had built was placed in the Holy of Holys a place iâ—â—cessible a Symbol of the impeâ—â—â—rable Majesty of God and of Heaven forbidden to Men until Jesus Christ had opened them an Entrance into it by the shedding of his â—tood On the Day of the Dedication of the Temple God appeared there in his Majesty He chose that place to establish his Name and his Worship there He forbad them there to Sacrifice in any other place The unity of God was demonstrated of the Unity of his Temple Jerusalem became a holy City the image of the Church 〈◊〉 God was to inhabit as in his true Temple and of Heaven where he will make us eternally happy by the manifestation of his glory After that Solomon had built the Temple he built also the Palace of the Kings the Architecture of which was worthy so great a Prince His Country-house which was called The Forest of Lebanon 1 Kings 7.2 10. was equally magnificent and delicate The Palace which he made for the Queen was a new Ornament to Jerusalem Every thing was great and splendid in those Buildings The Potches the Galleries the Walks the King's Throne and the Tribunal where he sate to judge Cedar was the only Wood he made use of in all those costly Works All things shined there of Gold and rich Stones The Citizens and the Strangers admired the Majesties of the Kings of Israel The rest was correspondent to this Magnificence 1 Kings 10. 2 Chron. 8 9. The Towns the Arsenals the Horses the Chariots the Prince's Guard the Commerce the Navigation and the good Order with a profound Peace had made Jerusalem the richest City of the East The Kingdom was at rest and abounded with all things every thing there represented the heavenly glory In the Wars of David were seen the wearisome Toils by which they were to deserve it and in the reign of Solomon how peaceable and quiet the Enjoyment of it was But the raising of these two great Kings and of the Royal Family was th' effect of a particular Election David himself celebrates the Marvel of it in these words 1 Chron. 28.4 5. The Lord God of Israel chose 〈◊〉 before all the House of my Father to be King over Israel for ever for he hath chosen Judah to be the Ruler and of the House of Judah the House of my Father and among the Sons of my Father he liked me to make me King over all Israel and he said to me Solomon thy Son shall build my House and my Courts for I have chosen hiâ— to be my Son and I will be his Father This Divine Election had a higher object than what at first appeared That Messiah so often promised as the Son of Abraham was also to be the Son of David and of all the Kings of Judah It was upon the prospect of the Messiah and of his Eternal Reign that God promised to David that his Throne should be maintained for ever Solomon chosen to be his Successor was designated to represent the Person of the Messiah Wherefore God saith of him 2 Sam. 7.14 I will be his Father and he shall be my Son a thing which he never said with that energy and force of any King nor of any Man Also in the time of David 1 Chron. 22.10 and under the Kings his Sons the Mystery of the Messiah was declared more than ever by the wonderful Prophecies which were clearer than the Sum at Noon-day David perceived it afar off and sung of it in his Psalms with a grandcur that nothing will ever be equal to it Oft-times he only thought of celebrating the glory of his Son Solomon and of a sudden being transported beyond himself and carried far away Matth. 6.29.12.42 Psal 72.5.11.17 he saw him who was greater than Solomon both in glory and wisdom The Messiah appeared to him sitting upon a Throne more lasting than the Moon He saw at his feet all the Nations overcome and blessed in him agreeable to the Promise made to Abraham He raised his sight higher still and said 〈◊〉 saw him in the light of his Saints Psal 110. and before the Morning coming from all Eternity out of the Bosome of his Father the Eternal High Priest and without a Successor neither succeeding himself to any One created extraordinarily not according to the order of Aâ—râ—â— but after the order of Melchisedâ—â— a new order which the Law knew nothing of He beheld him sitting on the right hand of God and seeing from the highest Heavens his Enemies his Footstool He is astonished at so great and wonderful a Spectacle and ravished with the glory of his Son he calleth him His Lord. He saw him God that God had anointed him to make him over all the Earth Psal 45.3 4 5 6 7 8. c. by his Meekness Truth and Righteousness He was in Spirit assisting to the Council of God and heard from the very Mouth of the Eteâ—nal Father that Word which he addressed to his only Son Psal 2.7 8. This day have I begotten Thee whereto God joyned the Promise of a perpetual Empire Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy Possession Thou shalt break them with a rod of Irâ—n thâ—â— shalt dash them in pieces like a Pâ—tter'â— Vessel Why do the Heathen rage and the People imagine a vain thing the Kings of the Earth set themselves and the Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying Let us break their Bâ—nds asunder and cast away their Cords from us He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derisiâ—n for their foolish Projects and in spight of all their ridiculous opposition he will establish the Empire of his Christ Be wise therefore Psal 2.10 O ye Kings be instructed ye Jâ—dges of the Earth