place but they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his Words and misused his Prophets until the Wrath of God arose against them and there was no remedy Then did the overflowing scourges come rolling upon them Fire and Sword and Captivity Desolation and utter Subversion God of his infinite Mercy have compassion upon his People and his dwelling Place and turn the hearts of the Despisers and disobedient to the Wisdom of the Just that we may not despise our selves and Nation into such a Dismal and inevitable Ruin CHAP. IX THUS have I shewn the Necessity that there is in every National Church of Unity in point of Government as well as Faith upon a Religious account Let us now come to Examine what Necessity there is upon a Politique account as we are united together into one Community of Men as well as a Society of Christians WE must consider therefore that Religion was designed to improve even our Interest in this World to the best advantage of Living and that to put on Christianity we are not to put off Humanity or by learning Obedience to God to forget what we owe to our Neighbour or our King The Eternal Prince of Peace as well as Truth came to Preach Peace unto All not to Embroyl the World or unsettle the Thrones of Princes but to Establish them for the Throne is Established by Righteousness Pro. 16.12 That glorious Heir of all things rejected the offer of all the Kingdoms of the Earth and positively affirms That his Kingdom is not of this World and therefore when he took upon him Humane Nature he own'd himself a Subject of the Roman Empire and not only paid the Tribute for himself and Saint Peter but Commands all men to do the same and the great Design of the Gospel which he came to Preach was to make all men better in their feveral Estates and Capacities of Life better men and therefore better Subjects to Princes This was the particular Care of the Church to inspire the Converts to Christianity with these Principles of Duty and Obedience so necessary to the Peace and Happiness of the World So St. Paul commands Ro. 13.1 Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers Thus St. Peter Teaches and Commands 1 Pet. 2.13 14 15. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of Evil doers and for the praise of them that do well for this is the Will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men This being then one main Design of Christian Religion let us see of what Necessity Vnity in point of Government in the Church is in order to it and what influence it has upon the Political Government of a Christian State THE Root of all our Miseries Divisions and Disorders is That men take this for a Principle That they may be Disobedient to Lawful Authority without danger of Damnation and so far has the mischief of this fretting Gangrene spread it self that many People esteem it a part of their Religion to disobey the Civil Power and think it is impossible for them to be saved should they be obedient to its Commands which they think are inconsistent with the Commands of God This Error must proceed either from Malice or Mistake I will be so charitable as to suppose not from the first and therefore looking upon it as the Child of Ignorance I will endeavour to state the Case truly that so the Understanding of Men being informed by Truth they may either be reformed or left without Excuse THE great Design of the infinitely glorious good and Wise Creator being the Happiness of Mankind he therefore proportioned a Method for the obtaining of it and Man being Created with a double Capacity of Injoying Happiness both here and hereafter therefore did that Excellent Wisdom appoint Religion as the Way and Means for attaining both and for the accomplishment of those Noble and Excellent Ends it is furnished with Rules and Precepts which bear a double Respect to this double Capacity one part Conducts us to God and future Happiness in the External fruition of his grorious Presence in Heaven and the other Leads us to the Happiness of this Mortal State by the Politicl Rules of Living Well with a mutual respect not only to our own but the happiness of one another by the lawful and moderate Use and Enjoyment of the inferior Creation which God therefore made that he might shew his Glory his Wisdom his Power and his Goodness to the Sons of Men. So that the sum of all Religion in order to obtain this Happiness both here and hereafter is to believe aright and to Live Well and both these are so Essentially necessary to Salvation that the one will not obtain it without the other for the Devils believe Jam. 2.19 though it makes them tremble To believe aright we must refer our selves to those Divine Truths which God has from Heaven revealed to us concerning himself and our Duty the short sums of which Faith the Church has collected out of the Sacred Writings in the three Famous Creeds of the Apostles St. Athanasius and the Councel of Nice To Live well it is required that a man submits to all those practical Precepts and Rules of Life which God has commanded in his Will revealed in his holy Word by Justice Temperance Prudence Chastity Obedience c. and for the attainment of Happiness by these Rules in this present Life God has not left Men in a wild parity like Brutes but has by the Wisdom of his Providence divided the World into