not so learned him as to relieve themselves by false or fierce Recriminations The measure of the covering provided for all these excesses of unbridled passion is that alone which is now to be taken The Case expressed it seems is the only single instance in which zeal is just and warrantable How our Author came to be assured thereof I know not sure I am that it doth neither comprize in it nor hath any aspect on the ground occasion or nature of the zeal of Phinehas or of Nehemiah or of David or of Joshuah and least of all of our Saviour as we shall see He must needs be thought to be over-intent upon his present occasion when he forgot not one or two but indeed all instances of just and warrantable zeal that are given us in the only sacred repository of them For what concerns the example of our blessed Saviour particularly insisted on I wish he had ossended one way only in the report he makes of it For let any sober man judge in the first place whether those expressions he useth of the hot fit of zeal that He was in of the Height of impatience that he was provoked unto the seeming Fury and Transport of Passion that he acted withall do become that Reverence and Adoration of the Son of God which ought to possess the hearts and guide the Tongues and Writings of men that profess his Name But whatever other mens apprehensions may be as it is not improbable but that some will exercise severity in their Reflections on these Expressions for my part I shall entertain no other thoughts but that our Author being engaged in the Composition of an Invective Declamation and aiming at a Gradeur of Words yea to fill it up with Tragical expressions could not restrain his pen from some extravagant excess when the Lord Christ Himself came in his way to be spoken of However it will be said the Instance is pertinently alledged and the occasion of the Exercise of the zeal of our Blessed Saviour is duly represented It may be some will think so but the truth is there are scarce more lines than mistakes in the whole discourse to this purpose What Court it was of the Temple wherein the Action remembred was performed is not here particularly determined only 't is said to be the Outward Court wherein the Gentiles and Proselytes worshipped in opposition to that which was peculiar to the worship of the Jews Now of old from the first Erection of the Temple there were two Courts belonging unto it and no more the inward Court wherein were the Brazen Altar with all those Utensils of worship which the Priests made use of in their sacred Offices and the outward Court whither the people assembled as for other Devotions so to behold the Priests exercising their Function and to be in a readiness to bring in their own especial sacrifices upon which account they were admitted to the Altar it self Into this outward Court which was a dedicate part of the Temple all Gentiles who were Proselytes of Righteousness that is who being circumeised had taken upon them the Observation of the Law of Moses and thereby joyned themselves to the people of God were admitted as all the Jewish Writers agrree And these were all the Courts that were at first Sanctified and were in use when the words were spoken by the Prophet which are applyed to the Action of our Saviour namely My house shall be called a House of Prayer but ye have made it a Den of Thieves Afterwards in the dayes of the Herodians another Court was added by the immuring of the remainder of the Hill whereunto a promiscuous entrance was granted unto all people It was therefore the antient Outward Court whereinto the Jews thought that Paul had brought Trophimus the Ephesian whom they knew to be Uncircumcised I confess some Expositors think that it was this latter Area from whence the Lord Christ east out the Buyers and Sellers but their Conjecture seems to be altogether groundless for neither was that Court ever absolutely called the Temple nor was it esteemed Sacred but common or Prophane nor was it in being when the Prophet used the words mentioned concerning the Temple It was therefore the other antient outward Court common to the Jews and Proselytes of the Gentiles that is intended for as there the Salt and Wood were stored that were daily used in their Sacrifices so the Covetous Priests knowing that many who came up to offer were wont to buy the beasts they sacrificed at Hierusalem to prevent the charge and labour of bringing them from farr to further as they pretended their Accommodation they appropriated a Market to themselves in this Court and added a Trade in money relating it may be thereunto and other things for their Advantage Hence the Lord Christ twice drove them once at the Beginning and once at the End of his Ministry in the flesh not with a seeming Transport of Fury but with that evidence of the presence of God with Him and Majesty of God upon Him that it is usually reckoned amongst one of the Miracles that he wrought considering the state of all things at that time amongst the Jews And the reason why He did this and the occasion of the exercise of his Zeal is so express in the Scripture as I cannot but admire at the Invention of our Author who could find out another Reason and Occasion of it For it is said directly that he did it because of their wicked profanation of the house of God contrary to his express Institution and Command Of a regard to the Jews contempt of the Gentiles there is not one word not the least Intimation nor was there in this matter the least occasion of any such thing These things are not pleaded in the least to give countenance to Any in their proud supercillious Censures and Contempt of others wherein if any person living have out-done our Author or shall endeavour so to do he will not fail I think to carry away the prize in this unworthy Contest Nor is it to Apologize for them whom he charges with extravagances and excesses in this kind I have no more to say in their behalf but that as far as I know they are falsly accused and calumniated though I will not be accountable for the expessions of every weak and impertinent person Where men indeed sin openly in all manner of Transgressions against the Law and Gospel where a spirit of enmity to holiness and obedience unto God discovers and acts it self constantly on all occasions in a word where men wear Sin 's Livery some are not afraid to think them Sin 's Servants But as to that Elation of mind in self-conceit wherewith they are charged their contempt of other men upon the account of Party which he imputes unto them I must expect other proofs than the bare assertion of this Author before I shall joyn with him in the management of his Accusation And no