He establishes him upon themselves and they must be the first Subjects of that Christ whose Yoke they would have so fain shook off And tho' the Kingdom of that great Messiah be often foretold in the Scriptures under the most pompous and magnificent Idea's yet God did not hide from David the Igonominies of that blessed Fruit of his Loinâ— This Instruction was necessary for the People of God If that People as yet but weak had need of being drawn on by Temporal Promises yet it was not fâ—t to let them only have regard to these Humane things as their utmost and most soveraign Felicity and as their only Recompence wherefore God shews them afar off that Messiah so much promised and so much desired the Model of Perfection the Object of their Complaisances and Delight swallowed up with Grief The Cross appeared to David as the true Throne of that new King He saw his hands and his feet pierced and that all his bones might be told Psal 22.16 17 18 19. they looked and stared upon him being most
those two great Men had given to the World so lively and fair an Image of the voluntary Oblation of Jesus Christ and in their Souls had tasted if the bitternesses of his Cross they were esteemed truly worthy of being his Ancestors Gen. 22.28 Abraham's faithfulness made God confirm to him all his promises and blessed anew not only his Family but also in his Family all the Nations of the World In effect he continued his protection to Isaac his Son and to Jacob his Grand-child They were his imitators and adhered as he did to the Antient Faith to the Antient manner of living which was the Pastoral to the Antient Government of Mankind where every Father of a Family was a Prince in his own House Thus in the Changes and Revolutions continually made among Men the Holy Antiquity revived in the Religion and in the conduct of Abraham and of his Children God did also repeat to Isaac and to Jacob the same Promises which he had made to Abraham Gen. 25.11.26.4.28.14 and as he called himself the God Abraham so he took upon him the name of the God of Isaac and of the God of Jacob. Under his protection those three great Men began to dwell in the Land of Caanan but as strangers and without possessing there a foot of ground until the Famine brought Jacob into Aegypt where his Children being multiplied became soon after a great People Acts 7.5 as God had promised him But tho' this People whom God made to be born in his Covenant were to be enlarged by Generation and that the Blessing was to follow the Blood yet this great God failed not mark out to them the Election of his Grace For after he had chosen Abraham from among the Nations out of the Children of Abraham he chose Isaac and from the two Twins of Isaac he chose Jacob to whom afterwards he gave the name of Israel Jacob had twelve Sons who were the twelve Patriarchs heads of the twelve Tribes All were entred into the Covenant but Judah was chosen from amidst all his Brethren to be the Father of the Kings of Israel and the Father of the Messiah so much promised to his Ancestors The time was come that the ten Tribes being cut off from the People of God for their Infidelity the Posterity of Abrahâ—m lost its Antient Blessing that is to say the Religion the Land of Canaan and the hopes of the Messiah but only in the Tribe of Judah which was to give the name to the rest of the Israelites who were called Jews and to all the Country which was called Judea Thus the Divine Election appeared still even in that carnal people which was to be preserved by ordinary propagation Gen. 49.10 Jacob in his Spirit saw the Mystery of this Election just before he dyed when his Sons stood round about his Bed to receive the blessing of so good a Father God discovered to him the Estate of the twelve Tribes when they should be come to the promised Land he reveals it to them in a few words and those few words include innumerable Meysteries Though all that he spoke of Judah's Brethren be expressed with an extraordinary magnificence and shews the man transported out of himself by the Spirit of God when he comes to Judah he is carried out yet higher Judah saith he thou art He whom thy Brethren shall praise Gen. 49.8 9 10. thine hand shall be on the neck of thine Enemies thy Fathers Children shall bow down before Thee Judah is a Lyons Whelp From the prey my Son thou art gone up He stooped down he couched as a Lyon and as an old Lyon who shall rouse him up The Scepter that is to say the Authority shall not depart from Judah nor a Lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be The rest of the Prophecy is about the Countrey which the Tribe of Judah shall posses in the Holy Land But the last words as we have seen them howsoever we take them signifies nothing but him who was to be the Ambassador of God the Minister and Interpreter of his Will the Accomplishment of his Promises and the King of the new People that is to say the Messiah or the Anointed of the Lord. Jacob speaks expresly to none but to Judah from whom that Messiah was to come In the destiny of Judah alone he comprehends the destiny of all the Nation which after its dispersion was to see the rest of the other Tribes re-united under the Standards of Judah All the Terms of the Prophecy are clear there is only the word Scepter which the common use of out Tongue might make us take for the only Royalty whereas in the Sacred Language