disturbances manifestly hazard their own prosperity in the general Confusion and at long run do themselves no less mischief than they designed the Church drowning for company in the miscarriage of the Vessel 2. For that which ought to be every honest mans next consideration for the good of 〈◊〉 Community for a Heathen could say Non nobis solùm nati sumus c. we are not born only for our selves but our Country our kindred our friends our brethren and companions challenge a great share in us so that if a man cast up his obligations aright he ought not so much to live to himself as to the Publick and this much more upon the score of Christianity where Self-denial is the main Principle and Charity the grand Duty And this Argument is represented in the Text. For my brethren and companions sakes for my Friends and Country-men for my Neighbours and Relations I will say Peace be within thee or as in the reading Psalms I will wish thee prosperity And this is upon a Civil account the Peace and prosperity of the Church being likely to procure the settlement of good order and the establishment of peace in the Civil State whereas quarrels about Religion seldom or never end there till they have involved the Government and Policy of a Nation into dangerous consequents 3. From that which though set last ought to be considered and resolved on in the first place by all pious men that have any sense of Gods Honour any zeal to his Name and Service any love or kindness to his House and Ordinances from the Worship and Respect due to God from his people Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good And this upon a Spiritual or Religious account to love the Church for the Churches sake and to do it all the good we can for the honour of God as well as for the benefit of our brethren and companions that so we may under our King live quiet and peaceble lives in all godliness and honesty as our Church has taught us to pray Being to speak before this Honourable Assembly with whom the Care and Government of our Ierusalem this once famous City is intrusted I have made choice of the second of these Arguments which shews how Civil Society is concerned in a quiet Exercise of the National Religion wherein the Psalmist makes it his resolution and recommends it to us all to pray for the Churches peace and to wish her prosperity for our brethren and companions sake in the behalf of our Friends and Country-men as we wish well to our King and Country and stand well affected to the Government and the Laws as we hope to see the Nation thrive Trade flourish the City rebuilt and all our friends and acquaintance in a prosperous condition the peace of the Church and the peoples agreement in the Service of God being the only probable means of securing and ascertaining our Civil Interests and Publick tranquillity For my brethren and companions sakes I will now say Peace be within thee I will wish thee prosperity In the words we have two things fall under our Consideration 1. A Duty recommended to us in Davids Example and Resolution which is to wish the Churches peace 2. A strong Motive to inforce this Duty for our brethren and companions sakes out of that love and affection we bear to the Publick and to our native Country The Resolution of Duty exprest in the latter Clause of the Verse I will now say Peace be within thee where though our English render it as the common form of Salutation used amongst that people when they met or parted with one another as our Saviour ordered his Disciples when he sent them forth Luke 10. 5. Into whatsoever house they entred first to say Peace be to this house and thus our Church has in her Offices for the Visitation of the sick after our Saviours Example ordered that the Priest entring into the sick persons house shall say Peace be to this house and to all that dwell in it and certainly when ever we address our selves to Gods House the House of Prayer 't is very comely and most meet that we should all of us salute her in this Form Peace be within thee Yet this I take to be too narrow a sense for the Form of Salutation was somewhat different from this and it should have been said if that had been all intended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peace be to thee not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peace be in thee Therefore the rest of the Interpreters take it in a wider sense by a plainer construction I will speak peace say they in thee and thus it may be the Magistrates part to speak peace with Authority to command it and to see it kept Say others I will speak peace for thee in thy behalf and that belongs to the Minister to preach up the peace of the Church even with that earnestness as to quarrel for it though with Ieremy he become a man of contentions in a perverse and froward generation while he does so and when he speaks of peace others make themselves ready for battel The Septuagint and Vulgar read it thus I will speak peace of thee or concerning thee i.e. to speak kindly of it and to wish it well and thus it will concern all the People the generality every man in the Nation And I am afraid there is but too much need that both Magistrate and Minister and People and all should all of us bestir our selves and contribute our utmost endeavours for the Churches peace and welfare if we will but do what we ought to do and that out of Interest as well as Duty for our own and our Countries sake for that 's The Motive and Reason with which this Duty is back'd indeed faced and put forward with in the beginning of the verse for my brethren and companions sakes whose good will they nill they be they the Churches friends or foes is to be sought in the preservation of the Church for as the Churches peace depends upon the union and agreement of these brethren and companions so on the other hand in her peace and prosperity is comprehended the happiness and nearest concerns of us all By Brethren is meant Kindred and Relations the charitates naturales in a strict sense but according to the larger acception of the word in the Hebrew language all our Country-men from one end of the Nation to the other all that live under the same Laws and Government especially those that are of the same houshold of faith and profess the same Gospel of Peace By Companions or Friends are to be understood those of a stricter and closer Alliance with whom we have contracted nearer and dearer familiarities above all those that agree with us in the same Orthodox Judgment and walk regularly and lovingly with us according to the same Rules and Institutions of Gods publick Worship whose concerns are more
where there is no express command of God against them though there be no express command for them we are to comply with publick order and decent custom If they would but do thus ingenuously there would be some likelihood of Peace But they would have the Church submit to them and then all should be well Which of them for they cannot all be comply'd with that 's impossible for to take in one and leave out another will be the ground of further discontents and to gather all at a cast into the comprehension would possibly be to please none of them at least to displease the better half If they would but once agree among themselves and say what they would have they would then have some fair pretence to be consider'd But here 's the misery on 't 't is very hard for them themselves to define what will satisfie Conscience because that being not engag'd upon certain Rules may to morrow judge that necessary the necessity whereof to day it doth not fore-see and if any mens Consciences are to be satisfied thus at random the Church will never know when it has done but be still to seek upon new emergencies Whereas would they come to some certainty of demands wherein the whole party in all its subdivisions would agree they might the better be treated with there would be some hope in time of a good understanding But if their meaning is to be left to such a latitude to do whatsoever they shall upon occasion find agreeable to their Conscience i.e. possibly sometimes to their interest or humour to do there 's no body so void of reason but must needs see of how dangerous a consequence it is to any Government to leave any sort of men whatsoever their Principles be be they never so honest to such a Liberty And such a Liberty if they had it would be so far from composing differences that those everlasting quarrels and irreconcileable animosities they have purely out of Conscience taken up one against another which are now partly in kindness to the common cause they are engag'd in for the reputation of Schism and partly for fear of the Laws smother'd and kept in would then instantly break out with violence into open flames whilst some sticking rigidly to those measures they have already attain'd and comparing themselves with themselves severely censure those that upon pretence of greater light and more plentiful effusions of the Spirit walk beyond their line and rule And those on the other hand priding themselves in their Spiritual Priviledges and the purity of Ordinances despise their Brethren as carnal and narrow-spirited men that still keep close to outward forms