Tranquility for the future and maintaining love quietness and mutual usefulness at present amongst men Two ways are proposed to this purpose the one is to exercise mutual forbearance to each other whilst we are inevitably under the power of different perswasions in these things producing no practices that are either injurious unto private men in their rights or hurtful unto the State as to publick Peace endeavouring in the mean time by the evidence of Truth and a conversation suited unto it to win upon each other to a consent and Agreement in the things wherein we differ The other is by Severe Laws Penalties outward force as Imprisonments Mulcts Fines Banishments or Capital punishments to compell all men out of hand to an uniformity of practice whatever their judgements be to the contrary Now as the state of things is amongst us which of these wayes is most suitable to the Law of our Being and Creation the best Principles of the nature of man and those which have the most evident Resemblance of Divine Perfections the Gospel the Spirit and Letter of it with the mind of its Author our Lord Jesus Christ which is most conducing to attain the end aimed at in wayes of a natural and genuine complyance with the things themselves of Religion Conscience and Divine Worship is left unto the judgement of God and all good men In the mean time if men will make Declamations upon their own surmises jealousies and suspitions of things which are either so indeed that is really surmized or pretended to be so for some private interests or advantages of their own which no man can answer or remove if they may fancy at their pleasure Ghosts Goblins Fiends walking Sprights Seditions Drums Trumpets Armies Bears and Tigers Every difference in Religion be it never so small be the agreement amongst them that differ never so great be it the visible known open interest of them that dissent from what is established to live quietly and peaceably and to promote the good of the Commonwealth wherein they live do they profess that it is their duty their Principle their Faith and Doctrine to obey constantly their Rulers and Governours in all things not contrary to the mind of God and pretend no such commands of his as should interfere in the least with their power in order to publick tranquility do they offer all the security of their Adherence to such declared Principles as mankind is necessitated to be contented and satisfied with in things of their highest concernment do they avow an especial sense of the Obligation that is put upon them by their Rulers when they are protected in peace have they no concernment in any such Political Societies Combinations Interests as might alone give countenance unto any such disturbance all is one every different Opinion is Press-money and every Sect is an Army although they be all and every one of them Protestants of whom alone we do discourse Other answer therefore I shall not return unto this part of our Authors arguing than what he gave of old Ne admittam culpam ego meo sum promus pectori Suspicio est in pectore alieno sita Nam nunc ego te si surripuisse suspicer Jovi coronam de capite e capitolio Quod in culmine astat summo st non id feceris Atque id tamen mihi lubeat suspicarier Qui tu id prohibere me potes ne suspicer Only I may add that sundry of the Instances our Author makes use of are false and unduly alledged For what is here charged on differences in and about Religion in reference unto publick Tranquility might have been yea and was charged on Christian Religion for three hundred years and is so by many still on Protestancy as such and that it were a very easie and facile task to set out the pernicious evills of a compelled Agreement in the practice of Religion and those not fancied only or feigned but such as do follow it have followed it and will follow it in the world An enquiry in this Invective tending to evince its reasonableness is offered in pag. 158. namely Where there are divided Interests in Religion in the same Kingdom it is asked how shall the Prince behave himself towards them The answer thereunto is not I confess easie because it is not easie to be understood what is intended by divided Interests in Religion We will therefore lay that aside and consider what really is amongst us or may be according to what we understand by these expressions Suppose then that in the same profession of Protestant Religion some different way and Observances in the outward Worship of God should be allowed and the Persons concerned herein have no other cannot be proved to have any other interest with respect unto Religion but to fear God and honour the King it is a very easie thing to return an Answer to this enquiry For not entring into the profound Political Speculation of our Author about ballancing of Parties or siding with this or that Party where the differences themselves constitute no distinct Parties in reference to Civil Government and publick Tranquility let the Prince openly avow by the declaration of his judgement his constant practice his establishing of Legal Rights disposing of publick favours in places and preferments that way of Religion which himself owns and approves and let him indulge and protect others of the same Religion for the substance of it with what himself professeth in the quiet and peaceable exercise of their Consciences in the Worship of God keeping all Dissenters within the bounds allotted to them that none transgress them to the invasion of the Rights of others and he may have both the Reality and Glory of Religion Righteousness Justice and all other Royal Vertues which will render him like to him whose Vice-gerent he is and will undoubtedly reap the blessed fruits of them in the industry peaceableness and Loyalty of all his Subjects whatever There are sundry things in the close of this Chapter objected against such a course of proceedure but those such as are all of them resolved into a supposition that they who in any place or part of the world desire Liberty of Conscience for the Worship of God have indeed no Conscience at all For it is thereon supposed without further evidence that they will thence fall into all wicked and unconscientious practices I shall make as I said no reply to such surmises Christianity suffered under them for many Ages Protestancy hath done so in sundry places for many years And those who now may do so must as they did bear the effects of them as well as they are able Only I shall say First Whatever is of real inconvenience in this pretension on the supposition of Liberty of Conscience is no way removed by taking away all different practices unless ye could also obliterate all different perswasions out of the minds of men which although in one place tells us ought to
