Forwardness yet they will never be crowned with due Praise nor have any just cause to triumph in their Victories unless they strive lawfully acting within the compass of their own Calling and Quality not violently invading other Men's Offices but patiently waiting for God's Blessing upon the faithful discharge of their own Those that are otherwise persuaded are in that Particular at Rome also Where we all know it is taught and practised as sound Doctrine that a very good End doth Legitimate and Sanctify the worst Means that can be used for attaining it 2. If the Power Policies and Advantages of our Enemies be at this time very dreadful as indeed they are I would advise them to consider whether the Protestant Cause is like to gain any thing by their representing their Number and Strength to be more still and more terrible than really it is I mean by reducing every thing to Popery which suits not their singular Models and Forms of Government and Worship Sure if the Fathers and Sons in this our National Church are for the most part Popishly affected as too many of them do most disingenuously and indeed dishonestly suggest the very Heart of our Religion would fail for want of its wonted and proper Succours and Support How formidable would the Interest of Rome then be if there were none but disagreeing and scattered Forces to oppose it His Majesty in his Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs 1660. was pleased to signify That in his Converse with the most Learned of the Reformed Churches abroad they did always with great Submission and Reverence acknowledg and magnify the Established Government of the Church of England and the great Countenance and Shelter the Protestant Religion received by it before the late unhappy Times and that many of them have with great Ingenuity and Sorrow confessed that they were too easily misled by Misinformations and Prejudice into some Disesteem of it as if it had too much complied with the Church of Rome whereas they now acknowledg it to be the best Fence God hath raised against Popery in the World Those that go about to pull down this Bulwark or fire this Castle for fear it should surrender to the Enemy I would desire them to think in time how naked and defenceless they will leave the Protestant Religion and whether they do not really expose what they pretend to preserve and strengthen the Building of the Roman Church with every Stone they take from Ours 3. I would desire the Beginners of the Separation to reflect seriously upon the Issues of their former Practices I mean not only the shedding of so much Blood the Blood of their Equals their Nobles their King himself in pursuit of the Quarrel they began but the great occasion they gave thereby tho I hope some of them unwittingly of Triumph to our Popish Adversaries We know very well how ready they were to throw back upon our Religion that heavy Charge of Rebellion which we had so justly laid upon theirs and by noting the irregular Practices of such Zealous Professors how much they endeavoured to depretiate and beat down the esteem of the Protestant Religion where it was most valued to raise some Men's Aversions to an abhorrence of it and to confirm and heighten the dislike of others into the utmost degree of Contempt The generality of weak but honest Christians who observed things in their naked and proper Appearances without the colourings of either side the Presbyterian Excuses or the Popish Aggravations were put into great Doubts and waverings of Mind which part they should adhere to the Idolatrous Papist or the Sacrilegious Protestant That Learned and truly Moderate Man Monsieur Amyrant in the Epistle Dedicatory of his Paraphrase upon the Psalms to His Majesty that now is gives him to understand how much the Proceedings of the Puritans here were objected to him by a great Peer of France in way of Reproach to the Protestant Religion as if it moved to Sedition and Rebellion and were a perfect Enemy to Monarchical Government And the blessed Martyr King Charles the Father fearing lest the Scandal of the late Troubles might be objected to his Son against our established Religion He furnisheth him with this Answer That scarce any one that hath been a Beginner or Prosecutor of the late War against the Church the Laws and Himself either was or is a true Lover Embracer or Practicer of the Protestant Religion established in England which neither gives such Rules or ever before set such Examples I would desire those yet surviving who did begin or carry on that unhappy War after so fair a time of cooling to consider calmly what it ended in how much our Religion lost and how much Popery gained by it and that they would have a very jealous Eye upon every Discontent and turbulent Motion which tends the same way again and not justify those Actions now which sometimes since in their own Acknowledgment could not be pardoned without a great Act of Mercy and Oblivion Yea on this day of our sorrowful Reflection upon the most execrable Treason that ever the Sun saw for that against our Saviour the Sun would not look upon How much doth it concern us to bewail not only that last and most daring Villany but all the causeless Complaints the Factions and the Fightings that made way for it Endeavouring by all good Considerations to encrease our Abhorrence and Detestation of so black a Crime and by our peaceable Behaviour and chearful Submission to the Scepter we live under to secure our selves from the least touch and stain of any such Guilt for the time to come 4. I would advise our dissenting Brethren to consider how far a great part of them have advanced towards Rome and symbolized with the Papists not only in their own frequent Violations of solemn Oaths those of Allegiance and Supremacy the Covenant of their own framing and imposing but in their specious offers of a Dispensation for our Royal Martyrs Goronation-Oath relating to the maintenance