differing Opinions and differing Interests the multitude of Ceremonies and Traditions the various Forms of Worship and Scenes of Government and how fond every Nation and Party nay every individual Man is of his own Way It will seem a very difficult Thing to Extricate and free it from so great a Bondage but the greater the Work the more worthy the Author and more Glory to God. Pharoah kept the Israelites long in Bondage and was loth to let them go reaping great Advantages by them as some do by the Gospel But when the God of Heaven called for and demanded them he was forced to restore him his Heritage and his Chosen Christ is now calling for his Gospel and his Saints and God for his Jews his antient People and Inheritance and They will shake the Heavens and Earth but they will have them For by Fire and by Sword will they plead with all Flesh and the Slain of the Lord shall be many The God of Pleaven has already begun to shake the Nations and is about to fulfil all his Promises made to the Jews and Gentiles by the Mouth of all his Prophets Behold saith he Isa 66 and the 12. I will extend Peace to her like a River and the Glory of the Gentiles like a flowing Stream Now what can be liker to a flowing Stream than these Angeli Evangelizantes These Gospel Angels which by a constant Flux and Reflux from the Heart of each Nation will fill the Earth full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea No dry or barren Corners shall escape watering from these Fountains and no dark Recesses the Rays of their Light. But Poor Homuncio I fall under the Weight being not able to describe the Advantages of this Oeconomie I must again call the Prophet to my Assistance in that Pathetick Description of this Temple of Peace this new Jerusalem cap. 65. ver 17. For behold I create a New Heavens and a New Earth and the former shall not be remembred or come into mind But be you glad and rejoyce for ever in that which I Create For behold I create Jerusalem a Rejoycing and her People a Joy And I will rejoyce in Jerusalem and Joy in my People and the Voice of Weeping shall be no more heard in her nor the Voice of crying There shall be no more thence an Infant of Days nor an old Man that hath not filled his Days For the Child shall die an hundred Years old but the Sinner being an hundred Years old shall be Accursed And they shall build Houses and inhabit them and they shall plant Vineyards and eat the Fruit of them They shall not Build and another Inhabit they shall not Plant and another Eat For as the days of a Tree are the days of my People and mine Elect shall long enjoy the Work of their Hands They shall not labour in Vain nor bring forth for Trouble For they are the Seed of the Blessed of the Lord and their Off-spring with them And it shall come to pass that before they call I will answer and whilst they are yet speaking I will hear The Wolf and the Lamb shall feed together and the Lion shall eat Straw like the Bullock and Dust shall be the Serpent 's Meat They shall not hurt or destroy in all my Holy Mountain saith the Lord. It shall come to pass so and so say the Prophets but as yet such things have not come to pass But this Administration of the Religion of the holy Jesus not my own but founded on Holy Writ will bring such things to pass it will by its sweet and gentle Influences soften and mollifie the Ruggedness of the World appease the Heavens and transform the Earth and render it a Paradise it will set Justice Truth and Peace on an unmoveable Foundation and turn the World in a manner into a Theocracy For 't is more than probable that by degrees it will vacate and supersede all humane Sanctions and make them of little Effect by its prevailing Energy and pacifick Nature making Love and Charity and Christian Condescension the Principal Rulers of the Vniverse Then will the God of Love or Truth and Peace visit us and make his abode with us and rain down his Blessing and Graces upon us as at the Beginning and we shall become a Royal Priecthood a Peculiar People zealous not of destroying one another as at this Day but zealous of good Works Ephraim shall no more vex Judah nor Judah Ephraim Every Prince and Nation shall be content with their own Territory and Borders The noise of War shall no more be heard of amongst us our Swords shall be turned into Plow Shares and our Spears into Pruning Hooks Zech. 2 vers 10. Sing and Rejoyce O Daughter or Sion for lo I come and will dwell in the midst of thee saith the Lord And many Nations shall be joyned to the Lord in that day and shall be my People and I will dwell in the midst of thee and thou shalt know that the Lord of Hosts hath sent me unto thee and the Lord shall inherit Judah his Portion in the Holy Land and choose Jerusalem again Be silent O all Flesh before the Lord for he is raised up out of his Holy Habitation And it shall be in that day that Living Waters shall go out from Jerusalem