripture there is the same urgency of Reason for the Day of Judgment passing upon men as in Nations and lesser Communities as upon their single persons for else their actions can never be judged the very complyance with the custom of Nations with the sway of such an Age and time being the reason of many sins and the sinful ways of men are so locked into one another that the Day of Judgment that gives sentence upon all things most righteously comprehends them together even as the Fallen Angels the old World were judged together and in common In Sodom and Gomorrah was given a pre-appeatance of the final Jude 7th Judgment upon the world for the Apostle tellâ— us they were set forth for an ensample and that they suffered the Vengeance of Eternal Fire and we know they suffered in their Community Corah Dathan and Abiram with all their company were involved as in the sin so in the punishment and there is no separation except where Repentance and that with great difficulty hath made it So on the happy side of things Religious Nations and Communities encourage and assist one another in acts of Love Service and Duty to God in Virtue and all Goodness and infold their piety mutually so that on neither side the recompences of Mercy or Justice can be proportioned but as in Community 2. There is the same Reason for the last Judgment passing upon Nations as Nations as for its passing upon private persons as private persons For let any one survey History and he shall find Nations as Nations have escaped the vengeance of God in this world as much as single Persons and the same sort of Revolutions Changes and final Periods have befallen Nations professing God and Christ as those that have been enemies to such Profession as is most apparent in a compare of the Jews or Christian Nations Yea generally those that have been called by the Name of God and Christ have been most speedily punished as those that God hath most especially known of all the Nations of the Earth The Prophet Habâ—kkuk's First Chapter is spent upon this very Subject of that wicked Nation of the Chaldaeans so prosperous above the Jews described in many elegant similitudes and vehemently expostulated from the twelfth verse to the end Whoever shall consider the ancient Romans or the Papacy or the Turkish Empire since the rising of it must needs conclude that to judge Nations as Natiâ—â—â— at last appertains as much to the Paramount Soveraignty oâ—â—â—vine Justice and more than single Persons Nations that have been so great and formidable and Princes swelling with the height of Pride and contempt of God and Religion should in all reason stand in those very Appearances at his Tribunal with their wise Senates mighty Captains Armies and Multitude about them and so be Sentenced and Condemned by the Righteous Judge of all the World the only Potentate the King of Kings Lord of Lords and Prince of Princes even Christ the Son of God in humane Natue else they would not be judged at all as Nations For here neither Love nor Hatred can be known any more to Nations than to single Persons by any thing that is before us There is often one event to all to the Righteous and Merciful and to the Vnjust and Tyrannick Nations to the Good and to the unclean People to them that sacrifice to the True God and to them that sacrifice to Idols There are as many Instances of the severity of God against private particular wicked persons as against such Princes Nations or particular Ages and of his patience and forbearance to the one as to the other There are as great examples of the mercy and favour of God to private particular good men as to pious Nations and Governments and of his severe corrections upon the one as the other The piety therefore and the wickedness of Nations according to their particular Generations equally waits for the last Day even as of single Persons For though there are Periods Judgment sets to it self and when sin is come to its height Judgment stays no longer yet this without a future Judgment will not give satisfaction for the Ages of Prosperity and Greatness the many signal Victories the stupendious Grandeur many very bad Nations and their Princes have arrived at and continued in before the final Calamity hath overtaken them any more than dying at last with great circumstances of pain and horror answers for the worldly prosperity of many a wicked man if after Death there were no Judgment So that especially as to particular Generations there is the same Reason for the Judgment of Nations as of particular Persons 3. If all things were not to be as publickly transacted at the Day of Judgment and to be set upon as open and universal a Theatre as they were acted upon here and that before the Congregation of Heaven and Earth at that day there were not so great reason for an Vniversal Judgment The Privatâ—â—udgment of Souls might suffice Nor could there be any reason 〈◊〉 â—cripture should lay so great weight upon the Resurrection and 〈◊〉 in the very same Bodies at least as to the principal parts and so as that men should be known to be the same persons Why thus If men were not to be presented in the same Circumstances Relations Communities and the most notorious Appearances wherein they conversed and whereby they were most known in the world Let this then be granted and it will rise up to States Governors Senates Princes their Laws and Transactions with the temper of their Times And indeed this setting Persons their places of Habitation their Nation their Times together must needs break out with the greatest lustre of Justice and the Supremacy of Divine Judgment when every thing shall be called to account and represented over again just as it was in this world Things high and low publick and private national and personal but without this all would be dark private obscure and imperfect notwithstanding the gathering all together to that Tribunal For very momentous Causes Circumstances Aggravations or Extenuations of Good or Evil could not be understood The Pride of Sin and Wickedness would not be sufficiently humbled and abased nor despised goodness enough raised and honoured and so would amount to little more than a private Judgment as I said before but Scripture every where instructs us it is the very design of the Day of Judgment to shew and present the whole Scene of things and to seâ— the ballance of them even in all particulars It is the Day not only of the righteous Judgment of God but of the manifestation of it every thing is then composed to shew and Manifestation it is the appearance of Christ whom God will then show in the highest glory of the humane Nature and so that his low despised humbled and crucifyed State shall also be seen and the glory triumph over it to the utter confusion and wailing of
of Christian Religion This being premised I come more particularly to give answer 1. Many of these things that are named as found in the Church of the Jews as a National Church were not yet the Essentials of a Church as National in general but of that particular National Church and typical of things under the Gospel as is plain in the exposition of them in the New Testament and more particularly that excellent Epistle to the Hebrews the Temple the High Priest the Holy of Holies the Altar the Sacrifices the solemn Feasts with such like serv'd only as shadows of things to come and the want of them argues nothing against National Religion 2. Those things that were not Typical or whose main and sole intention was not to adorn and compleat that whole Frame but rested upon Universal Principles of Reason Truth and Duty can never be abrogated but are for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have National hope in God and be obliged in our duty even as they were Thus the duty of Magistrates and people towards true Religion of publick instruction of publick Ministers of Religion of care for places of meeting for Divine Worship throughout a Nation continue still and need no new commands in the Gospel 3. As to the first planting of Churches by drawing Christians into particular private Societies it amounts but to thus much that Christ the Lord of tâ—e Church did not found his Church universal as necessarily diffusing it self into Nations nor could it in reason be so For seeing it was in Divine Providence for great and weighty Reasons of which it is not proper now to speak intended and ordered that hundreds of years should pass over Christianity ere it had the favour and protection of Supreme Christian Magistrates there must have been for that space no Religion or Church if there had been no other Form but National The Church of Christ therefore though it was in those days within Nations Cities Towns and Villages yet of low stature in comparison of National Religion till the Reign of Christian Emperors considerable indeed in it self and its diffusion through so much of the world but not acknowledged by Laws or Governments till long after its first entrance And at all times upon the change of a Christian Magistracy into a Pagan an Apostate an Heretical or Idolatrous Succession or the complex of all Antichristianism which early invaded the Church and even covered and obscured it in succession of time the Church of necessity must fall back into such a low state and subsist upon its obedience to the Law of Christ and its own prudential accommodations to the state of Times without the Magistrates care and protection Our Saviour therefore took care of the Catholick Church which is of absolute Divine Institution which is founded in that promise The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it To which belong primarily all the great and glorious expressions of Scripture to which are given originally Pastors and Teachers to propagate promote build up and strengthen it and shall by virtue of Christs ascension far above all heavens be certainly continued to it till we all come to the unity of the Faith of the Son of God to a perfect man to the full measure and stature of Christ in all his members All other Societies of Christians are but little images and representations of this in these its excellencies and the more they participate of it the more truly are they the Churches of Christ But because this is too diffus'd for one Model for one Frame to comprehend there is therefore allowance given by Christ for lesser Associations of this Catholick Church from the nature of the thing and because of the discountenance of Nations and worldly powers at first and since upon true Christianity Our Saviour therefore Matth. 