Spirit of light did again distil the now darker residue of the Chaos and refined its better part into the ethereal heaven the mansion of the Sun and Stars but this second days work is not expressed to have any blessing because the second number breaketh unity The Spirit of Light the third time invaded the yet darker deep and distilled the better part of it into air the rest remaining a thick water with a caput mortuum so all the darkest and horridest parts of the Chaos flying the Light were precipitated to the Centre and being not capable or not worthy of a new distillation the waters were so removed that some parts of the earth might receive the Light and furnish bodies for such living souls as the heavenly influences should kindle Thus we see in the work of Creation the best still kept highest and all the darkness of the Abyss fled to the Centre And as the world was created so is it still preserved by light and love which is the universall soul of the whole knitting the higher parts with the lower and maintaining life here with the continual influences from above and again tying the lower with such a band of love that all conspire the mutuall good This I might largely prove and confute the vulgar Philosophy which dreameth of a continual war between the elements and fancieth privation a principle of generation But I may fear to have already wearied some readers with these abstruser considerations I shall only remember this which every unlearned man may observe That the very air and water have so much love as to forget their own interest when a neighbour stands in need of their help That will descend and this will ascend to supply a vacuum which is the communicative part of love and again if the arrow or the ship make a violent division they presently hast to come together again which is the unitive part of love Only the earth is void of both parts of charity it will not communicate but sticketh to it self and as far as it can prevail freezeth the water to the same selfishness nor it loves not union but unless it be glued together with some moisture or hindred for want of place it crumbleth to pieces and all the love it hath even to it 's own children is kindled in it by the influences of heaven Thus from the work of creation which sheweth that as any thing is higher so it proportionably is filled with light love I am 1.17 it appeareth that strife is none of those good perfect gifts which are from above and come down from the Father of Lights but riseth from the uncharitable earth the seat of darkness 1 Iohn 2.9 11. Heb. 1.3 For he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness 2. The Son the Redeemer of the world is the brightness of his Fathers glory the express image of his Person Brightness is so expresly the image of Light that none but Philosophers know the one from the other and they tell us that brightness conveyeth light from it's fountain Christ came from heaven to bring heaven to us and us thither and he brought love as the means to reconcile God to us us among our selves The angels proclaimed his coming to be for this end that there might be peace on earth and good will both towards and among men the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth both This great business he promoted in all his Sermons and in all his actions and all his passions in his life at his death and after his death Taught to have a love so extensive as to reach our greatest enemies so intense as that which himself exemplifyed even to dy for one another This was his old and his new his first and his last his great and his peculiar and his critical commandment Iohn 13.34 c. and 15.12 c. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if you love one another Every disciple is known by the caracteristical precepts of his Master the disciples of Pythagoras by their silence the disciples of Plato by their sublime notions of Zeno by their apathy of Moses by their circumcision of the Sadducees by their denying the resurrection of the Pharisees by their broad phylacteries and mine by their love Their love which shall be more ardent and more large then any other in the world and that in so eminent a degree that all men even of the weakest understandings shall see and admire it Mens goods are known by their marks their Servants by their liveries soldiers by their arms and my disciples by their love And it shall be so conspicuous that all men shall see it All men know the Sun by his light and fire by it's heat the Aethiopian by his blackness and the Camel by his bunch and all men shall know my disciples by their love Thus was love Christs commandment his proper and peculiar commandment It was his commandment and it was his legacy He left a love-token to be remembred by which was not only a remembrance of his love to us but an embleme of our mutuall love among our selfs The bread which we break is the Body of Christ and teacheth us to remember that we are one bread and one body i Cor. 10.17 The same bread teacheth that he was broken for us and that we must be knit together among our selves This is the wisdome which cometh from above brought from heaven by our Saviour and by him recommended to us by all possible endearments Those practices which oppose this cannot be the cognizance of Christians of Antichrist they may be 3. When he left the world he took care to have this his dear commandment promoted in his Church by the Holy Ghost which the Apostle thus describeth