of those Rules they walk by and of the desperate and damnable Errors which those who agree not with them in all things run themselves into they conclude the utter Extirpation of all such to be the doing the work of the Lord heartily they think no means too violent to propagate their Opinions nor that any kind of Cruelty which compells men whether they will or not to go to Heaven If such imagin the Established Church to be that Babylon so much condemn'd in Scripture 't will not be enough for them the People of God to come out of her but the Daughter of Babylon being destined to destruction Happy shall he be that takes and dashes her little ones against the stones according to the Psalmists expression Ps 137.8 9. Nay what can it be accounted but the most compleat Charity for me when I am sure I am in the way to Happiness my self to do the utmost to bring all others into the same Blissful Condition About 600 Years after the building of Rome some tell us that the Institutes of Numa Pompilius the second King of Rome were found which being inspected by the Quindecemviri appointed for such purposes and found to contain a far different Scheme of Religion from what was then used among the Romans the Senate ordered them to be burnt Lactan l. 1. c. 22. so fearful were that People of Creating general disorders by permitting Innovations in the Sacred Rites But that Religion they so carefully defended being false and Idolatrous How much more reason have Christian Princes and Governors to secure theirs which is founded upon the Infallible word of God from the encroaching Impertinencies of froward Schismaticks that Law which forbids Conventicles of Separatists is grounded upon that reason that in those Meetings Seditions and Treasons had frequently been and at any time might be contriv'd the reason is good and true and in Venner's Case was prov'd and where Men can have the confidence to break the Statute by meeting in unlawful Assemblies 't is mere Cavilling to question whether they could not with as good a Conscience make Good the reason of it Some from Scotland in the Days of Queen Elizabeth endeavour'd to commend the new-fangled Reformation as no Enemy to Government and yet even in that very discourse Pen'd for the purpose They charge the Judges and Lawyers a Company of Godless Men as they call them with having made it a Common and long practice to make of the Statutes ordain'd for the maintenance of Religion and Common quietness a Pit wherein to catch the peaceable of the Lord See Bancroft ' s English Scottizing p. 54. and this when they acted justly according to Law and the true meaning of it by which words they plainly express their hatred to the common Laws which yet they own at the same time to be the bonds of peace and quietness But Authority sleeps not all this while the Sword is often and justly drawn to quell these dividing and seditious Spirits Kings cannot see Religion ruin'd and their Laws trampled upon without a deep resentment which the most factious persons are very sensible of but that Consideration is so far from quieting their turbulent Humours that it rather drives them on to more desperate and impious actions If they may not separate from the Church without disturbance nor break the Laws of the Nation without punishment the next Blow shall be at the Lawgivers Head the very foundations of the Government shall be overturn'd and that by the 3d. Thing St. Paul clears himself in the Text from viz. by treachery and Rebellion by flying in the face of Cesar himself the best security a Dilinquent in the former respects pretends to It was doubtless a very happy time in the opinion of such among the Israelites when there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes Judg. 21.25 and yet some and upon very good grounds have imagined that that very circumstance the want of a King or Supreme Governour was the cause of such deeds as never had been seen from the day that the Children of Israel came up out of Egypt to that time Judg. 19.30 and had almost procured the utter excision of one of their Tribes ch 21.3 But this is not always a security sufficient for a Malefactor Cain when he had murdered his Brother fear'd no Superiors animadverting upon him and yet that guilt which lay upon his mind told him that every one that found him should slay him and when the Jews by slighting their own Religion and by breaking God's Laws had provok'd him to bring the Chaldean army to scourge them they hoping that the Egyptian power would secure them the Chaldeans having already rais'd their siege that was laid against Jerusalem the Prophet Jeremiah assures them That though they had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans so that there should remain none but wounded men among them even those wounded men should rise up every one in his Tent and burn Jerusalem with fire Jer. 37.10 from both which instances it appears that even where there are no higher powers to call Men to an Account for Crimes their very equals or it may be their Inferiors will be their punishers But though this be indeed true yet the way of opposing the higher powers in a covert or open manner by Treachery or Rebellion is the best help guilty persons can find out By so doing they stand upon their guard and challenge Justice if it dare to attacque them But that is not enough such men as have outlaw'd themselves by their disobedience are too distrustful to keep themselves only in a defensive posture a single person seldom is a Rebel if there be Confederates there must be some rule of maintaining that Confederacy and those who have transgressed just and justly imposed Laws may as readily upon a fair opportunity offer'd break those unjust articles by which Conspiracies are holden together So Sheba the Son of Bichri the Ring-Leader of the Rebellion against David had his Head thrown over the Walls of Abel by his own party when that Sacrifice might divert a storm from their Heads Therefore such persons are generally the Aggressors in a Civil War hoping by activity and a full employment to engage all their Party so far in the displeasure of their Superiors that mere dispair of Pardon shall make them saithful and resolute in their perfidious undertakings To this purpose it was subtilly enough advis'd by Achitophel in the Rebellion of Absalom That Absalom should go in to his Fathers Concubines one of the foulest actions he could possibly be guilty of the reason of which he gives all Israel shall hear that thou art abhor'd of thy Father then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong 2 Sam. 16.21 for when the People had once seen Absalom's resolution by that unpardonable Villany and made themselves his Accomplices by being Spectators and Approvers of it it was not
