not worse fears suggest and would it not be Egregious Knavery for some of the Mariners to cast the Pilate overboard because they have a wild Suspition that he will run the Ship upon a Rock on purpose to sink himself and them Besides though every man be allow'd to do all that is just and innocent for his own Preservation yet there are some Persons that must not have any injury or violence done them for any cause whatsoever because the great Author of the Law of Nature forbids it saying Touch not mine Anoynted No Provocation can ever make it Lawful for a Son to assault his Father nor for a Subject to resist his Prince because that is contrary to Nature this destructive to Civil Society of which he is born a Member and which he is indispensably obliged by the Law of Nature to preserve The Jews were full of Projects and had their Grand Expedient to save their Nation It is Expedient St. John 11. 50. for us saith Caiaphas that one man should dye for the People and that the whole Nation Perish not The Nation was in no Danger at all no Storm nor Shipwrack approaching no more Fear of the Romans than at other times only a danger feigned that they might have a poor pretence to Destroy an Innocent Person to Murder the Holy Jesus And what was the event of this Politick Expedient did it answer their expectations contribute any thing to their Safety or Security No no! instead of saving it sunk the Ship turn'd their so craftily pretended into a real danger involv'd their whole Nation in the greatest and most deplorable Ruin or Destruction and that by the Romans that ever any People Suffer'd or any History Related thereby warning all Kingdoms and Nations to take heed of such wicked Expedients never to do any unjust thing for the avoiding any danger how great or real soever or to seek the Publick Safety by oppressing or injuring any Innocent Person for God is Righteous and will be sure to Punish the wrong-doers So that the Bill of Exclusion is contrary to the Law of Nature as well as to the Law of Christ and as this forbids so that condemns it and therefore it cannot be agreable to Natural Justice unless they mean that of Mr Hobs who represents the Humane to be as savage and barbarous as the Brutish Nature and affirms that Men have no obligations upon them to do justly but what humane Laws lay upon them but that all Men have a natural Right to do every thing they please and that to all Persons for which and all his other lewd and impious Assertions he hath been sufficiently reproved and bafled by divers learned and excellent Persons The Bill of Exclusion may be acknowledg'd if that be any honour to it to be agreeable to this Wild and Atheistical Justice but Christianity condemns and Right Reason abhors it This is the true Character and real Nature Subsect 5. of your so much admired Project of Exclusion I have done it no injury laid no false colours upon to render it more deformed and odious than it is and deserves to be but have only examin'd it by the just and holy Laws of Christ and the Dictates of Right Reason that seeing what your fears of and Zeal against Popery would not then give you time to consider the high Injustice and great Impiety of it you may be ashamed and repent of it which with all humility I conjure and beseech you to do by all that is dear to you and which you have the greatest Reasons and most pressing Motives to perswade you to The Offence you have commited against God For doth not he love righteousness and hate iniquity and require that all men especially Magistrates do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with him But this Device of yours is a manifest contradiction to all these 'T is to oppress and rob an innocent person of his Right to offer him that hard Measure which you would by no means have done to your selves and therefore to do unjustly 'T is to treat an erring person for such his Royal Highness is if he be a Papist with the greatest rigor or severity to ruin or make him miserable in this because he is become as you believe a Proselyte to that Church which he if he be of it thinks though erroneously will guide him safely to the Eternal Glory and Happiness of the other World and therefore is most unmerciful If any man Err from the truth Charity prompts and obligeth us to endeavour his Conversion and to restore him in the Spirit of meekness with all mildness and gentleness to shew him his mistake and represent to him the evil and dangerous consequences of it that he may hate and forsake it But your attempt to Exclude the Duke doth not design his Conversion but Destruction leaves him no place for Repentance but intends his Ruin and therefore is Cruel not Charitable Amongst the many praises they adorn'd it with some of the Admirers of it I remember commended this Device for the mercy of it An Elogium destitute of all shadow or appearance of Truth because the punishment it would inflict is worse than Death for a brave and valiant Prince as his Royal Highness is had rather dye than survive the loss of a Crown which is his Right by Birth if he survive his present Majesty than to be degraded from and unjustly depriv'd of the highest Dignity and Honour upon Earth to see another leap over his Head get into that Throne wear the Royal Diadem and possess the Kingdoms he was born to must needs be a continual grief trouble and vexation to him and make him weary of his Life Such Iniury and Disgrace would be intolerable and cause him to dye daily to linger