Eph. 4 8. When he ascended on high he gave gifts to men Acts 2. viz. the gift of the holy Spirit whereby he installed Officers coming solemnly and visibly upon every of them in the likeness of flames of fire which resemble cloven tongues licking the air the Holy Ghost is Light too And these Officers were thus installed that they might kindle in the Church the flames of Divine Love That speaking the truth in love c. vers 15.16 i.e. That Love being the common soul of the whole Church might knit every several member with every other in one common affection and so the whole body Ecclesiastical grow up like a body natural whereof every member shareth with the rest as in one soul so in one interest and one affection To this office they were principally installed and this work they principally advanced No duty so often so ardently recommended as Love If the graces be compared the greatest of them is charity and above all we must have perfect charity If their titles be considered Love is the royal law the bond of perfection If vertues it covereth a multitude of sins it fulfilleth the law it
now breaketh the promise that then he made and for a while performed If it were not how can you think fit to lay that foundation which if prosecuted will bring you to quarrel with every form but what the Divel shall shew 3. To neglect our own duty and look after the duty of others Is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Apostle ranketh with malefactors thieves and murtherers 1 Pet. 4.15 for this reason doubtles because it weareth a strong tincture of sedition but it is the usual practise of nonconformists who disobey not because they may not obey but because say they the Magistrate may not impose a form of worship But what hast thou to do to enquire after the Magistrates duty let every man look to his own work If the Magistrate impose nothing that is sinfull it is lawfull and if lawfull necessary for thee to obey It is at other times preached by the very same men that when any thing is required we should ask this question Is it lawful will it stand with my interest in God But this is quite another question then to ask hath the Magistrate power to enjoyn this might it not be better otherwise c. When I read of the Iews wars with Antiochus I read also of swines flesh and Idolatry When of their wars with the Romans I read of Caligulae's statue set up in the Temple When I read of the burning of our English Martyrs I find the worship of Images Saints and bread required When I now hear talk of persecution of exhortation to lose all and embrace the faggot rather then read the Common Prayer I should expect some great sinfulnesse in it such tragical exclamations would make a man expect news of a great image or a new religion set up But when the accusers stood up they brought no accusation of such things as I supposed Acts 25.18 but had certain questions against it of their own superstition The word superstition critically signifieth a fear of what is good The cross in Baptism and ring in Marriage some hymns ridiculous prayers roped up like beads c. and in general to impose a form is but commanding lusty men to use crutches These and the like are the great objections against which I now bring no other plea but this they make nothing to the question The question truly stated is not Whether it might be better otherwise but whether it be sinful as it is That excellent Martir Ridly that professed he would rather preach in a fools coat then not preach at all though he died for the avoiding a sin would not have made a schism for the avoiding a Surplice But this question Did the Governour well in making such an order as it carrieth a strong favour of pride so also a strong tendency to sedition For if it be lawfull to question not the lawfulnesse only but the wisdome of the lawes and to disobey them whensoever we shall be tempted to censure for the worse we shall never be free from sedition as long as any man is proud or factious It belongeth to a Dr. said Polano to give a reason of his saying A lawmaker if he do so doth diminish his authority because the subject doth wrestle with reason alleadged and when he thinketh he hath resolved it he thinketh also that he hath taken all vertue from the precept And Seneca more short Vt quis sapientior legibus videatur hoc ipsum est quod legibus prohibetur Dost thou think this no good form Why this form was enjoyned for this very reason that it might not be in thee to judge what form is best Go and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice thou shalt find that God requireth thee to prefer obedience and love above those services which better please thy fancy It was Sauls error and his ruine that he did not what vvas commanded but what he thought better Supposing then thou couldst make a better form of vvorship yet canst thou not find a better vvay of serving God then by obedient conformity to the way of the Church But granting more then usually is or reasonably can be objected That there were some things in the Common prayer Book truly sinfull Yet is it our duty to obey the Apostles precept As much as in us lieth to live peaceably with all men Let your peaceable mind then appear by your conforming as far as possibly you can Perhaps the clemency of the Fathers of the Church will induce them to wink at if they cannot satisfy your Scrupulous conscience however this you shall gain that you shall not suffer as malefactors whereas if