implicit Faith that we are Members of such a Church as is uniform in all its Devotions whose avowed Principles and Practices disown all Resistance of lawful Authority our Saviour never warranting the shedding of any Blood not of his own most implacable Enemys Let men look but into its doctrine and History and they will find neither the Knoxes nor the Junius Brutus's on the one side nor the Bellarmin's Escobar's or Marianna's on the other This is the Church that makes the Protestant Religion considerable in Christendom because it doth not confound us with the many Postures and Garbs of Worship or with the continual starting up of new Lights because it doth not approve of Enthusiastical Heats of sudden Impulses of Spirit of Zeal without Understanding nor of any such extraordinary Calls whereby some men have thought themselves authorized to overthrow Kingdoms because there is somewhat to be found in the Revelation concerning a Beast little Horn and a fifth Vial. But in the room of wild and unaccountable Conceits our Church settles in us clear and certain Notions of Religious Duties forbids us to make false Interpretations of Scripture to countenance any evil Design charges us to place our Religion in the Practice of true and real Goodness not in Forms and Schemes of Speech or unintelligible Words that have no meaning or Sense belonging to them but in the Heart and in good Affections issuing thence By these means we are brought to the Exercise of substantial Virtue having no hope of Salvation unless we work it out with Fear and Trembling For no man is in any thing more certain than that he ought to be sober and temperate in reference to himself that he ought to deal righteously and so as he would be dealt by that he ought to carry himself equally and fairly and that he ought to fear and reverence the Deity Now the Church where we were Baptized plainly tells us what we are to do what sober righteous and godly Lives we are bound to lead and sets before our Eyes the danger of neglecting these Duties So that we are not deceived by any ways of Fraud or Falshood we have no such Cheats put upon us as the Doctrine of Merit or the delivering Souls out of Purgatory by Masses But we are dealt Honestly withal for without Flattery our Church declares no man shall be saved without personal Holiness and unless he be renewed in the Spirit of his Mind that no Sacrifice shall attone for his Sin altho he make his whole Body a Burnt-Offering He shall not hide his Iniquities by the greatest Fire and Smoak he can raise unless he deny his most beloved Appetites and cast off his choicest Lusts He may go a great way from home in Pilgrimages and wander thro Desarts in Sackcloath and Hair being clogg'd with heavy malancholy Blood he may retire to a dark religious Room and lock himself in with many Keys But all will not do unless he part with the sins of his Heart come abroad and practise the active Virtues of Christ's Religion Unless he fashion his Life according to the Laws of it and takes not up his Religion for Mode-sake or because he was born where it is professed Thus I say our Church deals uprightly with Mankind by telling them that here they ought to fit and quafie themselves for the state of Glory and Blessedness that here they should get themselves discharged of evil Habits which the repetition of Ave-Mary Prayers or the Absolution of a Priest at the last cannot wipe away especially when they have long abused themselves by ill Practises and Customs Wherefore being Members of this Church which shews us the best way of Worshiping God by a reasonable Service which teaches the surest Principles of Peace and Charity that tend to reconcile the Differences of Men which prescribes the best Methods of propagating Love and Good-will in the World Being Subjects to that Government by whose Laws this Church is established where the Supreme Ruler enjoys a Capacity of doing all the Good imaginable to Mankind and is in his Nature inclined so to do I must say we are a happy People both in the Constitution of our Church and State That this Happines may abide for ever with us we are obliged Fist To keep up a friendly Society and Correspondence with all Men. Secondly We are more particularly engaged to love and help one another as we are Country-men born in the same Neighbourhood First We are obliged to keep up a friendly Society and Correspondence with all Men because without this Society and Correspondence no Man can possibly live happily or well and we know every man hath a natural desire of his own Happiness the sense whereof results from the first and strongest Instincts of Nature In that it is without doubt natural to Men as to other Creatures to seek after their own Welfare Consequently to consider by what means it is attainable Which particular Welfare of every Man is not to be had without mutual Benevolence and a common regard for the prosperity of the wole Body of Men This preserves them Honest and Virtuous in all the entercourses of Life For should human Society disband