out a tedious Life but Death would soon put a period to all his miseries and conduct him to that blessed place where they that suffer wrongfully here shall be greatly rewarded when a Man hath no just claim to any thing that the World admires and calls great or glorious the want of it cannot reasonably create him any trouble or discontent but he is as well pleas'd with and thinks himself as happy in his low condition as others are in the highest and most honourable stations upon Earth but to be deposed or cast down from that Empire or Soveraignty which his Illustrious Ancestors enjoy'd before him and not suffer'd to Inherit the Throne of his Fathers to be laid aside as unworthy to possess the Kingdom he was born to this must needs be an Hell upon Earth the greatest or most perfect misery any Man living can endure that hath nothing to comfort or support to sweeten or ease it and therefore must needs be most rigorous and cruel If this be mercy God deliver every Man from it And being a contradiction to that Justice and Mercy he requires it cannot possibly be consistent with the other great duty the walking humbly
the Preacher out And as Preaching cannot unless they be forced to hear and the just Correction of the Laws drive them from their Conventicles to our Assemblies so Writing hath done no good upon them all the excellent Books that have been written both formerly and of late Years by the excellent Divines of our Church in which all their exceptions against it have been fully answer'd all their scruples satisfi'd all their Pleas and Apologies for their Separation throughly confuted and the Authors of them put to all the shame and silence Men of their Confidence are capable of yet they are never the better but persist stubbornly in their wicked Schism and prove to all the World that they are such as hate to be Reformed the crafty seducers tell their Credulous followers that such are Lewd and ungodly Books and that frights them so that they dare not upon any Terms give them the Reading all that their guides think fit to do in the case is to imploy some Pragmatical Fellow to write an Answer which how silly or impertinent soever is admired and applauded by the whole Faction as an Incomparable piece and the Author hugd and caress'd by the Brethren and Holy Sisters as a very precious Man Nor can any better success be reasonably expected from the other way that of Conference because if they will not hear our Clergy Preach nor Read the excellent Books they have writ in defence of the Church they will be as averse especially when they have their Liberty to private Conference be with great difficulty brought to admit the Charitable Person that comes to undeceive them or if they do they are generally so ignorant and so conceited that it is very hard to make them understand the nature of the things disputed what Schism is and how exceeding Sinful and if this be done they are so highly conceited of their own Gifts and Godliness as to think themselves Wiser and Holyer than he that offers them Instruction Besides they are such Slaves to so wholly at the Command of their own Guides and Teachers that if they tell them their separate Meetings are Innocent and Holy Assemblies and those of the Church so impure or defiled with Popish Prayers Ceremonies and other Humane Inventions that it is not safe for them to venture their precious Souls in them they believe such lying words as firmly as if they were Divine Truths and adhere to them in spight of all the Scripture and Reason that can be brought against them These therefore and all other vain projects laid aside the Government if it will be safe and happy must with great and earnest care endeavour to reduce them to the Church which can be effected no other way but by a strict Executing the Laws upon all Dissenters an unwearied persisting in it letting them see that if they dare be so impudent as to Affront Transgress the Laws and defie Authority that both will and dares do Justice upon such bold Offendors This in time will make them leave their Fooling to give it no worse Title Teach the People to shun the Meeting-Houses with the same caution and waryness as they do the Dreadful and Disconsolate Places where Misery and Ruin dwell This will put them upon serious Thoughts and Considerations Oblige them strictly to Examine the Cause for which they Suffer prompt them to ask themselves such questions as these what harm or venom is there in the Ceremonies of the Church that we should be so affraid of them as to run from the Communion of it Do not our own Guides and Teachers confess the Doctrine of it to be pure or agreeable to the Scriptures Are there not abundance of Learned Pious and Holy Men that Live and Dye in the Communion of it and can we think that such Men are not Saved And if they be Why will not the same Faith the same Doctrine the same Prayers and Holyness carry us to Heaven Are not the Doctrine Government and Worship the same that were Taught exercis'd and used by those brave and Holy Men that with such admirable zeal and courage suffer'd Martyrdom in the Reign of Queen Mary How can that be Popery now which was practic'd by them who would rather burn at a Stake then turn Papist and are we Wiser or more Conscientious than they The Wise Merciful Correction of the Laws will by degrees bring the Offendors to a sight and abhorring of their Errours and produce in them such good Thoughts as these and consequently ingage them to return from