15. 18 c. expresly fixes the promise of his Divine Presence in the smallest parts of this Church where but two or three are gathered together in his Name he hath assured he will be in the midst of them so that it is hence evident the whole neighbouring discourse centers in the least Assemblies agreeing in Christian Religion For though it supposes first a greater number the Church and two or three Witnesses being contradistinguished yet as it were in prospect of the great fewness upon some exigencies of Christians practising the duties of Christianity together it brings down the promises of Audience in their appeals to heaven and presence with their whole worship and services to the smallest numbers not by way of limitation to but encouragement of so small a number And it is very observable the very same declaration of Christ to the Apostles whose soever sins you remit or bind by the true Doctrine of the Gospel shall stand good in heaven the very same is said here to the smallest Societies of Christians as to their Judgment and determination upon their own members according to the Laws of Christ concerning the offences that fall out among themselves having the same Doctrine to proceed he committed to them even as to the Apostles themselves Churches are Pillars and Rocks of Truth even as the most Excellent Ministers and either or all being no more but Praecones each in their kind or Publishers of the Will of Christ and his Truth declar'd in his Word in the vertue of their being parts of the Catholick Church Now the Reason why our Saviour pitches upon so small a number of Christians agreeing is certainly this because he would appoint no other form to his Church than such as could live as could subsist under any Civil Government whatever whether friendly or unfriendly to it He gave it no other shape but what it might attain and keep under any state of Civil Laws under any enmity it met with in the world And this was most necessary because the Church of Christ was not confin'd to one Nation as the Jewish was whom God in a peculiar manner singled out and manag'd to the state of a Kingdom and Nation by a mighty power and out-stretched arm and conserv'd by the same ruling it with an immediate sensible presence after he had form'd it by precise Laws and setled the just bounds of all Officers in their Office and appointed them the place of the exercise of it whereas the Christian Doctrine being indifferent to every Nation under Heaven it did as it made its progress convert certain numbers to it self at first which had no priviledg of humane Laws or Powers but the edg of all turn'd against it so that the Form of Churches was composed to all the vicissitudes of Providence they were to undergo and that in all reason must be in case of necessity the very least of Societies of Christians Two or Two or Three as our Saviour significantly points upon small Societies for such are most fitted to the worst of conditions that could befall lesser and single bodies moving every way
one view is by St. Stephen as I observ'd call'd the Church and the Congregations after they were become a Nation though they could not all then meet together are call'd the Church also because they were all under one Law and Institution all partakers of the same Rights and Priviledges and so indeed all particular Churches of Christians are but the Catholick Church in lesser Associations as the circumference of Heaven is the same though in so many different Horizons As light is the same though variously modell'd by its several Receptions as the Ocean is one by how many several Denominations soever it be distinguish'd from the shores it washes or the channels or other scituations it rests in so this Church is often spoken of as one Church and as several Churches as the Sea is one and several Seas they being so much every way the same as to differ only in the Universality But whether a Nation united in Christianity may be call'd a National Church having many dissents of opinion appertaining to it and not possible to be decided by express Scripture there being no Christian Nation under Heaven in those days of the New Testament wherein it was written I shall leave wholly in the middle and only observe two Things concerning this Controversie 1. That there can no great matter accrue to either side of it by deciding for or against a National Church For allow a National Church or if you will a Congregational Church agreeing in any thing not agreeing with the Laws of Christ or if either of them wants any thing necessary to our Obedience to all the Laws of Christ In the first of these Cases Christians may and ought to retire from the Irregularities of any such Church either National or Congregational that they may be pure from Corruption In the second Case Christians must find out the ways and opportunities so far as is possible whereby they may perform all the Duties commanded by Christ though they separate from either of those Churches no further than to those ends But if there be a Corruption in the Main or a Defect in the Vitals of the Doctrine or Worship of Christ in either Notion or Churches that will not be upon due Remonstrances reform'd then if according to the Institution of Christ Christians gather into Assemblies though lesser though but of Two or Three they are assur'd of the Presence of Christ and no inconvenience of Rending the Body of Christ or making Divisions in his Church shall condemn them for the Society deserted is not his Church but the Society that does desert is his Church supposing it retires sincerely in obedience to the Laws of Christ On the other side Suppose a National Church not of the Ordination of Christ in the Gospel as under that Name or Notion yet if that stand good which I have endeavoured to demonstrate that every Nation to which the Gospel is preach'd is bound by the Laws of God establish'd in Nature and by the Laws of God and Christ in his Word to plant true Christian Religion upon its National Union It will be still every Christians duty to joyn in unite himself with encourage and promote all that True National Christian Religion and not to separate from it any further than the Laws of Christ oblige him that he may yield Obedience to all those Laws For it is the absolute Duty of every member of a Nation to seek the Eternal Salvation of his Nation in his sphere as the Apostle Paul did of the Jews in so high an Orb when he profess'd his great heaviness and sorrow of heart even to the wishing himself accurs'd from Christ and prayed with his hearts desire they might be sav'd On account of which in so many things he became to the Jews as a Jew and wrote that Excellent Epistle to the Hebrews It being for that very Reason to me most probable it was his that he might make good all those great professions of Love to them for though it was peculiarly directed to the Christian Hebrews yet it had an aspect upon the whole Religion and people of the Jews as the scope of Adjusting all the Mosaick and Jewish Law to the Gospel-Mediation makes plain and so was in it self most proper for the Conversion of that Nation as a Nation seeing their own'd and gloried in National Religion truly understood led to the Christian Religion justly now to have been their National Religion if they had yielded obedience to their own Laws rightly interpreted Now if National Religion be an undoubted obligation upon Nations and the members of Nations so far as it is true Those Laws those Officers that are though not ordain'd by Christ yet not contradictory to his Ordination but necessary according to Rules of Right Reason to the Establishing True Religion as National must be submitted to also upon the account and for the sake of that True Religion as National But if National Religion wander from Truth that Fundamental Liberty establish'd by Scripture and Laws of Nature must be always preserv'd that I before asserted as giving Right to retire from all Societies