should believe Moses and the Prophets handed to them by Tradition and Humane Authority Ay but the Pharisees the Puritan Party of the Jews they must have a surer Card for their Religion then other Jews and therefore they were not content with Faith though the Prophet Habakkuk had told them that the just should live by it Hab. 2.4 no they must have more Religion and a better ground for Religion then the other Jews or then God required or did expect which was Faith only And would make the World believe that as if they had been as old as the first Mutineers and Ambitious Puritans Corah Dathan and Abiram and had seen Moses Face to shine like the Face of an Angel when he came from speaking with God in the mount they do not only by Tradition of their Fathers believe no but they knew that God spake by Moses Mr. Calvin I confess for him and his followers that he was forc't to give a Definition of Faith contrary to that in Heb. 11.1 for fear the Papists had run him a ground For if he believed Christ and the Gospel upon humane Authority or the Authority of the Popish Church which he renounc't he knew not well how to answer the renouncing the Tradition of that Church without also renouncing Jesus Christ and his Gospel therefore which he should not need he was glad to define Faith to be a stedfast and an assured knowledge of Gods kindness c. and this by a certain witness of the Spirit within a Man By which secret perswasion if he means Gods Grace to make a Man believe Humane Authority Christian and Humane Tradition and Laws whereby we believe the truth of the Holy Scripture he is in the right but he is evidently out of his Story in calling this Faith an assured Knowledge For alas the best of us except we Lye and Cheat and Vapor as those Puritan Pharisees did we must say with the Apostle we see but in part as in a glass Darkly and not with stedfast and assured knowledge as the Saints Triumphant do and as did the Apostles who saw and knew our Blessed Jesus and Saviour in the Flesh But hence comes all the mischief from this Vapor and Lye in making our Faith just like St. Thomas his whose seeing was believing and the rest of the Apostles what ever was true of the Apostles must be true of us which is an abominable Cheat and Imposture They were Witnesses of Christs Resurrection we only tell what they said or did Witness at the second or third hand said I no at the Thousand'th hand and at long run by the Tradition of the Christian Church and Laws of the Land he that pretends other ground for his Faith either believes he knows not wherefore and is a Fool or Enthusiast or Fanatick which is all one and a Cheat and Impostor or else is a Papist and has an Implicite Faith in the Church of Rome or else by doing Miracles as the Apostles did can and must give a Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power In the Name of God what would these Disturbers of Man-kind be at Here 's ado with their Religion their Religion and there 's not one of them knows where he got it except from the Church of England or the Church of Rome And yet they disclaim both these and consequently can demonstrate nothing nor rationally convince any Man of the Truth of their Faith except by their own secret perswasion which though it may be of God yet they cannot shew and prove but that it may be a Lye a Cheat and from the Father of Lyes Are they Ordain'd to Preach the Gospel Let us see their Commission and Ordination They answer they are Ordain'd by them that were Ordain'd by them that were Ordain'd by those that were Ordain'd by the Papists c. I knew whether they would come at long Run Nor can they justifie to the World that that English Minister of Gods word that is not the Kings Minister Ordain'd according to the Sacred and Christian Laws of England is any other then a Minister of the Pope or the Devil either a Papist or an Enthusiast and possest with the Spirit of Popery or the Spirit of Foppery Religion true Religion our Saviour says like a Tree is known by the Fruits consult all Histories antient and modern view the present posture of Affairs if ever this Hundred Years there ever was any Rebellion Massacre Tumults or Treasons Blood Rapine and Murder but either Papist or Fanatick or both had the great hand in it To look no further back then the Reign of King James who dethron'd his Mother and made a Slave and property of him in his Infancy but that Bloody Knox Buchanan and the rest of that Puritan Presbyterian brood by woful experience he tells his Son our late Martyr'd Sovereign in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That under pretence of Religion he should find Alas alas He did find it by sad experience no such Barbarous and Bloody Villains in the World When King James came into England they still made him weary of his Life and the Papists on the other hand endeavor'd to take away his Life by the Gunpowder-Treason But Blessed be God unsuccessfully all his Reign