mean time I say such persons as these in themselves and for their own concerns do think it their duty not absolutely to take up in what hath been attained amongst us much less in what many are degenerated into but to endeavour the Reduction of their practice in the Worship of God to what was first appointed by Jesus Christ as being perswaded that he requires it of them and being convinced that in the unspeakable variety that is in humane constitutions Rest unto their Souls and Consciences is not otherwise to be obtained And if at the same time they endeavour not to reduce the Manner and Course of their Conversation to the same Rule and Example by which they would have their Worship of God regulated they are hypocrites Short enough no doubt they come in both of perfection but both they profess to aim equally at And herein alone can their Consciences find rest and peace In the doctrine of faith consented on in the first Reformation and declared in the allowed Writings of the Church of England they agree with others and wish with all their hearts they had more to agree withall Only they cannot come up to the practice of some things in the Worship of God which being confessedly of humane prescription their Obedience in them would lye in a perfect contradiction to their principal design before mentioned For those things being chosen out from a great multitude of things of the same nature invented by those whose Authority was rejected in the first Reformation or Reduction of Religion from its Catholick Apostacy they suppose cannot justly be imposed on them they are sure cannot be honestly received by them whilest they design to reduce themselves unto the primitive Rules and Examples of Obedience In this design they profess themselves ready to be ruled by and to yield subjection unto any Truth or Direction that can or may be given them from the Word of God or any Principles lawfully from thence educed How their conviction is at present attempted let the Book under consideration and some late unparallel'd and illegal Acts of Violence conformable to the spirit of it be a Testimony But in the management of their design they proceed on no other Principles than those of the Libetty of judgement of diâ—eretion or discerning they call it for the determining of themselves and their own practices in what they believe and prosess about Religion and the liberty of their Consciences from all humane impositions than were owned pleaded and contended for by the first Reformers and the most learned defenders of the Church of England in their disputations against the Papists those they will stand to and abide by yea than what are warranted by the Principles of our nature and constitution for no man practiseth any thing nor can practise it but according to his own will and choice Now in these things in their Principle or in their management of it it may be they are mistaken it may be they are in an errour or under many mistakes and errours But from their integrity they know themselves innocent even in their mistakes And it is in the nature of men to think strange of sedate violences that befall them without their demerit and of suffering by Law without any Guilt Their design of reducing themselves in Worship and Conversation to the primitive pattern they openly avow nor dare any directly condemn that design nor can they be convinced of insincerity in what they profess And shall they they be destroyed if they miss it in some matters of smaller concernment which whatever some may boast of is not hitherto tolerably proved Shall now their dissent in Religious Observances on this occasion and those and that about things mostly and chiefly if not only that appear neither name nor thing in the Scripture be judged a crime not to be expiated but by their ruine Are immoralities or vicious debaucheries rather to be tolerated or exempted from punishment than such a dissent What place of Scripture in the Old or New Testament which of the ancient Fathers of the Church do speak at this rate Opinions inconsistent with publick Tranquility with the general Rules of Moral Duties in all Relations and Conditians practices of any tendency in themselves to political disturbances are by none pleaded for Meer dissent it self with different Observances in the Outward Worship of God is by some pretended indeed to be a Civil disturbance It hath alwayes been so by some even by those whose own established wayes have been Superstitious and Idolatrous But wise men begin to smile when they hear private interest pleaded as publick good and the affections which it begets as the common Reason of things And these pretences have been by all parties at one time or another refuted and discarded Let the merit of the cause be stated and considered which is truly as above proposed and no other set aside Prejudices Animosities Advantages from things past and by-gone in political disorders and tumults wherein it hath no concern and it will quickly appear how little it is how much if possible less than nothing that is or can be pleaded for the countenancing of external severity in this case Doth it suite the Spirit of the Gospel or his commands to destroy good Wheat for standing as is supposed a little out of order who would not have men pluck up the tares but to let them stand quietly in the field untill Harvest Doth it answer his mind to destroy his Disciples who profess to love and obey him from the Earth who blamed his Disciples of old for desiring to destroy the Samaritans his Enemies with fire from Heaven We are told that he who was born after the flesh persecuted him who was born after the promise and a work becoming him it was And if men are sincere Disciples of Christ though they may fall into some mistakes and errours the outward persecuting of them on that account will be found to be of the works of the flesh It is certain that for those in particular who take upon them in any place or degree to be Ministers of the Gospel there are commands for meekness patience and forbearance given unto them And it is one of the greatest duties incumbent on them to express the Lord Jesus Christ in the frame of his mind and Spirit unto men and that eminently in his meekness and lowliness which he calls us all in an especial manner to learn of him A peculiar conformity also to the Gospel to the holy Law of Love self-denyal and condescention is required of them that they may not in their spirits wayes and actings make a false representation of him and that which they profess I know not therefore whence it is come to pass that this sort of men do principally if not only stir up Magistrates and Rulers to Laws Seventies Penalties Coercions Imprisonments and the like outward means of fierce and carnal power against those who in any thing dissent