superior and inferior Degrees of Men Subjects and Soveraigns intrusting one to Rule and Govern and commanding the other to Obey and for this he has left many Positive Commands too well known and too numerous to be here repeated THESE Powers thus Ordained of God and armed with his Sword to execute Vengeance on them that do evil are vested with Authority to make such Decrees Laws and Sanctions as in their Wisdom they shall Judg conducive to the Happiness of the People committed to their Charge that so they may be a Terror to evil Works and encouragers of them that are Good And to them prosecuting this great and good Design and to those Laws which do promote it all men are bound to submit not only for wrath Rom. 13.5 but for Conscience sake And it is impossible any man should be saved who lives in a wilful Disobedience and that Power and those Commands and the Reason is because all such Disobedience is a sin against God himself against his Positive Will and Command and I think there is no person who will be so hardy as to maintain in Words however they may do it in Actions that Salvation is to be had or hoped for by such as live in manifest
therefore the most unreasonable thing in the World to Impose the Modus of any thing which God has not clearly revealed upon Men as Essential to Salvation For most of those Modes are Metaphysical Notions which do as far exceed the Capacities of the Greatest part of Mankind as the Mysteries of the Incarnation and Trinity c. do those of All and even of the Angels who desire to peep or pry into them 1 Pet. 1.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they do not fully Understand them Is it not unreasonable to exact that from me upon the Credit of a Man or many Men Saying so which they are not able to shew me one positive Testimony or clear Consequence for from the mouth of God that it is so and that though I believe all that he requires as the Condition of Salvation yet I must be Accursed and Secluded from Salvation because I will not Lye and say I believe what in Truth I cannot for want of Evidence or Capacity Must I forfeit all I have on Earth and my hopes of Heaven too because I do not believe this or that Doctrine which God has given me a Capacity to believe nay which it may be contradicts all those Capacities of Sense and Reason which he has given me that I might believe them and which give me occasion to doubt his Truth for if he deceive my Senses he may deceive my Understanding and my Hopes at last Is not this to make God an Austere Master gathering where he has not scattered and like the Egyptian Taskmasters to require Brick where he has not afforded Straw to make it Far be it from the Judg of all the Earth to do this Wrong This is the very Case of the Sacrament of the Altar in Transubstantion For it is not enough to believe that Christ is really present there but I must give my senses the Lye which neither see him nor feel him a greater degree of Faith than he required of St. Thomas I must discard my Reason which assures me it is impossible that one Body should be in Infinite Places at the same time and believe how he is there Corporally or be a Heretick Though neither they who impose it upon me are agreed among themselves now it is nor am I able to Understand what they mean as the greatest part of the Vulgar are incapacitated to receive such Apprehensions and the most Learned are not able to express them so as to be Understood Sure it is very hard measure that a poor Christian should be made a Bloody Sacrifice to Cruelty because he does not because he cannot believe that Incruentum Sacrificium of the Mass and that the Glorified Son of God should be ravished from the Right hand of the Majesty on high to become passible again to Expiate for the sins of the Quick and the Dead Which if it be true must be the same that he suffered upon the Cross and a Bloody Sacrifice and as great an Impiety as that of the Wicked Jews who Slew the Lord of Life and hanged him upon the Tree and if it be real and not a Commemorative Sacrifice is for Christians to Crucifie the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame Heh 6.6 and if it be not the same Sacrifice which Christ offer'd it is not propitiatory and in reality only a sacrificing to our own Nets to Ensnare mens Souls The same Measure ought to be observed of all other Theological Points which admitting of variety of Opinions are not therefore to be imposed as Essentially necessary and the Conditions of Salvation WERE this observed it would put an End to those Intestine Quarrels which miserably rend the Peace and Unity of the Church by enlarging Faith to the Destruction of Charity which is making broad the Plylacteries and forgetting Justice and Mercy This would give a Supersedeas to those doubtful Disputations against which St. Paul gives an Express Command Rom. 14.1 And if men were permitted to believe or not believe according to the probability and full perswasion of their own Minds keeping their Faith to themselves in a private way which is true Christian Liberty where men do not impose their Opinions upon others as Essential to Salvation we should soon see an End of those Mortal Jarrs and those Unchristian Doctrines and their strange consequences which have fill'd the World with Error Horror and Confusion which Cruelty Injustice