whence they are fallen I mean to our Holy and Excellent Church which will put an Happy end to all our Schisms and Divisions and the People by coming constantly to our Pious Loyal Assemblies will in a little time Learn to Fear God and the King and meddle no more with them that are given to change But if this great means of reducing them be waved or neglected or coldly prosecuted such a Blessed and desirable Revolution can never be attained but our fewds and contentions will be Immortal and we shall be as the scorn of so the most Miserable and Distracted Nation in the World Without this nothing can reduce them but in Conjunction with and Subordination to it there are other things that will contribute very much to it as the Exemplary Piety and strict Conformity of the Clergy and the putting them into such a Condition that they may not depend upon the Benevolence of the People for their Maintenance Their Exemplary Piety that none be suffer'd to Dishonour our most pure and holy Church by their Evil and unsuitable Lives for though 't is certain we have the most Learned Pious Unblamable and therefore Excellent Clergy in the World yet if there be any irregular Persons amongst them as 't is possible there may in such a great Body of Men be here and there one that forgets himself that care be taken and means used to Reform them that they give no Offence Minister no Occasion to any to Reproach the Church or to speak Evil of our most Holy and Undefiled Religion We see how cautious and careful the Schismatical Preachers are to seem Holy that they may gain the Esteem and Veneration of the People and lead them by the Noses whether and to what they please and if the shadow in them to be sure the Substance of Holiness a Vertuous and unblamable Life in all our Clergy will gain them great Authority with the People and convince them that must needs be an Holy Church that hath so Pious Regular and Excellent a Clergy The next is their strict Conformity that all of them be compell'd to observe all the Orders and Constitutions of the Church Unless this be done the People can never be drawn off from their prejudices against and misperswasions concerning them but will think them unlawful Impositions because some of the Clergy do not observe them and they will admire applaud and follow those that do not observe them as
such a Treacherous Precarious way of Communicating them We see how strangely the Ancient History of the World and the greatest Transactions of it whilst they were thus Transmitted were Depraved and Corrupted so intermix'd with Lies and Fables as they passed down the Channel of Time and Ages that the truth of things was either quite lost or very difficultly to be found out being cover'd or in a manner Buried under such an heap of Dirt and Rubbish that the Wisest and most Sagacious minds after all their care and endeavours to search it out were very doubtful and could not come to a full Determination what to believe or what to reject some things they saw had an appearance of Truth but then the Fables mixt therewith disgrac'd and render'd them so Suspicious that they knew not what to think of them And therefore the All-wise and most Merciful God as he was pleased to offer Immortal Happiness to Mankind and to tell them upon what terms or conditions he would admit them to and bless them with it so he took care to have these most weighty things Conveyed down to all Ages and Generations of Men in the safest way requiring those he imploy'd to deliver his Laws to Mankind to commit them to Writing nay delivering some of them the Ten Commandments that is to Moses Inscribed or Written upon two Tables of Stone Exodus 32. 16. which way of Transmitting them is most durable or lasting and therefore the safest and they that say the contrary Reproach Disparage the Wisdom of God because he thought fit thus to Convey them to us and when these Writings were compleated by the Addition of the New Testament to the Old nothing could be wanting to instruct Mankind in all the parts of their Duty and to tell them all the terms or Conditions of their Eternall Happiness and Salvation To say they are imperfect and do not give Men sufficient Direction for the attaining this great end is to Blaspheme the Glorious Author of them to Arraign his Wisdom to revile his Goodness and to contradict these Sacred Writings which call upon us to search and study them and invite us to perform the Duties they require of us with the offer of Salvation if we do it and the Denunciation of Damnation if we refuse to do it Now if all those things united or conjoyned cannot bring the observers of them to the Salvation they promise then the Scriptures do not say true and therefore God is not the Author of them This the Church of Rome doth not dares not say but owns the Truth of all they say and confesses them to come from God only it says they are insufficient and obscure that is do not speak enough tell those that consult them all things necessary to Salvation nor speak so plainly and intelligibly as to be understood without an infallible Interpreter to declare the true and full Sense or Meaning of them The first cannot be because if the Scriptures say do these things and thou shalt live be Eternally happy and Blessed As for Instance believe in Christ Repent of thy Sins keep the Commandments of God and tell us what they are as it is apparent they do and promise Salvation to them that so believe Repent and keep the Commandments of God then