and walk according to the flesh and the will of man in the beggerly rudiments of the world Thus you see if we do not come to an agreement as I do not see how we ever shall unless authority interpose in the exercise of Religion the hearts of English-men are never like to be united either in brotherly love to one another or in common affection to our Countrey but that the awe and union of Religion being lost the hazard of the Churches Peace threatens disturbances also to the Civil State which is our third and last Argument Taken from the particular constitution of our Government wherein the Civil and Ecclesiastick State are so nearly united that like Hippocrates twins they are both well or ill together and run the same hazard of health and must take share of the same fortune so that who wishes well to the Government to the concerns of our Brethren and Companions must by unavoidable consequence favour the prosperity of the Church To prove this I shall not pretend to the Law though however unkind Lawyers may be to the Churches interest in its Iurisdiction there 's enough in the Law it self to this purpose nor shall I quote King Iames his Apophthegm though he must be acknowledg'd a wise man and one that well understood the nature of Government nor shall I tell you out of our own Stories that men of this Robe have usually undergone the greatest Offices of State and publick imployments which 't is very uncharitable wholly to impute to Church-mens ambition and to allow nothing of merit in the case upon which those preferments and publick trusts were grounded nor what great benefactures some of them left behind them to Community from those secular advantages they were assisted with nor yet shall I insist upon our own experience an irrefragable proof in the late times when the design seemed levell'd only at the Hierarchy but was carried on to the ruine of Monarchy it self and the overthrow of Prelacy was so zealously prosecuted that they brought all Orders into confusion and Mar-prelate proved the Mar-all of the Nation And if we did not buy wit then at a rate dear enough we may if we please make farther tryal to our greater cost I shall only make a general Propose That Magistracy and Ministry are the two Pillars and supports of Society there 's no body I think will deny and if either of these Pillars fail the whole Structure is in danger of falling nor can publick order be secur'd unless the two Swords the Sword of Iustice and thâ— Sword of the Spirit assist each the other in the administration of affairs and in the execution of their several offâ—â—s Now for any man to take upon him to be a Minister or if he be one to exercise that Function without the approbation and against the plain sense of the Law is as irrational and irregular a misdemeanour and must needs be of as dangerous a consequence to the publick as for any man to create himself a Magistrate or to execute the office of a Magistrate without Law I say for one that has no Commission or has been put out of the Commission of Peace to act notwithstanding as a Iustice let him be as wise and as honest a man as he will is sure a high crime I know not how the Law may call it And it is the very same or worse in the Ministry because this office has a more immediate influence on the Consciences of men the most busie and sturdy principle in humane Nature 'T is confest on all hands that a man cannot exercise the office of a Minister without a Call Let me ask then whether theirs be an ordinary or extraordinary Call If extraordinary by the way 't is Enthusiasm to say so let them make it appear by Miracles and Languages If Ordinary certainly they knew afore-hand before they came into Orders for to such I speak what the legal constitution requires of them is their Canonical Obedience if they did know this and yet came with a resolution to disobey this is manifest prevarication if they did not know and their ignorance betray'd them into a snare the men are to be pitied but their ignorance is by no means to be excused if they knew it before and were then satisfied but have
upon the Lords day it self which he was about as Martin Bucer reports of him to have changed from Sunday to Thursday for the convenience of that people in their marketings Again hereupon it is from this liberty whereby the Churches may each order its own affairs in Christian Policy that the Reformed Churches themselves though agreeing as to the main in doctrinals yet in other things differ so much among themselves and yet with that fair regard nevertheless that as all the Reformed Churches abroad do highly magnifie the constitution of the Church of England and approve her Methods as being the main Rampart and Bulwark against the Romish Tyranny So on the other hand the English Church is very far from condemning them for accommodating themselves to the necessity of their conditions but embraces them all with a hearty friendship And herein I say if I mistake not lies the very ratio formalis the nature and extent of Christian liberty so much talkt of that the several Churches indeed may in externals and circumstantials square themselves to the necessity of times and places and order their affairs accordingly But to say that every particular person or party in the same Church has by vertue of his Christianity a liberty to disobey the publick Orders of that Church whereof he is a Member and to serve God as shall notwithstanding those Orders seem good to that party or person for as the Party breaks it will come to Persons at last to take Liberty as I said before in this notion is to make it but another name for confusion Wherefore since Churches are now constituted and 't is clear they are no more to be under the peoples Government then the Civil States are but that the ordering of both belongs to the Christian Magistrate as the Guardian of both Tables I say since 't is so it necessarily follows that for any man to affirm that what the Magistrate upon grave deliberation requires of us in Gods publick Service is an intolerable imposition upon conscience and that things indifferent and in their own nature lawful to be done being once commanded and recommended by lawful Authority become eo nomine upon that very account unlawful is a most absurd defiance and not to be endured For these are such Theses as although some have been bold to publish them and are still confident enough to act according to them yet have no footing either in the Word of God or in right Reason upon which two Societies are founded and the right of Government stands as being destructive at once not only to the Peace of the Church but to the purposes of the Civil Power too That I may make all clear I shall to omit that of Korah the Son of Levi who might possibly otherwise be lookt upon as a godly and able man as having a great opinion amongst the people and an interest in many of the Princes and for ought as we read was guilty of no other fault but Non-conformity and murmuring against Aaron Numb 16. 11. Indeed Dathan and Abiram Lay-men Sons of Reuben went further against Moses himself in vers 13 14. though these State-Rebâ—ls too as well as that disobedient Levite had the luck upon the very morrow after that dreadful execution upon them to be esteemed at vers 41. by all the Congregation the people of the Lord. Though this look too much like our case yet I say to pass it by because that was a severe example I shall give you two milder instances the one in the Jewish Church long before the building of the Temple that of Micah the other of a famous Christian Church planted by S. Paul that of the Corinthians The Story of Micah is that he made an Ephod and Teraphim and consecrated one of his Sons to be his Priest Iudg. 17. 5 upon which the remark is in the next verse that in those days there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes Nor was the matter mended when he got a young Levite to be his Father and his Priest for in the very beginning of the next Chapter 't is again said In those days there was no King in Israel so that 't is clear that this is taxed as a scandal of those loose ungoverned times when there was no King that any man should set up for himself a private Form of Worship to which it should seem the people of the neighbour-houses resorted Chap. 18. vers 22. This practice then of Micah's was a fault without doubt which had there been a King in Israel a lawful Authority in being to have taken order about such things would not have been suffered That of the Corinthians is yet more plausible and yet not faultless neither they kept to their publick Ministers yet because they prefer'd one to another and some liked better of Pauls performance others of Apollo's in the same common work he taxes them of carnality i. e. of Schism 1 Cor. 3. 