Consciences of men as the Scripture the Nature of the thing it self and the right of the L. Christ to introduce his spiritual Kingdom into all Nations do require That which seems to have imposed on the mind of this Author is that if the Magistrate may make Laws for the regulating of the outward profession of Religion so as publick peace and tranquillity may be kept added to what is his Duty to do in the behalf of the Truth then he must have the power over Religion and the Consciences of men by him ascribed unto him But there is no privity of Interest between these things the Laws which he makes to this purpose are to be regulated by the Word of God and the good of the Community over which in the name of God he doth preside and whence he will take his Warranty to forbid men the exercise of their Consciences in the duties of spiritual Worship whilest the Principles they profess are suited to the light of nature and the fundamental Doctrines of the Gospel with the peace of mankind and their practices absolutely confistent with publick welfare I am yet to seek and so as far as I can yet perceive is the Author of the Discourse under Consideration It will not arise from a Parity of Reason from the power that he hath to restrain cursed Swearing and Blasphemies by penal Coercions For these things are no less against the Light of Nature and no less condemned by the common suffrage of mankind and the persons that contract the guilt of them may be no less effectually brought to judge and condemn themselves than are the greatest outrages that may be committed in and against humane Society That the Gospel will give no countenance hereunto he seems to acknowledge in his assignation of several reasons why the use of the power and exercise of it in the way of compulsion by penalties pleaded for by him is not mentioned therein that Christ and his Apostles behaved themselves as Subjects that he neither took nor exercised any Soveraign power that He gave his Laws to Private men as such and not to the Magistrate that the Power that then was was in bad hands are pleaded as excuses for the silence of the Gospel in this matter But lest this should prove father prejudicial to his present occasion he adds p. 42. the only reason why the Lord Christ bound not the precepts of the Gospel upon mens Consciences by any secular compulsories was not because Compulsion was an improper way to put his Laws in execution for then He had never established them with more enforcing Sanctions but only because himself was not vested with any secular power and so could not use those methods of Government which are proper to its jurisdiction this in plain English is that if Christ had had power he would have ordered the Gospel to have been propagated as Mahomet hath done his Alcoran an Assertion untrue and impious contrary to the whole spirit and Genius of the Gospel and of the Author of it aud the Commands and Precepts of it And it is fondly supposed that the Lord Christ suited all the Management of the affairs of the Gospel unto that state and condition in this world wherein he emptied Himself and took upon Him the form of a Servant making Himself of no reputation that He might be obedient unto Death the death of the Cross He layes the Foundation of the promulgation and propagation of it in the world in the grant of all power unto him in Heaven and Earth All power saith he to his Apostles is given unto me in heaven and earth go ye therefore and Baptize all Nations teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you Matth. 28. 19 20. He is confidered in the dispensation of the Gospel as He who is head over all things to the Church the Lord of Lords and King of Kings whom our Author acknowledgeth to be his Vicegerents On this account the Gospel with all the Worship instituted therein and required thereby is accompanied with a Right to enter into any of the Kingdoms of the Earth and spiritually to make the Inhabitants of them subject to Jesus Christ and so to translate them out of the power of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of God And this Right is Antecedent and paramount to the Right of all earthly Kings and Princes whatever who have no power or Authority to exclude the Gospel out of their Dominions and what they exercise of that kind is done at their peril The penalties that he hath annexed to the final rejection of the Gospel and disobedience thereunto are pleaded by our Author to justifie the Magistrates power of binding men to the Observation of his Commands in Religion on temporal penalties to be by him inflicted on them unto that is the Discourse of this chapter arrived which was designed unto another end I see neither the order method nor projection of this procedure nor know Amphora cum cepit institui cur Vrceus exit However the pretense it self is weak and impertinent Man was originally made under a Law and constitution of Eternal Bliss or Woe This state with regard to his necessary dependance on God and respect to his utmost end was absolutely unavoidable unto him All possibility of attaining eternal happiness by himself he lost by Sirr and became inevitably obnoxious to eternal Misery and the wrath to come In this condition the Lord Jesus Christ the supream Lord of the souls and Consciences of men interposeth his law of Relief Redemption and Salvation the great means of man's Recovery together with the profession of the way and law hereof He lets them know that those by whom it is refused shall perish under that Wrath of God which before they were obnoxious unto with a new Aggravation of their Sin and Condemnation from the contempt of the Relief provided for them and tendered to them This He applyes to the Souls and Consciences of men and to all the inward secret actings of them in the first place such as are exempted not only from the Judicature of men but from the cognizance of Angels This he doth by spiritual means in a spiritual manner with regard to the subjection of the souls of men unto God and with reference unto their bringing to Him and enjoyment of Him or their being eternally rejected by Him Hence to collect and conclude that Earthly Princes who whatever is pretended are not the Soveraign Lords of the Souls and Consciences of men nor do any of them that I know of plead themselves so to be who cannot interpose any thing by their absolute Authority that should have a necessary respect unto mens Eternal condition who have no knowledge of no acquaintance with nor can judge of the principal things whereon it doth depend from whose temporal jurisdiction and punishment the things of the Gospel and the Worship of God as purely such are by the nature of them being spiritual