of Episcopacy with the Legal Rites Honours and Priviledges of the Clergy But also in their Imperious Solicitations of him to give up that great Trust contrary to his declared Judgment and Conscience and that notwithstanding his signal readiness to comply with them in any thing where he lawfully might God knows I am very unwilling even upon this day to look back upon any thing of this nature which I might honestly over-look And indeed my own Circumstances in the Church and the present temper of the Nation is such that I cannot be supposed in an equal Judgment to be biassed to any Partiality in defence of our present Constitution either against Papists or any other Aggressors or Underminers of it and however I may be censured by any sort of Men for the seeming Imprudence or unseasonableness of such plain dealing I really design nothing else but the faithful discharge of a necessary Duty even in this Advice and I pray God remove
It is most plain that there were a great many Jews and Heathens among them to whom this Epistle was to be communicated and that many of them who could by the Light of Nature easily discover a God and a Providence yet were fallen into Idolatry and such vicious Practices that they much wanted the preaching of the Gospel a clearer Manifestation of the Justice and Goodness of God to recover them It is not my Design at present to make a Comparison of the Gospel of our Saviour with the Ethnical or Judaical Institutions and to shew the great Advantages it hath of them both in respect of its Rules its Aids Motives and Terms of Acceptance its Power and Efficacy to save Nor shall I enquire further into the State of Rome at that time nor what mixtures of their former Sentiments and Practices they retained who came from the Synagogue or from the Temples of Jupiter and Apollo into the Discipline of Christ and the Services of his Church But I shall regard only the Condition of our Modern Romans and must apply that Doctrine to you for your Defence and Security in the Truth which for their Conviction and Recovery I am ready as much as in me is to preach to them that are at Rome also In my Discourse upon these Words I shall confine my self to three general Heads shewing first of all I. That the Romans now stand in as much need if not more of the Ministry of the Gospel as they did in our Apostle's Days II. That the most Christian and effectual may of promoting the Gospel is Preaching and Perswasion III. That those who are commissionated to that Office ought to be ready and resolute in the discharge of it Of these in their Order beginning with the first viz. I. That the Romans now stand in as much need if not more of the Ministry of the Gospel as they did in our Apostle's Days The most dark and depraved state of Gentilisme did not more want the Sun of Righteousness the purifying Light of the Gospel the preaching of Repentance from dead Works and Holiness of Life than this pretended Catholick Church now doth For not only the Romana but the Germana Fides the noted Honesty and Fidelity of those Heathens is in a manner quite lost among those Christians and their present Treachery and Perfidiousness are as much spoken of and experienced throughout the World as their Primitive Faith then was Perhaps there were as many if not more Saints in Nero's Houshold as are in his Holiness's own Family and the places nearest his Influence and Inspection Which gave the famous Van-Harmin occasion to declare In Vitâ Arminii That if he had not before been sufficiently averse to Popery the sight of Rome and its lewd Practices would have given him an invincible dislike I shall not here take notice of what hath been said by their own Authors of the Epicurean and Atheistical Lives of so many Popes scarce to be parallell'd in any heathenish History nor of the Stews and tolerated Debauches of Rome her self Neither should I have touched at all upon this Argument wherein we our selves have too great a Concern if it were not most apparent that their vicious Manners are the proper Fruit of their corrupt Doctrines Those I mean of Equivocation Mental Reservation dispensing with Oaths Durand lib. 4. dist 31. breaking Faith with Hereticks c. And those other of Indulgences Vendible Pardons easy Absolutions and Death-Bed Repentance particularly their making Fornication less sinful in some than chast Wedlock and not a deadly Sin in any according to the Natural Law The manifold Disorders of our Lives the great Luxuriancy of Vice and the decay of Piety Justice and Sobriety among those of our own Communion require a pathetick and powerful Ministry of all the Holy Precepts Counsels Reproofs Directions of our blessed Saviour and his Apostles and it is needful still to preach Gospel-Reformation to the most reformed part of Christendom where all the Principles of Vertue are already sufficiently taught and established But where it is a part of Mens Religion to be vicious where it is their Duty to Sin and their wicked Practices derive from such Principles such impious Doctrines as make a kind of Anti-Gospel to that of our Saviour their Spiritual Estate is very necessitous and deplorable they want Doctrine as well as Exhortation the planting of Paul no less than the waterings of Apollo Which minds me to proceed to the principal thing I intend to insist upon viz. to shew That the Church of Rome stands in much need of the preaching of our Saviour's pure Gospel in regard of the Heathenism if I may not say Anti-Christianism of several Religious Tenents Opinions Ceremonies retained and observed among them There is no Branch of implanted Superstition in any Son of Adam which may not sufficiently feed it self with some part or other of the Romish Liturgy or with some Customs by that Church allowed concerning the Invocation of Saints Adoration of Reliques Worship of Images or the like as the learned Dr. Jackson observes And what was spoken more generally by