they speak fully to the purpose tell him or them that Read them enough to save them if they perform it and consequently must be sufficient and then to add I know not what unwritten Verities as they are called as Supplements to them is both a Wicked and a Vain thing 't is Wicked both as it invades Gods Authority will not let him prescribe appoint all the Terms or Conditions upon which he will give Eternal Life and Glory to his Church and People Wicked also as it disgraces his Laws and charges them with defects they are not Guilty of 'T is vain too and altogether needless like Lighting up a Torch or a Candle when the Sun Shines in all his Glory for they that cannot see or find the way to Heaven by the Glorious Light or Direction of the Holy Scriptture will never do it by the help of the dark Lanthern of Oral Tradition this is apter to seduce or draw those that follow it out of the Right way than to guide them into it That cannot deceive any because it gives them a full and perfect Description of it tells them This is the way walk ye in it And as they speak fully to this great point give an exact and perfect Answer to every one that asks them that Important Question What shall I do that I may have Eternal Life So they speak plainly and intelligibly to it and every Reader may if he brings with him an humble and Teachable Mind Learn and understand all his Duty his Duty as the Apostle divides it to God his Neighbour and himself to God in Acts of Piety to his Neighbour in Acts of Justice and Charity to himself in Acts of Temperance or Sobriety 'T is very Foolish as well as Sinful for Men to cry out of the Obscurity or Darkness of the Scriptures only to serve a Worldly Interest by it when those parts of them that describe our Duty are said to be a Light a Light unto our Pathes and a Lantern to our Feet those must needs be Blind that cannot see the Light because it is the Nature or Property of it to be Visible 'T is true indeed there are degrees of Light one Light being greater and more Radiant than another thus the Law was a Light but yet weak and dimm in Compare with the Gospel which is so great and Illustrious a Light that the Apostle saith If it be hid it is hid to them that Perish that are so in Love with their Sins as to resolve to persist though they Perish in them and therefore shut their Eyes against the Gospel which comes as a Light to shew them their Errour They that say the Scriptures are Obscure and unintelligible must say that either God could not or would not declare his Mind so as to be understood by Men If they say the first they degrade him because if he could not do it he hath not the Wisdom or Intelligence of a Man and therefore cannot be God every Man of Common Sense that is able to speak being also able to speak his Mind so as to be understood If they say the other they Vilifie and Disgrace him for if he would not speak so that Men might understand him then it is meer mockery to offer them Eternal Happiness upon such Conditions as they do not cannot understand and hateful Cruelty to threaten them with Everlasting and Intolerable Punishment for Transgressing such Laws and omitting such Duties as are above their apprehension To say as the Papists do that God hath took care to remedy this Obscurity of the Scriptures by appointing an Infallible Guide or Interpreter to explicate or unridle the meaning of them and
that he cannot Err in the doing of it is to say that which all the World can never Prove for how doth it appear that God hath Constituted or Commission'd him to be the Sole Expounder of Scripture more than any other Bishop or Doctor of the Church Doth not our Lord say to all the Apostles nay to the seventy Disciples He that heareth you heareth me Did not he speak to them all when he said Go ye into all the World and Preach the Gospel to every Creature How then came his Holyness to have the Monopoly or Sole power of Interpreting Scripture Did it descend to him from St. Peter that cannot be because he never claim'd never pretended to it never had it Solely himself and the Successor cannot without Usurpation chalenge a greater Power nor plead a larger Commission than he had whom he pretends to Succeed 'T is certain that all the Apostles received an equal Authority and the same Commission from Christ and therefore all Bishops now being the undoubted Successors of the Apostles have an equal Power and Right to Interpret Scripture and there is by Divine Right no difference at all between them what is is either by Humane Constitution or by Usurpation and Incroachment And if he connot shew a Patent from God to prove him to be the only Authoritative Interpreter of his Laws how will he make good the other proud Word which he prefixes before it That he is the only and Infallible Expounder of Scripture He knows very well that a great and the wisest part of the World deny his Infallibility and Laugh at him for pretending to it How then will he convince them that he hath it by Reason no no! that gives no Testimony to such a gross and palpable Absurdity Reason says to be a Man and to be Exempt from all Possibility of Errour are Inconsistent Will he prove it by Scripture some Texts are brought from thence for fashion sake to colour the business as those that contain the promise of our Lord to his Apostles to send them the Holy Ghost to guide or St. John 16. 