half of them viz. Preachers towards the former Sea and half of them towards the hinder Sea in Summer and in Winter shall it be And the Lord shall be King over all the Earth In that day shall there be One Lord and his Name One The Jews and the Gentiles shall use the same Method and Way of Administration and send out their Preachers from the midst of their Habitations But the Question will be asked how all the present Difficulties will be surmounted In answer to which let the same Prophet speak Who art thou O great Mountain Before Zerubbabel Christ Thou shalt become a Plain and he shall bring forth the Head Stone thereof with shouting crying Grace Grace The Hands of Zerubbabel have laid the Foundation of this House his Hands shall also finish it And thou shalt know that the Lord of Hosts hath sent me unto you Christ is Alpha and Omega the first and the last the Consideration of which brings me to my Conclusion in which I shall vindicate my self from the Charge of Innovation and say The way which I propose is not a new Way but the Renovation of an old One For 't is the way by which Christianity Entred the World and therefore the most likely to preserve it 't is the way which the Apostles used which our Saviour practised he went up and down doing Good he sent out the Twelve and the seventy Disciples who Preached his Gospel through the Towns and Villages and then returned to him again When he was leaving the Earth by a plain Indigitation he Recommended this way 'T is a way pregnant with all the Felicities can be imagined 't is advantageous to all Governments and friendly to all Societies 't will bring Glory to God on High restore Peace on Earth and good Will amongst Men. How Beautiful upon the Mountains are the Feet of him that bringeth good Tidings that publisheth Peace that bringeth good Tidings of good that publisheth Salvation that saith unto Zion Thy God Reigneth Isa 52. Verse 7. Haec cùm fiunt Statu hoc Harmonium Pacem adferente inter Gentiles in Terris Christianis posito mirabuntur Judaei Christoque Authori Auspicatissimo tum demùm credent Nec non pacato Deo vocante Christiano adjuvante magno cum gaudio Triumpho post tam longum ob malitiam incredulitatem exulatum ad suas Terras Hierosolymitanas ex omnibus plagis Terrarum Regionibus redibunt Nec futilia aut inania Antiquorum Prophetarum Vaticinia de faelici Judaeorum aut Gentilium Statut diutiùs habebuntur Nam omnia ista Grandiloquia de Pace Justitiâ Veritate plenam Solutionem hoc Ministerio Theocratico habebunt exiguo Temporis Spatio Diversas Mundi Regiones quasi diversas unius gentis Civitates mutuo foedere irrefragabilis amiciticae conjunctas Spectabimus Et Preces illa tum frequent in ore Sacerdotum viz. Revoca ad Sedes antiquam Gentem Judaeorum gloriam Gentilium redde completam habebit responsum FINIS
An Expedient for Peace amongst Christians The SECOND PART GROUNDED On the Impossibility of their Agreement in Matters of Religion And further Enlarged in a DISCOURSE OF Church and State. WHEREIN A New Ecclesiastical Administration is Exhibited Behold I will bring it Health and Cure and I will Cure them and I will Reveal unto them the abundance of PEACE and TRUTH And I will cause the Captivity of Judah and the Captivity of Israel to return and I will build them as at the first Jer 33. v. 6.7 LONDON Printed and Sold by George Larkin at the Two Swans without Bishopsgate and R. Janeway in Queens-Head-Alley in Pater-noster-Row 1689. EPISTOLA DEDICATORIA TEmpus refrigerationis è conspectu Domini dequo Locutus est Deus pér os omnium Sanctorum Prophetarum adventum est Judaeis ergò Gentilibusque cunctis Pacis Justitiae Cultoribus Nec non omnibus Hujus mundi faelicem Statum Gloriam Dei aut Regnum Christi ex corde cupientibus Author hoc opusculum primariò Dedicat horum omnium cupientissimus Deindè Anglicanae Conventioni Augustissimae Coetus Honorabilis Naufragium Ecclesiae accidisse Partes laceratae in mudani oceani faciem usquequaquè diffluentes satìs demonstrant divinâ Providentiâ est penès vos reparare irrefragabilem reddere in aeternum Est igitur inquirendum quâ rupe queis scopulis frangebatur Tum ad istam partem quae ad vos Patres Conscripti spectat datâ veniâ ego absolvam viz Sancire leges in Religione non est sancire Religionem sed perdere est dare Veniam peccantibus Sectas Divisiones creare ut hodiè planè constat De quibus tunc versabitur Lex Dicam Leges in favorem Societatum Artium mutuorum Foederum Commercij ferendae sunto Religio est Dei Provincia Peculiaris de illâ ad ferendas Leges misit filium exhibuit Sacras Literas de his Legibus ipse solus est Judex Veritas sola Regula quam Lex creare nullo modo potest Quid igitur vobis agendum est Obsequendum Christi praecepto qui Dixit Ite Docete c. I lle hìc principto primas exhibuit lineas Primum Eclesia Saxum posuit quod respuebant Aedificatores fatui sed vos penès est anguli Capitale redere Oh Gloria Quae laudes