and betake themselves to Woods Men would be quickly turned into wild Creatures and must subsist by preying upon each other Then the most Innocent would be least secure because they are not apt to Invade other men's Rights and are ever exposed to Wrongs and Injuries This therefore is the proper and useful end of Society to institute a common Friendship among Men that they may be endeared to each other by mutual Offices of Kindness and Love The Angels teach us this Lesson that we should condescend to the meanest Office for the good of our Brethren The work of these ministring Spirits is to promote the Welfare of Mankind so that to employ our selves to do good unto Men and to further them in the way of Salvation is to be as good as Angels unto Men We hope to be one day like them in Happiness let us now make them the Examples of our Duty and Obedience And indeed were Men as faithful to one another as the Condition of their Nature requires and the Author of it expects there would be no need of Civil Laws and Penalties We should be all then like our Country-men of Brightwell where it is observed there hath been no Ale-House no Sectary nor any Suit of Law within the Memory of Man VVould every single Person take right Measures of himself reflect seriously upon his frail and helpless State in this VVorld consider how insufficient all his personal Strength is to secture him he must believe that if there were not a common Assistance if he had not Friends and Acquaintance to fly to upon all Occasions nothing could be more wretched and forlorn than the life of Man For as the Malmesbury Philosopher says could we suppose a Man out of Society he must live in perpetual Fears and Jealousies
For his Condition must be desperate who Corresponds with no body but trusts to his own Wit and Understanding to defend himself against the Fraud and Violence of the whole VVorld besides so that Men must thwart both their Reason and their Interest before they can reconcile their Minds to any other Thoughts then of Love and Society Human Nature being so much inclined to both For supposing the brutish part of Man to be wild and Savage yet if we consider him as an intelligent and rational Being nothing will appear more extravagant than to affirm that he will not pursue such Means as tend to the Comfort and Chearfulness of his Life For a sociable Life and a friendly Conversation with one another is of great Use to us in respect of our several Employments which we are thereby enabled to follow and accomplish with greater Safety much more Chearfulness and better Success With greater Safety because as the wise Man says of two Travelling together if one falls the other will lift him up but woe to him that is alone when he falleth for he hath not another to help him With much more Cheerfulness because good Company doth ever lessen and abate the Tediousness of Labours doth easily subdue Troubles and Oppositions Insomuch that it was a Custom in antient Times for Men to meet together that they might find out a way how to Comfort any of their Friends that was fallen into Adversity This was the reason of the Visit which Job's Friends made him With better Success because Affairs are always managed with better Wisdom and consequently Success where several Heads and Hands are joyned to carry them on What a strange Chimera then what an unaccountable Fiction was that Stoick's Wise and Happy Man Who fancied no Man could be either one or the other unless he were shut up in some Dungeon or lost in some desolate Island where he might be able acquiescere sibi cogitationibus suis traditus But we know that Adam our common Father could not be happy without a Companion and if we consider all the Sons of Adam as truly they are and we shall see they are all very lyable to Confusion and Error Whilst we are alone many tumultuous Thoughts and vain Projects start up in our Minds The Weakness and Defects whereof are plainly seen as soon as we communicate them to others Of our selves we are very apt to run into Mistakes in every thing we set about there is no better remedy against them than the Advice of a faithful Acquaintance most of our Disturbances proceed from irregular Passions We have the Feavours and Frenzyes of Anger and Love to struggle with that keep our Minds out of Frame and Order Hope and Fear shake us like an Ague Envy brings a Consumption upon all our Faculties all of them lye cross to our Souls and like small Particles that have rugged and sharp Angles do continually molest and grate upon us Whatever then that is which will preserve us from these fretting Passions that rob us of our Peace vex and corrode our Spirits must be of great Consequence to our Welfare The Society of good and virtuous Men is one of the best Remedies in this case is one of the most likely ways to free us from the Tumults of disorderly Affections so that we may find Ease and Pleasure Sweetness and Contentment in our Lives Because into their Bosoms we may pour forth our secret Troubles and they will help us to bear our