and Persecution not inferior to that of Pilate mingling the Blood of those Christians with their Sacrifices for whom Christ sacrificed his And were it possible to perswade Men to this Modesty and Moderation the Occasion of Quarrels being taken away they would live in Unity and Godly Love and not afflict themselves disquiet the World move Heaven and Earth for the Establishment of a doubtful Opinion as matter of Faith when may be it is not of Truth and without the knowledge of which they may attain Salvation Thus might Men Enjoy their Private Opinions without any prejudice to the Publique Peace and please themselves with their Knowledge without being puff't up to the Ruine of that Charity which Edifies and to the affronting Authority by disobedience because it will not permit their Private Opinions to Ride in the Triumphant Chariot of Conquerors over other mens Faith then with St. Augustine might men say Errare possum Hereticus esse nolo They might be mistaken and be neither Hereticks nor Schismaticks they might differ from others in their sense and yet agree in the Common and Essential Faith which as it owns so always maintains the Communion of Saints FOR it is not Mens Opinions but their Actions derived from those Opinions which disturb the Peace of the World and the Unity of the Church and a man may be of a contrary Perswasion to another in many things and yet Live as becomes a good Christian in Humility and Charity with him and all others it is a ferocious Pride and hasty Passion which pretends to make the Narrow way to Heaven wider by widening Differences and by opening the Gate to shut out all besides our selves The way is not in it self so narrow but that if men were lovers of Peace they might go thither without jostling one another it is not the way for us to Enter in at the strait Gate to do like the Pharisees shut others out They who pretend thus to be the Porters of Paradise usually are without the Gates themselves whilst they brandish the flaming Sword on every side to frighten others THEN would the Doctrines of Supremacy Satisfaction Purgatory c. which have rent the seamless Coat in a thousand pieces cease to make Divisions in the World But this we may wish and pray for but can scarcely hope to see so long as the insatiable thirst of Temporal Advantages stops the Mouth of Truth and the desire of Soveraignty shall Exalt the Idol of Profitable Opinion into the Throne and Sacred Temple of Divinely revealed Faith AND
be such a Condition in Order to this End Psal 51.4 as All may have That so God may be Justified when he speaks and clear when he Judges and if men be not saved it may appear it was through their own Folly and not from the difficulty of the Condition which God offers For it would be infinitely derogatory to the Wisdom and Goodness of the Divine Nature to the God of Love the only Wise God to give such a Condition of Salvation as All were not capable of attaining For Salvation is not confined to the Wise and Learned 1 Cor. 1.26 nay St. Paul seems to intimate the Contrary Not many Wise men are called Jude 3. but it is the Common Salvation in which all Rich and Poor High and Low Young and Old the Learned and Unlearned the Wise and the Simple have a share The Foundation of this Assent to the Conditional Propositions of Salvation is not therefore our Understanding of them to be true by the Power of Reason our comprehending or apprehending the manner of them but it springs from the Confidence that we have of the Veracity of him who propounds them to our Belief and that we are assured that he will not because he cannot deceive us because he is Truth it self as whoever believes a Supreme Being must of Necessity believe Truth to be of his Essence THUS I believe the Glorious Mystery of the Trinity Three Persons but one God the Incarnation of the Son of God the proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son the Resurrection of the Body and the rest of the Articles of the Christian Faith not because I dare pretend to understand them or to give a Satisfactory Reason to my self how this can be Or why it should be but I rest my self satisfied upon the assurance that he who requires me to believe it cannot deceive me nor require me to believe what is not most certainly true But God being in Heaven in that inaccessable Light of Glory and I upon Earth there must be therefore some Internuncius between us that so I may receive these Conditions of Salvation to be believed This Office was in former times committed to the Prophets Rom. 3.4 2 Tim. 3.16 2 Pet. 1.21 and God spake by them For God is only true and all Men may be Lyars and therefore all Scripture was given by Inspiration and came not at any time by the Will of Men but Holy Men of God spoak being moved by the Holy Ghost Heb. 1.1 But the great Prerogative of Christian Religion is That God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds Now these Holy Instruments whom God employed to declare his Will to Men that they might obtain Credit to their Message were assisted with power of working Miracles which were the Letters Testimonial the Credentials of Heaven in their behalf to assure the incredulous World that they were Messengers and Ambassadors from God for it is a Natural Inference which Nicodemus made even whilest he was so Unregenerate that he