him I shall endeavour to demonstrate particularly But before I come to speak of their Opinions and Customs give me leave to observe That the very Characters and Marks of their Church the Titles and Prerogatives of their Popes are such if not the very same that the Heathens signalized themselves and their High-Priest by I begin with Bellarmin's first note of the Church and that is 1. Catholicism or Universality which since the Gospel hath been preached throughout the World and both Jew and Gentile are made one in Christ are baptized into one Body is no improper Mark of the Church but very falsly applied by the Papists to themselves and with an Arrogance no where to be equalled but among the proud Pagans who boasted of nothing more than the Latitude of their Superstition and that they only were true Catholicks that all Faith and Religion was theirs that the Jews were ignorant of the Gods of their Fathers observed the Institutions of a private Spirit a Lawgiver of a singular and separating Humour and therefore were no better than downright Hereticks and Schismaticks a Sect distinct from and contrary unto the Religion of the whole World besides which is no more in effect than what Tacitus one of their wisest and most sober Writers affirms quo sibi in posterum gentem firmaret novos ritus contrariosque cateris mortalibus indidit Moses saith he that he might have a People of his own instructed that Nation in Rites and Customs quite contrary to those which were generally received They prophane those things which we esteem Holy Profana illie omnia quae apud nos sacra and they tolerate what we prohibit Hitherto you see who thought themselves the Catholicks if not the Roman-Catholicks in those days for to note this by the way it will be very hard to make Sence of the composition by
any other Figure than that which they used when they denoted absolute Universality by Romanus Orbis and Romanum Imperium and made Romanitas to signify the whole World only that which they called Barbaria excepted Romana Dominatio i. e. Humani Generis saith Florus 2. Another Mark of the Church is Antiquity which they much glory in as if theirs were truly antient and ours a novel upstart Religion Notwithstanding our learned Writers have abundantly shewed not only when the Errors we protest against were not in the Church but the particular time and occasion of the commencement of many of them tho not a few of those Tares were sown in the most ignorant and sleepy Ages and brought forth by such gradual Alterations that they might not so easily be discerned in their Productions and Progress as in their Maturity but this is besides our present undertaking which was only to shew that this Pretence also was a great support of Gentilisme * Si longa aetas authoritatem Religionibus conciliat servanda est tot saeculis Fides sequendi sunt nobis parentes qui secuti sunt saeliciter suos Symmachi Ep. ad Theod. Its Orators and Advocates upon all occasions set forth the Antiquity of their Rites and Ceremonies and the Innovations of Christianity Where was your Religion before Luther say the Papists to us and where was yours before Jesus of Nazareth said the Pagans to the first Christians When †Acts 17.19 St. Paul preached the Gospel at Athens the Philosophers there asked in Scorn What the new Doctrine was whereof he spake and the Historian calls the Christians Christianos genus hominum novae maleficae superstitionis Tacit. Annal. lib. 15. Bellarm. lib. 4. de Not. Ecclesiae cap. 4. Men of a new and mischievous Superstition 3. A third Mark of the Church which they think suits theirs very well is a Power of Working Miracles we cannot yield that this is a perpetual visible Note of the true Church as is pretended Miracles indeed are the clearest Evidences of Divine Truth and Authority and the most immediate Credentials of Heaven Our blessed Saviour attested his Divinity and the Truth of his Gospel thereby and in the Churches Infancy gave his Apostles the same Power of confirming their Doctrine but many good Reasons have been given to shew that there is not the same need and use of them now as then there was and how far the Devil by the Agility and Subtilty of his Nature may impose upon the Senses of Men and puzzle them with strange Appearances I shall not now enquire nor endeavour to refute the pretence of the Romanists in this kind by discovering the Vanity and Extravagancy of their lying Legends only to be named in a place and time fitter for Laughter and Disport than this wherein we are Nor shall I stay to shew how little cause they have to boast of this Faculty if they were more expert in it than indeed they are Seeing our Saviour and his Apostles have prophesied of the latter times that in a general Apostacy from the Faith Great Wonders should be wrought Mat. 24.24 able to deceive if it were possible the very Elect and that those especially who would not receive the Love of the Truth thro' an effectual working of Satan 2 Thess 2.9 10 11. in lying Wonders and strong Delusions should be brought to believe Lies But my Business here also is to shew that the Heathens talked as much and upon as good Grounds of this Gift of Miracles as they do it is well known how famous Pythagoras was for it in the Writings of Porphyry and Apollonius Tyaneus in those of Philostratus and Hierocles Histor lib. 4. besides what is said of Vespasian by Tacitus and those wonderful Manifestations of the Divine Power and Presence in the Roman Armies which Balbus boasted of Lib. 2. de nat Deorum p. 27. yea the idle and rediculous Reports of the frequent removals of the Chappel of Loretto from one Country and from one Place to another by invisible Hands in its most creditable Appearance seems to be but the counter-part of a Heathenish Wonder That I mean of the Temple of Diana's removal out of the Isle of Zazinthus unto Saguntum in Spain as it is related by Pliny 4. Another Mark of the Church with