but what the Plots the Popish Plots could not accomplish against his Son the Presbyterian Plots did perfect Crowning their Villany with the Blood and ruin of the Kingdom bringing the Blessed King to the Bloody Scaffold and our Gracious Sovereign to the more Ignominious Stool of Repentance And is this your Religion where did they learn it not from God from Holy Scripture nor from this Text but from the Devil who was a Murderer from the beginning and a Lyar like these his Children and the Father of Lyes These things are plain and palpable and had not now been remembred but that Men tread the same steps follow the same methods may we not Fast and Pray say they sad oh sad may we not Preach wo be to us if we do not Preach the Gospel and wo be to you good People if we do not Preach as if the Gospel were confin'd and Monopoliz'd to a Crew that can show no Authority no Commission no Call no Warrant for what they do except from the Pope and Jesuits who I fear have a great Influence among them The King and his Laws Ordain and constitutes in England the only true Christian Bishops Priests and Deacons as he does the only true Judges and Justices of the Peace and he may deprive all of them equally And therefore if they cannot justifie there Ordination and Commission their Warrant and their Call in an Ordinary and orderly way nor yet by Miracles in an extraordinary way let them no more so idly so impudently and so vainly apply the Apostle's sayings to themselves but contrarily wo be to them if they Preach the Gospel without sufficient Call Warrant Ordination and Lawful Authority Pilate rationally and honestly subjoyn'd to the
by a couple of Calves in Dan and Bethel Instances of this Nature are endless to come nearer home a new new Religion a new new light fresh and new at least an old Heresie new broach't in the Spirit of Foppery did the Business the Devillish business of Murder Blood Ruin and Treason in the late Civil Wars when the Spirit of Popery had run its race and run it self out of Breath and off its Legs In Seven Years the Spirit of Popery could scarce get Seven Proselytes whereas a new light a new Sect a new exposition of Holy Scripture like that of this Text should fetch in Proselytes by shoales nay the Fishers could not throw out their Netts so fast as the Gudgeons came gaping and willing to be taken though to their own destruction But alas alas even this Cheat is also quite discovered I wonder into what Shape this Spirit of Foppery will next appear for the Devil hath no great success with it at this day no more than with the Spirit of Popery A Holder-forth may Yawle and Yarne Snivle and Whine Thump and Bawl 'till his Lungs and his Heart ake and yet neither make open hearted nor open handed their close-fisted Disciples Nay he shall now turn up the white of his Eyes and play as many tricks as Hocus Pocus at a fair and yet not get so much Money at Night as a Common and Profane Hocus But instead of giving them any thing Men are grown to subtle and the cheat so stale that when they begin their tricks and they hear them cant Men are apt to clap their hands upon their Pockets as when Gypsies are near them And know the meaning and aime of the Jugler as at long run they did of a Long-Parliament Fast when every Boy could thereby Prophesie the Ensuing Tax And such Villain Murderers and Traytors have appear'd in the Likeness of this Spirit of Foppery that worse did never appear in the Spirit of Popery You may wink and chuse a Bravo in Spain a Bandito a High-way-man Kill Men and Rob for Money 's sake so do those Murderers and Traytors and Rebells under the Cloak of Religion in the Spirit or guize of Popery and Foppery all this is for Moneys sake though the Vizard pretends for God's sake A Rebel 's a Rebel and a Trayters a Traytor and a Robber's a Robber though he Rob in a Fryar's weed or a Buff-coat or a Presbyterian Jump Vaux is Vaux though he carry a Dark lanthorn and wear a Vizard Object Oh! but Conscience Conscience is a tender thing Ans I grant it Conscience is a tender thing and a Devillish hard thing as any thing in the World The Holy Ghost compares it to the hardest things in the World to the Adamant stone Zich 7 12 what harder than the Adamant or the neather Mill-stone Why Conscience is harder and feels no more 1 Tim. 4.1 2. relents no more than if it were feared with a hot Iron 1. Tim. 4.2 And who are they that carry these seared Consciences that can swallow Oath upon Oath Kill and Rob Plunder and Steal Sequester and Behead and still their Consciences blunk no more than a piece of Brass Why the same Apostle tells us they are such as shall appear in the latter days that in the Spirit of Foppery shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4.1 And in the Spirit of Popery Forbidding to Marry and commanding to abstain from meats c. 1. Tim. 4.3 I tell you nothing herein but plain Scripture truth's easily applyed and yet I am sensible it