you willingly run upon faction and trouble when you may without sin avoid this and cannot without sin and the greatest of sins too practice that Talk what you will of persecution you are but the Devils confessors and Martyrs 4. That the Law of man doth not binde the conscience That is whensoever a mans passions or interests shall tempt him he may rebell But admit the law of man did not directly bind you yet certainly it doth so by consequence because there is no other way to obey the royall law of Love You know that Christ paid tribute only that he might not give offence though while he did it he demonstrated that he was not bound to it But say doth not the law of man bind the conscience Doth not St. Paul tell us that he that resisteth the powers resisteth the ordinance of God and therefore we must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake And doth not St. Peter agree with him that we must submit to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake If the Translatours had so pleased they might have rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Humane invention and then your own phrase had bound you to obey But as if it were a smal matter to professe themselves not bound to obey where the thing is otherwise indifferent the contentious spirit carrieth some of them further they professe that in such cases they are bound not to obey what they may do if they have liberty they may not do if they be commanded Is not this the true spirit of contradiction the thing is lawfull in it's self put but a little obedience to it and it becometh sinfull Thus rebellion is not only quitted of the sin of witchcraft devilishness it is preferred and made the righteousnesse of the Saints To kneel at the Communion or say the Lords Prayer c. is confessed a thing indifferent if it were not required but being enjoyned it becometh sinfull But as liars are often entrapped in their own talk so these men by over earnestly defending their liberty reneage it Even thus they confess that humane lawes bind the conscience though to disobedience We must do what they forbid and forbear what they command Had they commanded us to fit at the Communion we must have kneeled had they forbad the
use of the Lords Prayer we must by no means have forborn it I know a wise and good man whose wife had this humor to appear unwilling of whatsoever he desired yet he found a way to have her comply with his mind by making shew to desire the contrary must these men be thus managed must the Law forbid what it would have done and command what it would have avoyded Would not a man think that these men came from the Antipodes whose both Religion and Policy standeth in such direct opposition to that of our hemisphere What God do they worship whose Faith is Faction whose Religion is Rebellion whose charity is murthering and ruining of Kingdoms whose zeal is fury whose order is confusion whose Christianity is antichristian whose Godliness is Devilism And what kind of Policy is that which armeth justice with a lath maketh Magistrates without power to command and lawes without obligation to obedience which requireth justice to punish the smallest sins and reverence the greatest and teacheth the subject to account the lawes obligatory only to disobedience which biddeth every man do what is best in his own eyes and calleth lawlesness liberty Which maketh it the duty of the subject not to submit his wisdom to the law but to arraign the laws before his own fancy and think himself not only free from obedience to it but bound to oppose it if he shall sentence it less wise then himself Fanatik Schismatiks There is this onely to be pleaded for you that your principles are mad and therefore their wickednes is the more excusable And that God may therefore forgive you because you know not what you do But sure This is not the wisdom that cometh from above Whatever hope it may have of Gods pardon it can have no title to our reverence Let the Turks honour mad men and fools as supposing them inspired from above but our Apostle preventeth this conceit in us toward fanaticks for he concludeth his chapter with a character of heavenly wisdom quite opposite The wisdom saith he that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easy to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without wrangling and without hypocrisy Come now you that pretend your selves the ingrossers of piety that slight the phlegmatick dulness of the conformist that go up to the Temple with the supercilious Pharisee boasting that you are not as other men are Iob 12.2 3. No doubt but ye are the people and wisdom shall dy with you But we have understanding as well as you we are not inferiour to you yea who knoweth not such things as these Who seeth not that this Apostle and all the rest agree with their Master in teaching love to be the most Substantial piety who seeth not that he multiplyeth the commendations of Peaceableness but passeth over Purity with one single expression Who seeth not that however you boast your selves not only the best Scholars but the best Teachers in Christs School yet you stick in the first lesson and have not yet learned to take out a second And who seeth not that St. Paul challengeth it as self evident that you have not learned the first untill you be perfect in the second Are you not carnall whiles one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo Is not your very boasted Purity impure untill you