them is outward Splendor and Temporal Prosperity of which we read nothing in Scripture and it agrees much better with the Condition of Paganism and Mahumetanism than this of Christianity The Roman Orator Cicer. Orat. de Haruspic from the flourishing Greatness the many Victories and Triumphs of that Empire infers the Truth and Goodness of its Religion and the Idolatrous Jews will not be put out of conceit with their abominable Superstitions because they prospered and fared well in them Jer. 44.17 We will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth out of our Mouth to burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out Drink-Offerings to her as we have done we and our Fathers our Kings and our Princes in the Cities of Judah and in the Streets of Jerusalem But why so resolute and obstinate in your way Why Because we have this Catholick Argument that we are in the right outward Plenty Health and Prosperity as it follows for then had we plenty of Victuals and were well and saw no evil I might here add That the Heathens have the same plea with them for uninterrupted Continuance Number and Variety of Professors but I forbear this because it is no reproach to true Christians that they are a little Flock seeing we are assured by Scripture Testimony that the whole World in a manner lies in Wickedness I proceed to examine the Popes pretended Titles of Supremacy and Infallibility It hath been observed that old Babel who was the Foundress of Idols and the Mother of all Heathenish Superstitions was the first Pattern in the World of ambitious Dominion And 1. For the Supremacy of our new and mystical Babel it seems to derive from that Lordship Mark 10.42 which was exercised by those that ruled over the Gentiles And indeed that Authority which the Historian attributes to the Pontifex Maximus may suit new Rome Dionys Halic Ant. Rom. l. 2. as well as old The High Priests have great power among the Romans and are the Lords and Controllers of their most important Affairs they decide all Religious Controversies between the Commonalty the Magistracy and the Ministry they call all Magistrates and Priests to account for the exercise of their Authority And what follows in the same Author shews in how great repute they were 2. For their Infallibility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They determine all Differences relating either to Traditional or Novel Customs in Religion I know the Papists would fain parallel the Infallibility of their Chair with that of Moses and endeavour to confirm it by a seeming Parity of Reason in their case with that of the Jews
Ages until St. Augustine's time and God in Scripture with respect to his own Covenant is said to be just as well as merciful in remembring our labours of Love Smith's Select Discourses p. 288. Hottinger Thesaur Philo. p. 554. yet the Popish Opinion of Free-will and the Meritoriousness of their good Works is as inexcusable as the Notion of the corrupt Pharisees about them And both they and the Talmudists have the same Plea for their unwritten Traditions But I have not time to insist upon more Particulars either of Jewish or Heathenish Corruptions in the Roman Church and it will be the less needful because I have already given you some of the most considerable Instances of their foul Relapses and Apostacies parallel with the greatest Defections in the Jewish Church the Sin of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat their worshipping the true God by Images the Calves of Dan and Bethel and the way of Ahab their worshipping of other Gods besides him viz. Baalim-Demons inferiour Gods and Mediators exactly accomplishing that Prophecy of St. John Rev. 11.2 that the second or outmost Court of the Temple which is the second state of the Christian Church Apostacy of the latter Times as Mr. Mede hath observed together with the holy City should be trodden down by the Gentiles that is overwhelmed by the Gentiles Idolatry fourty two Months So that in the close of this Argument we will allow the Antiquity of the Romish Religion that in many parts of it it was elder than the Apostles or the Preachings of Christ himself and to their fierce charge of Novelism we may justly oppose that of the learned Scaliger Scal. respons ad Serrar Min. Nos novatores non sumus sed vos estis veteratores Our Religion is not new bearing the same Date with the Gospel of our Saviour but your's a little too old professed at Rome before ever St. Paul or St. Peter preached there in many Parts symbolizing with that of your Vnchristened Ancestors the Gentile Fathers But some will say Why should we object that as a matter of Reproach to the Papists and to their Religion which they glory in as a convincing Proof of its Truth and Goodness its agreeableness to the Law of Nature and the best Reason of Mankind For answer hereunto 1. We must acknowledg that Christianity is the sum or perfection of whatsoever Things were laudable or passable in any Religion that hath been in the World 2. That those Practices in the Heathens which were not the Products of Superstition but Dictates of the Law of Nature we allow and embrace commending all things that were solemn decent and comely in their Religion 3. That as our Saviour was pleased to retain many of the received Practices among the Jews only with such necessary Alterations as made them suit with the Doctrine and nature of Christianity So the Primitive Church retained some Ceremonies which the Heathen used relating to the outward Order and Decency of their Ministeries and Worship such as were the Habits of their Priests their Fasts Vigils Festivals Processions c. And no doubt it was well done at first to accommodate to Christianity such customs of the Heathens as had nothing of Idolatry or Superstition in them Pertinaci Pâ—ganismo mâ—tatione sâ—b eâ—tum est quum rei iâ— to um subla io potius irritasset Beda nothing of peculiar Opposition to the Gospel to procure thereby a more easie Entertainment to its Doctrines and in some measure to abate the usual Prejudices which all new and strange Institutions meet withall 4. Some Compliances which were useful and necessary in the Infant-state of the Church might and did become hurtful afterwards and many great Men complained betimes of the retaining of Pagan Rites even of such as were in their own nature indifferent 〈…〉 p. 391. particularly because the Gentiles used in the Services of their Idols to sit down immediately after they had prayed Tertullian would not have the Christians do so De Oâ—at c. 