A SERMON Preach'd before the HONOURABLE House of Commons AT St. MARGARET's WESTMINSTER Jannary the 30th 1695 6. By GREGORY HASCARD D. D. Dean of Windsor Rector of St. Clements Danes and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed for Daniel Brown at the Bible and Swan without Temple-Bar MDCXCVI A SERMON Preach'd before the House of Commons On January the 30th 1695 6. c. MICAH VII 2. The good man is perished out of the earth and there is none upright among men they all lie in wait for blood they bunt every man his neighbour with a net THese words are the cause of the Prophet's sorrow exprest ver 1. so deep a concern it was that the words Wo is me may signify not only mourning but howling which did not arise from a melancholy temper or discontent against the Government disappointments peevishness or contradiction but from a serious and sad consideration of the scarcity of men truly good So rare they were in the Land of Palestine as not to be found in Clusters in numerous Families and large Societies but in thin and hungry Gleanings after the Vintage was over v. 1. When the Prophet had taken an impartial view of the several Ranks and Orders in the Jewish Nation the Princes Priests and People good men were reckon'd up not like the musters in St. John of the Tribe of Judah twelve thousand or silver in the days of Solomon but as hard to be found as the mouths of Nile or Jewels among dirt and rubbish Notwithstanding the Law and Temple which they profest and admir'd the mighty wonders that were done of old and they believ'd the peculiar care and tenderness of Divine Providence over the Jewish Nation faith God I have carried them upon Eagles wings Signal Judgments upon men of Vice the Admonitions and Alarms of the Prophets and other kind methods inviting to Goodness and true Religion yet they were so degenerate and vicious that when the Prophet came to search for the fruits of Religion and find a number of good men he makes this sad return The good man is perished out of the earth and there is none upright among men they all lie in wait for blood c. Such as passion as this for the want of good men became the Prophet in all capacities as a Man as a Subject and as a Prophet As a Man whose essence is as much to be good and religious as'tis to be rational and therefore could not but be concern'd to see a Nation of men so strangely chang'd and degenerated by Vice and Luxury into Brutes that nothing was left of the Image of God and Manhood beside shape and laughter As a Subject well foreseeing and with grief considering what misery would suddenly betide the Nation for want of Goodness and Religion As a Prophet that notwithstanding the Messages he brought from God and the clear Predictions he made them what sad Events in a short time would happen to them for want of Goodness and Repentance yet they slighted his Errand and were sturdy and resolute in their Vices I am afraid we have too great reason from the consideration of this day for the Prophet's Sorrow and Exclamation When a truly good and most excellent Prince fell by the bloody hands of his Rebellious Subjects and with him our Laws and Liberties our Apostolical Church and Ancient Government and great was the fall thereof to the Grief of our Friends the Joy of our Enemies and the Scandal of Religion A Murder it was of the deepest Die committed upon a most tender Father by Sons making high Pretences to the Spirit of God Zeal for Christianity the Publick Good to Purity and Reformation array'd in the finest Dress and Colours yet deeply stain'd by this foul Action to the Triumph of Rome the Laughter of the Atheist the Sport of the Vicious and Lewd but to the Sorrow of all Loyal and Good Subjects all Honest and Sincere Christians To spend time in magnifying the Virtues and Sufferings of our Martyr'd Sovereign which were so bright and known so well outshining the Jewels of his Crown would be gross Impertinency to this great Auditory they speak aloud like Abel's blood though their great Master is dead not for Vengeance but Imitation I shall therefore only touch upon them as they fall in with the end and intention of these words The good man is perished out of the earth and my following Discourse upon them very suitable I hope to the Devotion of this day which I shall pursue by this method 1. Let us consider wherein the goodness of this good man the Prophet mentions did express it self 2. What prevail'd or grew up in the Prophet's time in the place of true Religion and Goodness 3. What particular Considerations may move us to bewail the want of true Goodness It could be wish'd that this dearth of Goodness had been only under the Jewish Religion and peculiar only to the Land of Palestine but the Christian Church as well as the Prophet may justly bewail