qui honores Vestras circumstant sedes Quà m honorabile erit in Secula Seculorum inter omnes Gentes Terrarum orbis incolas Pacis Justitia Fundatores Ecclesiae tum Judaeis tum Gentilibus Restauratores appellari Pergite igitur sub Beatis Auspicijs Regis Pacis Veritatis Domini nostri Jesu Christi Vale. TO THE READER I Will not Affront thee so much as to suppose thee ignorant of the great Stir and Noise made in the World about Religion For this would suppose thee to want thy Sences But if thou contributest to raise the Dust if thou art one of those Bigots those tenacious Animals that will not part with their very Excrements the cuttings of thy Hair or the paring of thy Nails for the Publick Peace I charge thee to lay down my Book Excuse my Courtship for I had rather thou wouldst tear than read it 'T is to free and ingenuous Minds divested of their Prejudices who are willing to entertain Truth promote Peace and as ready to receive as to give their Reasons I say 't is to such I address the ensuing Discourse But alas their Number is but few and 't is sad and deplorable to observe how fierce and zealous the most are in maintaining the Side and Party which Chance Education Prejudice Interest or Constitution has engaged them in And the Generality of Christians being so pre-ingaged and retained by their respective Parties there 's few can be prevailed upon to look into the State of the Whole so that amongst so many strugling and contending Parties the Historians Observation is made good Dum singuli pugnant universi vincuntur Christianity is ruined and must pay all their Reconings And how sad and deplorable is the Victory whose Triumph cannot be made but by the Spoils of Christianity Give thy Son the Heathen for his Inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for his Possession is the Prayer of many of us and yet at the same time we are ready to pull his Gospel up by the Roots if we find it growing any where but in our own little Garden We have taken an effectual Course to prevent our Prayers and to put a Perfect Stop to its Propagations For with what Face can we allure or invite any Heathen Nation or any particular Man to Espouse our Religion when we have such Scenes of Misery and Distraction amongst us when we can give no Security either to their Souls or Bodies Amidst our fatal Contests the one being liable to Destruction the other to Damnation But is there no Balm in Gilead No Remedy for these things I have moved at so sad a Spectacle amidst great Avocations made one poor Essay But Quis tam foelici Sydere natus est ut in his rebus arduis in ipsissimam ubique veritatem incidat primo Tentamine saith St. Jerom What Man is so happy amidst so great Difficulties as to hit the Mark at the first Shot And yet it has had no cold Entertainment which has encouraged me to venture another Shaft I here therefore present thee with a Second Part begging no Favour or Approbation having had it already from a better hand viz. from our Saviour himself who has said Beati Pacifici that the Peace-makers are Blessed The Attempt is great for one single Homuncio to undertake But the God of Peace and Truth needs neither Strength nor Number to bring his Designs to pass And whatever the mad World may say or the Issue be it must be said of the Author as of another Great Vndertaker Magnis tamen excidit ausis An Expedient for PEACE amongst Christians c. THE SECOND PART CHRISTENDOM makes up a good part of the Habitable World consisting of several Nations and Kingdoms Professing but One Religion and that the best in the World but the Inhabitants have so mixt the Government of this Religion which purely relates to Another World with the Temporalities and Affairs of This that they are become the Scorn and Derision of the more Intelligent parts of Mankind For whereas they all believe in the Eternal and only True God and in Jesus Christ his Ever Blessed Son They have such bitter Contentions about Forms and the True way of Worship about right Interpretation of Books about Ceremonies Vestments Places Times and Persons their Power and Offices c. That they make their most fruitful Land an Aceldama or Field of Blood Every little Sect Way and Opinion is called a Religion and a Law is made to Establish it and God Almighty entitl'd to the Truth of it and when He is concerned then their Opposition cannot be too much but the