〈◊〉 5. If there be any thing doctrinal in their Rites the Observation of them will be an owning of their Religion a joyning Christ with Belial Light with Darkness a corrupting and deflouring of the Purity and Chastity of our Saviour's Gospel 6. We have instanced for the most part in Ceremonies of this nature and have proved as fully as well as we could in so little time and space that if there ever was any such thing as Superstition and Idolatry in the Heathen World there is now too much of them in the Roman Church and the Christian Faith so throughly infected with them that in so general a Corruption we cannot but contemplate and lament that Apostacy or falling away of Christians foretold by our Apostle 2 Thes 2. And by these Spiritual Adulteries conclude who is the Whore of Babylon the Mother of the Formcations and Abominations of the Earth who in our days go a whoring after the Heathen Ezek 23.30 and are polluted with their ldols Therefore to apply this 1. What we have heard of the Church of Rome justifies our Separation from her we depart no further from her than she hath done from Christianity and renounce only the Heathenism and other foreign Corruptions which she hath mixed with the Gospel of our Saviour We do not voluntarily make a Schism upon the account of a stinted Liturgy a few indifferent Ceremonies or some little Defects and Disorders in the lower Forms of Ecclesiastical Polity but are forced to separate from such Idolatries and Superstitions as are altogether inconsistent with the Doctrine and Worship of the Gospel 2. It concerns those that would not partake of the Sins of Rome the mystical Babylon and receive of her Plagues Rev. 18.4 to come out of her according to our Apostle's Advice to come out from among them to be separate and not to touch the unclean Thing 2 Cor 6.17 For what Concord hath Christ with Belial or the Temple of God with Idols 3. Let us highly magnifie the undeserved and distinguishing Goodness of God for delivering us from those Heathenish and Abominable Superstitions wherewith for some time the whole Church in a manner was and still a great part of it is overspread and restoring to us the clear and pure Light of his Gospel and let us most humbly and heartily pray for the continuance of this Blessing Thou hast brought up a Vine out of Egypt thou hast cast out the Heathen and planted it let not the Wild Boar out of the Wood root it up nor the Wild Beast of the Field devour it Yea it concerns us to bless God for delivering us from the Cruelties of the ' Papists wherein they also Gentilize as I should have shewed if I had had time and particularly from the most merciless Design of this day a Design which at once outwitted the Malice of past and the Imitation of future Conspiracies and which if it had taken effect would not
only have satisfied the Antichristian Spirit of the worst of Men but if any thing would the Hatred Enmity and Revenge of the Devil himself who was a Murderer from the beginning Cursed be their Anger for it was sierce and their Wrath for it was cruel But for ever blessed be God who bringeth the Counsel of the Heathen to naught And blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord and the People whom he hath chosen for his own Inheritance We thy People and Sheep of thy Pasture will give thee Thanks for ever we will shew forth thy Praise to all Generations 4. Let us endeavour to consirm our selves by these Considerations in the true Faith which we profess and in a stedfast Obedience to the pure Gospel of our Saviour Not learning the way of the Heathen Jer. 10.2 not giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Demons 1 Tim. 4 1. To such as speak Lies in Hypocrisie forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from Meats Whatever there is of Gospel and true Christianity in the Church of Rome we have it already and what is more either purely of their own Invention or borrowed from the Heathens who have changed the Truth of God into a Lie I hope we shall be content to want We hold the Foundation Jesus Christ and reject none of the Gold Silver and pretious Stones which they built upon it but the superadditions of Hay and Stubble such Doctrines and Practices of theirs as are not to be found in Scripture nor in the Creeds Homilies and Canons of the Primitive Church Notwithstanding their great boasts of Antiquity which prevail much where they are believed it is a plain case that the Popery of their Religion if not new in it self is new in the Church never professed by any Christians for the first three hundred Years and as to the grosser parts of it not known in the Church until several Ages after We may patiently hear them upbraid us with Singularity and Innovation when we are assured our Doctrines are as old and as universal as our Saviour's Gospel and we may allow them to glory in any thing older and more Catholick than that Their Religion will not appear to us more sacred and venerable because much of its Attire many of its Rites and Ceremonies are more antique than ours and because it is adorned in those Fashions of the World those Vanities of the Gentiles which as they were before Christianity so were to pass away at its Appearance and where they remain or rather have been reassumed are the Blemish and Disgrace if not the Disease and Leprosie