het barren Christians and the scarcity of Men truly good notwithstanding her Laws so Excellent so Divine We all affirm indeed That our Religion by the hand of Jesus came from God but our Conversation saith 't is only a new device and fashion to wear a broad and throw off at home With great solemnity of Words and Looks we repeat our Creeds with confidence and a keen Passion we break the Commands We pray and communicate with Sighs and Appearances befitting the strictest Penitent and the greatest Saint yet our Lives say our Prayers are but formal Orations unto God and the Table of the Lord is common We flame with Zeal for Religion but our practice puts out the Fire and in the bottom of the Ashes lie Revenge and Interest Faction and a Party which with a little breath blowing off the disguize appear in their natural Colours We call our selves Saints and Elect but where 's the Patience the Temper and the Spirit of them We follow Jesus and wear his Livery but underneath is the Passion of a Judas and the fond and carnal Expectation of a Jew and is this the Coat of thy Son Joseph Some there were who murther'd their Sovereign yet talkt loud and disputed warmly and cast themselves into Sides and Divisions and all must be set at Stake for the Cause of God by which they drive on their barbarous Design but yet I am afraid and could wish the Fear was idle for the sake of Christianity What was the black Charge of Pagan Corinth may in the greatest part be laid against them who were adulterers effeminate thieves covetous revilers extortioners 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. And I wish I could say such were only some of them but they are washed but they are sanctified but the same Vices or others in so many still do live and thrive maintaining their old lewd Principles as tho they endeavour'd to fulfil the Prophecy telling us what should betide Christianity
governs the sturdy World as well as by utter Destructions and Executions And when Men are stiled Just in Holy Writ as Neah and Foseph Cornalius and Christ himself their Justice did not consis only in doing no wrong and in keeping close to the Law but in Abatement and Remission of Ringts and Liberties in Goodness Charity Clemency and Humanity And as they were ready to cover and pardon faults so never quick and passionate to upbraid and therefore we never read when the misunderstanding was between the two Saints Peter and Paul that the one reminded the other of his former Rersecution of the Church or St. Paul upbraided St. Peter of his denying of his Master or either of them Mary Magdalen with her former Unchastity 't was sufficient to them their Repentance was sincere But the Authors of this Bloody Day would give no allowance for the few and small Errors in their Prince in the hard Circimstances of his Life and Goverment but like that accursed Cain took pleasure to discover the Nakedness of a most tender Father of his Country yet granted large Patents to themselve to Sin securely by and made his Concessions for Peace sake COnfessions of his Mistakes and those they made unpardonable Men that prerend most to Persection and Infallibility are many times guilty of as gross Mistakes and Follies as others and evermore ill-natur'd as great a fault as any The good Man makes the best Ruler Subject Neighbour and Friend and hath most of the Spirit of God and the Temper of Jesus in him And if all the World was wanting of this Goodness the Earth would be but Confusion and a Slaughter-house Such are the Errours of all Mankind necessarily calling for Favour and Charity yet notwithstanding the ease of Mankind depends on this good Temper and 't is a principal Branch of our Religion The concern of the Prophet may be justly our own That the righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away 't was then a Calamity Isa 57.1 and the Language of the Psalmist may fit the Christian There is none that doeth good no not one but adding to the heap of common Sins and then exclaiming against them 3. The good Man is of a Spirit truly publick whose happiness is not only to hug himself and to be well at home but his Care and Affection looks abroad and his King and Country his Relatives and Neighbours are his common concern who being plac'd in those Communities and Bodies like a compassionate Member is sick when the Head doth ache is exposed to danger when it is unsecure who mourns and is poor who is weak and cast down when his common Parent or Fellow-being is distrest and languisheth who is diligent and active to preserve the Fame to allay the Fears to prevent the Dangers of a Kingdom to reconcile Divisions and Parties in it making its Greatness and Safety his own Caesar and his Fortunes embark'd together in one common Bottom This is not only the good