3. for so he gives the reason For saith he whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions or factions are not ye carnal why what factions or divisions are these he speaks of he tells you vers 4. For while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo are ye not carnal and yet Paul and Apollo were excellent Persons both of them not only Orthodox sound men but men of eminent abilities both and extraordinary graces But Paul and Apollo were but Ministers as he tells us in the next verse that employed those gifts and exercised those graces for the Churches good as the Lord giveth to every one If this be envying and strife and division or faction what would Paul have said of us how carnal are we who do not gad after the Pauls and Apollos I wish they were for their own and their Hearers sakes all such whom people now-a-days so eagerly follow but quite Kim-kam leave the regular Assemblies of Orthodox men and run a wildring after every Will-in-the-wisp that comes in our way and have such persons in admiration as are many of them neither Orthodox nor able and further some of us take up dangerous Principles at any rate and exercise Religions of our own making in such a manner as must needs in the end might such things prevail amongst us prove destructive to Christianity it self And thus I have answered that Objection at large taking in thâ— ground of the main Controversie as far as I could which is in debatâ— at this day among us There is another too which I must not leâ— go without its Answer and I shall be brief That these reasons 〈◊〉 mine for Vniformity will serve indifferently for all Religions of alâ— Countries as well as ours and that Mahumetans and Papists are by this Doctrine no less obliged then we to keep up their ways oâ— Worship amongst the people for the honour of God the reputation of Religion and the safety of the Government since
we ought not in stark Charity to suppose but that they who profess the worst of Religions do in their conscience and according to their Principles take it to be the best in the world I hope there 's no one in this Assembly will make so uncharitable a reflection upon my Discourse as to imagine that has been the drift of it to countenance the bloody practices and cruel persecutions used either in the Popes Dominions or the Grand Signor's Territories Far be it from me to plead the cause either of the one or of the other Yet I do in my Conscience think that some of those the most violent Princes of either Religion that have been the most zealous Persecuters were in their Conscience perswaded that they were in the right You 'l say that 's fair for me to grant Our Saviour says the same they shall kill you and think they do God good service by so doing and yet I say Positively and I would have it taken notice of because it may concern some who may think themselves far enough from being in the same form with Turks and Papists I do Positively say that this their acting according to their Conscience will by no means excuse them For my proof I have both the great Apostles Rule and his Example too His Rule is set down Gal. 4. 18. It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing The case he brings it upon is not so clear I suppose upon the account of some false Teachers which endeavour'd to alienate them from that Doctrine which he had taught them and to withdraw them from the Church for their own advantage and this with a great shew of zeal in the fore-going verse They zealously affect you says he but not well yea they would exclude you or in another reading they would exclude us that you might affect them I wish our People would beware of such who with a great deal of zealous affection carry on their own designs But whatever the particular case was the Rule will hold in general 'T is good to be zealous if a man's cause be good and if the man be convinc'd his cause is so Otherwise Zeal without knowledge or in a wrong cause is a ridiculous and mischievous thing and is upon this score reckoned amongst the works of the flesh And thus is it with those Idolatrous People who the more zealous they are the more they have to answer I confess 't is a sad thing for any man to have an erring guide to follow I mean an erroneous Conscience For which way soever he take either with or against Conscience he is concluded to an unavoidable necessity of sinning and I must acknowledge too that 't is safest to sin on Conscience side and yet the mistake of Conscience will not be a sufficient plea for unjustifiable actions And thus it was with Paul who in the time of his Pharisaism was a zealous Persecutor and thought he did well but after his Conversion for that very thing condemns himself as the worst of sinners and yet was no less zealous for the Religion he turn'd to Now does his Zeal whilst he was a Pharisee which was his great sin make his Christian Zeal e're a whit the less commendable No sure No more does Nero's or Dioclesian's Persecutions of the Saints blemish any Christian Magistrates severity in defending the Faith against Hereticks or the Order of the Church against Alexander's killing of a Friend in his drink could be no Argument against his putting a Traytor to death by sober advice nor could the execution of a Traytor excuse the murder of a Friend To retort it upon the Objectors if they are so zealously affected that rather then their conceits shall not carry they will venture the pulling down Church and State about their ears let any one judge is not the Magistrate whom God hath intrusted with the care of his Church obliged to be as Zealous for the preservation of Church and State in the vigorous defence of Truth and Peace To make a familiar instance an honest man in possession shews a just courage in maintaining his right and is commended for it whilst the injurious invader let his courage be what it will is apprehended and deservedly punish'd by Law unless he grow too strong for the Law and then that 's a sad case I have done with the Arguments wherein I could not but think it my duty as to plead the Churches Peace so to vindicate her against Objections which are usually made and now shall only desire that as you have hitherto attended me with an obliging patience so you will extend that patience a little farther whilst I make an earnest and affectionate Address to you in a short Application with which I shall close all Let me then press it upon you Right Honourable and Worshipful the Magistrates and Patriots of this great City and you worthy Citizens of what rank and degree soever which hear me this day and I could wish my voice could reach from one end of the City to the other that you will all of you put on Publick Spirits and lay to heart the concerns of your Brethren and Companions and every man in his place exsert his Authority and Interest contribute his Prayers and endeavours for the Prosperity of the English Church and the composure of our unnatural irreligious differences in Religion Your City is the Metropolis of the Nation the Royal Seat of the Government and the great Staple of Trade which spreads its universal influence into all parts of the Land and your Example gives law to all the rest of the people 'T is your Iustice which holds the ballance in all National dealings 't is your mode of Religon here that is follow'd every where yonr fashions of serving God that are taken up and retayl'd into the Countrey The union of this City would unite us all O do not be wanting to so Pious so Necessary so Charitable a Work If you have any regard to God's Honour amongst us if any care of Religion if any love to your Native Countrey and the Government you live under if any kindness to your own Persons and Families to your Wives and little ones to your Friends and Relations if you have any hopes left after all those heavy Iudgments that have gone over you of enjoying Peace and Liberty and Plenty in your new dwellings if all these dear concerns do as I know they needs must lye near your hearts act then in the name of God for his sake and your own in a full and vigorous sense of these things and study the Churches Peace which is to secure them all to you by your unanimous Agreement in God's Worship and Service Your publick Iustice and Regulation of Trade and Reformation of Abuses in Civil Affairs and the prudent and vigilant administration of the Government of the City are things make you worthily spoken of but if this be all if there be not a