of that most excellent Institution But on the contrary I hope we shall be more fervent more settled and constant in our Affection to and Zeal for our own Religion when we consider that it is sound and pure Christianity the only Catholick Religion which hath in it all that is truly good of all other Religions without their Adulterations and Debasements It is a Religion which doth not allow us to give Gods Glory to another Isa 42.8 nor his Praise to graven Images It admits neither Saints nor Angels to share in God's Worship nor owns any other Mediatours but his Son Jesus Christ It is a Religion which enjoyns none but Reasonable Services which allows us to search the Scriptures and prove all things not exacting an Implicite Faith or Blind Obedience It gives us to understand what God saith to us and what we pray for to him in the use of an English Bible and Liturgy It is a Religion which makes no more Sacraments than our Saviour did but gives us them intire In a word it is a Religion which is pure and peaceable which dispenseth with no Duties of Piety Righteousness or Charity which teacheth Obedience to Governours and abhors Rebellion and Treason as one of the worst things in Popery Methinks no worldly Considerations no Hopes or Fears should cause us to waver in much less to depart from a Religion so purely Christian as this So Profitable unto all things in our Politick and private Capacities maintaining Peace and Property the Power of Soveraigns and Rights of Subjects Giving to God the things that are Gods and to Cesar those that are his no way oppressing the meanest of the People in their civil Concerns and most effectually promoting the spiritual Welfare and Happiness of all Men methinks I say we should not easily be perswaded out of such a Religion at least not to change it for that which we have heard described one depraved with the most fond Superstitions and Idolatrous Rites of Gentilism nor indeed for any other which under the pretence of greater Purity doth really comply with and advance the Interests of this What true Good can we propound to our selves by such an Exchange Let us therefore resolve to continue and fix where we are Saying with those in another Case Whither shall we go thou hast the words of Eternal Life The End of the second Sermon THE GOSPEL Preached to them that are At ROME Also IN TWO SERMONS On the 30th of January 1680. The Third Sermon ROM 1.15 So as much as in me is I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also HItherto I have been discovering the Anti-Christian Errors of professed Papists in order to your Confirmation and Establishment rather than what I yet most heartily desire their Conviction and Recovery because I know not whether this Discourse may reach any of them There are another sort of Men who think themselves far enough from Rome or at least would have us think them so who upon a true enquiry will be found to be their Also I mean these among our selves who whilst they loudly protest against the Heathenish Superstitions and Idolatries of the Papists do yet combine with them yea with the worst of them the Jesuits in many of their Principles and Practices no less unchristian and strengthen the Hands and Hearts of those our implacable Enemies by dividing the Body and consequently wasting the Force of our Protestant Church I would not at this time especially discourage the Zeal of any well meaning Protestants by aggravating the Errors and Irregularities of it but sure they must needs be very shallow Headed if they are indeed true Hearted and well meaning Protestants who think in these Days to serve their Cause to bring Honour and Security to their Religion by breaking the Orders and Unity of our Church by mutinying against their Leaders and drawing off into Parties and Factions from the main of their Strength if not turning their Weapons upon and making at those as their Enemies who have been at least their Companions if not their Champions in the common Quarrel In order to the tempering and directing of these Men's Zeal I would in the Spirit of Meekness the Spirit of the Gospel propound these things to their sober Thoughts 1. That however they may value themselves upon their Courage and
careless and loose Livers among our selves for as my Lord Bacon hath well observed Controversies of the Church of England p. 168. There is a double Policy of the Spiritual Enemy either by counterfeit Holiness of Life to establish and authorize Errors or by corruption of Manners to discredit and draw into question Truth and things lawful No Pagan Blasphemies or Popish Usurpations are so offensive to God or injurious to his Church as the scandalous miscarriages of his pretended Servants Our greatest Fear and Danger Beloved is from our selves Our Sins are our worst Enemies and if not overcome by us will soon betray and ruine us and our Protestant Cause without any other Plots and Conspiracies When we consider what it was that blasted those flourishing Churches of Ephesus Sardis Laodicea we cannot escape some fearful abodes of the like effects of our decay of Love our Hypocritical Profession our Lukewarmness and great indifferency in the most material Parts and Acts of our Religion The Church of England and God grant we may be truly sensible of it hath suffered much and is still like to suffer more by her own Children And that is verified in her which was once said of Julius Caesar Plures illum amici confoderunt quam inimici She hath received more Wounds from her Friends than from her Enemies Victa est non aegre proditione sua Ovid. de Carinnâ How many among us are there that profess little or no regard at all to Religion or profess that regard for the temporal Conveniencies that attend it And how many are false and hypocritical in their Profession resting in meer Shadows and external Formalities most unreasonably concluding that all is well with them because the Lines are fallen to them