Powers of the Earth must be Pulled down their Dissenting Neighbours Destroyed and themselves undone for the maintaining of it so that there is Kingdom against Kingdom and Nation against Nation There is Papists and Protestants Calvinists Lutherans Dissenters Churchmen and an endless number of new names of Distinction the cursed motives to mischief and Disturbance as is but too manifest at this Day 'T is of sad Consideration that Christian Princes must have no Allegiance paid them if of a differing Opinion from their Subjects That when a Protestant Rules the Pope must discharge his Subjects from their Allegiance and when a Popish Prince Reigns his Protestant Subjects discharge themselves It highly concerns them therefore to think of some Remedy and Expedient for all their Power their Titles and Crowns are become Precarious things and ever and anon subject to be laid aside by the Insolent Power of the Church and ill Administration of the Affairs of another World But time will be ill spent in Mustering up a black list of Grievances when they are so Notorious and so much I will not say seen but felt by all Sides and Parties of Christians of what Quality soever even from the King on his Throne to the Beggar on the Dunghill it will be much better spent in Contriving of Expedients And it may justly be expected that any performance of this nature will rather meet with a favourable acceptance then dicouragement since a thing so universally wanted by all sorts of Men. The Dove has been once sent out but has return'd again finding no place to rest the Sole of her Foot The Waters of Confusion covering the Land I shall presume to send her once more hoping she will find them asswaged and return with an Olive Leaf Then gently laying Infallibility aside I shall resume my former Argument of Impossibility of Agreement and put it in its place not only as the more certain and undoubted Truth but because when a foundation for Peace is laid it may be expected it should be a Proposition universally acknowledged and agreed to by all And this we all know and agree in That we can Not Agree To this the whole Christian World may safely Subscribe but if they will not they cannot convince me to the contrary by any other thing than their Agreement Let them Agree then and I have done But I shall take it for granted they will not convince me after such a manner and therefore will go on and say That this Proposition must be one of the chief Stones of the Foundation we must Build our Peace upon we must have our Agreement one way from the Impossibility of our Agreement another way we must have Light out of this thick Darkness and order out of Confusion And herein we are instructed by the Methods of our all-Wise God and Creator in a case of a Paralel Nature For in the Beginning after he had Created all things out of Nothing and Spoke things into their Existence from a formless Mass of Matter by a wonderful and strange sort of Chimistry He brought Light out of Darkness and Order out of Confusion and set all things in that most exquisite and incomparable frame and model we see them And all this not by altering or changing the nature of things differing for as necessary He had Created them so but by bringing things of a like Nature together or qualifying things of a different Nature so as to make them Agree and be Harmonious But for the present waving this Observation it will be necessary I Speak something of Differences and Agreements especially of the Nature of This Agreement which I say is Impossible Learned Men have employed their Parts and been over and above Curious and Critical in vain and unnecessary Distinctions in such sort that they embroyled the World and have too much contributed to bring it into the present misery and distraction I should be heartily glad now at last to see them employ their Talents otherwise and as they have distinguished men into Misery and Confusion so now they would try their Skill to distiguish them out again and bring the World into Peace and Order 'T is but high time they should do so and would they but distinguish a little and truly inform the world of the Nature of Vnity and Dissention Discord and Concord Agreement and Difference for Men have been miserably mistaken about these things 't is my Opinion they would not be ill employed It ought to be observed that amongst Christians there are several sorts and kinds of Agreements and several sorts of Differences First They Agree in the most principal things and in what they ought to Agree and this Agreement they call their Difference though nothing so for they all Agree in their endeavours to please God and their various Lines however differing in the Circumference do unite in the Center 'T is a Maxime That things which Agree in a Third Agree together this being well followed will Metamorphose most of our Differences into Agreements Our belief in the Supream God and his Son Jesus Christ pronounce and declare an Vniversal Agreement Now what are all our various ways and Modes of Worship but so many several Essays and Attempts to please This God and Testifications of our Agreement and ought rather to be called parts thereof than Differences We all endeavour to Worship God after the best manner we can and must this way and this manner and our endeavours herein be called Differences Indeed the World has branded them along time with that odious appellation but very improperly for herein we shew nothing more then