thought Regeneration an Impossibility Jo. 3.2 Rabbi we know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these Miracles that thou doest except God be with him This Revelation of Gods Will Confirmed to be so by Miracles Signs and Wonders when it comes to be considered and attended to will gain the Assent of the Mind and that these must needs be Truths of a Divine Extract and Original Since All their Precepts are free from any Design but the Advantage of those to whom they are proposed and to make them partakers of the Divine Nature by the practice of that Truth Innocence Justice Temperance and Purity which they do so Universally require as the Way to Happiness both in this Life and that of Celestial Glory and Immortality And these Commands Collected into a Body we call the Holy Canon of Sacred Scriptures I think I need not produce Arguments to prove those Writings to be the Word and Will of God that being a Principle so confessed that without it no Man can be called a Christian I am not now to deal with Heathens or Infidels FROM this Postulatum granted these Conclusions will Naturally follow First That Faith does not depend upon Humane Authority but upon Divine Revelation For it came not by the Will of Man but by the Will of God And therefore no Humane Authority has any power to Impose upon the Belief any thing either contrary or more than God has plainly revealed to be his Will as the Condition of our Salvation for to Command what God has not commanded as such a Condition is insufferable Pride and Insolence an Usurpation upon the Incommunicable Prerogative of him Heb. 12.2 who is the Author and the Finisher of our Faith How great then is the Impiety of those who contrary to the practice of the Universal Church for 1500 years have added the Books of Apocrypha meer Humane Writings to the Holy Canon and under pain of Damnation Impose them upon us as matters of Faith and Conditions of Salvation How Unreasonable is it to make Tradition the Foundation of Faith and of Equal value with the Holy Writings Of which Traditions there being so great Uncertainty it is very Improbable our Faith should receive any Confirmation from them For what is liable to a doubt it self is very unlikely to take away all cause of Doubting Yet this is the Faith of the Roman Church in their Vnwritten Verities SECONDLY it follows That nothing ought to be Imposed as De Fide and the Necessary Condition of Salvation but what is clearly Demonstrable to be the Will of God revealed and which all Men because all are capacitated for Salvation may easily Understand to be so And since all men have an Equal Title to Salvation upon their performance of the Conditions by God required to be believed and done therefore what Faith will Save the Unlearned will also save the Learned For God proposeth no different Methods more for the one than the other for he is no respecter of Persons Act. 10.35 but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him So that he who is Baptized Repents Lives Righteously Godly and Soberly in this present World believing the Gospel of our Lord and obeying it according to that Belief shall certainly receive the end of his Faith and hope the Salvation of his Soul For these are Truths so clearly contained in the Scripture that the meanest Capacity may understand them and perform the Conditions required Now what is necessary and sufficient for all and whatever is proposed more is Superfluous since he that believes this and no more shall certainly be saved and he that believes more shall but be saved It is
whereas for many Ages past men have beaten their Brains Joel 3.10 To beat their Plough-shares into Swords and their Pruning Hooks into Spears have Employed those Parts and Abilities with which they ought to have broken up the fallow Ground Hos 10.12 to sow in righteousness what we might reap in Peace to wound one anothers sides Would they follow this Rule of Charity we might see the Glorious Prophecy of Micha fulfilled Mich. 4.1 2 3 4. For in the last Days it shall come to pass that the Mountain of the Lords house shall be Exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow unto it and many Nations shall come and say Come and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his Ways and we will walk in his Paths and they shall beat their Swords into Plough-shears and their Spears into Pruning Hooks Nation shall not rise up against Nation neither shall they learn War any more but they shall sit every man under his Vine and under his Fig Tree and none shall make them affraid I know it will be objected That the Scriptures are full of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those things difficult to be understood To which I answer with the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. The holy Scriptures are able to make any man wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Jesus Christ being given by Inspiration of God for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteotsness that the Man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good Works All this is contained in them in plain and easy Language and who can desire more what is necessary to be believed or done is to be found there without such Difficulty and that is all that either is or can properly be our Concern The Design of Religion