learn to be peaceable also Alas those pollutions of the world through lust are but the Devils forlorn which it is a small victory to overcome his main strength consisteth in his spiritual wickednesses wherewith he destroyeth multitudes of such as had escaped the other and many weak unwary Christians become a prey to him as the undisciplined Barbarians did of old to the Romans when having routed the Velites they broke their orders as to a pursuit and fell a cheap spoil to the legionaries fleshly lust compared with spiritual pride is but as Saul to David That hath slain it's thousands and this it 's 10000. Take heed of this Parthian though you have put him to flight Think not that you have already attained or were already perfect as soon as you have learned to avoid the grosser sins of bodily uncleannesse This is so far from making you perfect Christians that it doth not make you perfect so much as in your first lesson the wisdome which is from above is first Pure and it's purity cleanseth from all filthiness of flesh and spirit On on for shame then to the next lesson or the Publicans and harlots will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven before you Their beastly sins are but gnats your Devilish sins are Camels you spy a more in their eyes and behold a beam is in your own Oh foolish seperatists who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth so manifestly set forth by our Saviour and his Apostles and all ages of the Church and your own dear experience Is it the ostentous garb of a boasted zeal This only would I learn of you Do you think our Saviours invectives died with the Pharisees or are they written for our sakes Is that worthy of reverence now which was worthy of such vehement reprehension then What did our Saviour inveigh against in them which their successors do not glory in and you adore as in defiance to our Saviours Sermons They boasted themselves the only religious and thence concluded all men accursed but themselves and their disciples they wore exalted eylids and broad phylacteries and other pomps of professed strictness that they might extract reverence from the deluded people They made long prayers large professions of zeal that they might devoure widdows houses and what more can you find in our modern Pharisees but this that they out-sin their predecessors The Pharisees of old devoured widdows houses these make fatherlesse and widdows and then devour their houses they reverenced Gods House that men might reverence them these deny all reverence to Gods House that they may ingrosse it to themselves take the houses of God into possession And are not these the more ravenous wolves under the same sheeps cloathing If we look to the Apostles what did they complain of in their rivals which is not reverenced in ours These as well as those are false Apostles deceitfull workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ these with fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple and lead captive filly women If we look to succeeding ages was there ever any heretick in Church or rebel in State that did not professe for the glory of God and the good of man But if we look back to our own miseries whence came wars and fightings among us and whither had they brought us Did they not come from a pretended zeal to reformation and was it not a wonderfull providence that delivered us from total extirpation And are we not bewitched if we can relapse into the same follies again when a burnt child though but a child dreadeth fire strange power of prejudice Is it not enough that our Saviour warned us before hand by so many lively descriptions of our impostors that the Apostles and all succeeding ages and above all our own hath so evidently and sadly suffered under their cheats can we neither be forewarned by cautions nor afterward instructed by such costly experience Can neither the leaves nor the very fruits tell us what they are Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles can love come from scratching thorns or joy from prickling thistles or could our Saviour have prescribed a plainer or surer way to know them then by their fruits Let us judge them then by their fruits The fruit of the spirit is joy love peace and long-suffering gentlenesse goodness Gal. 5.22 meekness what is that spirit which is so fruitfull in malice miseries and contentions c. Once more I beseech in the words of St. Paul to mark them which cause divisions among you and avoid them for they serve not the Lord Iesus but their own interests and with fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple And I conclude as my Apostle doth this chapter desiring you to mark this too that the fruit of righteousness is sowen in peace of them that make peace That you may mark those who promote peace and union and may follow them as wearing that mark which our Saviour owneth for his And the God of peace and the peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of one another c. FINIS ERRATA The Author living at great distance from the Presse some errours especially in punctations have escaped the most considerable are these Page 13. l. 7. Read So evident doth the Apostle account it p. 14. l. 34. r. avennes p. 16. l. 30. for thus r. For as and l. 32. r. So in the next p. 17. l. 10. r. other and l. 33. for the r. thy p. 18. l. 19. and 22. for read r. red p. 24. l. 1. r. Obj. and l. 30. for risen r. raised p. 35. l. 18. r. Strange power of prejudice