13. lead them into all Truth but this promise either proves too little or too much to do the feat for either it is a Peculiar promise belonging to the Apostles only who needed an Extraordinary Assistance from Christ that they might Transmit his Doctrine full and intire to Succeeding Ages and then was Personal and Expired with them and so doth not concern his Holyness for though the Holy Ghost guided them into all Truth yet he either not having the Holy Ghost or Refusing to follow his guidances may run into all Errour Or if it was not a Personal or Peculiar promise belonging to the Apostles only but Equally to their Successors then it proves more than he would have it That all the Bishops in the World are Infallible for the promise was made not to St. Peter only but to all the Apostles and therefore what nonsense and Ridiculous Partiallity is it to Restrain a general promise made to the whole Colledg of Apostles to the Successours of one of them for if they that Succeed St. Peter be Fully and Perfectly lead into all Truth then the Successors of all the Apostles are so and consequently all the Bishops in the World are Infallible and then his Holiness will have but a bad Market for his Expositions of Scripture for few People will be at the trouble to go to Rome for them because they may have them from their own Bishops Well but doth not our Lord say to St. Peter Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will Build my Church and the Gates St. Mat. 16. 18. of Hell shall not Prevail against it These are certainly the Words of Christ but they confer no peculiar Priviledg or Prerogative upon St. Peter nothing but what was equally given to all the Apostles for the Rock Signifies either his Confession Thou art Christ the Son of the living God which is the Rock the great and Vers 16. Fundamental Article of the Christian Faith upon which the Church is Built or if it concern his Person that he should be an Excellent Instrument as the other Apostles were and therefore are also called Foundation Stones to bring in Converts and Disciples unto Christ and to raise or Build him up a Church in the World which the Gates of Hell all the Power and Policy of the Devil should never be able Totally to ruin or destroy These Words then speak nothing for the pretended Infallibility And indeed the greatest Champions for it are so far from thinking it fully proved in Scripture that they are not agreed about it To fix it in the Popes Person they dare not because the many and gross Errours of his Life would confute and shame them and therefore as a Man they confess he can and may and doth Err To ascribe it to his Chair either to his Office or Dignity as Bishop or to him as Bishop of Rome and Successor to St. Peter in that Patriarchal See is silly for if he could Err before he can do so still because his being made Bishop doth not change his Nature but his Office and being the same Man why may he not be the same falliable or erring Man he was before The place he is Bishop of can make no Difference in the case because no reason can be given why the Bishop of Rome should be more Exempt from Errour than the Bishop of Munster To place the Infallibility in the Pope and a general Council is as unreasonable because if they can Err apart they may united and they confess that a general Council may Err if it be not Confirmed by the Pope and t is plain they think the Pope without it may Err or else t is idle to add a general Council to him but the uniting or putting two Erring parties together cannot make them Infallible To say that a General Council Confirm'd by the Pope cannot Err is unanswerably confuted by this argument of a great and excellent person The Pope never Confirms a Council till it be finish'd Arch-Bishop Laud against Fisher pa. 274. when it is finish'd before the Popes Confirmation be put to it either it hath Erred or not Erred if it hath Erred he ought not to confirm it or if he do it is a voyd Act because no power can make Errour or falsehood to be Truth if it hath not Erred then it was True before he Confirmed it and so his Confirmation signifies nothing And not withstanding all the stir they make about the Popes Infallibility they do not believe it themselves for the School-Men and Writers of Controversies as that Author observes put the case whether the Pope coming to be an Heritick Pa. 269. may not be Deposed and the Common Law as he adds says expresly That he may be Deposed for Heresie now if he can fall into Heresie and may be Deposed for it then he cannot be Infallible And
Murderers from entring their Dominions who came upon the most Bloudy and Mischievous designs either to Assassinate their sacred Persons or to Seduce their People from their Allegiance and Animate them to Rebell or take Arms against them And therefore if the Romish Priests and Jesuites who have nothing to do here will venture to come they can blame none but them-themselves if they suffer for it they receive the Reward of their Sin and Folly but have no Injustice done them If they stay away they are safe but if they will Run into Danger when they need not they Destroy themselves fall into the Pit are taken in the Snare which they came to dig and lay for their Prince whose Natural Subjects they are though they become Voluntary Vassals to a Forreign Power that imploys them against their own Prince for whose Safety and Preservation they ought by all Laws both Divine and Humane to expose themselves to the greatest Dangers freely Venture their own Lives to save his And seeing the Excluders attempt and would do that to his Royal