our Agreement But to speak the Truth this is not the Agreement I contend for 't is indeed a sort of Agreement we have and think not of 'T is mixt Partial and Relative but not productive of Publick Peace One Man keeps a Festival thinking to Please God thereby another is afraid and scrupulous and will not keep it thinking to please him too Here they both Agree and both Disagree They both agree to Please God he that observes and he that observes not observes to the Lord which ought to be a motive of Charity But then they disagree and differ one from another which though they may innocently enough ye too frequently is made Criminal by exerting their Passions to that height that Charity and their Honest Intentions are consumed in the Flame Secondly They Agree in what they ought not to Agree viz They Conspire Cabal and Agree to Plague Vex and Disturb one another and this ought not to be called an Agreement but a Difference And of this Nature was the Agreement of Herod and Pilate and of late but too frequently practiced by Two Parties of Christians in order to ruine the Third Thirdly When Men cease to Molest and Disturb one another they are said to Agree and when they have made Stipulations and Contracts we call the Transaction an Agreement But the last sort of Agreement I principally
himself against another when another is concerned he is a party and therefore cannot be Judge But all the several Sects and Societies of Christians are Parties therefore cannot be Judges neither can Reason Scripture Tradition Fathers Councils c. be Judges being interpreted by Parties neither is there a Judge on Earth but is a Party Our Agreement therefore must be concluded to be impossible and our Differences left to be judged by the God of Heaven who is only sufficient and competent for Judgment From this Impossibility therefore of a material Agreement proved from the infinite variety of humane Understandings as men and from the infinite difficulty of things as Christians I would lay a Foundation for a formal Agreement integral and compleat in all its parts towards God and towards Man but a further improvment I shall reserve to the foot of my Discourse and make Answer to a very necessary Question which may be asked me viz. Amidst so great Indeterminations and Irresolutions of men amidst so many Plausibilities and Probabilities and infinite Pretentions to Truth what Measures must Men take or what Rule must they walk by To which I answer That 's a Reason which convinces and that 's an Argument which perswades and that 's a good Sermon which makes men better besides those which are the best in their kind and in their own nature really so and he has understood Councils and Fathers and Scriptures right who understands them in a sense which assists him to mortifie a Lust crush an evil Affection or make him a better Man although he understand them wrong and differing from the original Intent and 't is possible for a man to understand wrong yet live right to be convinced by a slender Reason a weak Argument and edified by an ordinary Sermon Every one of these though not the best in their kind yet are equivalent to the best if they produce the Effect of the best And this will put a Check to a great Evil there is in the World viz the extravagant Commendation of Preachers Books and Discourses raised often to that height that Charity is infringed and the Peace endangered Why must the greatest and most sublime Reasons be pressed upon me when one of a lesser magnitude doth convince me And I be forced to hear and may be vilified for not commending such a Brave Preacher when one of another stile and another Method doth more operate upon me and give me better Satisfaction There is a necessity that Truth should be served no and addressed to men in various and differing VVays and Methods because there are Men of various and differing Understandings to be wrought upon and hereby all Books Comments and Discourses infinitely differing one from another according to the differing Capacities and Apprehensions of their Authors become useful and profitable And this in a great measure may serve for answer to the Question but that which must make it compleat is an honest Heart and sincere Endeavours of finding out the Truth and a ready and willing Disposition to comply with it when found And when men have done their best to please God and find out the Truth as every Party of Christians say they do if they mistake they mistake like Men and God will never punish them for it for that would be to punish them for doing their best which ought to be far from the thoughts of every good Christian so that 〈◊〉 they be not 〈◊〉 yet they may be safe safe I say from the Displeasure and Punishment of their Maker thought not of their Fellow-Creatures For when men have been diligent honest and sincere and used their utmost Endeavours to find out the Truth please God and save their Souls