Burden To them we may divide our Griefs and so diminish them we may communicate our Joys and so encrease them Nothing but sincere and unfeigned Love can make us thus friendly and helpful to one another which Love is stiled in Scripture the Bond of Perfection and must not be founded upon private Ends For this is Traffick and not Friendship But we must use a discreet Freedom in giving Counsel to our Brethren or Admonition as there is need We must be constant and never forsake them in Adversity because a Man who deserts his Friend at such a time is ever to be condemn'd for Baseness and Meanness of Spirit Wherefore that we may be effectually moved to the Exercise of this entire Friendship and Love for Mankind let us not only consider that it will pour down upon us great and unexpected Showers of Delight and Satisfaction But let us look abroad into the World and take a view of the State of many People how uncomfortably they live by their neglect of these Virtues by reason of Dissentions among them Destruction is brought upon their Families By Quarrels and Divisions those are separated and consequently weakned whom God hath joyned in the Profession of the same Holy and peaceable Religion For the Prevention of this growing Mischief We are Secondly more particularly obliged to be kind to and love one another as we are Country-Men born in the same Neighbourhood And when I mention my native Country methinks it is a kind of resolving me into my own Beginnings For like all sorts of Fruit there is a natural tendency in us to the Ground from whence we came and where our Root is fixed Consequently there must be a more than ordinary Inclination to love and help those who are of the same Birth and Growth with our selves They are as it were connatural to us and we are more concerned for their Prosperity than for Strangers For it is in human as in natural Plantations partaking of the same Soil they cherish one another and thrive best together There are 't is true in the course of human Life from our Cradles upward certain Periods or degrees of Change commonly as the Antients have noted every seven Years Insomuch that our Persons may be so altered that we may be as much unknown to one another as we are to Forreigners However this Strangeness is soon laid aside and we are as it were by a forcible Impulse of Nature ready to Embrace our Country-Men with an undissembled Affection Without which as my Lord Bacon says our meeting together doth not make Company but a Crowd Faces are but a Gallery of Pictures and Talk but a tinkling Cymbal without true hearted Love and Friendship Who knows not that there is a mutual Bond of Amity and Brotherhood between Man and Man over all the World neither is it the English Sea that can sever us from that Duty and Relation a straiter Bond yet there is between Neighbours and Friends For a Friend and Countryman is my second or better-self my Tutelar Angel by whom I may be defended from innumerable Dangers For as God sends his Angels Creatures that excel in Understanding and Power that are most vigilant and vigorous in their Actions not only to give Success to our temporal Affairs but to assist us in the great Concernments of our Souls so also he hath planted in the Minds of Men such mutual Inclinations to advance one anothers Happiness and Benefit That we may say He hath made
the whole Creation serviceable to Mankind Whilst the glorious Spirits above and our own Fellow-Creatures do contribute as much as they can to the good of our Bodies and the delight of our Minds Men may highly esteem the Titles of Honour and they may be proud of their large Possessions But it is not possible there should be any thing bestowed upon a Man of equal Value with a faithful Friend and Neighbour There are few Hearts that are not double few Tongues that are not Cloven and a Man must have Recourse to the age of Poetry the golden Times to find such a happy Pair as entirely love one another Let this Rarity be found in our Conversation Let us shew that Friendship to each other as may be valuable for its stability and lasting Nature such as may not be subject to the change of Fortune the Rust of Time nor the Violence of Men let others glory in their high and slippery Places we envy not their Happiness so long as we preserve the love of our Country-men let others ascribe what they suffer or enjoy here below to some good or malignant Influences from above as for us we do not think there is any Planet so lucky as a trusty Companion and on the contrary none so malicious as false hearted and perfidious Acquaintance let others be solicitous how Jupiter or Mercury look upon them in their Affairs it imports us most to mark what Men we Converse withal And altho we are to prefer our Country-Men above others yet these are to be avoided if they are Vicious if they would draw us into any familiarity or acquaintance with Sin For above all things we must be careful that the Virgin-purity of our Minds may not be Deflowred nor its native Modesty laid wast by any manner of Vice