it signifies in general Power Authourity and Magistracy That use of the word Scepter runs through all the pages of the Scripture It plainly appears also in the Prophecy of Jacob and the Patriarch means that in the days of the Messiah all Authority shall be put to an end in the House of Judah which imports the total ruine of a State Thus the times of the Messiah are noted out to us here by a double change By the former the Kingdom of Judah and of the Jews is threatned with its last ruine By the latter there was a new Kingdom to be set up not of one single People but of all People over whom the Messiah was to be the head and hope In the Style of Holy Writ the Jews are called in the singular number and by way of eminence Isa 65. c. Rom. 10.21 Isa 2.2 3.49.6.18.51.4 5. The People or the people of God And when we find it used the plural those who are versed in the Scriptures understand the other people who we see also are promised to the Messiah in the Prophecy of Jacob. This great Prophecy comprehends in a few words all the History of the Jewish People and of Christ our Saviour who was promised to them It points out to us all the course of the people of God and it effectually continues to this day Therefore I pretend not to make a Commentary of it to You there is no need for You to have one since by barely observing their course You will easily see the sence of the Oracle unvailed of it self and that the very events themselves will be their own Interpreters After Jacob's death III. Moses the written Law and the bringing of the People into the promised Land the People of God abode in Aegypt unto the time of the Mission of Moses that is to say about two hundred years So that it was four hundred and thirty years before God gave his people the Land which he had promised them He was resolved to accustom his Elect to rely upon his Promise being assured that it should be fulfilled either sooner or later and always at the exact time appointed by his Eternal Providence The Iniquities of the Amorites both
the Father understood in that profound Sence which made him to be conceived from all Eternity the Father of a Son equal to himself and that the Name of his Son is the name of the Word the Word which he begot eternally in the Contemplation of himself which is the perfect expression of his Truth his Image his only Son being the brightness of his Glory Heb. 1.3 and the express Image of his Person With the Father and the Son we know also the Holy Ghost the Love of both and their eternal Union 'T was that Spirit which made the Prophets and which was in them to discover to them the Councils of God and the Secrets of Futurity the Spirit of whom it is written Isai 48.16 The Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me which is distinguished from the Lord and which is also the Lord himself since that he sent the Prophets and discovered to them things to come That Spirit which spake to the Prophets and which spake by the Prophets was united to the Father and the Son and interposed with them in the Consecration of the new Man Thus the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost one single God in three Persons shewn more darkly to our Fathers was clearly revealed in the new Covenant Being instructed in so high a Mystery and astonished at its incomprehensible Depth we cover our Faces before God with the Cherubims whom Isaiah saw and with them we adore him who is Holy holy holy the Lord of Hosts Isai 6.3 whose Glory is the fulness of the whole Earth It belonged to the only Son John 1.18 who was in the Bosom of his Father and who without ever coming from thence came down to us to him I say it belonged fully to discover to us those admirable Secrets of the Divine Nature which Moses and the Prophets had but lightly touched upon It belonged to him to make us understand how it was that the Messiah promised as a Man who was to save all men was at the same time shewn as God in the singular Number and absolutely after the same manner as the Creator himself was shewn to us and this is also that which he hath done in teaching us that though he was the Son of Abraham John 8.58 yet he was before ever Abraham was born and that he came down from Heaven and that he always is in Heaven Id. 3.13 that he was God the Son of God and yet he was Man the Son of Man the true Emanuel God with us in a word the Word made Flesh uniting in his Person Humane Nature with the Divine that so he might reconcile all things unto himself Thus are revealed to us the two great and principal Mysteries that of the Trinity and that of the Incarnation But he who hath revealed them to us makes us to find the Image thereof in our selves that so they might be always present to us and that we might acknowledge the Dignity of our Nature In short if we would impose Silence on our Senses and would for a little while look into our selves into the bottom of our Souls that is to say into that part where the truth comes to be understood we should find there some Image of the Trinity we adore The thought which we feel to spring up as the Bud of our Mind as the Son of our Understanding gives us some Idea of the Son of God eternally conceived in the mind of the heavenly Father Wherefore that Son of God assumes the name of Word to make us understand that he sprang up in the Bosome of the Father Greg. Naz. Orat 26. Aug. de Trin. 9.4 c. in