Man's Interest and Safety and therefore is as prudent as he is good but 't is his Fame and Reputation to be brave and generous for this gave the Characters of Renown and Greatness to the Men of Ancient Times who easily sacrificed their Pleasures and Fortunes when they came in Conpetition with the Publick Good who had none of those stingy and mean Principles to turn Church and State into a Flame to warm their Hands or gratify Revenge who had none of those low and little Spirits only to weather the Storm for their own Lives and that Peace might be only in their days tho their ease and softness like great Calms portending Storms and Thunder brought heavier Calamities upon Posterity and the Entail was not to be cut off They did not think the Word and all its good things were created solely upon their a account and were to centre in their little selves or that they and the World were to dye together Let the Wind blow and let the Ship of Government strike upon a Rock yet they have provided a private Plank to swim to Shore Esther's Beauty will keep her safe in Ahasuerus's Court and she need not put her self upon that hazard for the sake of her Nation if I perish I perish nor idlely wish she had been born in some other Age when she could have been more securely kind unto her Country but probably thought she was born for such a time as this And Daniel might have thought that his Gift of unfolding Dreams and Visions might have made him great and safe and he need not run the venture for his Religion of the Lyon's Den. These men scorn'd Ease and Danger Interest and Pleasure to serve their Generation and King and Country Laws and Religion withoutmaking them terms of Division and Peevishness were Father and Mother Sister and Brother and their dear Selves too These things indeed are written for our Example upon whom the ends of the World are come but alas the Apostle tells us Men should then be levers of themselves There are not now so many Jehu's left Come see my zeal for the Lord of Hosts except we call Pride and Ambition two mighty Virtues And where is the Lot now that is vext with the unclean Conversation of the wicked The Psalmist is long since dead and few eyes like his gush out with tears because men keep not his Laws Disobedience to them and Vice being counted only natural Freedoms and lawful Liberties Poor Uriah is slain and will not rise again in this Age the Ark and Israel and Judah abide in Tents and shall I go down to my House to eat and drink And 't is the Scandal of Religion that having so good a Master who went about doing good and made the benefit of Mankind who so little deserv'd it his proper Business that there should be so many Workers of Iniquity found among his Disciples Had this narrow Principle govern'd our Martyr he had reign'd longer and gone later to Heaven or had it prevail'd in our Forefathers who planted and toil'd for their Posterity Hospitals and Publick Buildings Arts and useful Employment had been as rare as good Men and the present Age would have had less Plenty and more Labour and expos'd like the Ostrich's Egg and instead of Statues and Monuments erected to them they would have had Anger and Reproach and all Generations should have call'd them Evil. 4. The good Man takes up Religion only to serve a spiritual Purpose He looks into the other World and firmly concludes doubtless there is a God doubtlest there is a Reward for the Righteous he reflects upon himself in this and finds he is not yet fitted and pre-qualify'd for that Divine State he therefore enters into Religion to serve these two mighty ends every day to confirm his Faith about the Being of God the Immortality of the Soul the day of Account and Retribution to believe whatever Christ hath promis'd or
Allies which tye Mankind together have been snapt in sunder when Superstition hath been in its raving fits and freaks witness the Valley of Hinnom the Romish Massacres and this mournful Day The Prophet had reason to cry out Wo is me when he saw Religion dwindle into Superstition and no real Goodness left He could not but foresee how this would affect the civil Part of Jerusalem and when the Temple was made a den of Thieves instead of Israelites indeed there would be violence and complaining in the Street so necessary a Connexion there is between Peace and true Religion and Disorders and Superstition For when once true Religion is hair'd and frighted out of its Wits it grows giddy and foams is quarrelsome and clamorous and calls every thing Christianity but what really is so Faith upon God and Universal Charity These two Essential Parts the Soul and Body of Religion make Men meek and peaceable good-natur'd and obliging which are fruits of the Spirit and the great Pleasure and Security of Kingdoms and Conversation And