is like to cost me dear This Spirit of Popery and Foppery that I have rais'd and discover'd and shown to you this day is a fierce Devillish Bloody Spirit 't is easily rais'd but hard to allay two Arch-bishops one of England the other of Scotland irritated this Spirit but this Fierce and Bloody Spirit fell upon them and Kill'd and Murther'd them many thousand such Bloody Instances there are oh this Spirit has Talons sharp and Keen I know it experimentally nor durst I provoke it as I have done but that I trust in God through Jesus Christ being as willing to suffer as they are to make me suffer in so good Cause Object But some may say we are bound to help and Obey the Sovereign Magistrate against our Consciences Or when he Persecutes men for their Consciences are we bound to help him and is this help the help of the Lord Ans To which I answer first that no man on Earth can meddle with mens Consciences I 'le think in my Conscience what I list and be of what Opinion I list and none upon Earth can hurt me for the same though never so flagitious 'T is Gods Prerogative alone to be the only Searcher as well as Converter of Hearts and Consciences For man sees only the outward Appearance but the Lord Vieweth the Heart or Conscience And as the Magistrate cannot so he does not pretend to meddle with mens Consciences if Two Robbers or Two Murderers come to be tryed before a Judge the one Robber is perhaps a Leveller or a Covenanter and thinks in his Conscience he may take the Goods of a Rich man or a Lord especially of a Prelate or Spiritual Lord till he has pull'd him down nay pull'd him up Root and Branch as he has Sworne in his solemn League and Covenant till he has at least Rob'd him Plunder'd and Sequestred him of his Estate so that he has rais'd his own equal and Level with him The other Robber is a down-right Thief and never aggravates his Crime with Hypocrisie but both are Convicted of the Felony Does the Judge or can the Judge search into the Heart and Conscience of the Men and dive to find whether it be their Conscience or Religion to Rob or Steal be their Consciences what they will he is not concern'd but finding them Malefactors and Transgressors of the Law he Condemnes the Godly Thief and the Ungodly Thief to the same Gallows Yet how gently how favorably and Religiously has our Laws provided for tender and dissenting Consciences and Religions Men may Preach that will when they will what they will and where they will at this day in England provided they do not Randevouz above Five strangers to the Conventicle least they Fight the Neighbor-hood with their Old tricks of making a Long Prayer and a long Sermon the Prologue of some ensuing mischief And also provided the Non-conformist Preacher do not Hold Forth within Five Miles of the Parish he Deserted I had almost said Deluded and also not within Five Miles of a City or Town-Corporate How would the Apostles have Blest God for this Liberty if they might but have Preacht from House to House they would have Blest God and the Magistrate for the Grace and Favor But our Spirits of Foppery will not be Fob'd off so they must and will have Numbers Glory in their Numbers
brave the Magistrate and face him and dare him with their Numbers as if they were ready to come to the Poll with him and count whether more People come from the Church on a Lords-day or from the Meeting vying for multitude especially if the weaker Vessels the Vessels of Frailty will but pass Muster Poor Bashful tender Hearts and tender Consciences As if a Holder-forth cannot Preach Christ in the Wild of Kent as in the Throngs and Crowds of a City or Corporation Well the Magistrates surely do well enough know their meanings and what they would be at And such a Discourse as this and such a Text as this can no where be so properly or so well Improv'd as in this Assembly the most Honorable and most considerable of this greatest and most Glorious City of the whole Kingdom the great Hinge of Peace and War Those Preachers are like Jobs Comforters Job 13.4 either Forgers of Lyes or Physicians of no value that do not handle or do not handle to purpose this Distemper What disquiets your sleeps but Fears of Disturbances from the Spirit of Popery and the Spirit of Foppery I know not which is worst they are both Bloody and Dangerous the former by Plotting but Blessed be God their Plots come to nothing the latter by Plotting and Acting too God knows not to mention the Defolation the Bondage the Tyranny and oppression this City groan'd under for so many years under so many Masters and different Tyrants Three or Four several ones in a year sometimes before His Majesties Happy Restauration but even since though the Papists might Plot Rebellion and Treason yet the Phanaticks have not only plotted but twice been up in Armes which the Papists never were twice I say in Armes and Open Field Fights in Scotland where our Miseries were first brooded and begun their Rise but Blessed be God as soon Defeated which was Gods goodness more than our Deserts no Thanks though to the Coventiclers and Field-meeters they show'd their good will and their good Religion and their tender Consciences in the Interim oh true Church Militant here upon Earth Why should Ministers make wild and randome discourses in the Pulpit and but beat the air applying remedies to distempers that the City and Kingdom are not especially plagu'd with alas Faction and Foppery and Popery are the great disease of the Kingdom with which it now at this day as well as of a long time it has been vext and griev'd hic seca hic ure here make applications otherwise we Preachers are like those the Apostle speaks of 2. Thes 3.