This bespeaks unto all the great Duty towards God of their acknowledgement unto him of their miserable and helpless condition with all those Affections and subordinate Duties wherewith it is attended In this state he declares that God himself in his Infinite Wisdome Goodness and Grace provided a Remedy a way of relief on which he hath put such an impression of his Glorious Excellencies as may stirr up the hearts of his Creatures to endeavour a return unto him from their Apostasie and that this remedy consists in his setting forth Jesus Christ to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood to declare his Righteousness for the forgiveness of Sin which he proposeth unto Men for their receiving and acceptance This renders it the greatest duty of mankind towards God to believe in the Son of God so set forth to seek after an Interest in him or being made partaker of him for this is the great work that God requires namely that we believe on him whom he hath sent Again he declares that God justifieth them who so believe pardoning their sins and imputing Righteousness unto them whereon innumerable Duties do depend even all the Obedience that Christ requires of us seeing in our believing in him we accept him to be our King to rule govern and conduct our souls to God And all these are Religious duties towards God He declares moreover that whereas Men are by Nature dead in trespasses and sins and stand in need of a new spiritual life to be born again that they may live unto God that God in Jesus Christ doth by his spirit quicken them and regenerate them and work in them a new principle of spiritual life whence it is their great Duty towards God in this Religion of St. Paul to comply with and to yield obedience unto all the wayes and methods that God is pleased to use in the accomplishment of this work upon them the especial Duties whereof are too many to be instanced in But he further manifests that notwithstanding the Regeneration of Men by the Spirit and their Conversion to God there yet continues in them a remainder of the Principle of corrupted nature which he calls the flesh and Indwelling Sin that is of it self wholly enmity against God and as far it abides in any inclines the heart and mind unto sin which is to be watched against and opposed And on this head he introduceth the great Religious Duty towards God of our spiritual conflict against sin and of the mortification of it wherein those that believe are to be exercised all the dayes of their lives and wherein their principal duty towards God doth consist and without which they can perform no other in a due manner Moreover he farther adds the great Gospel-Priviledge of the Communication of the Spirit of Christ unto Believers for their Sanctification Consolation and Edification with the Duties of Thankfulness towards God Joy and Rejoycing in him Cheerfulness under Tryals Afflictions and Persecutions and sundry others that on that account are required of us all Religious Duties towards God in the Religion by him proposed unto us Having laid these foundations and manifested how they all proceed from the Eternal Counsel and free Grace of God in which it is our Duty to admire adore and praise him he declareth how hereby and on the account of these things we are bound unto all Holiness Righteousness Godliness Honesty and Usefulness in this world in all Relations and Conditions whatsoever declaring our Duties in Churches according to our especial interest in them towards Believers and towards all Men in the World in our several Relations in Obedience to Magistrates and all superiors in a word in universal observance of the whole will and all the commands of God Now whither any one will call this a Scheme or no or allow it to have any thing of Method in it or no I neither know nor care but am perswaded that it makes a better more plain and intelligible Representation of the Religious Duties towards God which Christian Religion requires of us unto all that suppose this whole Religion to depend on Divine Revelation than that of our Author But I find my self in a digression the end of this Discourse was only to manifest the Sentiments of our Author on the second head before laid down which I think are sufficiently evinced The third is That there is no actual work of present Grace either to sit the Persons of whom these Duties of Moral Vertues are required unto the performance of them or to work and effect them in them For although they are called Graces and the Graces of the Spirit in the Scripture yet that is upon another account as he declares himself pag. 72. All that the Scripture intends by the Graces of the Spirit are only Vertuous qualities of the Soul that are therefore stiled Graces because they are derived purely from God's free-Grace and Goodness in that in the first Ages of Christianity he was pleased out of his infinite concern for its propagation in a miraculous manner to inspire its Converts with all sorts of Vertue Vertuous Qualities of the soul is a very ambigious expression Take these Vertuous Qualities for a new principle of Spiritual life consisting in the habitual Disposition Inclination and Ability of mind unto the things required of us in the will of God or unto the Acts of Religious Obedience and it may express the Graces of the Spirit which yet are far enough from being so called upon the account here mentioned But these Vertuous Qualities are to be interpreted according to the tenour of the preceding Discourses that have already passed under Examination Let now our Author produce any one Writer of the Church of God from first to last of any repute or Acceptation from the day that the name of Christian was known in the World unto this wherein we live giving us this account why the fruits of the Spirit the Vertuous or Gracious qualities of the minds of Believers are called Graces that here he gives and I will give him my thanks publickly for his discovery For if this be the only Reason why any thing in Believers is called Grace why Vertues are Graces namely because God was pleased in the first Ages of Christianity miraculously to inspire its Converts with all sorts of Vertue then there is â—o Communication of Grace unto any no work of Grace in and upon any in an ordinary way through the Ministry of the Gospel in these latter Ages The whole Being and efficacy of Grace according to this notion is to be confined unto the miraculous Operations of God in Gospel concernments in the first Ages whence a denomination in the Scripture is cast upon our Vertues when obtained and exercised by and in our own strength Now this plainly overthrows the whole Gospel and contains a Pelagianisme that Pelagius himself never did nor durst avow Are these things then so indeed that God did from his free Grace and