whereas Christianity is first pure and then peaceable Superstition which wears its Colours is earthly and vexatious made up of whimsy and vapour is contentious and fierce implacable and revengeful enough to make the compassionate Prophet use this Exclamation when true Goodness was gone out of the World and only Superstition left Wo is me 2. Wicked Lives in the Professors of the true Religion which will certainly cause Misery and Ruin in a Nation which so comes to pass not only by Divine Decrees passing Sentence upon a wicked and profligate People but from the natural tendency of Vice which is as much the direct Cause of Misery as Poyson is of Death We curiously inquire and ask the question why the Strength and Reputation the Riches and Courage of a Nation are gone And we ascribe it either to the hand of Providence determining the Fates and Periods of Kingdoms the Influences of the Heavens or such more secret Causes or we answer as our present Fancy Peevishness or Faction do suggest but forget the nature of Vice and Wickednes which do as fatally destroy as the Devil and the Stars the Sword and Enemy and in Conjunction Secret Fires and a raging Pestilence the Blasts of Heaven and unexpected Defeats are many times sent by the invisible Hand of Providence by the just Provocation of our Follies yet as ill Effects as they are conceiv'd in the natural Womb of Vice The genuine Issue of Pride and Lust Ambition and Revenge Idleness and Injustice and other Vices are so deform'd and monstrous that they would create an horror to describe and view them From whence come Wars but from your Lusts St. James doth hint to us to ask the questions a little further From whence generally come Poverty and Contempt weak Bodies and weaker Heads Divisions and Treacheries Cowardise and Meanness and other sad effects but from the Spawn of Vice it robbing Subjects of that just Temper and Qualification which alone make a Kingdom to flourish And if we look back upon the Calamities of all Ages past the Miseries and Troubles that now vex the present you will find the chief Spring and Original to be prophane and vicious Living Real Goodness and Religion being Prudence and true Policy Strength and Courage and every thing that gives Lustre and Security to a Nation And when the Wise and Ingenious have drawn their Schemes and Projects for advance of Trade and Power the Honour and Interest of a Nation they always suppos'd Virtue and Religion to be the first step otherwise they began at the wrong end And what can we expect from the Justice of God if we be real Christian as we pretend to be but that if we prophane his Temple he will blast our Vineyards And it hath been look'd upon by all wise and good Men as sure a sign as a Voice in the Jewish Temple Let us be gone and more certain than a blazing Comet or a monstrous Birth that the ruins of Kingdoms and Families then drew on when Religion by ill living was contemn'd and no real Goodness left And therefore when the Historian describes the Causes of the Destruction of our Ancient Britains he tells us They were Proud and Luxurious haters of a plain Truth and lovers of an handsome Lye and indifferently concern'd for what pleased or displeased God and then concludes Non igitur mirandum est tales degeneres parriam suam à mittere quam predicto modo maculabant 'T is no wonder that such degenerate Britains who nothing of their brave Ancestors in them but their Name should lose that Country which they defil'd in such a manner and now spued them out Our Prophet therefore seeing Vice to thrive and grow fashio able and some Sins to be esteemed good Breeding and Education 't is no wonder he cries out Wo is me as tho from his Tower he saw Armies and the Plague Wild Beasts and Inundations to invade and destroy the Land So dismal are the fruits of Vice or want of real Goodness Lastly Atheistical Persuasions prevail'd or there was no Religion at all As Vice naturally leads ot Atheism and Superstition often concludes in it so Atheism is very kind to Vice again and often ends in Superstition such dear Relations are these three to one another and such a circle do men make when once they are giddy and out of the way of this substantial Religion And what greater Calamity can betide Mankind than a contempt of Providence and that folly to imagine that there is not a Being we call a God but that all things tumble up and down in great uncertainty and darkness and the thing we worship is only a Creature of Fear and Custom Policy or Fiction Government and Friendship Relations and Trust and other great things which make Mankind happy have lost their vital Spirits because Reverence of a God checks of Conscience and the hopes and fears of Rewards and Punishments in the other World are gone And publick Laws are too