in comes an armed Band of humane Sanctions Laws Penalties and Compulsion to drive them out of this way which they have judged and pitched upon to be the only true way to Salvation which brings me to the second Head to be discoursed of in order to the Peace of Christendom and that is Law which I shall publickly and solemnly arrest as the grand Enemy and Disturber thereof For in the name of the King of Peace what has Law to do in Religion Religion ought to be the most free most voluntary and unconstrained thing in the World he that ministers in it ought to do it freely and willingly I and he that performs any Action in it ought to choose it and be fully convinced and satisfied in his Mind and no Method ought to be used either in the Administration or Propagation but Argument Reason and Discourse and it must be acknowledged as a most certain Truth That if the whole World joyn together to make a Law this Law cannot make a Reason a good Reason or an Argument a good Argument or make any Proposition either true or false and if we ask any party of Christians why they use such a Method or such a way in Religion Their Answer is Because they think it true Since Truth then is and ought to be the Standard and Measure by which men ought to determine their Choice and since it is most certain that Law cannot make or determine Truth Law by a plain and necessary consequence must be judged useless in Religion Again If Actions are not voluntary and Religion be not chosen there will be no Grounds lest for either Rewards or Punishments Nil ardet in Inferno nisi propria voluntas nothing burns in Hell but a Man's Will 'T is the VVill that makes men criminal and subject to be rewarded or punished but when there is a Law there is no Room lest either to will or to choose but it comes with a must with Authority and Power and puts both Religion our Wil and Choice out of doors And here one may easily discover the Paw of the Grand Imposter and Enemy of Mankind who when he foresaw what great Advantages the Religion of the Holy Jesus would bring to the Sons of Men by a sly and crafty Device spirited away the True Babe and left us a Changeling in his room he stole away Religion and left us a Law and so effectually brought about his cursed Designs and ruin'd us But further amongst Protestant Christians Law is the most absurd and vain thing in the world for they do and that truly acknowledge the Books of the Old and New Testament to be the Only Rule of Faith containing full and ample Instructions how to Worship God and perform all necessary Actions in Religion also that men in common are able to understand interpret and judge of these Books Now if these be their Rule and only Rule what have they to do with Law which is another Rule Our Saviour faith His Toke is easie his Burden light But Law is a Tyrant and Usurper of Christian Priviledges and lays on heavy Burdens contrary to the sweet and gentle Methods of the Gospel it neither is nor ought to be a Rule to Christians in their Religion and in things
no Benefits oblige no Prince Reign but all the most Sacred Bonds of Gratitude Honour and Obedience and every other thing which may make men wish to Live are violated and broken asunder if Religion or that which men call by that Name stand in Competition or Mother-Church is to be served and men pull down Houses tumble down Monarchs and ruine Kingdoms for her sake Sure then those must be happy days when no particular Religion or Church is to be set up nor any to be pull'd down no Party to be pleased and none to be offended but every Nation will be all of one Side one Party and the same Religion And of how great Refreshment and Consolation is it to think that that hot and fiery Zeal which has burnt so many Martyrs and consumed so many Pious and Good men nay destroyed the Lord of Life himself shall be absolutely and for ever quenched in the Springs of this most Charitable and Refreshing Fountain which from the Heart of each Respective Kingdom shall be constantly running and refreshing the dry and barren Corners of the same and like so many Rivulets of Oyl shall pass through the great Ocean of the World and Heal and Cleanse and Purify but not mix with the same But what should I say Vltima Cumaei Venit jam carminis aetas Magnus ab integro Seclorum nascitur ordo Jam redit Virgo redeunt Saturnia Regna The Happiness which this Administration will most certainly bring into the World cannot be well expressed it will bring back the Golden Age and presently put a new Face on all Affairs it will joyn Justice and Mercy Truth and Peace together in such an inseparable Bond that all the Malice and Subtilty of the Grand Impostor who is now going to his Prison shall not be able to unloose First The Man of Sin will be pulled down and we shall hear no more of the Bloody Machinations of Rome the Cruelty of the Spanish Inquisition the Barbarity of French or Irish Massacres