not united in Truth according to the Degrees of their defection from it But for the further justifying National True Religion I will in the next place observe from Scripture the Uses and great Ends of Churches and see how far National Religion may be accommodated to them For Churches are not therefore appointed that men may Arbitrarily and Fancifully chuse which or what sort they will be of but that the true Reasons and Purposes of them may be observed and complied with and they are these Three 1. That there may be a Generation of men in the world in the same Faith and Worship of God in Jesus Christ according to the Scripture however dispers'd at whatever distance soever remote yet united in the same Doctrine Prayer Preaching Praising God in the Sacraments and if opportunity allows and invites it in the same actual Worship and at all times closely compacted in a virtual and mystical Communion with one another the same spirit running through all uniting all to Christ and God and one with another joyned in the same love and sympathy of joy in the prosperity and of sorrow in the afflâ—ctions and sufferings one of another and with all readiness in yielding the fruits of mutual Charity Mercy and Compassion from one end of the earth to the other every true Christian being the compassionate Samaritan to every other Christian and not Jewishly distinguishing his mercy to his own Sect Party or Church and in cases of corruption and defection from the Laws and Word of Christ there is to Christians a mutual power of remonstrating against those corruptions and that defection by arguing expostulating censuring the evil of them yea and Authoritative denouncing the Judgment of God and Christ upon them for that Charter of Christs to the true Preachers of the Gospel to the true Churches stands good as to Ages so to
publick too as it may be The duties of Pastors and Teachers towards the people and of them towards those that are so over them in the Lord which consist in watchng for their souls as those that must give an account for them and those souls therefore yielding obediâ—nce to those Rules of the Word of God the Administring of which is stil'd a Ruling All these require a particular presence one with another and in such a proportion of number one to another that the principal Duties may not be defeated by the over-number but that the services of all one to another may extend to all may comprehend all may continually pass and re-pass between all and in which all may continually demonstrate their consent and agreement But yet all these things cannot be in bar of a National Religion seeing that a Nation as I have already said hath and undeniably must have a National Union and if True Religion be fixed there and carried along with that Union it may well be call'd a National Religion at least and without any injury a National Church the Agreement in the one carrying also an Agreement in the other makes it so And as in such a National Union though the standard of all things as of the whole state of Law Judicature Trade Business Militarystrength of a Nation be preserv'd in Capital Cities and Courts yet by the care of Government they are all in due proportions distributed as the Blood in the veins by fit Channels to every particular as it were in circuit so the publick agreement in Religion settles the Religious Interest of a Nation more eminently in those things that do most represent the consent of the whole in it yet with due care of every part and member of the Nation to bring it home particularly to them and making the mutual entercourse in it free and open to all persons in all places where they have occasion to pass up and down and maintain an entercourse one with another that wherever they are or have occasion to be they may enjoy the Freedom of publick Worship and National Religion to which at all times they give a knowing and even conscious Vote that agree in it the Assemblies being as it were in view under a sufficiency of Masters of the Assemblies of the Nation together and as National Union does not swallow up lesser or even Family Union no more does a National any lesser Church or Religious Society except by mens own fault And wherever men thus united come in the Nation they gladly lay hold of the opportunity of joyning with any other particular Assembly to which sameness of language and manners give them ready admission besides particular knowledge and that National Religion cannot be so very particular as congregational is no more reason to deny National and rest wholly in Congregational than it is to deny Congregational and rest in Family Religion or to deny Family and rest in Personal Religion because these are each closer than other 3. A third end of Churches comes to be considered that more particularly enforces National Religion and justifies its Nationality viz. That there may be a more illustrious famous and remarkable offer of Religion to notice and observation for the drawing in and congregating others to it Thus a Church is a Pillar and Ground or Seat of Truth and a magnificent House of the Living God And what more advantageous to this end than a Nation united in the True Religion which we know hath greatly the odds of particular Congregations in this Illustriousness and Magnificence nor does this run out yet to the building the Babel of Rome that would mount up as a Tower to Heaven or as too ambitious Pyramids that are often rebuked with Lightning from Heaven for coming too near it seeing as I have before shown such an Universality enforced is destructive to all the ends of publick Religion Humane Society being so bounded by Nations though all the Treaties of Nations of the same True Religion may be managed to give it the honour due to it that can be procurated in such Treaties So much then as National exceeds and extends it self beyond any narrower compass and yet rejoyns it self to and with it self after the manner of particular Congregations so much does it partake of the magnificencies of Scripture concerning the publickness of Christian Religion and the Catholick Church and yet returns into the closeness of particular Churches with themselves and is the just point betwixt the Tyranny Ambition and endlesness of Popish Vniversality and putting Christianity under a Bed or Bushel National Religion and National Union in it is as a city set upon an Hill that cannot be hid as a candle set upon so exalted a candlestick that gives light to all within it self and about it even as far as the Fame of that Nation reaches The Churches much more as rising up into a National State are the Glory of Christ As therefore though we may be in some regard more exact in the most private we go out of our Personal Religion into Family Religion out of our Family Religion into Congregational and as the Christians at first most probably according to the Laws of Humane Society went out of Congregations into Consociation of Churches in Religion so we out of all these where National Union in true Religion allows it go into that National State that we may build the honour of Religion to the highest in so sensible and understanding a Consent and Union in it so publick an acknowledgment of God and though hereby it be as a Net that draws in bad as well as good even visibly and apparently yet when we consider the possible care against it in particular Congregations though still National when we further consider the state of the Jewish Church of Corinth the state of the Apocalyptick Churches the doubt will not be so cogent as to move National Religion out of the Nature of things The only remaining Doubt is that thus National Magistracy becomes as the Head of such a Religion the National Religion is gathered and united in the Magistrate and his Laws and that which should only be united in and depend upon the Laws of Christ becomes subject to another Head on pretence of which Magistrates have been attempted on too with force to bring their power to true Religion The Answer I give to this shall be very brief in three Heads 1. I always own any pretence taken from exalting Christ and his Kingdom to enforce Civil Powers to ratifie truest Religion into National Constiâ—utions and Laws is most destructive of the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this world that is to use force for its own promotion and utterly subverts Government seeing private persons may under this shelter and disguise rise up and invade and disturb any Civil State or Government whatever When Religion is our Birthright by our Laws it may be by the same Laws defended when it is not Prayers