Therefore for those of our Country we are to have a particular Affection who exercise a due Care and Government over their Lives and Actions who excel in the peculiar Virtues of Conversation Modesty Humility Meekness Cheerfulness universal Kindness and Charity They who are Cloathed with these good Qualities have in a most eminent Degree that Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which St. Peter says is in the Sight of God of so great Price There is no appearance of Pride or Passion in any of their Words or Actions they are free from Anger and bitterness of Spirit their Company is Affable and Pleasant which arises from a Christian serenity of Mind and a great evenness of Temper These Virtues of all others ought to shine brightest in us then we shall be always Cheerful and always Kind upon all Occasions and Accidents perpetually the same by receiving these virtuous Qualities into our Temper we shall be rendered truly Wise Holy and Good We shall give real Demonstrations of the Truth and Integrity of our Religion by our Actions we shall ever employ our Faculties and determine them to that which is good and fit to be done and this will convince Men that we live under the Guidance and Influence of the Good Spirit of God From which good Spirit do proceed all good Notions and Inclinations in Mankind all their good Qualities and Desires all their mutual Love and good-Will When Christ Jesus by his Spirit hath thus turned us into the same Disposition with himself hath moulded and fashioned us to the Temper of himself our Head then we shall be always devising the most effectual ways of doing Good in the World managing and disposing our charitable Deeds to the best Purposes and to the largest Extent Our whole Heart will be employed in these things so that we shall be little affected with any other matter and seldom mind the strange Occurrences of a troublesom and busie Age. Let us therefore think our selves happy in nothing here upon Earth but in the Opportunities we enjoy of corresponding with one another in the Duties and Offices of Religion and Friendship which is nothing else but a Commutation of Hearts whereby the greatest dearness is created towards each other especially where there is an agreeableness of Humour and a resemblance of Disposition The Impression that these make can never be blotted out For we do ever carry in our Minds the amiable Perfections of Virtuous and Worthy Persons We always think of those who have touched our Inclinations with their agreeable Nature which is most probably to be found among the Natives of the same Place and Climate and where this agreeable Nature is the Friendship resulting thence must be very consistent and well setled such as nothing can disorder and Death its self cannot End For it will at last translate us to those happy Regions where Peace and Charity Benevolence and Good-Will are in their Kingdom and reign over every Heart From the Premisses this Inference may be made That we are bound with all Thankfulness to acknowledg the Goodness of God that we were born of Christian Parents that we have been Educated in the true Religion whereby we have enjoyed the advantages of God's Grace and his holy Spirit that we have any Bowels of Compassion for the Poor and Needy so as to consult their Relief in this publick manner especially in placing out indigent Youth to Trades because the whole Content and Felicity of a Man depends upon the choice of an honest Calling and State of Life that Brotherly Love doth continue among us so that we can Converse together without Offence that we are not of surly and uncompliant Humours that we are not of savage fierce or insolent Dispositions which would make us fitter Company for Beasts than Men and for Wildernesses rather than Cities To all therefore that shall ask us the like Question as the Prophet Jonah was asked whence we came and of what Country we are May we answer them as he did that we are Christians who fear the Lord of Heaven and Earth that made the Sea and the dry Land that we were born in a Soil no less Fruitful in the Race of good Men loving Neighbours and obedient Subjects than it is remarkable for yielding an abundance of all things that may render our Beings in the World either happy or easie to us That as the Country from whence we came is much taken notice of and Commended for its quick Streams free from Stagnation and stinking Vapours that may ascend to darken and corrupt the Skye so we may be as exemplary for good Humour affable Temper and humble Conversation clear of all Sullenness Malancholly and Discontent that may raise Clouds and consequently Storms in the Nation They say likewise the Air in which we drew our first Breath is beyond all others the most Serene and Pure may the pureness of this Air incline us to more refined Passions than other Men may it animate the Spirits of the Heart as well as enliven those of the Brain to a more vigorous Pursuit of noble and generous Actions The wise and judicious King Alfred did select Oxford for the Muses