of themselves were necessitated to make a Directory for the worship of God and to endeavour the settlement of a Classical Presbytery for the due Execution of such Laws as should be necessary for the establishment of their Confused Church and the Independents or Congregational Men where they bear the Sway as in New England are forced to settle certain rules of government in their Churches nay the Quakers themselves are not without some Methods of Policy in their Conventicles All these agreeing as far as possible with those fond and Sceptical principles the several Factions have studied to advance and to do thus in the sense of all those I have instanc'd in is to do what tends in their several ways to Edification and indeed this course seems agreeable to Natural Prudence tho' we had no Divine Command for it This then being a Method so universally agreed to it seems very obvious that a breach made upon it must necessarily tend to the dissolution of that Society wheresoever it is admitted and yet a nicety or tenderness of Conscience as it is abusively called is as good a Plea for allowance of such a breach in one Church or Religious Society as in another He who has scruples against the Jewish Church-Laws may have scruples too against Mahometism against Popery against Presbytery Independency nay against all the Religion in the World if a pretence to such a tenderness and scrupulosity be enough to loose every Bond and to break every Yoak and it must needs procure Contempt to the best and purest Religion if it be not thought worth the while to oblige men by all just ways to those Laws whereby it is guided and established When Sects and Heresies were permitted among the Jews notwithstanding the Fundamental Constitutions of their Church the solid Doctrines of Truth delivered to them by the Divinely inspired Prophets dwindled away into nice and useless Speculations obscure glosses and uncertain and Heretical Traditions Sincere Piety gave place to the transitory flashes of Hypocrisie and Intestine Broils and Divisions in the Heat of which God's Honour was forgotten contributed largely to the utter ruine and subversion of their Nation which was indeed no wonder Vengeance commonly taking place where Faith is banish'd and so low was that grown among them that a poor Proselyted Centurion exprest more of Faith to our Saviour than he could find in Israel Matth. 8.10 And since the time that the Followers of Mahomet gave way to new Prophets and Expositors of the Originals of their Profession their zeal is extremely abated and much of that debauchery and irreligion which the very Alcoran forbad has gotten ground and favour among them and the Papacy has lost as much almost of its power and Interest in these parts of the World by the relaxation of its Discipline and Indulgence to Contradictory Doctrines and Practices as it has gain'd by all its Legendary Miracles and new-fangled Arts and Stratagems assisted with the extraordinary activity of its most zealous Agents and Emissaries Thus Puritanism in our Fore-fathers days through its ineffectual attempts to settle the Holy Discipline prepared the way to Brownism and separation a little loosening the Golden Reins of Government in the Church of England gave entrance and encrease to super-Puritanical Presbytery and that not being sufficiently guarded by Directories and Ordinances introduced Independency Quakerism Familism Libertinism and all the Sects and Heresies and more than ever the Christian World had been acquainted with before When Humane Politiques first took place and men united themselves into regular Bodies it was presently found that the wisest and most rational Laws could not restrain the extravagancies of the multitude unless some penalties were annexed and a Power setled in some particular persons to execute those penalties upon offenders the same was prov'd true in Religious affairs also for though the ground and reason of all commanded or forbidden was never so plain and notorious yet Corrupt Man was ungovernable by pure Reason and wisdom so that some punishments were as necessary among Ecclesiastical as among Civil Criminals and this necessity has always made a necessary Connexion between the Temporal and Spiritual Laws that one might be Assistant to the other that Religion might oblige men obedience to the Civil Powers and Corporal punishments compel them to submission to the Church Thus God himself in the Jewish Government joyns the Judge and the Priest together Deut. 17.8 13. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment between blood and blood between plea and plea being matters of Controversy within the gates then thou shalt arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse thou shalt come unto the Priests the Levites and unto the Judge that shall be in those days and enquire and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment and the Man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the Priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the Judge even that man shall dye and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel and when the Law was compleated by Moses we are told that he wrote this Law and delivered it unto the Priests the Sons of Levi which bare the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord and to all the Elders i. e. the Princes and Civil governors of Israel Deut. 31.9 so making the Priests and the Princes joynt Commissioners in the encouraging moral vertue and devotion and in repressing