Adultery and Peters Denial of his Lord the one was plain Temptation the other Scandal arising from the to him uninterpretable Suffering of our Saviour though both were great and grievous Sins 3. Scandal is a Temptation to some great Sin or course of Sin For though the least Sin introduc'd upon the Counterfeit of Religion and Reason is truly Scandal and partakes in its Woe Yet those Scandals of daily almost unavoidable Incursion in this imperfect State are broken in their deadly effect by the daily and general Repentance and desire of Pardon and Faith in the Blood of Jesus all true Converts live in the Practice of Who can understand his Scandals Deliver thou me from secret ones may every good man pray But keep back thy Servant from Insolent Scandals that they may not have Dominion so that I be Innocent and free from the great Transgression The sins that Scandal precipitates upon may be either in the refusal disavowment rejection or despight to some of the prime manifestations of God in the World in Infidelity or Unbelief or some great Enormity of Practice and it may be absolv'd and finished in some Notorious Act of Sin or may run through the whole Course of a mans Life in an habitual State of sin or Transgression of the Rule that he acts in all a-long Lives and dies in this Snare of Satan in this Captivity under him It may be partial only there being a reserve of the Soul preserv'd by Grace by which the renewed Soul recovers it self as the Apostles were Offended or Scandalis'd in Christ on the Night of his Passion and Peter in a fouler manner and yet theirs even his Faith did not fail They and he most Eminently escap'd out of the broken Snare But men devoid of any Principle of true saving Grace are though in several degrees lock'd within the Scandal and cannot be rescued out of it but by a Renovation to Repentance the first Repentance Yea even the best men under the power of Scandal as we now discribe it are for the present inwrap'd and involv'd so that the whole man seems to fall and the whole strength for that time so far as is visible is taken Captive Now by all this that hath been spoken it is undeniable that a Man is never Scandalised but when he sins he is not Offended in this Scripture-sense but when he himself Offends To be justly displeas'd with other mens sins or defiling Religion with impure mixtures is not to be Offended but when a man himself displeases and offends God and against his Duty 4. Scandal in wraps in Sin and the dreadful consequents of it for in the mischief and deadly issue of Sin is the complemental nature and notion of Scandal It is in the way of Righteousness onely that there is Life and in the Path-way thereof that there is no Death none of the beginnings and first strokes of it of the avant Couriers of Death It is Wisdom alone that is Health to the Navel and Marrow to the Bones whose ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are Peace But the ways of Scandal so closely united with Sin though they seem right in a Man 's own Eyes yet are all along the ways of Death and most evidently so in their end Guilt Divine displeasure Perplexity Anguish of Mind Grief if the Sin be felt however a wound a stripe upon Conscience and a mark of that stroke of that wound and stripe whether felt or not that can never be worn off but by Repentance and Faith in the Blood of Christ Weakness Inability loss of Vigour to a Holy Life 〈◊〉 Action and often down right Apostacy are the Fruit◠〈◊〉 Scandal for every Sin is a prejudice a mortification 〈◊〉 dead works upon the Consciâ—nce dispiriting it to Holiâ—â—â—â— more and more It is the way of Righteousness that is strength to the upright and the joy of the Lord therein is his double strength Through Scandal Men stumble and fall are discouraged and lye down at length out of Choice and with resolution to continue where they are as most easie Qui jacet in terris non habet unde cadat Upon all this ensues at last Eternal Death if not prevented by Repentance 5. Scandal is covered under some plausible pretence or disguise of a principle of Reason or Doctrine of Religion For Reason being an efflux from God the Sovereign Reason and Light from the Father of Lights any true principle of true Reason and rightly applyed is undoubtedly a Divine Oracle and would justifie any pretension grounded upon it Now in all Cases wherein Divine Revelation is refused or avowedly forced from the genuine Sense because either the Revelation or all Natural Interpretation will not serve the turn of Scandal but detects and exposes it it then flyes under an umbrage of Reason as separated from such Revelation or sets it up to limit and control such Revelation But if it professes to own the Scripture it then serves it self of Divine Revelation but wrested and mis-applyed for the higher the Authority is that is vouched and pretended the deeper the Scandal as we may see in the Pharisees the greatest both Masters and Bondmen of Scandal that ever were in the World except the Galley Slaves of it in the Romans Antichristianisme and they were so because they were defended and flanked on all sides as they miserably deluded themselves with the Authority of the Old Testament the Law and the Prophets together with the to them equall or indeed superiour awful Traditions of the Elders by which they circumscribed and kept under the Authority and Sense of Scripture as the Papists do at this day by like Traditions and Faith of their Church Now all these as they would have it joyned in perpetuating the Ceremonial Law as irreversible by God himself and settling an indefeisible state of Inheritance in the true Religion upon the Jews alone without the calling of the Gentiles to be the People of God but as their meer Proselytes All these as they deemed represented a Messiah of quite another Figure another Character than our Saviour and therefore he as they concluded must needs be an Impostor and his Doctrine Blasphemy upon which Rock of offence the Vessel of their Church and even Nation it self besides their particular Souls was most dismally Shipwrack'd But not only things of so good a Title and Claim as the Jewish Religion are counter-scarf'd with a Doctrine but even such vile things as Balaam taught eating things Sacrificed to Idols in honour of the Idol and committing Fornication when contrived into Scandal must have a Doctrine for them For so the Spirit of God calls it the Doctrine of Balaam In Scandal even Jezabel puts on the Vail of a Prophetess and calls her self so and under it teaches and seduces which may abate to us the wonder of Romes calling it self a Church and its Adulteries Sorceries and Idolatries Catholick Christian Religion 6. Scandal by such a Principle of
Reason or Doctrine of Religion edifies or emboldens Conscience For although Conscience was made for the Divine Truth and Law of God which is the Truth and not for Scandal it was made so even and true to it that they which love this Law have great peace and nothing can scandalise or offend them that is either seduce or hurt them yet in this very Seat in this very Throne of the Divine Law in this Temple of God in this place of the Holy this Tribunal of the Soul that ought to be the Sanctuary of Truth and Righteousness and as a Tabernacle of Testimony does Scandal exalt it self as if it were from God and from thence it gives its Oracles but Conscience thus debauched and prostituted bears no more proportion to true Conscience than Antichrist does to Christ and is therefore a pseudo-Conscience an Anti-Conscience Conscience falsly so called 7. Scandal always dashes its own Principles of deceived Reason and false Doctrine upon some true and grand Principle of Reason and Doctrine of Religion For though every Truth of God is great yet there are of the first magnitude on account of which oppos'd the Spirit of God brands it Scandal more remarkably and hereupon though the Sin derived from Scandal may in it self seem small yet in regard of some stable Law of Religion made void and thereby Sin introduced it is a very great Sin though in a matter of its own Nature sometimes indifferent Now it cannot be otherwise but Scandal must thus dash upon Truth because as I have said it herein differs from simple Temptation that its rest is upon some false Principle of Reason or Doctrine of Religion it frames mischief by a Law and it must needs be that every false Principle and Doctrine must rush against some true one and though no Truth of God be small or Sin little and Scandal is always proportionable yet the wisdom of Scripture hath appropriated the name of Scandal to the violation of some grand Principle As I shall now in the next place for the further explaining of Scandal observe those Pillars of the Divine Truth and Law against which it throws and bruises the Scandalised Soul as the Sacred Books shall instruct us 1. The Eternal Being and Holy Government of God in the World according to those Righteous Just and Good Laws he hath given and according to which he will Judge and make Retribution to all Men at that great day is the Fountain and most Fundamental Principle of Religion So then whatever upon pretence of Reason and just cause undermines the Faith abates the Aws or dispirits the Obedience agreeable to so supreame a standard of all these is the Original and final Scandal Here all Scandal begins in the decay of the Faith and Fear of God and hither it returns It ends in a further loss of God and this upon offence taken that too much is required without reason This is that Eternal Rock of Truth at which whoever stumbles must needs be hurt wounded and grieved Thus was I grieved in my Heart and pricked in my Reins Psal 73. 