nor of the Unnaturalness of English and Scotch Rebellions no Holy Leagues or Solemn Leagues and Covenants or Associations will be heard of amongst us but Christendom from an Aceldama will be made like the Garden of Eden or Paradice of God and every Nation have its Tree of Life or Fountain of Living Water in the middle which by its constans Irrignous Streams will cool all Heart and Animosities and bring all in Subjection to the Gentle Laws of the Holy Jesus But further We shall hear of no Plots or Contrivances or Black and Bloody Charges and Misrepresentations all Noise of Persecution or flying for Religion the Prorestants from France or Papists from England will cease no Heretick to be Burned or Schismatick to be Ruined and the reason is because all Law and Power and Parties Names of Distinctions and all other Causes and Cursed Motives of Mischief and Distraction will be utterly Abolish'd and cast into the same Dungeon with the great Criminal and Deviser of them But my Contemplation still carries me further in Congratulation of the Princes of Christendom on this Alteration How easy must be their Government and how happy their Days when the heavy Ecclesiastical Yoke is taken from their Shoulders When they may be served by all their Subjects when they may punish single Offenders and not offend whole Parties when there are no Parties to be pleased or displeased and none to be Inflamed against the Government by discontented States-men And since some will be Lords keep the Power to oppress and give no Toleration to men of differing Thoughts and Apprehensions This method will set them on a level with their Brethren and there will be no need that Toleration should be either given or taken and Then they may reckon their Crowns to set much surer on their Heads when none have a priviledge or pretence to offend on the Score of a Tender Conscience But in a more particular manner as to our own Nation and present Circumstances a considerable body of us are for a Church of England a Religion Established by a Law for Bishops for Ecclesiastical Government Conformity and a National Church others we have who are a no less considerable body which we call Dissenters though indeed all are Dissenters one from another and these would have no Bishops no Ecclesiastical Government or Lordships or Temporal Dignities conferred on Spiritual Men and no Superiority of Functions in the Ministry of the Gospel but would have Pastors and Elders and Deacons and in short another differing way of Administration Again The first which we call Church-men and the others which we call Dissenters are divided and sub-divided and have several Denominations and Classes and Distinctions amongst themselves one are for Moderation and Condescention another for Strictness and the Bigotted to their Law and Establishment c. Some again are for a National some for a Synodical and others an Independant Church some draw one way and some another and all would have their own little Way and Method prevail so that we are perfectly Distracted and Confounded and can come to no Settlement or Agreement only we all agree in this to call our selves by one general Name and that is not Christian but Protestant We all protest against Popery a Name for another sort of Christians which possess several Kingdoms and Nations which we call our common Enemies Now Was but these Angeli Evangelizantes these Gospel Angels or Ministers of the Gospel instituted and appointed in each Nation as afore-said to go their Stages and Circuits First As I said before we should have no Popery and by consequence no Protestants to Protest against it and all our Names of Distinction so destructive to our selves when cast into such an Avarage would be perfectly lost we should have no Contentions for Offices Dignities or Superiority the Lot would give an equal Title and Priviledge to all Hitherto the Ministers of the Gospel has been appointed by Men so has been corrupted and forced to serve the ends of Princes of several Parties and ill-designing Polititians Has been mixt with all our Governments and clog'd with Humane Inventions and Traditions but by This Method God Himself would choose his Ministers and then from Humane and Earthly it would presently become Heavenly and Divine all the Sinister Arts to get Church Preferment so destructive to publick Peace and Truth would fall to the Ground the Doctors would cease to Flatter the Court to get Bishop-Pricks and Lecturers their Parishoners or Patrons to advance their Stipend it would be put out of the Power of Ignorant Patrons to prefer Ignorant Novices to the Ministry or Ignorant Parents a weak and unfit Boy for the University Nay it would be put out of the Power of Princes and States themselves to give Preferment or make Ministers and so by consequence as they have but too much done to make what Gospel they please And we may reasonably hope that Truth will then be a