and is affirmed to be unspeakable and full of glory he that knows not is scarce meet to Paraphrase upon St. Pauls Epistles Neither is that Peace with God through Jesus Christ which is rought in the Hearts of Believers by the Holy Ghost who creates the fruit of the lipps peace peace unto them a matter of any more affinity with a Moral peaceableness of mind and Affections Our Faith also in God and our Faithfulness in our Duties Trusts Offices and Employments are sufficiently distinct So palpably must the Scripture be corrupted and wrested to be made serviceable to this presumption He yet adds another proof to the same purpose if any man know distinctly what that purpose is namely Titus 2. 11. Where he tells us that the same Apostle make the Grace of God to consist in Gratitude towards God Temperance towards our Selves and Justice towards our Neighbours But these things are not so For the Apostle doth not say that the Grace of God doth consist in these things but that the Grace of God teacheth us these things Neither is the Grace here intended any Subjective or inherent Grace or to speak with our Author any Vertuous Quality or Vertue but the Love and Grace of God himself in sending Jesus Christ as declared in the Gospel was is manifest in the words and context beyond contradiction And I cannot but wonder how our Author desirous to prove that the whole of our Religion consists in Moral Vertues and these only called Graces because of the Miraculous Operations of God from his own Grace in the first Gospel converts should endeavour to do it by these two testimonies the first whereof expresly assigns the Duties of Morality as in Believers to the operation of the Spirit and the latter in his judgment makes them to proceed from Grace Our last inquiry is into what he ascribes unto his Adversaries in this matter and how he deals with them thereupon This therefore he informs us pag. 71. It is not enough say they to be compleatly vertuous unless ye have grace too I can scarce believe that ever he heard any one of them say so or ever read it in any of their writings For there is nothing that they are more positive in than that men cannot in any sense be compleatly vertuous unless they have grace and so cannot suppose them to be so who have it not They say indeed that moral vertues as before described so far as they are attainable by or may be exercised in the strength of Mens own wills and natural faculties are not enough to please God and to make men accepted with him So that vertue as it may be without Grace and some vertues may be so for the substance of them is not available unto salvation And I had almost said that he is no Christian that is of another mind In a word Vertue is or may be without Grace in all or any of the Acceptations of it before laid down Where it is without the Favour of God and the Pardon of sin where it is without the renewing of our natures and the endowment of our Persons with a Principle of spiritual life where it is not wrought in us by present efficacious Grace it is not enough nor will serve any mans turn with respect unto the everlasting concernments of his Soul But he gives in his Exceptions pag. 71. But when saith he we have set aside all manner of vertue let them tell me what remains to be called Grace and give me any notion of it distinct from all morality that consists in the right order and government of our actions in all our Relations and so comprehends all our Duty and therefore if Grace be not included in it it is but a phantasme and an imaginary thing I say first where Grace is we cannot set aside vertue because it will and doth produce and effect it in the minds of men But Vertue may be where Grace is not in the sense so often declared Secondly Take moral vertue in the notion of it here received and explained by our Author and I have given sundry Instances before of Gracious Duties that come not within the verge or compass of the Scheme given us of it Thirdly The whole aimed at lies in this that vertue that governs our actions in all our Duties may be considered either as the Duty we owe to the Law of nature for the ends of it to be performed in the strength of nature and by the direction of it or it may be considered as it is an especial effect of the grace of God in us which gives it a new principle and a new end and a new respect unto the Covenant of Grace Wherein we walk with God the consideration where of frustrates the intention of our Author in this discourse But he renews his charge pag. 73. So destructive of all true and real goodness is the very Religion of those men that are wont to set grace at odds with vertue and are so farr from making them the same that they make them inconsistent and though a man be exact in all the duties of moral goodness yet if he be a graceless person i. e. void of I know not what imaginary Godliness he is but in a cleaner way to Hell and his conversion is more hopeless than the vilest and most notorious sinners and the morally Righteous man is at a greater distance from grace than the prophane and better be lend and debanched than live an honest and vertuous life if you are not of the Godly Party with much more to this purpose For the men that are wont to set grace at odds with vertue and are so far from making them the same that they make them inconsistent I wish our Author would discover them that he might take us along with him in his detestation of them It is not unlikely if all be true that is told of them but that the Gnosticks might have some principles not unlike this but beside them I never heard of any that were of this mind in the world And in truth the liberty that is taken in these discourses is a great instance of the morality under consideration But the following words will direct us where these things are charged For some say that if a man be exact in all the Duties of moral Goodness yet if he be a Graceless Person void of I know not what imaginary Godliness he is but in a cleaner way to Hell I think I know both what and who are intended and that both are dealt withal with that candour we have been now accustomed unto But First you will scarce find those you intend over forward in granting that men may be exact in all the Duties of Moral goodness and yet be graceless persons For taking Moral vertues to comprehend as you do their duties toward God they will tell you such Persons cannot perform one of them aright much less all of them exactly For they can neither trust in