21. saith the Psalmist on this very occasion Whoever falls violently against it it breaks him whoever contests to remove it and burdens himself with it it falls upon him and grinds him to Powder And yet against this speculative and practical Atheism hath in all Ages hardened it self and by shews of Reason and high Spirit been heaving and pecking at it and casting Scandals in all Mens way Gods retirement as they fancy it into the thick covering of the Clouds and the pleasure of Jâ—b 21. 14. walking in the Circuit of Heaven and not coming down in visible shapes of Glory and Power have given to ungodly Men the Boldness and a counterfeit of Argument to dispute against his Being and Government I say a counterfeit of Argument for with an Apparition of Reason from hence and an Insolency of Wickedness they Conjure down they Moâ—mo of Religion and the Goblin of Conscience as they esteem them Atheism hath always spoken stout Words against God saying to God Depart from us we desire not the knowledge Mal 3. 13. of thy ways What is the Almighty that we should serve him Or what profit is it if we should pray unto him Job 21. 14. It hath of old lifted up Men against God and stretched out their hand against the Almighty so that they have run upon God even upon the thick Bosses of his Buckler to mischief themselves to the utmost In the very days of Job there was this Counsel of the Job 10. 3. and 21. 16. and 22. 18. wicked as if it was the result of debate and serious consideration in a Senate of Atheists as if they had made the Experiment and found upon proof there was no advantage in serving God and no Man came by the worse in despising him It is not the invention of one Age of this last Age as if it might pride it self in finding it out Scripture hath not thought it against its Interests to record the strength of the Cause as it was managed of old in those Elder days of Job in the last days of the Old Testament in the time of the Prophet Malachi But over-runs it with a Flood of Truth and Eloquence even as God does as he pleases with a Deluge of Wrath. Yet present Impunity and the seeming confusion of Providence in the prosperity of the ungodly and the afflicted State of good Men hath been always a stumbling Block to sudden and short consideration Job significantly calls it Gods shining on the Councel of the Wicked as if it Job 10. 3. gave it a Lustre and Countenance Even good Men till they went into the Sanctuary of God and looked to the end of things have found it a Scandal The Psalmist acknowledges His Feet were almost gone and his Feet well Psal 73. 2. nigh slipped when he saw the Prosperity of the Wicked and Waters of a full Cup of affliction wrung out to the Godly Yet upon full discussion of the case he confesses it his Folly Ver. 22. and Ignorance So Foolish was I and Ignorant I was as a Beast before thee The wise King observed the Hearts of Eccles 8. 11. the Sons of Men fully set them in to do Evil because Sentence on an Evil Work was not speedily Executed God by his Patience sustaining and making wicked Men stand Exod. 9. 16. even when they deny him is the occasion of their more dreadful fall for their Foot will slide in due time to their Eternal Ruine how slack soever God is misdeemed he will be a swift Witness of his own Being and Truth and the Avenger of his own Glory Now so far as any Man hath either in secret Suspicions or in the silent Murmurs of his Soul said There is no God or vanquished the prevailing Awes of God so that Conscience hath been emboldened or edified or so much as silenced or dumb
Midianites Numb 25. 17 18. inclos'd cramp'd and vex'd them first with the Guilt rising up in the Face of Conscience and then with the miserable Consequence of the sudden Wrath of God revealed from Heaven against them This was the Stumbling-block of Iniquity the wicked Man in Ezekiel puts before his Face even the Idols he had upon his Heart These were the stumbling-blocks with the wicked God would cut off and remove in the Prophet Zephaniah This was one principal Point of Scandal the Apostle discourses of to the Corinthians in the Case of Eating 1 Cor. 8. 10. things offered unto Idols and that the Holy Spirit in the New Testament so eminently remarques for Balaam's Doctrine of Scandal The great Abomination and Lie that deceives the World in the Book of the Revelation is the detestable Rev. 2. 14. Antichristian Idolatry the notorious Scandal of the Christian World both within it self and before the Jews Turks and even Pagans who see their own Brutishness acted under that excellent Name This is so great a Point that God hath departed from the Brevity of that Majestick Law in the Second Commandment for the guarding his Worship as with a Flaming Sword every way because in a Case wherein Humane Nature is so prone to fall Whether therefore it be the dividing the Divine Honour to any other though under the Name of Reverence to him as the Original or Supreme or whether it be the carving a Worship for God he does not prescribe for himself whatever be the Dccency or Expediency to help the Devotion whether of the Learned or Unlearned it becomes Scandal and a Snare to those that are so impos'd upon And seeing though the weakness of Passion be far off from God he owns himself jealous we have reason to mistrust every thing when he is so seeing not only foul Debauches but even what is most innocent in all other Cases is suspected in that Hezekiah in the sense of this broke in pieces so venerable a Relique as the Brazen Serpent not only a Ceremony of 2 Kings 18. 4. Miraculous Cure but a Type of Christ and degraded it into a meer piece of Brass when he saw the Israelites scandalising at it and tempted by it to impure Glances When our Saviour perceived so clean and harmless an Usage as Mat. 15. 1. Washing before Meat creeping into a piece of Religion how severely he disown'd it and was careless of the causeless scandalising of the Pharisees by his Doctrine concerning it because he knew there was True and Real Scandal in that Rite so abus'd And when all is said that can be said the Heavenly Pattern is that in Divine Worship and that only of which it can be said That nothing in it can scandalise that is justly scandalise except we think God's Jealousie was a Jewish Style wholly now out of date And yet how hath this Scandal this Stone of Stumbling this Gin and Snare always lain in the way of Humane Imagination and prevail'd upon it As if God living in the Retirement of a Spiritual Nature did not understand how himself was to be address'd by Men nor knew the Points of Honour due to his own Glorious Nature as is most Fashionable and Modish in the World Men take upon them to distinguish things better by the Breeding they have had in this Earthly Country they think God so much a Stranger as not to know how to appoint for himself when Men have to do with him as if what might be well accepted in Heaven would not yet be current upon Earth Here Images Pictures Elevations Adorations of the Host with innumerable Rites and Ceremonies are necessary to beget Devotion due to God the Saviour they will serve Here they that can best judge what is most Stately have determin'd God must not make himself so cheap as immediately to receive Prayers and Supplications or by his Son only as the Mediatour Angels and Saints must intercede and then who can deny them their share of Honour Religion will be neglected and dâ—spised if it have not Sets-off besides it self and the necessary Decency of Humane Actions There must be something unusual to dress it up and amuse But all this is no more than the Greens and Flourishes laid over a Trap to hide it and invite the unwary Passenger God that understands himself so perfectly as to know what will please him understands all Men too and needs not that any should tell him of Man for he knows what is in Man and he hath pronounced it What is higly esteemed among Men is abomination in the sight of God He hath Isa 15. 9. said it In vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men All outward Pomp is but drawing nigh with Lips when the Heart is far off To worship God is to give him the Glory of his own Perfections and not to make him such a One as our selves God is a Spirit and they that worship must worship him in Spirit Joh. 4 24. and Truth in his Spirituality and Truth not in their own Carnality and vain Shew It is not to Paint or Pourtray or Carve a Deity as the Heathen that chang'd the Truth of God into a Lie and the Glory of the Incorruptible God into the Image of Coruptible Man and other baser Creatures because they thought it best and yet worse than that into Names of greatest Infamy and flagitious Turpitudes All frivolous Rites represent Divinity small and impertinent to the Great loss of the Glory due to that terrible Name The Lord our God One great End of Worship is the Conforming the Soul to the Divine Nature by Approaches to and Exercises of the Mind upon it but if this be mis-shapen the Soul is made more unlike to God Blessed for ever as the same Heathen became more licentious by the Pourtraictures they gave their Gods A trivial Temper of Mind naturally results from a trivial Worship even as it forms it first and often meeting it there it daily returns from it confirmed and improved The Sincere Worship directed to in the Gospel is that Glass in which we behold the Glory of the Lord and are changed 2 Cor. 3. ult into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. Loosness of Life hath been always noted to be the Fruit of a Corrupt Worship It is naturally so and God curses it to be so God gave Idolaters up to their Lusts and an Injudicious Mind They that Worship him aright according to his Word Psal 36 8. and 6â— â— adhere to him and by regular Conduits drink Life from the Fountain of Life and derive from the River of his Pleasures they are abundantly satisfied with the Goodness of his House even of his Holy Temple They that Worship God after their own Imaginations do but drink out of their own broken or defiled Cisterns that hold no Water and therefore draw nothing but Wind and Air or