Johan Evang Tr. 1. c. de Civ 11.26 27 28. not as Bodies do but as that inward Word arises in our Mind which we feel in it when we contemplate on the Truth But the fruitfulness of our Mind is not terminated on that inward Word that intellectual Thought that image of Truth which is formed in us We love both that inward Word and the Mind in which it arises and in that love we feel somewhat in us which we value as highly as our very mind and thought which is the Fruit of both which unites them anâ— is united to them and which makes up but one Life with us So far as there can be found any relation between God and Man so far I say is produced in God the eternal Love which comes from the Fatâ—er who thinks and from the Son who is his Thought to make up with him and his Thought one and the same nature equally happy and perfect In a word God is perfect and his Word the living Image of an infinite Truth is no less perfect than him and his Love which proceeding from the inexhaustible Fountain of Good hath all the fulness of it cannot but have an infinite Perfection And since that we have no other Idea of God but that of Perfection each of those three things considered apart deserves to be called God But beause those three things do necessarily agree with one and the same Nature those three things therefore make up but one God We ought then to have no unequal nor separate Conceptions of this Adorable Trinity and how incomprehensible soever the Equality be our Soul if we will but hearken to it will tell us something of it It is and when it knows perfectly what it is its Intelligence corresponds to the truth of its being Aug. loc citat And when it loves its being with its understanding as much as it deserves to be belov'd its Love equals the perfection of both Those three things are never divided the one is confined by other and the third by both We understand that we are and that we love and we love to be and to understand Who can deny it if he understand himself and not only is not one of those better than another but three altogether are not better than is one of them by it self since that each of them do bind the whole do conclude the whole and that in those three consists the Felicity and Dignity of the reasonable Nature Thus is the Trinity which we worship and to which we are consecrated by our Baptism thus I say and infinitely more is it perfect unseparable one in its Essence and in short equal in every sence But we our selves who are the Image of the Trinity we in another respect are also the Image of the Incarnation A Soul of a spiritual and incorruptible Nature hath a corruptible Body which is united to it Aug. Ep. 3. ad Volusc c. 3. de Civ 10.29 Cyr. Ep. ad Valerian p. 3. Conâ— Eph. c. Symb. Ath. c. And from the Union of them both results a Whole which is Man Mind and Body together incorruptible intelligent and purely brutish These Attributes agree with the whole by relation to each of its two parts So the divine Word whose Virtue sustains
St. John Baptist Years of J. C. 28 appeared Jesus Christ made himself to be Years of J. C. 30 Baptised by that divine Fore-runner The Eternal Father acknowledged his well-beloved Son by a voice that came from Heaven The Holy Ghost descended upon our Saviour under the pacifick Figure of a Dove all the Trinity manifested themselves There began with the seventy weeks of Daniel the Preaching of Jesus Christ This last Week was the most important and the most observable Daniel had divided it from the rest as the Week or Alliance was to be confirmed Daniel iv 37. and in the midst of which the ancient Sacrifices were to lose their efficacy and virtue It may be called the week of Mysteries Jesus Christ established his Mission and his Doctrine then by innumerable Miracles and at last by his Death It Years of J. C. 33 happened in the fourth year of his Ministry which was also the fourth Year of Daniel's last Week and this great Week was in this manner justly cut in the midst by his Death Thus it is easy to make up the Computation of the VVeeks or rather it is already made up There remains nothing now but to add to the 453 Years which we shall find from the 300th year of Rome and the twentieth of Artaxerxes down to the beginning of the common Aera the thirty Years of that Aera which we see comes down to the fifteenth year of Tiberius and to the Baptism of our Lord These two Summs will make up 483 years the seven Years still remain to compleat the 490. The fourth which makes the middle is that in which Jesus Christ died and all that Daniel hath prophesied is visibly shut up within the prescribed term There is no extraordinary necessity for such an exact punctilio of Justness and nothing obliges us to take in this extream rigour the Middle observed by Daniel The most difficult will content themselves in finding it in what point soever it be between the two Extremities what I say is that so those who shall think they have good reason to place either a little higher or a little lower the beginning of Artaxerxes or the death of our Lord might not rack and torment themselves in their calculation and that those who would endeavour to embarass and perplex a thing that is clear with tricks of Chronology might be delivered from their unprofitable and impertinent subtilties Matth. 25.45 Phleg. 