Imprimatur Tho. Tomkyns Reverendissimo in Christo Patri ac Domino D no Gilberto Divinâ Providentiâ Archi-Episc Cant. à Sac. Dom. Ex Aed Lambethanis Sept. 20. 1669. THE Churches Peace ASSERTED UPON A CIVIL ACCOUNT As it was great part of it deliver'd in a Sermon before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor in Guild-Hall-Chappel Iuly 4. By AD. LITTLETON Presbyter Opto equidem ut si fieri potest nemo de fratribus pereat si tamen quosdam Schismatum Duces dissensionis Auctores non potuerit ad salutis viam consilium salubre revocare caeteri tamen vel simplicitate capti vel errore inducti vel aliquâ fallentis astutiae calliditate decepti à fallaciae vos laqueis solvite c. S. Cyprian de Unitate Ecclesiae LONDON Printed for Philip Chetwind MDCLXIX THE PREFACE TO THE READER 'T IS sad to consider that as we owe all our Vnsettlements to our Divisions so we our selves are so settled upon the Lees in these our Divisions that he that endeavours to remove us does but put us upon a new Fermentation and an exercise of Passion The charming name of Peace it self is now become an Alarm and entertain'd by most as unwelcom news and they that bring any tidings of it lookt upon as Enemies and Ill-affected The reason of this 't is no hard matter to find out for seeing many People have engaged themselves into parties out of a wrong apprehension of Interest as long as that prejudice lies in the way there is no hope of doing any good or ever reconciling them to that which seems to dis-interest them Let the best Oratour in the world go to perswade any man against his Interest he shall but lose his own labour and the others good opinion to boot Wherefore I have in this Discourse endeavour'd to undâ—ceive people bâ— evincing That the particular interests of us all as we are Brethren and Companions are involv'd in the Churches Prosperity and that her Peace by which the whole and every part the Government and every Person under the Government is â—â—cur'd is at least ought to be the Center of all our concerns If Jerusalem miscarry if the things of her peace be hid from her eyes none of her Inhabitants what-ever their Zeal or their Wealth their Religion or their Interest may be must hope to escape I do again confidently say that mistaken Interest is the main ground and principle of our present Divisions because had they arose out of pure Conscience that 's a more treatable thing and is willing if it be a good conscience to be inform'd whereas now the humour of most is to run after things without any examination and to cry up one thing and condemn another many times which they have little or no knowledge of the one or the other Now Reader to apply to thee whether thou art for the Church or against the Church this discourse will be serviceable and useful to thee upon this meer account as thou art an honest English-man and wishest thy self well and thy Countrey no harm If thou art a Friend to the Church here thou wilt find some Arguments to confirm thy judgment and to inable thee in debating with others that are not Friends If thou separatest from the Church then thou must know that 't is mainly for thy sake that this comes abroad to find thee out because such discourses cannot meet with thee where they are deliver'd What-ever thy Opinion be and whether it were Conscience or Interest that made thee take it up which thou art best able to resolve thy self do not prejudge me but weigh impartially the truth and reason of things I desire not to be credited any farther then I have them on my side If thou findest the Language any where harsh and severe do not presently be offended 't is the nature of truth and reason so to express themselves and I do assure thee my design is only to convince thy understanding without any intention of breaking thy head One thing for thy further satisfaction I must not conceal from thee which besides the importunities of some Friends and others worthy Citizens which heard me that day was in part a reason of this Publication that some while after I had Penn'd this Discourse I met with a Sermon in Print of Doctor Reynolds the present Lord Bishop of Norwich Preached in the Parliament-House Jan. 9. in the Year 1656. upon this very subject Intituled The Peace of Jerusalem wherein he has over and above his pious inlargements upon the latter part of this Psalm for he takes all the four last verses for his Text in his Exhortation to those then in Power so Learnedly and Solidly as his manner is by several strenuous Arguments prov'd that The Christian Magistrate has a coercive power in matters of Religion Page 23. shewing plainly 't is but a trick and a design in those that cry it down Page 22. and that the difference of dispensations in the Jewish and Christian Church doth not a whit alter the case Page 26. nor Christian Liberty priviledge or exempt men from that Power Page 29. That with me and I think with any indifferent Reader he leaves no place of doubt I was glad to see that the Church even then when her Friends were under hatches was not in so hopeless and desperate a Condition but that her cause was fairly pleaded with acceptance before her Adversaries and This it was encouraged me to entertain some hopes if not of the like acceptation of my weak performance yet of a ready excuse for my dutiful endeavour before those that have been always and I hope ever will be the Churches Friends For though that were at such a time when our Church-Government was laid aside which yet that Reverend Person I make no question did even then out of his great Learning in his Conscience approve and wish restor'd and therefore out of prudence the main Controversie which is with the Authors of the division those that made the first breach seem to be wav'd and his style particularly directed against those Sects which improving the Schism into Heresie have departed from the Foundation yet those weighty Arguments he brings are generally applicable to all and are apparently of force against the most specious Sect we have amongst us and that upon this ground Page 31. that divisions and sub-divisions in the Church do exceedingly tend to weaken to distract to betray it To make good this I shall apply one of his Arguments which alone is enough to carry the Churches cause Page 28. Whatever things are per se subversive and dangerous to the prosperity of States and Nations come under the proper cognizance of the Civil Magistrate to prevent But Heresies Blasphemies Idolatries Impieties against God and Schisms too say I and so the Reverend Author himself joyns them Page 8. Blasphemies Heresies Schisms Idolatry Superstition do as well endanger the Prosperity of States as sins against the second Table
1. Because God is as much provoked by the one as by the other 2. Because such sins do more exceedingly divide and unty the bonds of Love and Amity then other Civil differences do and so loosen the hearts of men from one another The Instances wherein He would have the Magistrate exsert his power are these Page 32 33. To encourage Orthodox Ministers and the Schools of Learning To take care that all who own Christian Religion amongst us be required to attend upon the Ministry To endeavour to reconcile dissenting brethren that we may unite against the Common Adversary To secure Fundamental Doctrines and for that purpose to take care for Catechising c. I thought fit to give thee this Intimation that if thou think'st my answers not full enough to those Objections which the streights of time would not give leave for in the Pulpit thou may'st know whither to have recourse as I said for thy better satisfaction I shall conclude with the same profession as that Reverend Author does Page 34. that I have not pressed this Doctrine of the Peace of the Church to the straightning or grieving of any who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity Only I wish that they who made the earliest departure from the English Church in these late times would as He does for many of them reflect upon themselves and apply that of Hazael whether they could some years since have been perswaded to believe that they should have lived to see such a trail of opinions and mischiefs break in upon Church and State upon the advantage of their perhaps at first not ill-meaning discontents And let thee and me and every honest English-man pray for the Peace of our Jerusalem in His Paraphrase Page 8. That God would protect his Ordinances and maintain his Truth that he would prosper Fundamental Laws the beauty and stability of Religious Government c. that the Tabernacle and the Tribunals Religion and Policy may jointly flourish they being the foundations of publick happiness and which usually stand and fall together PSAL. CXXII Vers. 8. For my Brethren and Companions sakes I will now say Peace be within thee THE Occasion upon which this sacred Ode was penn'd a Reverend Person in his Annotations tells us he believes was Davids return to Ierusalem to the Publick Service of God again at the Temple after Absalon's defeat Calvin is of opinion that David made it at the time when the Ark was setled upon Mount Sion and the building of the Temple designed for the uniform Exercise of the National Religion Upon either account it will very well suit with our Meridian The whole Psalm is an Elogy or Panegyrick Description of the Metropolis of Iudea the City of Ierusalem and that not only nor so much upon the Civil account that there are set Thrones of Iudgment the Thrones of the House of David Vers. 5. That 't was the Imperial City where the King kept Court whence Laws were issued and Authority derived for the Government of the rest of the people There sate the Sanhedrin the great Council of the Nation and there the supream Courts of Judicature which received Appeals from all inferior Districts But also and much more upon the Ecclesiastical account this City being the Residence of the great King the Lord himself who had set his Name there and chose the Temple for his dwelling-place Whither the tribes go up the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel or more exactly to the Original according to the testimony for Israel to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. This City then was the appointed place of Gods publick and solemn Worship whither all the people of that Country were thrice a year at the three great Festivals obliged to come up to present themselves before the Lord in the Temple according to the testimony of Israel i e. by a perpetual Statute and standing Ordinance to that people the Laws of God being usually in Scripture-language styled Testimonies Now that there was by this Testimony or Statute for the Tribes coming up to Ierusalem designed a strict Uniformity in that peoples Exercise of their Religion is of it self clear in the very History for the Tribes did not every one bring up a several Form of Worship along with them but all as one man made a solemn appearance together at the Temple in one joynt acknowledgment and regular Service And Mr. Calvin tells us as much that God appointed one Temple and one Altar on purpose for the whole Nations use nè populus in varias superstitiones difflueret that the people might not by being left to their own liberty in the Worship of God run loose into a world of wild opinions and practices about matters of Religion And that further by Ierusalem whose Peace we are here to pray for is to be understood the Church as it is the appointed place of Gods publick Worship appears by the very context of the Psalm it self which begins and ends with this Notion vers 1. I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord and then in order to this 't is said vers 2. Our feet shall stand within thy gates O Ierusalem that being the ready way to the Temple and in the last verse again he concludes Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good i.e. the good of Ierusalem in its Ecclesiastical State as the House of God the Temple the place of solemn Assembly belonged to it And thus Calvin expounds that of the third verse Ierusalem is built as a City that is compact together or as the common Translation has it As a City that is at unity in it self not for the uniformity of the building but says he propter civium consensum for the unanimity and mutual agreement of its Citizens in the Worship of God and in the Exercise of Religion And that the people should all thus joyn their affectionate good wishes and most earnest endeavours for the Peace of Ierusalem thus considered to seek the prosperity and to promote the welfare of the Church in a fair compliance with publick Order and in a quiet regular Exercise of the National Religion the Psalmist here in the close of the Psalm bring no less than three Arguments 1. From every mans personal concern in the Churches safety Pray for the peace of Ierusalem they shall prosper or they shall be quiet and at ease that love thee i.e. God will bless such persons with a quiet and a happy life that love the Church and wish her well and pay a regular obedience to her Orders and Government And this upon a meer Natural Principle of self-love implanted in every mans breast and of that charity which we use to say begins at home the parts being all safe in the preservation of the whole every private mans Cabin secure while the Ship of Government steers right whereas those that by wilful disobedience contrive publick
immediately united in the Churches welfare which we are in that manner to preserve and promote for both their sakes as not to exclude either And thus much for the coherence and explication which I have the longer insisted upon to gain your full assent to these two things 1. That by Ierusalem here is meant the Church And 2. That by her peace is to be understood our agreement in religion since without this agreement there is no probability no likelihood of her enjoying peace I shall now crave leave to gather up all I have to say into one proposition and such a proposition as the words do naturally without any force put upon them afford us And 't is this in the words of the Text That we ought for our Brethren and Companions sakes to wish and endeavour the Churches peace Which in a brief Paraphrase speaks thus That 't is the duty of every Man amongst us whether Magistrate or other as he is the Governour or Member of a Society upon a meer civil account our affection to our Native Countrey and the good of community in our several places and stations heartily to wish and vigorously to endeavour the peace and prosperity of the Church in the uniform exercise of Religion and God's publick worship And this Proposition I shall make good by three Arguments taken 1. From the ground of a Peoples happiness Divine favour and protection and that favour not to be procur'd but by keeping up God's publick honour amongst us and that honour no way to be secur'd but by our unanimous agreement in his publick worship 2. From that influence which Religion is apt to have upon the minds of Men both in awing them and uniting them which aw and union both without the uniformity of worship if People be left to their own liberty to worship God publickly how they please will infallibly utterly be lost and when Religion shall once be brought into a publick contempt and made the ground of an universal quarrel when the candlestick is once removing out of the Church 't is easie to foresee what danger the State will then be in and what will in a short time become of such a People 3. From the particular constitution of our Laws and Government wherein the concerns of State are so intimately and closely link'd with the Peace and prosperity of the Church that they must needs stand or fall together First then for the first Argument that the Peace of the Church that is our agreement in the service of God is the only way of keeping up God's publick honour amongst us and consequently of after-taiming to us the favour and blessing of God which is the main and only ground of National prosperity and happiness the great concern of all our Brethren and Companions Wherein I have three things to make out 1. That the Divine favour is the main and only prop of a Peoples happiness 2. That the setting up Gods honour in publick amongst us is the only means of procuring and ascertaining his favour And 3. That our agreement in the service of God is the only way of keeping up his publick honour I say first That the favour of God is the grand support and alone foundation of any peoples prosperity and happy estate This is the Palladium of the Government ancile imperii the buckler of State when as the Psalmist expresses it God encompasseth us with his favour as with a shield whereupon it is that by vertue of this divine influence upon his Vice-gerents the Magistrates they themselves are also term'd the shields of the earth A learned Frenchman tells us that the Eastern people were wont at the building of any City according to the positions of Heaven at that time by rules of Astrology and other Magical observations to make Artificial Sculptures upon Brass which they call'd Talismans and to consecrate them to the auspicious beginnings and fortunate success of that City which they fancied as long as those Hieroglyphicks were preserv'd would never miscarry by fire of water war or plague And of this nature and design he takes Laban's Teraphim to have been which his daughter Rachel stole away and those of Micah which the boisterous Danites plunder'd him of as the pledges of good fortune to those Families who were therefore both much concern'd in the loss of them To the same purpose the Grecians and others indeed who not had their Tutelar Gods as the guardians of each City so that the first thing enemies did that came to besiege a Town was to call away their God either by inchantments inticing him or by extraordinary respects out-bidding the Inhabitants and proffering the Deity better terms if he would come over to their side insomuch that the Tyrians when Alexander's Army beleaguer'd them upon such an apprehension of Apollo's leaving them tyed him fast with a Golden Chain to Hercules his Altar that he might not stir And 't was a great part of policy among these Heathens to conceal these their strengths and keep them close as the arcana imperii that in time of danger they might be sure of them From these and the like superstitious usages this serious truth at least may be learnt that very Infidels and Strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel had from the instincts of Nature that sense of a Deity and an over-ruling Power that they trusted not to the situation and strength of their Cities to the number or valour and wealth of the Inhabitants for the defence of them but wholly imputed their safety to divine protection And this much more to be acknowledged by us to whom God has made himself so well known in his Word with whom he has entred into Covenant whom he has admitted unto so endearing nearnesses to himself Our Royal Author is every where full of these acknowledgments in this his Book of Publick Devotions calling God a Sun and a Shield his strong Rock and Tower of Defence and mighty Deliverer ascribing all his deliverances and preservations to the light of his countenance and the saving strength of his right hand Particularly in Psal. 144. where he does ex professo handle this Argument he says 't is he that gives Victory unto Kings and then having recited the several instances of a peoples outward prosperity That our sons grow up as young plants and our daughters as the polished corners of the Temple that our garners be full and plenteous with all manner of store that our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets that our oxen be strong to labour and in good plight that there be no invasion upon us no leading into captivity and no complaining in our streets he closes this account with an acclamation wherin he resolves the sum of all into divine favour as the ground and original of all these blessings and advantages Happy are the people that are in such a case happy I say are the people which have the Lord for their God But yet more closely