Creature without Sin yet he was made with a possibility of higher Advancement and Perfection as he was of falling from his present Perfection by not adhering to his Creator according to what was revealed to him Quest What Relation do these two Records bear to one another being both of God Answ It is therefore impossible they should either of them one contradict another but that they unite with confirm and justifie one another and one pass out of and repass into another but the latter being more full clear and perfect makes not only the Additions of what was not contained in the former but does much inlighten and clear it and since the Fall it is no where else perfectly to be found but in Revelation Yet so that whatever of it remains or is reinkindled by Revelation does both prepare a Man to receive and does also assure him the truth of Divine Revelation Quest You have shewed with what Wisdom Goodness and excellent Contrivance all things were laid by the Creator let me now hear from you the use I am to make of it Answ This teaches us to adore applaud the Fidelity and Goodness of our Holy Maker and to confess whatever disorder hath invaded this State of things is owing altogether to the perverseness and weakness of Man whose Destruction is of himself alone and his help only in God returning him to himself according to this first Designation Quest What then is the Supreme End of this Publick and Catholick Religion Answ God the Universal Being receiving into his own most Publick Glory Life and Happiness the Universe of his Holy Creation is Praised Glorified Enjoy'd and admired in them and by them to Eternity CAP. II. Of the Violation of this Catholick Order of Religion and the Means provided by God to restore it Quest HOw did a change begin in this Catholick State of Religion in the place of which we now see endless Schisme and Confusion Answ The Fallen Angels a higher Region of Spirits being Anathematiz'd out of Heaven settled in a black and detestable Heresie and Separation from God Quest How did this affect Man Answ They immediately endeavoured upon Humane Natures being newly breathed from God and received into Society with himself and all Blessed Spirits to propagate their own Malignancy into it in our First Parents and to separate it with themselves from the Creator and his happy Publick Quest With what appearance was so malicious an Attempt covered Answ Under the plausible Disguise of Mans setting up for Happiness and becoming a Publick within himself without and against the Divine Oracle Quest What was the mischievous Design that lay hid under this Answ To have enslav'd Humane Nature under perpetual Vassallage to the Pseudo-Catholick Synagogue of Satan and to have depended upon a lye and the Father of it for Infallibility Quest What was the Effect of this Hellish Attempt Answ Too unhappily successful it was for drawing our unwary Progenitors from the Royal Law implanted in their hearts and rendring suspicious to them the Oracle of the Divine Universal Spirit they gave heed to an unknown obscure Spirit and to the Doctrine of Devils Quest What was the dismal Consequence of so monstrous a Seduction Answ They lost their place in the General Assembly and Church of the First-born written in Heaven and forfeited it from all their Posterity Quest But did these Excommunicate Spirits prevail upon our First Parents to become absolutely and immediately of their Separation Answ No For God clothing himself in his Son with the Compassions of a Mediator and Redeemer laid hold upon Humane Nature as the Head of its Recovery in that very Nature certainly reconciling his own Seed the Seed of Abraham or his Church into a state more Catholick than the first He God-Man being so inseparably united with it And with a redundance of Grace to all Mankind laid the Foundations of their Restoration to their first Communion with advantage if built upon aright Quest What were the Foundations laid by the Son of God the Saviour of all Men especially of them that believe for the restoring them to the first Catholick state of Religion Answ The very same that were Ordained by God before the Fall viz. the Law of Natural Religion preserved in the Soul with direct Aspects upon God Obligations to serve him and Desires of his Favour And when Man found himself in a fallen estate and under Guilt and yet that God spared him and had patience with him there must needs arise from True Reason Hopes of and Desires after his Mercy and Pardon and Motions of return to him by Repentance as is plain in the King of Nineveh 2. Revelation most exactly suited to our Recovery out of that miserable Estate with which God immediately succour'd our First Parents against Despair For that was the Word of Promise in relief against Satan's taking possession of Man as his Spoil The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpent's Head an everlasting Enmity being immediately kindled between them Quest Who is the Supreme Superintendent missioned or sent in the Son's Name to negotiate our Return to and preserving our selves in the True Catholick Religion Answ The Divine Spirit alone conducting us by Heavenly Assistances inlightning us in the uncorrupted Principles of Natural Religion by Revealed and assuring to us Revealed Religion by its Intimate Union with Natural and enabling us to cut the Lines of the one running into the other with innumerable Mazes of Union Sometimes preparing us for Revealed Religion by Natural always to the true Natural by Revealed and so confirming them to us by one another Quest You have made no mention of Creation Providence Evidences of Divine Presence and Miracles what Place they have in the Renewal of Man's State towards God by the Redeemer Answ These are all in the very same Place they were in the first Settlement attending the Doctrine and Divine Law they are to seal with Assurances they are Divine and giving the Image and Likeness of that Law in the Power Majesty Rectitude and Order they themselves carry and so testifying of God and his Word of what Excellency it is and that even before the Reason of Man as it is imbodied and ministred to by his Senses Quest How shall there be a Distinction betwixt Miracles and Lying Wonders that impose on Men Answ There can be no Counterfeit of Creation and Providence the Universal Miracles and all True Divine Miracles are like them generally in their Beneficence to the World Besides the Excellency of the Doctrine they come along with manifestly distinguishes them CAP. III. Of the Uncontroversible Laws of Natural Religion Quest THere having been so much of Account given in general of Publick and Catholick Religion shewing that it can be no other than what is from God it is now necessary to enter into a more particular Consideration and first what it is that remains Certain and Evidently Publick or that is of God in the Law written upon
Man's Heart Answ Whatever is indeed written in Man's Heart must certainly be from God seeing no Created Hand could write there The Hand that Made can alone Ingrave it Quest How then shall we make a Judgment what is written upon the Heart Answ That which is universally acknowledged and amidst all the Differences in Religion falls under no Variation assures us it was placed there by that Supreme Hand that alike fashioned all Mens Hearts and especially seeing to this universal Acknowledgment there is no Temptation from the sensual and worst Part of Man it being against its Interest but it springs from the wisest and best Parts most unconcerned in this World or any of the brutish Pleasures of it Quest What Principles do you account thus to be of Natural Religion Answ I account these following That there is a God the Greatest and Best of Beings that governs the World That God vouchsafes to be acknowledged ador'd and worshipped by Man and that he takes notice when he is so worshipped or neglected and that with Favour or Displeasure That there is a Distinction betwixt Good and Evil setled by the Unchangeable Laws of God That God being himself so Good is pleas'd in Men doing well and rewards it and displeas'd when Men do ill and punishes it That Men have a Conscience viz. a Knowledg of and Government of their own Actions with Approbation of them if Good and Dislike if Bad. That there are Rewards and Punishments beyond this Life That therefore the Notions of Virtue Righteousness Temperance Soberness Beneficence and the contrary Vices are of unchangeable Truth and the Actions flowing from them of the same Notion That God is both the Judge and Observer of them now and will be so in the Future State That in the time of God's Patience and Bounty to sinful Man