God no believe him nor fear him nor glorifie him in a due manner Take the Duties of moral Goodness for the duties of the Law between man and man and the observation of the outward Duties of Gods worship and they say indeed that they may be so performed as that in respect of them men may be blameless and yet be Graceless For that account if they mistake not the Apostle Paul gives of himself Phil. 3. 6 7 8. They do say therefore that many of these Duties so as to be useful in the world and blameless before men they may perform who are yet Graceless Thirdly This Gracelessness is said to consist in being void of I know not what imaginary Godliness No no It is to be void of the Spirit of God of the Grace of Christ not to be born again not to have a new spiritual life in Christ not to be united to him or ingrafted in him not to be accepted and made an heir of God and enabled to a due Spiritual Evangelical performance of all Duties of Obedience according to the tenour of the Covenant these are the things intended And as many with their moral Duties may come short of them and be Graceless so those to whom they are imaginary must reject the whole Gospel of Christ as an imagination And I must say to give matter of a new charge that to the best Observation that I have been able to make in the world none have been nor are more negligent in the principal Duties of morality than those who are aptest to exalt them above the Gospel and the whole Mystery of it unless morality do consist in such a course of life and Conversation as I will not at present charactarize It is farther added that the conversion of such a one is more hopeless than the vilest and most notorious Sinners and the morally Righteous man c. Setting aside the inviduous expression of what is here reflected upon and there is nothing more openly taught in the Gospel The Pharisees were a People morally Righteous whereon they trusted to themselves that they were Righteous and yet our Lord Jesus Christ told them that Publicans and Harlots the vilest and most notorious of Sinners entred before them into the Kingdom of God And where Men trust to their own Righteousness their own Duties be they moral or what they will there are no Men farther from the way of the Gospel than they Nay our Saviour lets us know that as such the Gospel is not concerned in them not they in it He came not he sayes to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance not Men justifying or lifting up themselves in a coâ—ceit of their moral Duties but those who are burdened and laden with a sense of their sins And so in like manner that the whole have no need of the Physitian but the sick and St. Paul declares what Enemies they were to the Righteousness of God who went about to set up their own Righteousness Rom. 10. Now because moral Duties are incumbent on all Persons at all times they are continually to be pressed upon all from a sense of the Authority and command of God indispensibly requiring all Mens attendance unto them Yet such is the deceitfulness of the heart of Man and the power of unbelief that oftentimes Persons who through their Education or following convictions have been brought to some observance of them and being not enlightned in their minds to discern their insufficiency unto the great end of salvation in and of themselves are apt to take up with them and to rest in them without ever coming to sincere Repentance towards God or faith in our Lord Jesus Christ Whereas others the guilt of whose sins doth unavoidably press upon them as it did on the Publicans and Sinners of old are oft times more ready to look out after relief And those who question these things do nothing but manifest their ignorance in the Scripture and want of experience in the work of the Ministry But yet upon the account of the charge mentioned so unduly framed and impotently managed our Author makes an excursion into such an extravagancy of reproaches as is scaree exceeded in his whole Book Part of it I have considered before in our view of his Preface and I am now so used to the noise and bluster wherewith he pours out the storm of his Indignation that I am altogether inconcerned in it and cannot prevail with my self to give it any further consideration These things though not direct to the Argument in hand and which on that account might have been neglected yet supposing that the Author placed as much of his design in them as in any part of his Discourse I could not wholly omit the consideration of not so much out of a desire for their vindication who are unduly traduced in them as to plead for the Gospel it self and to lay a foundation of a further defence of the Truths of it if ocasiou shall so require And we have also here an insight into the Judgment of our Author or his mistake in this matter He tells us that it is better to tollerate debaucheries and immoralities than liberty of conscience for men to worship God according to their light and perswasion Now all Religion according to him consisting in morality to tollerate immoralities and debauckeries in conversation is plainly to tollerate Atheism which it seems is more eligible than to grant liberty of conscience unto them who differ from the present establishment only as to some things belonging to the outward worship of God These things being premised the Argument it self pleaded in this Chap. is capable of a speedy dispatch It is to this purpose The Magistrate hath power over the consciences of men in reference to Morals or Moral Vertues which are the principal things in Religion and therefore much more hath so in reference to the Worship of God which is of less importance We have complained before of the ambiguity of these general terms but it is to no purpose to do so any more seeing we are not like to be relieved in this discourse Let us then take things as we find them and satisfie our selves in the intention of the Author by that Declaration which he makes of it up and down the Chap. But yet here we are at a loss also When he speaks or seems to speak to this purpose whether in the confirmation of the Proposition or the Inference whereof his Argument consists what he sayes is cast into such an inter-texture with invectives and reproaches and expressed in such a loose declamatory manner as it is hard to discover or find out what it is that he intends Suppose therefore in the first place that a Man should call his consequent into question namely that because the Magistrate hath power over the Consciences of his subjects in morals that therefore he hath so also in matters of Instituted Worship how will he confirm and vindicate it Two