13. Olymp Thal. Hist. 3. Tertullian Apol 21. Orig. 2. cont Cels Tr. 35. in Matth. Euseb Hieron in Chron. Jul. Afric Ibid. The Darkness which covered the whole face of the earth at noon-day and at the instant when Jesus Christ was crucifyed is taken for an ordinary Eclipse by the Pagan Authors who have made their remarks upon that memorable Event But the first Christians that spake of it to the Romans as of a Prodigy taken notice of not only by their Authors but also by the public Registers have shewn that neither at the time of the full Moon when Jesus Christ dyed nor in all the year when this Eclipse was observed was it possible for any to fall out but what must be supernatural We have the very words of Phlegon Adrian's Freed-man cited at a time when his Book was every where public and extant as well as the Syriac Histories of Thallus who followed him and the fourth year of the 202. Olympiad observed in the Annals of Phlegon is that of the death of our Lord. To accomplish the Mysteries Jesus Christ arose from his Grave on the Third day he appeared to his Disciples he ascended up into to heaven in their presence he sent them down the Holy Spirit the Church is formed Persecution begins St. Stephen is stoned St. Paul is converted A little after Tiberius dies Caligâ—la his Grand-son and Son by adoption Years of J. C. 37 and his Successor astonishes the whole world by his cruel and brutish Folly he causes himself to be adored and commands Years of J. C. 40 his Statue to be placed in the Temple of Jerusalem Cherâ—as frees the world from this Monster Claudius reigns notwithstanding his Stupidity He is dishonoured by Messalina Years of J. C. 41 his Wife whom he re-demands after he has Years of J. C. 48 caused her to be killed He is married to Agrippina Years of J. C. 49 the Daughter of Germanicus Acts 15.50 The Apostles keep the Council of Jerusalem where St. Peter speaks first as he does every where else The converted Gentiles are there freed from the Ceremonies of the Law The Sentence of it is pronounced in the name of the Holy Ghost and the Church of St. Paul Acts â—6 4 and St. Barnabas carry the Decree of the Council to the Churches and teach the faithful to submit to them Such was the way of the first Council The stupid Emperor disinherits his Son Britannicus and adopts Nero the Son of Agrippina In requital she poisons this too Years of J. C. 54 easie and credulous Husband But the Empire of her Son was no less fatal to her self than to all the rest of the Commonwealth Years of J. C. 58 Corbulo got all the Honour of that Reign by Years of J. C. 60 the Victories he gained over the Parthians Years of J. C. 62 and Armenians Nero at the same time began Years of J. C. 63 his War against the Jews and the Persecution against the Christians c. This was the first Years of J. C. 66 Emperor that had persecuted the Church He caused St. Peter and St. Paul to dye at Rome But as at the same time he persecuted Years of J. C. 67 all Mankind so he found all sides to revolt Years of J. C. 68 against him he understood that the Senate had condemned him and so he killed himself Years of J. C. 69 Every Army made an Emperor The Quarrel was decided near Rome and in Rome it self by dreadful and terrible combats Galba Otho and Vitellius perished in them The afflicted Empire came a little to it self under Years of J. C. 70 Vespasian and enjoyed some rest But the Jews were put to extremities Jerusalem was taken and burnt Titus the Son and Successor of Vespasian gave to the world but a Years of J. C. 79 short satisfaction And his days which he thought lost when they were not signalized by some kindness and benefit came upon the heels of each other with a too swift Succession Nero was seen to be revived in the Person of Domitian The Years of J. C. 93 Persecution was renewed St. John coming out of hot boyling Oyl was banished into the Isle of Patmos where he wrote his Revelations A little after he wrote his Gospel at about 90 years of Age and joyned the Quality of an Evangelist to that of being both Years of J. C. 95 an Apostle and a Prophet From that time the Christians were continually persecuted as well under the good as under the evil Emperors These Persecutions
who holding all things in the hollow of his Hand was able by himself alone both to begin and carry on a design wherein all Ages are comprehended We need therefore no longer wonder as we commonly do why God proposes to us to believe so many things so worthy of him and yet at the same time so impenetrable to Humane Understanding But we should rather wonder that he having established the Faith upon so firm and manifest an Authority there should yet be any in the World blind and incredulous Our disorderly Passions our being bewitched to our Senses and our incurable Pride are the cause of it We choose rather to venture all than to put a constraint upon our selves we choose rather to continue in our Ignorance than to confess it and are pleased rather with a vain Curiosity and indulging our unruly Spirits in the liberty of thinking whatsoever delights 'em than to yield to the yoke of Divine Authority From thence it is that there are so many Unbelievers and God suffers it to be so for the instruction of his Children Unless we had the Blind the Savage and the Infidel and that in the very Bosom too of Christianity we should not be sensible enough of the Corruption of our Nature nor of that Abyss of Misery from whence Jesus Christ hath delivered us If his holy Truth was not contradicted we should not see the Miracle which hath constantly carried it through so many Contradictions and we should forget at last that we are saved by Grace Now the Incredulity of the one does humble the rest and those Rebels that oppose God's Decrees make that Power conspicuous by which indepently from all things else he accomplishes the Promises he hath made to his Church What therefore is it that we look for now to make us humble and submiss do we look that God should still work new Miracles that he should make them useless by his continuing of them that he should accustom our eyes to them as he does to the Course of the Sun and to all the other Marvels of Nature or else do we ever expect that the wicked and the opinionative man should be silent that good and vertuous men and dissolute Libertines should bear an equal Testimony to the Truth that all the World by one common consent should prefer it to their Passions and that false Knowledge which only the Novelty of it causes to be admired should cease its usual way of surprising men Is it not enough that we see it is impossible for men to combate with Religion but they must at the same time shew by prodigious wandrings that their Senses are perverted and that they only defend themselves either by Presumption or ignorance Cannot the Church which hath been victorious both over Ages and Errours I say cannot that overcome in our Minds those weak and miserable Reasonings which are opposed to her and cannot the Divine Promises which we see every day are accomplishing elevate and raise us above our Senses Now let us not say that these Promises are still kept in suspence and as they are to hold out to the end of the World so it will not be until the end of the World that we can boast we have seen the accomplishment of them For on the contrary that which is already past assures us of the future so many ancient Predictions so visibly fulfilled make us satisfied that there will be nothing but what shall be accomplished and that the Church against which according as the Son of God hath promised us even the Gates of Hell shall never prevail will be always subsisting until the consummation of all things for that Jesus Christ who is true in all hath prescribed no other bounds to its duration The same Promises do likewise assure us of a future Life God who hath shewn himself so faithful in accomplishing what respects the present Age will be no less faithful in accomplishing that which respects the Future of which all that we see is but a preparation and the Church will be always unshaken and invincible on the Earth until that her Children being gathered together she be entirely conveyed to her which is her only true Mansion As for those who shall be excluded from that heavenly City an eternal Vengeance is reserved for them and after they have lost by their Sin and Folly a blessed Eternity there will be left for them no other place but a Hell of Eternal woe and misery Thus the Decrees of God are to terminate by an immutable state his Promises and his Threatnings are equally certain and what he executes in time assures us of what he hath commanded us either to expect or fear in Eternity You now see what may be learned from the continual progress of Religion as it is in short presented to your Eyes By time it conducts you to Eternity You see a constant order in all God's Decrees and a visible Mark of his Power in the perpetual duration of his People You cannot but confess that the Church hath a Branch always subsisting which cannot be separated from it without destroying it and that those who being united to this Root do perform such Works as are worthy of their Faith and secure to themselves eternal Life Your Highness is therefore to study but to study with attention this uninterrupted Course of the Church which so clearly assures to you all the Promises of God Whatsoever breaks this Chain whatsoever goes out of this Course whatsoever advances it self and does not come by virtue of the Promises made to the Church from the beginning of the World you are to have in horrour Imploy all your power to recall into this Unity whatsoever is stragled out of the way of it and to make it hearken to the Church by which the Holy Spirit of God pronounces its Oracles The Glory of your Ancestors is not only that they never forsook it but that they always supported it and thereby deserved to be called the Eldest Sons which is certainly the most glorious of all their Titles 'T is needless for me to mention to you Clovis Charlemaine or St. Louis Consider only the time you live in and from what Father God hath given you your Birth A King so great in every thing yet is more to be distinguished by his Faith than by all his other admirable Qualities He protects Religion not only within but out of his Kingdom and even to the last Extremities of the World His Laws are one of the firmest Rampiers of the Church His Authority revered as much by the Merit of his Person as by the Majesty of his Scepter never supports it self so well as when it defends the Cause of God We hear no more Blasphemies Impiety trembles before him this is the King taken notice of by Solomon Prov. 20.26 that in his Wisdom scattereth the Wicked and bringeth the Wheel over them If he attacks Heresie by such means and that more too than ever did any of