there is Forgiveness with him that he may be feared and that he thereby leads Men to Repentance That upon all accounts Solemn Worship of him by Prayer Praises Honourable Discourses of him of all Obedience to him and Returns to him after our Falls are most due from Humane Nature and according to the sociable Nature of Man in Publick Associations Quest Do you believe these so close to and inseparable from the Reason of Man Answ I am fully assured so and that these and all the immediate genuine and natural Deductions from them are so nearly allied with Humane Nature and Reason that they are in no Parts of it wanting however overcome but where extreme Barbarity and Brutishness in all things else make it plain such People cannot weigh against the wiser Societies of Mankind in whom the more vigorous Efforts of Reason shew themselves Quest But would you have Men rest in Natural Principles without Revelation Answ No by no means For if Adam in Paradise had Revelation to make his State towards God Consummate how much more Man Fallen in whom all Natural Light is but glimmering and obscure Heavenly Objects at so great a remove by his being sunk down so low from them and the Mists and Fogs of this Earth so prevalent upon him in the great Deordination of Spirit into Body that whatever true Principles of Reason might effect if duely pursued he is without Revelation upon all Experiment no better than in the Valley of the Shadow of Death Quest But does there appear any Expectation of Revelation in the Motions of Natural Reason Answ Very great so that no Religion in the World hath been without the Pretence of it And it is both most hopeful according to the Laws of Natural Light that God will reveal himself and most just that his Revelations should be accepted with all Reverence when vouchsafed our very Reason being a Revelation from him and if any Revelation from him could be false even That might be so also But in all things Natural Light must needs bow to Divine Veracity Quest How happy might the World be if all the Religions of the World were but reformed to this Natural True Religion Answ Undoubtedly so for the State of it could not then be far from the Kingdom of God all True Religion whether Natural or Revealed being so closely allied to it self For though Revealed rises much higher yet in an inseparable connexion with and in a continuation undivided from Natural Quest But as the State of the World is and hath always been there seems to have been no Effect of True Natural Religion Answ Very great in many respects 1. To justifie God in his Dealings with Mankind that there have been such Possibilities of Return to True Religion laid up in them 2. To be as Sense in a Mans Soul upon which all Divine Applications might take either to Conviction or Conversion 3. To be at all times ready to be re-enlivened by Revealed Truth and to unite with it 4. To be an Universal Code of True Religion in which it is always reasonable for Mankind to agree or in any Parts of it on any Occasion as Jonah and the Mariners did in their Calamity or as St. Paul and the Seamen with him in giving Thanks to God 5. That it might be a Standard to punish Prophaneness and Irreligion by without entrenchment on Conscience which Revelation cannot be but in some peculiar Circumstances 6. That Men may on all Occasions treat with one another by it on Terms of Reason and Justice as the Apostle Paul with the Men of Athens with Felix and generally Men one with another in all their Commerce All Society good Laws and Government Restraint of excessive Evil depending upon it CAP. IV. Of Revelation and the Reasons of so great Miscarriages against both the Light of Nature and Revelation with the Means of Cure Quest SEeing there is by all that hath been spoken so great a weight resting upon Revelation let the Accounts of Gods Revealing himself to Mankind be more fully stated Answ Besides Gods Revealing himself to Adam even in Innocency in a Doctrine suitable to those two Sacramental Trees the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life and besides that Original Revelation of Christ after the Fall The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents Head he hath been pleased to guide that Holy Seed which is his Church by Revelation as by a Pillar of Fire throughout succeeding Ages till he compleated the whole he intended in a Kingdom of Truth that cannot be shaken which is to continue to the end of the World Quest How then did God deal with the rest of the World Answ Even they were for some considerable Spaces in the first Ages of the World within the Advantages of Revelation by mixture with or Neighbourhood to the Church by Tradition from the Holy Patriarchs which if they had faithfully observed together with the Improvement of Natures Light it would have secured them in True Religion Besides that they who were faithful in these were on all proper occasions provided for by the Faithful Creator though they were
Answ By staying the due time upon the Uncontrovertible Doctrines and Commands of Natures Laws yielding full Obedience to God in them trembling to add any thing of baser Alloy to them A Man shall see Revealed Truth shining out upon Natural and joyning it self to it and with it Thus many of the Fathers came over to Christianity And so in all parts of Scripture by rising from the most Fundamental Truths lov'd and obey'd a Man shall ascend by due degrees to those more remote Thus Good Men in the Old Testament waited for the Kingdom of God and upon just Considerations moved upon the Line of Truth from the State of Religion in the Old Testament to that of the New except sometimes a Light shines suddenly round about Men as in extraordinary Conversions Quest You seem then to think False Religion and All Divisions in the True have most nearly sprung up from over-confidence of Things not of the Evidence of Publick and Divine Truth Answ I do so indeed although I know Mens not liking to retain Truth but being bewitched by false Imagination betrays them both to the Plague of Lost and Fallen Spirits warring under the Prince of our disordered Air the Ruler of the Darkness of this World and to the various Arts of Men who corrupt Religion for the Ends they have to serve themselves of by it I know Mens Faculties of Search Inquiry into and Comprehension of Truth are much shrivell'd and shrunk up I know Endless Doubts and Incertainties are brought upon Religion by Darkness and false Appearances to Souls that are so full of all the Reasons and Causes of Delusion within themselves and deserted by the just Judgment of God giving them over to believe a Lie I acknowledge all these Causes of Errour Yet I am assured the close Adherence to God in Truths evidently Divine and not removing farther into a Religious Esteem of Things till upon the same Evidence is the Means under the Conduct of the Holy Spirit to be secure from dangerous Errour or Schism from the true Publick And whatever is not so evidently Publick and Divine is liable to Private Interpretation and so to Errour And when Men are overweening upon Private Interpretation they easily fall into Errour and when they are surly and masterly upon it it moves Wrath Emulation Strife so that both Falshoood and Cruelty have entered in at this Door and rang'd over the World Quest But ought we to stupifie all Inquiry and benumb Judgment in every thing not evidently Divine Answ Not so but to behave our selves humbly and modestly to acknowledge there are vast Tracts of Truth and Knowledge beyond what we know but we must feel the Evidence of them before we can receive them yet to carry our selves with due concession to every Mans Sense that though their Sense cannot nor ought to master us no more ought we to expect ours should them which would exceedingly reconcile or abate Differences and retrench the mischievous Effects the World hath so long groan'd under by so many Religions of Nations Names of Churches and Persons propagating their Private that is not Divine Sense and that with Clamour and too often with rude Force Quest What are the Instances of the Mischief of making Defection from this Publick Catholik Divine Truth for Private Sense Answ The Angels Fall from Heaven was certainly upon Private Sense and Interest Adam's from Innocency and Paradise upon the same the Jews Fall from being the Church and People of God was upon the Idiotism of having Religion for their own All Idolatry and Superstitions of Heathens have risen from hence All the Heresies in the Church have come from an over-love to Private Opinion This is the most damnable Antichristianism of Rome to make its Private Catholick All Persecutions of Heathens Romes Inquisition and Massacres have been inflam'd in this Furnace the love of making Private Publick And in lesser and more unfundamental Points Private Interpretation enfore'd as if it were Publick hath discompos'd the Peace of the Purest and best reformed Churches and not only disturb'd their Peace but stain'd their Purity Quest I seem to my self in all this unhappy Babelism or Confusion of Religion to be very apprehensive for the Glory of God and Religion Answ It is most necessary to be zealous for Divine Glory and for the Honour of Religion that Rivers of Tears should run down