been inlightned since and changed their mind they must know too that that power which gives men in publick place leave to act may upon publick inconvenience suspend their acting and if then they do act 't is an unjustifiable disobedience Nor is it with them as it was with Saint Paul Wo be unto me if I preach not the Gospel he had another kind of Call but for these there 's a Wo belongs to them if they do 'T is otherwise too now the Church is setled under Christian Magistrates and govern'd by Christian Laws then at that time when it was to be planted under the Government of Heathen Emperours The Church now with all her subordinations and dependencies in all her jurisdictions and powers owns the King her Supreme She challenges nothing to her self but what the favour of her Prince and the Laws of the land have allow'd her Thus Bishops as to the execution of their Office are sent by the King as Supreme and act in their Courts by the Kings power as Civil Courts do the King deputing Arch-Bishops and Bishops to be Judges under him in causes Spiritual and in his name to govern the Ecclesiastical State as he makes Lord Keepers Chief Iustices and other Iudges of the Land For had the Church any power in it self in Civil affairs besides what the Laws give her I dare say there 's ne're a Bishop in England but would speedily redress those scandals and grievances possibly brought into their Courts by Lay-Officers which people so much clamour against But now what can they do they are ty'd up by Law All of us that are of the Clergy own the Civil Power pay the same obedience to the Laws as any of you do and in First-fruits Tenths and Subsidies make as chargable acknowledgments as any of the populacy I know 't is said though what need of such a pompous costly Religion of a Church with so great an allowance of means This ample Revenue exhausts and weakens the State smaller stipends would serve turn very well But can any one with any shew of ingenuity fairly reason against the encouragements of Learning and the rewards of desert Let it be consider'd that several of this Order had they gone another way might with submission I speak it have sate in your Seats and been clad with your Purple After all our pains and time and strength and charges too spent in studies do not think that what the Law allows us we have by doing nothing for it These things are propos'd publickly as the Acquists of Industry and may be got and injoy'd as legally as any of your Estates And is it not fit do you think a National Church wherein the honour and reputation of Religion is to be kept up should be secur'd from poverty and that contempt which always accompanies meanness It were to be wish'd that as Kings are to be the Nursing Fathers of the Church so Princes and the Sons of Nobles would fit themselves for her dignities that they might bear up the honour of Religion with their personal attendence It has been so heretofore when the two great Offices were united in the same person Melchisedek King of Salem and Priest of the living God and they were kept pretty near in the persons of Moses and Aaron brethren and the Priest elder brother to the Prince And hence the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kohen whence we have King signifies indifferently Prince and Priest whereupon the Apostle Rom. 13. calls the King in Ecclesiastical terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Minister say we for both 't is Gods Liturgie-maker and Gods Deacon to shew too that a Christian Magistrate as such has power to order religious affairs in the Service of God This I say has been and 't were well if it could be so with us however must the Church alone be held up by a precarious dependence Is it not this that makes Religion a Prostitute to the humors of the people when men of mean spirits and parts shall out of fear comply for a paltry livelihood to preach things that may please and others of ambitious minds and voluble tongues to serve an interest shall lead the people to their own hurt But some will say what would you have men do that are not otherwise considered since there is that unequal distribution of Church-favours that some go away with all and others get little or nothing Judge in your own case whether this be a reasonable ground of quarrel Shall the inequality of Estates amongst you make the meaner Citizens quarrel the Government of the City because they have not all the wealth of Aldermen Shall I or any of my brethren and companions because we have not that place and esteem in the Church as we out of the pride of our own hearts may think we deserve go in a sullen arrogance and set up for our selves in a distinct interest from the Church and flye in the face of our Mother and put undutiful affronts upon her for not being so kind as we would have her No. Gen. 49. 6. O my soul come not thou into such mens secret unto their private assemblies mine honour be not thou united Let them for me be divided in Iacob and scattered in Israel that in their anger and self-will practise such things To go on I know it has been seriously discoursed and pâ—inted too that the largeness of the Church-revenue in any Nation impoverishes the State sets the people behind-hand and puts them out of a thriving condition and no less then demonstration offered that if it were retrenched Trade would flourish Manufactures and growths receive wonderful improvements and the people generally grow rich apace But to Answer that Author those Common-wealths he speaks of and ours are not alike in the constitution and nature of the Government and God forbid they ever should But it may be ones wonder why our people cannot now with much more case make those improvements since the Church keeps little in her own hands and for the most part lets easie penny-worths nor can it be any reason that the Church drains the peoples money since if the Church had not what she has some body else would in the Churches right nor would the people be much the better How our neighbour-Neighbour-States order their Church affairs I suppose ought to be no precedent of Policy to us though they to keep up a National Religion by which those they admit into publick trust are brought to test and for the securing publick peace amidst the differences of Religion maintain a standing Army Further why our dissenters should not upon their own bottoms be comprehended within the legal settlement of the Church they themselves give a very just occasion for the very best Party amongst them have such Principles of Policy and Government as are utterly inconsistent and incompatible not only with any other Form but with Monarchy it self as hath been clearly evidenced
from their own writings and practices and others there are that do in effect loosen the bands of all Society by excusing that duty Servants owe to their Masters Children to their Parents Wives to their Husbands under a pretence of seeking God justifie disobedience by the Corban of Religion and for any command of their Superiors they like not have a ready answer that they are to obey God rather than man whereas on the contrary there is no one thing that the English Church does in her Doctrine more positively affirm or in her Offices more zealously express then obedience to Governors and her duty to her Soveraign To draw to an end in this Argument some there are that fear not to charge the Church it self with Sacriledge and truly I must grant that Church-men may be guilty by imbezilling and mis-imploying Church-revenue which sure enough was mainly design'd for Pious Uses but may not a man that faithfully serves the Publick in his place have some regard to himself too in fair provisions for his own Family The Apostle tells us that he that does not is worse then an Infidel To shut up all and to drive this nail to the head I do freely acknowledge that the Church never flourish'd more under Pagan Governments then when it was in the poorest condition for it's temporals when it lay under Pressures and Afflictions and had the heathen-Heathen-State its Enemy But shall any Christian Magistrate now design the Perscution and Ruine of the Church therefore This were to Argue with the Apostate Iulian to strip Bishops and Priests of their lively-hood and to turn them out of all they have that they may be poor in imitation of their master's Example and in obdedience to his command may learn to contemn the World But thanked be God we live not now under Heathen Emperours and Pagan Governours though if we did it were our duty to pray for them and to thank God for then too and to obey them in all lawful commands and where we can not safely obey chearfully suffer for a good Conscience Neither is nor ought