irregularity and disobedience and though the sentence of Excommunication denounced only by the Pastors and Governours of the Church be really the most dreadful of all others yet so much quicker generally is Man's sense of bodily than of spiritual pain or danger that the Temporal Magistrate is frequently forced for the keeping Men in the better aw to make the Execution of National Laws the best evidence of the inconveniences attending of the Anathema's of the Church those who are willing enough to quit for ever God's service being very loath to lose the smallest temporal Revenue or Privelege This mutual Assistance which Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws give to one another has at all times been found of so good effect for the keeping Men in due bounds of sobriety and obedience that so soon as there were any Christian Princes they presently set the Seal of their Authority to the Canons and Rules made by Church Governors for the use of Christians So the Imperial constitutions gave security to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that men might know there was a Coersive Authority invested in their spiritual Superiors and that such a one as from which there could lye no advantageous appeal and on the other Hand Church Censures gave a strong confirmation to Imperial Sanctions evidencing the Consistency of Supreme Dominion and the power of Sword with the fundamentals of Christianity from which to the great satisfaction of temporal Princes it must notoriously appear that no Insurrection Conspiracy
before them the dangers they expos'd themselves to both in this and the future World by setting themselves against the ordinance of God! How did his tender Soul relent for those unhappy Wretches whose zealous Ignorance hurried them to death in so cursed a Cause but alas the hardest Rocks the very Walls that held him a Prisoner to his Rebels were not more insensible than those remorseless Villains who by Treasons had got the greater power and were resolv'd to abuse it to his destruction for whose sacred life millions of such Hellish Souls had been but too mean a Sacrifice Our Saviour once told Pilate that If his Kingdom had been of this world then his servants would have fought that he should not have been delivered to the Jews John 18.36 The Case was alter'd now our Saint-like Rebels thought the Kingdom of Charles the First not to be of this World else would they never have been so unnatural to have fought against to have condemn'd to have murdered him Jews indeed they were in wickedness and labour'd hard to copy out Jewish treachery and cruelty to their Messiah the ever blessed Jesus in their false and bloody Dealing with his Vicegerent the Anointed of the Lord. It was an ill sight in the judgment of Solomon to see Servants on Horse-back and Princes like Servants walking upon the Earth Eccl. 10.7 but how much more dismal was the sight to see a great Monarch led by a company of bruitish Guards as his Saviour had been before as a Sheep to the slaughter to see awful Majesly appear by compulsion before those persons his pretended Judges whose Fathers he would have disdain'd to have set with the Dogs of his flock Who were children of fools yea children of base men who were viler than the earth as Job 30.1.8 expresses it there to hear himself vilified and belyed by the impudence of a Mercenary Wretch to hear the sentence of Death pronounced upon him by those who ow'd their own lives to the protection of his Laws even then when they broke them desperately to his ruine But what Adamantine Heart but would bleed to see that Sacred Head struck off by an execrable Villain and shew'd to the Astonished Multitude under the scandalous Name of the Head of a Traitor Such as this surely was a throughly reforming Practice well becoming those Blood-thirsty Saints whose Devilish atchievements we this day sadly Commemorate Thus Jesuitism and Separation go hand in hand both hold Princes responsible to their Subjects as Superiors both hold them liable as well as others to Excommunication both hold the Subjects absolv'd from their sworn Allegeance to that Prince whom they judge an Enemy to God both hold it lawful to oppose him by force of Arms and both conclude in Murder and I make no question but the same Heaven which receiv'd St. Garnet St. Fawx St. Clement St. Ravilliac and their Followers may equally contain St. Cromwell Bradshaw Corbet Peters and the rest of that Hellish fraternity who all dyed impenitent in the same damnable faith if their own Friends bely them not But the Sun is risen again God has visited us in Mercy beyond our deserts and we see the Gracious Son of Charles the Martyr seated on the throne of his Father May his Reign be prosperous and his Days many ready has this incorrigible Nation been to run headlong again into its former woes Antimonarchical Doctrines walk abroad again in open day Suspicions and Jealousies are reentertain'd the busie Separatists active to buoy up their Party and to make an Interest once more great enough to reverse those Laws which justly take notice of them as Hypocritical and Seditious rather than true Protestants The old Steps had been so far traced again that had not Almighty God inspired his Vicegerent among us with wisdom from above to crush those Basilisks in their early motions the Kingdom in all probability had e're this been made an Acel-dama a field of Blood But thanks be to God at last the Snare is broken and we in some measure delivered God of his mercy direct our Sovereign still and confound the subtle and incessant Devices of his Enemies God grant that we may know in this our day the things that belong to our Peace that we may sincerely pray for and obey our Prince that we may contend earnestly for that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints that laying aside all Malice and Hypocrisie we may serve the Lord our Defender and the Restorer of our breaches with fear and rejoice before him with reverence that his blessing may ever rest upon us and upon our King for Jesus Christ's sake To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit c. FINIS