in so pleasant a place as a purged Church and that themselves need Reformation the less because that is reformed What is this but as one speaks To run round in a Circle and meet the Church of Rome where we left her What is this but to speak her very Language that to be in this Ark this Church is to be safe Behold we are called Christians and rest in the Gospel and make our Boasts of Christ and the Purity of his Ordinances and Worship among us But believe it it is not the Name of Protestant or Reformed no nor the Name of Christ himself that will save us or our Religion if by our wicked Conversation we cause that Name that worthy Name as St. James calleth it to be evil spoken of among the Gentiles our Popish or our Phanatical Enemies It is our walking in this Holy Name our living up to the Principles of our Saviour's Gospel and our improving the Means of Grace to a more perfect Degree of Holiness than any have attained unto in the Strength of Nature or of their own artificial Inventions that will make Christianity truly glorious in the Eyes of Jews Turks and Heathens Our Protestant Christianity to out-shine the Visibility of Rome and our Church of England to flourish and be honourably esteemed among all her Sisters of the Reformation Our Skill in Controversies will not do us the Service nor gain us the Reputation that the Simplicity of our Manners the Piety of our Practices will This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom stiles it the most uncontroulable or irresistable if we may not say infallible Proof and Conviction of the Goodness of our Religion in the Judgment of most Examiners I shall therefore conclude this Head of my Discourse with an earnest Exhortation to Holiness of Life That our ways may be upright as among the Gentiles and our well-doing such and so exemplary as may put to silence the ignorance of foolish and captious Men. It is a shame to our Religion that we should go to Rome for Examples of Vertue or seek Christ in the secret Chambers that we should learn Piety from Idolaters or strictness of Life from the Enemies of Government yet even among them may be found some Instances of Mortification and Zeal which may serve at least for our Reproach if not for our Imitation The voluntary Austerities of the Papists their Mid-night Devotions frequent Fastings painful Pilgrimages and Pennances may serve to put us in mind of our Saviour's wholesome Precepts of Self-denial Heavenly-mindedness devout Prayer and discreet Abstinence and the Zeal of several Sectaries in some parts of Religion may condemn our general Coldness or Indifferency in the whole But if we can learn no good from them let us be very careful lest we harden them in evil and confirm them in their Erroneous Opinions by our vitious Practices When we have disarmed them of their defensive Weapons and left them no rational Plea nor Excuse for their Schism and Sedition Let us not put into their Hands a Sword of Offence and expose our selves to the Mercy of their Censures which is cruel enough by any Irregularities of another nature And because many among us at this time appear more zealous for the Interest of their Religion than that of their Souls less mindful of the great Duties of Sobriety Righteousness and Piety in their own Conversations than those of discovering opposing and punishing the heretical and traiterous Designers against our Protestant Church and seem more to fear the Popish Conspiracies than any of the Devil 's Wiles and Stratagems I would desire it might be well considered that a holy good Life is as necessary to uphold our Religion as to save our Souls Nothing like this as hath been intimated already to break the Courage and baffle the Attempts of our Romish Adversaries or to reclaim and bring home other Dissenters into our Communion Nothing so like to fix and settle them in their Errors and Seditions as our loose and vain Conversations and indeed at this time we ought to be more then ordinarily circumspect now so many evil Eyes are upon us watching for our haltings and so many Mouths ready opened to aggravate our least Miscarriages wherefore we could never more seasonably apply to our selves that of good Nehemiah Ought we not to walk in the Fear of our God Chap. 5.9 because of the Reproach of the Heathen our Enemies Among all the Motives and Persuasives to Holiness me-thinks this should not be the least powerful that it is likely if any thing to gain those that dissent from us to convince the more sober and ingenuous that we are in the right way of Worship and to remove all Stones of Offence out of the Path either of the tender or peevish An eminent Example of Mr. Edward Fowler in his design of Christianity p. 304. and a mighty Advocate for Holiness hath well observed That meer pretences to great Sanctity do strangely make Proselites to several Forms that have nothing besides to set them off and commend them And as for obstinate Persons that will by no means be prevailed with to come over to us they will however be greatly disabled from
Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance The Apostles of Christ and their Followers acted upon their Masters Principles and by the Motions of his Spirit at his Command they preached the Gospel throughout the World but opposed nothing besides their Patience and Prayers to the Countermands of Civil Authority not allowing so much as the Rebellion either of the Tongue or Pen any open defaming or any secret ways of destroying the Powers they lived under Nunquam Conjuratio crupit Tertul. ad Nar. they were never found to be in any Plot or treasonable Conspiracy On the contrary being reviled they blessed being persecuted they suffered it Yea Sozom. lib. 1. c. 20. the Calmness and Gentlenss of their Spirit appeared no less afterwards when they were in Power than when under Persecution And herein there Practice was very conformable to the Doctrine of the Apostolical Men of