the Church to be so now as it was in the Primitive times before it was setled under Christian Magistrates though then too there was fair liberal allowance and there 's no Minister we have but would be contented to Preach at the Primitive rates were our Auditors as free and open-handed as they were then In the close of all these sacred Morsels though they may seem sweet yet leave gravel behind them and this I dare boldly say that the decay of the Church and the disrepute of Religion amongst any people is a certain token and an infallible character of that People's approaching Ruine Sic profanatis sacris Peritura Troja perdidit primùm Deos. So that from the complication of Church and State and the extreme hazard each of them runs in the other's perils we stand obliged upon a meer Civil account for our Brethren and Companion sakes to wish the Churches prosperity and welfare in our mutual Agreement among our selves Before I make an end I think it necessary to take notice of an Objection or two which may seem to overthrow the purpose and design of this whole Discourse For though it hath already been clear'd out of the Context that by Ierusalem here must be meant the Church and that the Churches Peace which for his Brethren and Companions sakes David resolves to wish and endeavour did consist in that People's uniform Worship of God as appears further by that Churches sad experience when Ieroboam drew off the Ten Tribes from their Allegiance and which is reckon'd his great sin which he made the Children of Israel to sin had by setting up new forms of Worship made their return as well to the Thrones of David at Ierusalem as to the Temple impossible and by a subtle contrivance of an establish'd Schism to render his Rebellion perpetually successful divided them from their brethren in Religion and made the breach irreconcileable then by degrees the poor Samaritans fell off into all kinds of Superstitions and Idolatries the Statutes of Omri and Ahab and I know not what else gallymawfreys of Religion and all this grounded on the fair pretence of that Precise Sect the Karaei who would admit of nothing in the Worship of God but what they found expresly commanded in the Law of Moses I say though thus it stood with the Iewish Church I foresee an Objection may be made that our case is much different from theirs for first Theirs was but a Typical Ceremonial Service which in the Gospel state has no place since our Worship now must be in Spirit and in Truth and then again for these very Types and Ceremonies they had a Divine Command and were by strict precept oblig'd to that uniform attendance upon the Temple whereas such a precept or command now we have none to tye us up in like manner to any one form of Worship To the first part of the Objection that that was a Typical Service in the Iewish Church but that the Holy Iesus has to the Christian Church brought Grace and Truth which do not tye us up to such severe observances in external things but have instated us into a Liberty wherein we are commanded to stand fast and therefore we are not to part with it upon any terms I answer that though the Ceremonies of that Religion be abolished yet the substance of it remains still in the Christian Church for the shadow and the truth were to answer one another and those Types and representations are therefore now to be made out answerably by us in real performances so that the Vniformity of Worship is as agreeable and perhaps more necessary now to the Substance as 't was then to the Shadow and the obligation proportionably the same upon us as upon them For though God did by the death of his Son rent the vail of the Temple and break down the Partition-wall and so has brought us Gentiles into the Fellowship of the Church it was that we should in the same orderly manner serve him in substance as they did in Germony and in suitable methods accomplish their Types with the Truth of our services They brought their Calves and their Lambs to the Priest and had them by his hand offered in the Temple Christian Religion has for their Priests and Levites distinct orders likewise of Bishops Priests and Deacons and instead of a Temple Churches where the People by the Ministration of the Priesthood are to offer up their Prayers and their Praises which are our morning and evening Sacrifices And thus for their Temple their Sacrifices their Sabbaths their Priesthood and almost all considerable Instances of their Worship there is a perpetual uniform Analegy throughout betwixt them and us Only their Worship was perform'd in the shadow of the Law ours in the light of the Gospel and if this light proves to us darkness how great will our darkness be For alas that
liberty they talk of and that light which so dazzles their eyes that they cannot see their way is quite mistaken by them That light was indeed design'd to lead them out of the shadow but not to lead them into the fire for of that nature all Schism and division is and that liberty as it releas'd them from the bondage of the Ceremonial Law so it doth not at all disoblige them from the Moral Law but rather engages them to it with faster ties of gratitude Now as I take it the Fifth Commandment which enjoyns obedience to the Magistrate was never lookt upon as a part of the Ceremonial Law but always accounted to have a Moral and a perpetual indispensible obligation in it And I must assure them that disobedience to a lawful Governour in things not simply in their own nature unlawful as most of them confess our Liturgy and Rites to be is a great sin and of dangerous consequence to their own Souls as well as to the Peace of the Church So that that answer they make the Magistrate in this case is not proper that they are not free to obey him for they are by all Laws both of God and Man Free nay more obliged and bound to obey Only let them I advise take heed of making that Liberty they pretend to a Cloak of Maliciousness Again as to what they say that the Iews had a peremptory command from God himself for their Vniformity but we can produce no such for ours I grant them nor am I so fond to say we have an express command set down in God's Word for every rite and usage our Church has thought fit for Decency and good Order to retain Nor is it at all necessary it should be so No neither had they for all theirs as appears by David's and Solomon's ordering the Quire of the Temple in the course of the Singers making forms of devotion and prescribing them for publick use and instituting several other things as occasion required in that service And the like may be said of Asa and Iosias their Reformations And this those godly and wise Governours thought they might with a safe Conscience do even in that service which God himself had appointed and that Church was never in a more flourishing condition then it was then And are they able now to produce any reason why we should not believe the Governours of our Church of whom we own the King as Supreme to have the same power now as they had then upon the like occasions and that the People stand equally obliged to accept the Proposals of publick Authority in things of the same nature that concern the Worship of God Especially since Christ at his promulgation of the Gospel in his own person took care only for the weightier things and left those of lesser alloy which tend only to the convenience and beauty of the Church not to the Essence of Religion to the care and prudence of the Apostles and so from them to others their Successors Governours of the Church to order the Affairs of each Church as would be most expedient for the necessities of each Church in its Plantation And some of these Apostles sure if I understand any thing have left not only commands but Examples behind them too which reach our case For what means that which is said of the Primitive Christians that they continued together and were all of one mind They were not sure met some in one place and some in another in different forms to exercise their Religion one part kneeling another standing a third sitting at the breaking of the bread Let not such unhandsom thoughts enter into our hearts What means the Apostle when he chides some that sunk and withdrew from the Publick Assemblies as the manner of some was but that he would have them keep close to an uniform Worship and not separate and set up for themselves in new fangle ways of their own Indeed what mean those many vehement perswasions to like-mindedness and brotherly love which we meet with every where in the Apostles writings but agreement in Religion Since that love can be no way so well exprest as in such an agreement and upon tryal 't will be found impossible it should be maintained and preserved amongst us otherwise In a word if that general Rule the Apostle doth authoritatively set down have not in it the force and purport of a Command I am to seek what a Command is Let every thing be done decently and in order And how in the same Church every one might have liberty of his own Methods to serve God by and yet the Decorum of Religion and the good Order of the Church be nevertheless kept up I must confess I am still further to seek for my understanding In a word let them talk of Christian