from them in Religion Generally abroad throughout Christendome those in whose hands the Civil Powers are and who may be supposed to have inclinations unto the severe exercise of that power which is their own such as they think possibly may become them as men and Governours would be inclineable to moderation towards dissenters were they not excited provoked and wearied by them who pretend to represent Jesus Christ to the world as if any earthly Potentate had more patience mercy and compassion than he Look on those Lutheran Countreyes where they persecute the Calvinists it is commonly declared and proved that the Migistrates for the most part would willingly bear with those dissenters were they not stirred up continually to severities by them whose duty it were to perswade them to clemency and moderation if in themselves they were otherwise enclined And this hath ruined the interest of the Protestant Religion in Germany in a great measure Do men who destroy no more than they can nor punish more than they are able and cry out for Assistence where their own arm fails them render themselves hereby like to their heavenly Father Is this Spirit from above Doth that which is so teach men to harrase the consciences of persons their brethren and fellow-servants on every little difference in judgement and practice about religious things Whom will such men fulfill the commands of patience forbearance waiting meekness condescension that the Gospel abounds with towards Is it only towards them who are of the same mind with themselves They stand in no need of them they stand upon the same terms of advantage with themselves And for those that dissent arise kill and eat seems to be the only command to be observed towards them And why all this fierceness and severity Let men talk what they please those aimed at are peaceable in the Land and resolve to be so whatever may befall them They despise all contrary insinuations That they are in their stations severally usefull to the Common-wealth and collectively in their industry and trading of great consideration to publick welfare is now apparent unto all indifferent men It is or must be if it be for any thing as surely no men delight in troubling others for trouble sake for their Errors and Mistakes in and about the Worship of God All other Pleass are meer pretences of passion and interest But who judgeth them to be so guilty of errors Why those that stir up others to their hurt and disquietment But is their Judgement infallible How if they should be mistaken themselves in their judgement If they are they do not only err but persecute others for the Truth And this hath been the general issue of this matter in the world Error hath persecuted Truth ten times for Truths once persecuting of Error But suppose the worst suppose them in errors and under mistakes let it be proved that God hath appointed that all men who so err should be so punished as they would have Non-conformists and though I should believe them in the truth I would never more plead their cause And would these men be willingly thus dealt withall by those who judge or may judge them to err It may be some would because they have a good security that none shall ever judge them so to do who hath power to punish them for they will be of his mind But sure none can be so absolutely confined unto themselves nor so universally in all their affections and desires unto their own personal concerns as not to have a compassion for some or other who in one place or other are judged to err by them who have power over them to affix what guilt they please unto that which is not their crime And will they justifie all their oppressors All men have an equal right in this matter nothing is required but being uppermost to make a difference This is that which hath turned Christendome into a Shambles whilest every prevailing Party hath judged it their duty and interest to destroy them that do dissent from them Once more what name of sin or wickedness will they find to affix to these errors Nullum criminis nomen nist nominis crimen No man errs willingly nor ought to be thought to tempt or seduce his own will when his error is to his disadvantage And he is innocent whose will is not guilty Moreover those pretended errors in our case are not in matters of faith nor for the most part in or about the Worship of God or that which is acknowledged so to be but in or about those things which some think it convenient to add unto it or conjoyn with it And what quietness what peace is there like to be in the world whilst the sword of vengeance must be continually drawn about these things Counsels of peace patience and forbearance would certainly better become Professors of the Gospel and Preachers of everlasting peace than such passionate and furious enterprizes for severity as we meet withal And I no way doubt but that all generous noble and heroick spirits such as are not concerned in the impaleed peculiar interest and advantages of some and do scorn the pedantick humours of mean and emulous souls when once a few more clouds of prejudices are scattered will be willing to give up to God the Glory of his Soveraignty over the consciences of men and despise the thoughts of giving them disquietments for such things as they can no way remedy and which hinder them not from being servants of God good Subjects to the King and usefull in their respective lots and conditions And now instead of those words of Pilate What I have written I have written which though uttered by him maliciously and despightfully as was also the Prophecy of Caiaphas were by the Holy Wise Providence of God turned into a Testimony to the Truth I shall shut up this Discourse with those of our Saviour which are unspeakably more our concernment to consider Matth. 24. 45 46 47 48 49 50 51. Who then is a faithfull and wise Servant whom his Lord hath made Ruler over his houshold to give them meat in due season blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Verily I say unto you he shall make him Ruler over all his goods But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart my Lord deferreth his coming And shall begin to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the druâ—ken The Lord of that servant shall come in a day that he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cuâ— him assunder and appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth FINIS