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Working not at all to the purpose but busie to no purpose What shall Jesuits dare to venture their lives to come to pervert our Nation in the Spirit of Popery and shall Fanaticks dare and brave the Magistrate to his Face in publick in the Cities in the greatest City of the Nation and all this with an Impudent Forehead like the Whore in the Proverbs wiping the mouth and saying they have done no wickedness and all this in contempt nay in defyance of all Law and Authority and shall no Man dare to say and speak publickly what they dare do publickly Is it no sin no crime no shame for them presumptuously and with a High Hand and a Brazen Face to transgress the Laws and is he fit to be a Minister of God and the King that has neither honesty nor courage to Check and Rebuke it The great and good Emperor Constantine the first Christian Emperor took another course with Factious Coventicles Euseb de vit const He prohibited them by Edict and Proclamation see the Proclamation and Edict at large in Euseb de vit constant Theod. l. 1. c. 19. He Burnt their Books and proscribed the Authors and Abettors to use his own words Pestium illarum audacia ministri Dei hoc est meâ Executione coercebitur Their Plaguy Impudence shall be restrained by the Authority of the Minister of God that is my self c. that good Emperor Those bold pestilent fellows that dare offend in defyance of all Authority I 'le make bold to punish their Fool hardiness by my Authority A Speech as pious as Princely and a pious Example to Princes For ancient and modern experience has taught that faction like a Top never goes well but when under the lash and well whip't 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore obstinate and prating Fanaticks or Seducers saith St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Paul whose Mouthes must be stopped oportet os obturare it is very fit they should be stopped Why it follows because they subvert whole Houses teaching things that they ought not for filthy Lucres sake When the People had got a new Religion but a false one King Josiah puts it down and is commended for it 2. Kings 23. from the 4. verse to the 14. verse The same did King Hezekiah 2. Kings 18.3 4 5 6 7. The first Law of Theodosius that good Emperor in his Law Book is de sacrâ Trinitate quid credendum Theod lib. legum A Lawful King may not only imperata facere but imperare facienda though I know the Learned Grotius scruples this latter but he was a Hollander By this Regal Supremacy Solomon deposed Abiathar the Arch-Bishop because he sided with the Rebels 1 Kings 2.27 Constantine did the like to Vigelius and Justinian to Silverius Otho the Emperor ejected Pope John 12. for his Necromancy and Wickedness 'T is Chrysostom's Paraphrase on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13.1 Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers whether Apostle Evangelist Pastor or Teacher Pope or Bishop Presbyter or Presbyterian they must needs be subject and that for Conscience-sake if they have any Conscience any Conscience unseared Rom. 13 5 Vid Chrys Hom 3. ad Antioch any Conscience not hardned To whom assents Theodoret Theophylact Oecumenius and all that are not posses 't with the evil Spirit to keep to my old terms of Popery or Foppery King Josiah came not with Cap in hand to the High-priest 2 King 23.4 but commanded him to reform this and that Nefas est in dubium deducere ejus potestatem cui omnium gubcrnatio superno constat delegata Judicio saith the 6th Toletan Counsel speaking of the undoubted right of King Chintellanus The four first General Counsels were called by Emperors not by Popes Socrat l. 5 in proem nor the Clergy Pope Leo petitions the Emperor to call a Counsel in Italy and he call'd it at Ephesus Supplicationi nostrae dignetur Imperator annuere Lev. Epist 9.24.26 Let the Emperor vouchsafe an Ear and hearken to the request of his humble Petitioner But many years after the Canon of Pope Boniface runs a stile and Language more Magisterical Dictator like Dicimus Definimus De majoritat in glossâ pronunciamus esse de necessitate salutis omm humanae creaturae subesse Romano Pontifici We say it we