scanty to recompence the loss of real Goodness and Religion and Fame and Honour to keep Men in due Bounds will prove but airy things when respect to God and Virtue is laid aside The Man of Revenge may assassinate his Neighbour if it can be but a work of darkness with security and may defraud and cozen if by Privacy and Art he can keep his Fame and Reputation he fears no Punishment in the other World for all this Villany and 't is his safe Interest and Pleasure in this 'T is the Imperfection of Humane Societies in making Laws not to be able to reach many private Sins and such is the skill of men to baffle the plainest Laws if there was not the dread of an higher Hand Laws would lose their Edge and Mankind would be in a state of War For tho the force of Religion doth not prevail upon every Man yet it doth upon many upon most in some degree and
in the latter days That men should be lovers of themselves proud boasters traytors unthankful false accusers and a strange rabble of sinners are reckon'd up having the form of godliness but denying the power of it 2 Tim. 3.2 3 4. but what availeth all that form so long as Mordecai the Jew lives what signifies a good Religion in a bad Man's breast But I am not here besure to libel Christianity or any of its Disciples who are truly Penitent 't is a great part of that Religion to be Charitable and cover Errors But thus much I may venture to say let our Religion be never so Primitive and Apostolical let it be English or Italian Reform'd or Popish except it makes us really good 't is but wrangling Hypocrisy and Noise not being serviceable to the great Design the saving of our Souls That we may not therefore again be deceiv'd by Names and Pretences 't will be prudent to consider wherein true Goodness doth consist and omitting other particulars I shall insist upon only these four for which our Martyr was very Eminent and the Authors of this Murder were so notoriously guilty of the contrary Vices 1. True Goodness doth express it self in plainness and sincerity in all our respective Dealings with Men. When the Primitive Christian did advise or treat answer or determine he did it with uprightness or simplicity being mindful of his Master's command bidding him be as gentle and harmless as a Dove and allowed him the prudence but not the false and speckled Skin of the Serpent to conceal his Sting and Poyson But the Modern Christian leaving his King and Master's Highway of Truth and Plainness and leaping common Bounds of Truth and Justice by windings and turnings and indirect Courses thinks to arrive at his Journeys end Ask him counsel he directs to your Temper and Inclination to scratch and please and tells you your House is strong when 't is on Fire about your ears If you deal and contract with him plain Sense is wrackt words are perverted and Shrugs Looks Silence Postures and Signs must all carry on his Intriegue and End and Lying and Hypocrisy Equivocation and Reserves and perjuryat a pinch must be sanctified to the same purpose and you treat with an Apparition parition one that is not what he seems to appear Falshood he calls Prudence Treachery is good management his own Contrivance is Discovery and Trains and Schemes of Tricks and Frauds are good Foresight and excellent Judgment this is to lie in wait to hunt spread nets with all sly Arts of deceit and fraud to catch the simple and plain And had its Apostles and early Christians either in their civil Conversation or in their Propagation of their Religion been insincere and false it had been confin'd to a narrower compass than now it is and they whipt for Vagrants and marke for Cheats and Impostors Such are but the little Spirits and low Souls who wanting solid Judgment and true Prudence which are generous and brave fly to Tricks and Falshood like other small Animals because weak Nature hath supply'd with craft As tho God had so order'd all Humane Affairs that our just Interests could not be carried on by the Rules of Honesty Plainness and Uprightness except we call in Deceit and Fraud to our assistance 'T is only fit for a bad Cause to be managed by suitable methods which as often miss the desired end as attain it in being as easy to discover and countermine as to contrive the Design which often concludes in Scorn and Disappointment all not being Fools as the man of Tricks intends they should be This Temper is most destructive to the ease and quiet of Humane Societies which will always be in fits of Jealousies and Suspicions having heen so often trick'd they are afraid they embrace a shadow or anchor upon Quicksands and whereas before they were credulous and believ'd everything they now believe nothing Words have lost their use Oaths are made common Air we know not when our business is at an end Niceties are