Highness which our Laws do to no Ordinary Subject meerly for his Religion and which they would not have done to themselves that attempt must needs be a manifest Affront to and Violation of this Law of Christ and therefore most Wicked and Unjust To say they are of the true and the Duke as a Papist of the false Religion makes no difference in the Case because Christ excepts no Man but Commands us to do to Men Indefinitely that is to all Men whether they be Orthodox or otherwise believe Aright or Err from the Truth Christians or Heathens All things whatsoever we would that they should do unto us And also because no Man that owns the Principles of Natural Religion that believes there is a God Eternal Rewards Punishments after this Life will be a Disciple of that which he is perswaded is a false Religion and Renders the Salvation of them that are of it hazardous and doubtful and seeing he thinks the Church and Religion he is of to be true and the best though he be deceiv'd and thinks amiss 't is to lay aside both the Justice and Mercy our Lord Requires of us to Treat such a Person with the Rigour and Severity which the Excluders offer to his Royal Highness because he follows the best Light he hath his Conscience duly instructed by Scripture explain'd and apply'd as he apprehends by Right Reason for 't is certain a Man can use but his best care in the choice of his Religion that is he can but Pray and Read and Meditate and Obey as far as he understands and Consult the Learned or Advise with those he thinks best able to direct him but because all the Learned of the World are not of one Opinion he must imploy his Reason to Judg which of them is in the Right and if he do it sincerely though he chuses amiss mistakes his way yet he is to be Pitied not Ruin'd to be Restored in the Spirit of Meekness not Degraded nor Undone for following his Conscience God t is certain will be Merciful to a Christian so Erring and therefore if Men be extreme to Mark what such an one doth amiss they Treat him as they would not be used themselves and so bid Defiance to this great Law of Christ all things whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you do ye even so unto them Compare it Secondly with that Noble Precept of our Lord which requires all Christians to Love their Enemies and you will soon see the Impiety of it I say unto you Love your Enemies St. Mat. 5. 44. Bless them that Curse you do Good to them that Hate you and Pray for them which Despitefully use you Persecute you this is my Will and Pleasure this I enjoyn you that you Love not only your Friends or those that Love you as the practice of the Jews and Heathens is but your Enemies what are our Enemies is fully declared in this Law even they that Curse and Hate that Despitefully use and Persecute us Every Man thinks him his Enemy that offers any of these things to him but he that doth them all is the worst most Cruel and bitter Enemy any Man can have and yet how bravely every Christian is to behave himself towards such an Enemy our Lord tells us he must Love or bear him good Will desire his Welfare or Happiness do him all the Good and Charitable Offices he can Pray to God to give or bestow all manner of Blessings upon him and to Forgive all the Wrongs he hath done him This because it is a Duty that hath some Difficulty in it he presseth us to the Performance of with the most weighty and perswasive Arguments Love your Enemies That ye may be the Children Vers 45. of your Father which is in Heaven for he maketh his Sun to Rise on the Evil and on the Good and sendeth Rain on the Just and on the Unjust hereby you will prove your selves be the Children of God shew that you resemble or are like that most excellent Being who is kind and bountiful to all Men even the most Prophane and Wicked that are his Enemies and Discover themselves so to be by their wilful and open contempt of his Laws who though they received their Being and all their Injoyments from his Bounty will hardly give him a good Word or pay him any Respect at all but Blaspheme oftner than they Praise him Curse him more than they Pray unto him Affront him oftner than they Adore him and yet so admirable is his Goodness that he not only lets such Vile and Ungrateful Wretches as these Live and Injoy the Light though they are Unworthy of it but showers down his Blessings upon them gives them an equal share at least if not greater Plenty of these outward Injoyments than he Communicates to the Good and Righteous Propose therefore his great example to your selves think it your Glory to Love and do Good to your Enemies because the God you Worship is pleased to Treat his so and cannot but take great Delight in those brave and generous Souls that Imitate him therein own them for his Children and give them a Blessed Portion in his Heavenly Kingdom but if you refuse to do this saith Christ you Dishonour me and Degrade your selves For if ye Love them which Love you what Reward have ye Do not even the Publicans the same If you confine all your Love and Kindness to your Friends to them that bear you good Will and do you good Offices you can expect but a small Reward from my Father Me for such Love as this it being that to which Nature it self inclines and Common Gratitude prompts you Besides this Low and Abject Charity which is produced and preserved by Mutual Offices of Friendship and Respect Ranks you amongst the Worst and most Impious Men the very Publicans whom all the Pious Men of your