liberty as they please that cannot reasonably by pretended to justifie publick disorders in any Christian State This may be rational to suppose that the several Churches according to the nature of their several constitutions in several Countries were left to a liberty upon prudential reasons to order their own affairs to their own convenience in things indifferent whether in matters of Government or Worship or Discipline keeping still to the Analogy of faith and sound doctrine and to the Rule of Gods Word And hereupon it was that the English Church when it threw off the tyrannous yoke of Popery as it did with prudent Zeal and by publick Authority reform the abuses and corruptions of Doctrine and abolish all superstitious and idle Ceremonies so of them what were found not contrary to Scripture-rule and agreeable to primitive practice it thought fit to retain for decency and good order in her Liturgie and Publick Service And though some were even then discontented that no more was done and called for a farther Reformation yet this was but according to the British Proverb which tells us that the Saissons so they call us never know when a thing is well but will be mending still till they mar all as our late times plainly shew when under pretence of reforming Religion we had put our selves into the ready way of losing it quite and had scarce the face of a Church left amongst us Upon this ground Calvin himself as judicious Mr. Hooker tells us erected his Model at Geneva applying himself to the exigents of that time and those people he had to do with though others since besides his first intention have with violent zeal endeavoured to impose that Form upon other Churches also as matter of Conscience which was designed by him meerly out of prudence and convenience And no question but Calvin might look upon Government though he had for his own part as much Authority as ever Bishop of Geneva had and Presbytery it self is little else then a multiplied Episcopacy setting up in every Parish a Diocesan I say he might probably look upon Church-government as an indifferent thing as well as he did
like zeal for Gods House and the cause of Religion we may say as he did Arcem perdimus dum castella defendimus We have lost the main sort of our happiness the Churches Peace while we take care of the out-works things less considerable Pardon me 'T is not flattery will uphold a Government I speak it out of hearty affection to my Countrey and a due respect to this famous City My heart bleeds within me and my bowels earn to think in what a posture our Ierusalem now stands You are very now building in the Flames they have seiz'd your Suburbs and are got within your Gates and are smothering in the midst of your Ruines Let us do as is usual when a Fire breaks out every one bring his Bucket and help to quench unless such a Stupor and unactive astonishment hath overtaken us as did in the late Conflagration and we tamely give up all to the Fury of the Merciless Element And this sure is the far more deplorable Fire of the two as laying wast the Consciences of men and burning up our main strengths and greatest ornaments and laying us open to dismal expectations I pray read the 28. of Deuteronomy and apply it to our case that if they did not observe the Commandments and Statutes God appointed them to walk in by which was not meant the Moral Law alone for that has an equal obligation upon all mankind but those National rules and institutions by which they were made a People and a Church they should be cursed in the City and cursed in the Field they should build Houses and not dwell in them they should be pursu'd with Plagues and at last given up to the insolence of Forreiners and pluckt off from the Laud of their Nativity What then can we look for at last after so many methods God has lost upon us after so many praeludia of his displeasure but some determining exterminating Judgment But God forbid I have some hopes still of Gods mercy to this our Ierusalem and his pity to her as she lies in her dust Nor is the thing it self I am perswaded past remedy were it apply'd to and we would take Saint Iude's advice Iude 19 20 21 22 23. verses where he tells us of those that separate themselves that for all their pretences have not the Spirit But ye Beloved says he building up your selves on your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost which may most certainly be done in the publick wholsome forms of Church-Devotion Keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto eternal life And of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear his meaning iâ— by rugged means pulling them out of the Fire This Schism then and Separation is a Fire in the Apostles Language and some are to be pull'd out of it by force The ingenuous will be sham'd the meek will be convinc'd the considering will be reason'd out of it but some there are it seems must be roughly dealt with and aw'd by Authority Let us like Brethren and Companions take up the business between our selves Come We are Men. 'T is the priviledge of the blessed Angels to be free from errour but the infirmity of humane nature to commit mistakes to persist in errours though even to publick mischief is the character of the Devil's pride and malice but to return and repent is the glory of the Saints of God Why should any one of us be asham'd of that which is his glory and will be his Eternal comfort We are Brethren and Friends we live under the same Laws and profess the same Gospel of Peace why should we disagree and fall out in our greatest concern and quarrel one another into common Ruine Ierusalem is the mother of us all let not us by our Divisions make her a Samaria a Seminary of Sects and Factions let us not make our Mother a harlot What have we to do with the Statutes of Omri and Ahab and the sin of usurping Ieroboam which he caused Israel to sin They are dead and gone and let their Statutes dye with them You are Citizens of London a People of great Credit and Reputation all the World over for your Prudence and good Government for your vast Trade and Dealings and you are allied to most of the considerable Families of the Kingdom let it not be said of you that you are grown weak and mean a fluttering and unsteady People that you have quit your establishments and are perpetually to seek for your Religion and are ready like Children in your streets to be caught up by every Spirit and to run after any one that pretends to be a Guide London an Ancient and Noble Mart long talkt of in the world before ever there was Dam or Dike in Holland let it not truckle under Amsterdam and be made a Magazine of Opinions and new fangled Religions For shame do not justifie that advantage the Enemies of our Church have taken from 666. to clap the name of Babylon upon your City but wipe off the reproach and fling it back into the face of them as they deserve it by uniting all as one man in the service and worship of God and in the common defence of the Protestant cause And then when you are thus agreed when your minds are as uniform as your buildings are like to be then shall ye be blessed in the City and blessed shall ye be in the Field blessed shall be your Basket and your Store then the Lord shall establish you a holy people unto himself and all people shall see that ye are call'd by his name and they shall be afraid of you Then the Lord shall open unto you his good treasure and shall make you plenteous in goods and he shall command the blessing upon you in your Store-houses and in all that you set your hands unto And then when your Example has prevail'd with the rest of the Nation as it will in a very short time that having our hearts united in God's fear and laying aside all animosities and unnecessary quarrels we may serve him with one heart and with one shoulder and with one voice confess his holy name and his word and being like-minded we may unanimously seek those things which tend to publick peace and to the good of community Then when we are thus united all other disorders will easily be regulated all grievances redrest and all scandals remov'd to the honour of the Government and the welfare of the People Then shall the Earth bring forth her increase and God even our own God shall give us his blessing Then shall we see both Church and State once more in a flourishing condition when God shall make all our Officers righteousness and with his favour shall encompass us as with a shield Then shall this floating Island be setled upon sure and lasting grounds Then shall Albion again be the praise and terrour of the Nations nor shall her white cliffs or her wooden walls or the embraces of her beloved Ocean so much secure her as the Divine protection and agreement of her Inhabitants Which God in his good time of his Infinite Mercy grant for his Churches and for our Brethren and Companions sake Amen Amen ERRATA PAge 3. Line 13. read of community p. 13. l. 18. will r. would p. 20. l. 18. form r. forms p. 22. l. 22. r. of the Land in Civil affairs and leave out in Civil affairs in the next line p. 25. l. 12. r. persecution p. 27. l. 31. indispensible r. indispensable p. 28. l. 38. sunk r. slunk p. 30. l. 7. â—ok r. look FINIS