the first Ages Non est Religionis cogere Religionem Religion is not to be propagated by Force and Violence Ad Scapulat saith Tertullian And it was St. Gregory Nazianzen's Advice in his Oration for Peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christians must overcome their Enemies by lessening themselves and lay the Grounds of their highest Triumphs in their lowest Submissions Our Religion Lact. lib. 5. saith Lactantius must be defended non occidendo sed moriendo not by taking away other Mens Lives but by laying down our own in the Testimony of the Truth and a good Conscience whensoever the Necessities of the Church shall require it of us It was a great Honour to Proclus his Episcopacy that he got the Hearts of his People and the Ends of his Government by his admirable Condescensions and Clemency In Vit. Procli Archs. Epis Constant ante Opora p. 34. and this was the Wisdom of his Meekness Ne Oves truci minacique vultu absterrendo Lupis parare◠Praedam lest by too much Sternness and Severity he should fright the Sheep from the Flock and thereby make them a more easie Prey for the Wolf Mansuetudine corpus Christi quod est Ecclesia vincit Inimicos The Churches Meekness breaks the Force of her Enemies Rage and she conquers altogether by Acts of Gentleness and Perswasion and indeed other Methods are improper nay ineffectual Men may be forced into Hypocrisie but not into a true Belief they may be beaten out of their Trenches and out-works of Wickedness but the Devils strongest hold the Heart will not be taken by Violence Nothing can enter there but the Light of Reason and the Demonstration of the Spirit the voice of the Wise Charmer and the powerful Preacher the Instructions of Men and the Grace of God We must indeed contend earnestly for the Faith yet above all things we must put on Charity and use such other Arms as are fit for the Christian Warfare not those that are carnal but spiritual Preaching and Disputation Holiness of Life Assiduity of Exhortation the word of God and Prayer and when we come to reprove rebuke and to inflict spiritual Punishments we must distinguish as tenderly as we can between the wilful and the weak the obstinate and the ignorant The first sort indeed must be more roundly dealt withal Isa 58.1 It was with such the Prophet Isa had to do when God bids him lift up his Voice like a Trumpet 2 Tim. 4.8 with such Timothy must be instant in season and out of season exhort reprove rebuke with all Authority The obstinate we must endeavour to save with fear plucking them out of the Fire with them we must be more sharp and severe in our Admonitions and Threatnings but on the Weak we must have Compassion those who may be supposed affectu piae Opinionis errare as Salvian thought charitably of some Arrians of his days those who as Sheep going astray who may be supposed to err through simplicity or the Fervours of Devotion ought to be treated with a fatherly Tenderness and restored if posssible with the Spirit of Meekness conformable to the Doctrine of St. Paul to Timothy in Meekness instructing those who oppose much more those who only peaceably withdraw themselves if God peradventure will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth The Council of Aix compares the Church to a Dove which sometimes may strike gently with her Wings yet hath neither Beak nor Talons to tear and destroy And it was once the saying of a wise States-Man Lord Verulam and one not disaffected to our Church That there is no better way to stop the risings of new Sects and Schisms than to reform Abuses to compound the smaller Differences to proceed mildly and not with Sanguinary Persecutions And God be thankful such is the present Moderation of Ecclesiastical Constitution that we have no Laws like those of Braco written in Blood our Penalties are not for Destruction but for Correction and Amendment we punish none for bare Opinions and readily embrace every returning Penitent Yea such of late hath been the Tenderness and Indulgence of our Gracious King and our Bishops that Mercy hath triumphed over Justice and our Dissenters have had more Favour shewed them than the Laws allow yet too many of them are as quernlous and discontented still as ever like froward humorous Children that cry not because they are whipped but because they may not scratch their Nurse and have their foolish Wills in every thing or complain of their Mother's Rigor though her Commands are very reasonable and her Corrections as gentle But this we are not to wonder at Dr. Puller of the Moderation of the Church of England for since The very mildness and gentleness of our Lord Christ by which St. Paul affectionately entreats the Corinthians 2 Cor. 10.1 too ineffectually prevails on the Christian World why should we think it strange that the Moderation which is the proper Glory of the Church of England cannot perswade either the Romanists or Enthnsinsts to be sensible of that Wisdom and Law of Kindness which attempers all the Commands and Constitutions of our Church but the vehement Opposition of both Extreams confesseth whether they will or no that we are in the mean and preserve that Moderation in our Judgment of Doctrines and our Exercise of Discipline which condemns the stifness of Opinion and the violence Acting in each Party and shews that we cannot joyn with either of them in destroying Men's Lives and Fortunes overturning of Kingdoms and States Laws and Governments much less in deposing or murdering of Soveraign Princes under the pretence of Conscience and Religion But this by the way my Business at present being not so much to justify the Practice of our Church as the Doctrine of the Gospel and to shew that the Religion of our Saviour made no forcible Entry upon the understandings of Men it did not arrest their Judgments with Motives drawn from the civil Power since it met with the greatest Opposition imaginable from the Heathen Emperours but had