infinite there are still some sly Quirks Fetches and Distinctions behind which melt the Glew and Cement of Conversation and the sacred Bonds of Friendship Frauds and Flatteries spring from fear and a servile temper and many times end ingloriously The Punick Faith is more a Brand then Valour the Renown of that Ancient Nation And poor Regulus's Honesty carries more Fame with it than Caesar's Consulship And many times the Doom of an Achitophel and Herod that Fox and other Men of tricks hath been very severe Like Boniface the 8th who came in like a Fox rul'd like a Lyon and dy'd like a Dog Yet notwhichstanding all this fince our martyr is perished may we not justly complain it becoming this mournful Day that Faith and Truth are departed from Men May we not suspect when our great Master comes again whether in this sense he will find Faith and Uprightness on Earth I with King David's times be not our own if they be I am sure we ought to use his Prayer Psal 12. 1 2. Help Lord for the good man ceaseth and the faithful fail from among the children of men 2. Goodness expresseth it self in the exercise of good Nature and Charitable Allowances for the Errors of other Such is the State and Condition of the Christian World that her publick Soeieties and private Persons her Saints in some degree as well as common Mortals may be guilty sometimes of a wilful Offence often of Frailties Errors Surprizes and Miscarriages The good Man like his gentle Master knowing the sad Circumstances of Humane Life our Mold Frame and Company sometimes conceals always judges candidly interprets fairly and by soft and easy Methods endeavours a cure The Man of cesure of greater Vices and more ill Nature spreads and inflames wrests and aggravates and pours in Vinegar instead of Oyl to make the Wound easily curable desperate and mortal and advances himself upon the dead Body Such Men do not heartily mourn for the want of Virtue and Religion but are in wardly pleased that there are mistakes and errors in the World which afford them the pleasure of Murmuring and Complaining and like Belzebub that Prince of Flies delight in and feasts upon Wounds and Sores and are made serviceable to their Hypocrisy and Steps to their Interest and Ambition Disorders and Abuses which might have been redrest by gentle Treatments and moderate Prosecuitions turn into Confusion and Ruin by utmost Rigors and Severities which makes Men desperate and that makes them formidable and sometimes prevailing as tho Justice and Peace Laws and Liberties might not be secur'd but by Extremity and Cruelty The good Man knows how to reform but not to extirpate to pardon Crimes that are past yet to prevent them in time to come who is just in the use of Law and Right but not severe and vexatious and like that God above who by Mercy and Reprieves preserves the Reputation of his Justice and
discover'd and certainly thinks these things in Religion are very true This Persuasion makes him depending upon and resign to God quiets his Actions expels his Fears supports his Hopes makes him more humble and charitable just and true keeps him in a continual Sense and Reverence of God and in universal Love with all Mankind This is truly a good Man whose Religion is pure and undefil'd and carries a respect only to another World All other Religion without this good Purpose is only Fashion or Faction Hypocrisy and Formality Superstition or Interest whereby he honours and serves only himself but disgraces his God Such Men have made Religion this or that so various that you may as well define the thing that Men call Wit as what Religion means Sometimes 't is Temper changeable by Weather and Company sometimes 't is Discontent arising from Disappointment of one Party and now the Man is resolv'd to strike in with another sometimes 't is Design and Creed Sacraments and Prayers are good Engins and Trains to gain it As tho the Son of God came with all the greatness of his Miracles and suffer'd all those Sorrows and Indignities upon Earth only to set up a new Model of Government to erect some new Schemes of Trade and the great Contention should be whether the Monopoly of it should be at Rome or elsewhere and in the modern Phrase a rich and a thriving Man should be call'd a good Man For Religion without real Goodness is Scene and Pageantry Noise and Humour and any thing but what it pretends to be Without plain Obedience to the Laws of God and Reformation of Manners Religion is but Flattery and Bribes for Divine Justice To seem to be Religious and not to bridle our Tongues to pretend to Faith and shew no good Works to boast of the Spirit of Christ without his Temper the Love of God without Duty and Submission and to be a Christian and yet without Virtue is a Contradiction and in effect is to be called