our Eyes because of the Injuries done by Men to the Divine Law But yet to be so concern'd as to be scandalised is to forget that God is infinitely more the Publick than we are and therefore to be offended at his Disposes is to make our Private the Publick We must then consider that if God does not miraculously interpose it must needs be so it is no other than the Necessity of the Case Men moving with so great Disadvantages as the Active Soul of Man does in so great a Concern as Religion is in our highest Interest and as thereupon Men will make use of it in the present World it must needs be so There must be Heresies in Religion But that this Mormo or dreadful Apparition may vanish we must remember 1. That to the Soul humble and fearing God all that is of Grand Interest in Faith Worship and Practice is so Publick and evidently Divine that no Man need be ever learning and never come to the Knowledge of the Truth After this God hath given this Employment to those that through Office or Desire set themselves to seek and intermeddle with al Knowledge to travel with advantage to themselves and others in their Inquiries into the whole Compass of Divine Knowledge whatever Difficulty can be supposed to be in things of higher Advance to Salvation is resolv'd to them that do the Will of God as a Reward of their Obedience They shall know the Doctrines that are of God that rise higher towards Heaven than others The due and diligent Search after Wisdom is a Test upon the truly Sincere and well-resolv'd in Religion that have in them another Spirit as Caleb to follow God fully and do not as the Israelites bring up an ill Report on this good Land as if the Difficulties were unconquerable and the Entertainment Hungry and Barren through the many Disputes and Differences in Religion Hereby lastly the Conduct of the Free Spirit is seen leading into all Truth and the Unction of the Holy One by which the True Christian knows all things necessary to him to be known appears most desirable and necessary Thus the Wise and Holy Government of God who brings Light out of these Clouds and Darkness is made manifest and it is to be ascribed to the Infinite Perfection of Light with the Father of Lights who is without any variation or shadow of turning Quest What Rule is then to be observed in the great Diversities of Men in Religion that may most abound to the Honour of Catholick Religion Answ To own and embrace any thing we find in any Man or
God Answ I aknowledge the Resolution of this Doubt contains many difficulties in it and cannot be given at once but I shall endeavour so to lead your Questions by every Degree of Answer as may direct into the best method for your satisfaction Quest What I pray you is the first step necessary to be taken in order to the Resolving this Doubt Answ To settle a True Understanding how the Magistrates Power and Authority in Religion made entrance into the World Quest I very much desire to know that and believe it to be of very great Influence into all things that concern the unfolding this Question Answ This then I take to be the best Account of it After the apparent Degeneracy of Humane Nature so that the Laws written in Mens Hearts were evidently defaced and blotted by contrary Practices there was a necessity of forming the great Notions of Natural Religion Godliness Righteousness and Soberness into Laws that Men might be thereby preserved from highest Irregularities and excess under the pretence of being at Liberty or every Man being a Lawgiver to himself Quest I desire you further to Explain how this brought in Magistracy Answ That such Laws might be made and Executed there must be some supreme Legislative and Executive Power in every Community whether placed in one or more whether by the Title of Paternity or Primogeniture whether Hereditary and Successive or Elective whether by Agreement and Covenant primarily or by Submission and Pacts after Conquest These things aâ—e variously ordered by God in his Paramount but secret Government of the World But the Laws of Godliness Righteousness and Soberness are so necessary and Men know them to be so necessary that they cannot be without them nor without some Supreme Legislation and Execution of Laws formed according to them They that are above see a necessity of Governing by them they that are below see a ncecessity of being Governed by the same and therefore submit by Common Consent to some supreme Authority and Subordinate Magistrates under the Supreme to that end Mankind is touch'd by this Impression from God and all that are not are branded as Sons of Belial Quest But how are Princes and Magistrates secured in the Exercise of their Power against those that would not be Subject Answ Besides the Laws of God written in the Heart and promulg'd in the World besides the secret Touches and Motions of Providence and Interlinkings of Common Interest with the Rights of Soveraignty Princes and Soveraign Rulers are both by the Will of God and the Common Consent of Mankind surrounded with Grandeuâ— of Highest Estate that they may draw Subjects into their Service and Dependence upon them by the greatness of their Rewards being both the Fountain of Honour and of Splendor of Condition But especially they are Arm'd with the Power of the Sword intrusted with them by God that by the awe of their Wrath and Vengeance they may bring People into Subjection and a Readiness to Obey Thus they appear as Gods in the World as Living Images of the most High in their Vicegerency according to what is said to them by Inspired Wisdom I have said ye are Gods and Sons of the Most High Quest But why hath it not pleased God to appear himself in this Authority and Power Visibly and Immediately which would cut off all Dispute as to Supreme Right and Male-Administration which do now often disturb the Peace of Government and the People under it or at least why hath he not given Angels a Superiority and Visible Presidency over Kingdoms as that which would much more awe and Compose the World Answ The Wisdom of God hath in all things appeared in attempering things one to another with greatest Equality So he hath thought fit in infinite Wisdom to Govern Men by Men. He hath Committed all Judgment to Christ because he is the Son of Man he will Judge the World at last by that Man whom he hath appointed Christ Jesus Thus he Governs Men all along by the Men of his Right-Hand as Images of himself but more immediately of Christ the Great Son of Man thus in his Word he speaks to Men by Men like themselves And as to the Conceit of Mankind Submitting with greater awe to a Government from Heaven it is but like that of having one from the Dead to speak to them when they have Moses and the Prophets by which if they are not persuaded neither would they be persuaded though one should rise from the Dead nor would they be Governed by one from Heaven that are not Governed by that Humane Majesty and Soveraignty Created by God on purpose for them as is most Evident in those many Rebellions of the People of Israel under so evident a Theocrasie or so immediate a Government of God Quest Is the Power of Magistrates only in those clear and undoubted poiâ—ts of Godliness Righteousness and Soberness Answ Because under the two latter of these there is a vast Compass of the Interests of the Peace and Weal and Honour of Nations in all Traffique and Commerce in provision for safety and security and adjusting of Laws to all these ends there must be a vast Compass also of Power in these extending to all Indifferent things Indifferent till they come to be determined by Princes and Powers but then by the Ordinance of God to be observed according to those Laws determining them this way or that way Quest But I desire you to give yet a closer and stricter Account of the Power of Soveraigns in Religion or Godliness being the main point of of the present Enquiry Answ That I may answer your desire I must consider Religion as it is Natural Religion written in the Hearts of Men as it is Revealed Religion published by extraordinary Ministers and Consign'd to after Ages by inspired Writing or Scripture and lastly as Religion is so or so Circumstantiated and Modelled in the External Administration of it Now by Natural Religion as distinguish'd from Revealed Religion I do plainly intend that Religion whether it be drawn out by the meer force of Natural Conscience without any plain or known Assistances of Revealed Truth or whether it was not known to be Natural Religion till being Revealed Natural Conscience acknowledges it and must needs Confess it to be True Natural Religion or that the wisest and soberest part of Mankind confesses it to be so or whether it be what Natural Religion teaches upon the supposition of Revealed Religion acknowledged and confessed to be from God for then Natural Religion confesses and urges that all Revelations from God that evidence themselves to any Mans mind to be from God should be received with Reverence and submitted to with Obedience In all these cases of Natural Religion I boldly and positively assert the Soveraign Power hath a Right given it by God to Make and Execute Laws according to the Obligations of Natural Religion even as in all Cases of Righteousness and Soberness or Common