Good without Goodness or Christians without Christianity For if you look to the Laws and Design of Christ his Example and Miracles in Confirmation of it the whole Constitution and Frame of his Religion you will find it only this to make Men better here and to save them hereafter and so essential to Christianity that you may as soon call a Man a Man without Spirit or Soul or the Hypocrites Trumpet a Victory as men Religious without Honesty and Goodness and Prayers and Sacraments Temples and Altars and all the Externals of Religion Minister unto that great Design and the discovery of Christ call'd our Creeds are not to tell us fine Notions and Curiosities about God and that other State but to influence our Lives and give us good Hopes of Heaven Here our Religion Centers and this alone will do us good To hear Men talk loudly and dispute angerly about Religion and yet want Goodness is equal to the folly of quarrelling about the Possessions of the Moon they worship and are warm about they know not what something that will not belong to them to fight for that which they intend never to use that is to say to correct their Follies and Lewdness 't is to expose their Quiet and Lives sor Riddles and the unknown Land And without this great end Men may as well lay aside the Profession of it and give themselves and the World less Trouble and there would be less Censures and Rigors in the World For let us deal impartially with our selves and others Who were the Causes of this Bloody Fact and yet most unjustly charg'd Popery upon our Martyr Whose is the best Religion his who fetcheth a Dispensation for his Vice from Rome Or his who gives himself a License to Sin His who condemns the Half Communion Or he that never receives at all except it be for an Office or a Vote His who believes the Pains of Purgatory Or his who laughs at that Doctrine yet lives as tho there was neither Purgatory nor Hell but painted Fires in both The Consistory is not more Holy than the Conclave if the same Vices be in both there is little difference between him that shall take away one of the commands and him that shall constantly break another The Doctrines of the Church of Rome naturally lead to Vice the worst Religion in the Christian World because they do so and the Constitution of our own directly leads to Virtue one of the best Notes to know the best Church by Yet if our Lives be equally wicked 't is no great matter who is in the purest Church 'T is fit that the best constituted Church in the whole World such is this of the Church of England should have the best Men in it and all its Members may be so if they please and seek for no other but gracing it with works of Goodness and Discipline are themselves an honest and upright Conversation This is the good Man we want so much this is the Israelite indeed in whom is no guile This is a true Disciple of Christ and such that are so minded there will be Peace upon them and the whole Israel of God 2. What grew up and prevail'd in the Prophet's time in the place of true Religion or Goodness 1. Superstition and false Religion which naturally produces trouble and disquiet in all Governments Worthy Conceptions of God and Christ and Obedience to his plain Laws are so far from clashing with Authority that they give it greater strength and value Obedience in such a Religion being a mighty Duty But Superstition which entertains such course Notions of God making him False and Cruel Peevish and Humoursome Sowre and Uncertain makes its Disciples of the same Temper thinking it excellent Religion to imitate such a God which must necessarily disturb Societies and be troublesome to all Mankind What strange Subjects Neigbours and Friends must those be who are always sullen and melancholy fearful and discontented these cannot but weaken and allay the pleasure and safety of Neighbourhoods and Communities Let us draw the black Catalogue of all the Cruelties and Butcheries Confusions and Ruins that have betided the World and you shall find most of them owing their Original to Superstition of false Religion it being the nature of these two to call Humour and Flesh Interest or Fashion Design or Education Cloudy-days and Ambition and the like the working of the Spirit the Church of God Decrees of Heaven Christian Liberty Fundamentals of Religion and Conditions of Salvation And if they fancy these to be oppos'd and totter Violence and Fraud Blood and Disorder must all club together for their Support and Reputation Superstition and blind Zeal like AEneas with his Father and his false gods upon his Back and Sampson with his Eyes put out will pass through Flames and pull the Government about their Ears and make a Common Grave for themselves and Enemies And all the dear Relations of Prince and Subjects Friends and