is not to entertain the speculative or gratifie the Curious but to guide the Practical Christian in his Duty And if there be difficult places there is no necessity of our Understanding them For he that inspired the Holy Pens cannot without the greatest Impiety be argued of acting negligently insufficiently or without Design as other careless Writers may and that they are not more clear and perspicuous ought with a becoming reverence due to the only wise God to be believed that they are therefore wrapt up in Mysterious words either because they are not necessary or not fit for us to know Nor is there the least danger in such humble Ignorance but there is certainly in a presumptuous Curiosity and seeking after the Tree of Knowledge which God has prohibited by planting the Wall of Obscurity about it and if we will with the Bethshemites be Peeping into the Ark we may expect to be punished justly by wresting the Scriptures to our own Damnation and much more if being Unlearned and Private Men we undertake to give Publique Interpretations and Determinations different from both the Catholique Faith and Church 2 Pet. 1.20 For no Scripture is of Private Interpretation AND that this is the danger is as evident as the Punishment of it is certain for here is the Spring head of Errors and Heresies which always took their Original from the Transgression of this Caution For when men will leave the plain and beaten Path the easy Way to Happiness here and Heaven hereafter by Faith and Obedience to seek for it in their own Wisdom and Niceties it is no wonder if they wander out of the Way of Truth when they permit themselves to be lead by their Private Opinions and Interpretations it is the blind leading the blind in the Darkness of Midnight and no wonder then if at last they stumble and fall into the blackness of Eternal Darkness For self-love is a very blind Guide and self Conceit a worse and they must needs be in darkness to whom God denies the light of the Spirit which he does in all obscure places of Scripture and if as he told the Jews men therefore Err not knowing the Scripture they must needs Err who will know more than he will let them To confirm the truth of this Doctrine and that the Holy Canon is as the word Imports a Rule not only of our Actions but our Faith I would desire any Person to give me a reason why he Believes the three Famous Creeds which contain the sum and substance of our Christian Faith there can be but these three Reasons First Because he immediately by Divine Revelation is assured of his Faith or Secondly Because he is perswaded by some Person or Persons to believe or Thirdly Because he finds the Articles there mentioned either in plain Words or evident Consequences in Scripture which for good reason he believes to be the Dictates of divinely inspired Penmen THE First all sober Men reject as leading directly to Enthusiasm and under pretence of Heavenly Revelations to introduce Hellish Impieties and Doctrines of Devils who having a Power to transform themselves into Angels of Light may take that Advantage to Impose upon strong Fancies and weak Judgments FOR the Second a man will thus argue Why should I believe this or these Men since all men are Fallible and they who may be deceived may therefore deceive and if I believe this Man why not another why not Mahomet who pretended to the Holy Ghost as much as they AND therefore Thirdly Faith must be resolved into the first Principle of it which is Gods Truth and Infallibility and that Word which I believe to be his and therefore more Credible than the Word of any or all Men. Thus was Faith first propagated in the World and thus it must be increased for the Multitudes to whom the Apostles Preached throughout the World did not believe St. Peter or St. Paul that Preached Jesus and the Resurrection Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come but seeing the Miracles which they did they believed that this was the Word of God and that Jesus was the Son of God agreable to the Doctrine of the Prophets in the Old Testament concerning the Messiah This Method our Lord made use of with his Disciples Luke 24.5.4 Then opened he their Vnderstanding that they might Vnderstand the Scriptures that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning him and he said unto them Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again the third day from the Dead and that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be Preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem This Doctrine of Faith the Apostles believed this they Preached not as their own but the Faith of Christ this they committed to Writing and delivered to the Christians as the Rule of their Faith and Life Rom. 15.4 For as the Scriptures of the Old Testament and whatsoever was Writen aforetime was written for our Learning
their Disobedience to both those Powers unless the things commanded be manifestly proved to contradict the Faith or be repugnant to good Life which till Dissenters can do they will be obstinate Schismaticks before God and Rebels against their Prince and in a fair way to be Traytors too whilst they break his Laws both Civil and Ecclesiastical however they may flatter themselves with the Title of Saints And so soon as they can prove their Charge against any of the Ceremonies and that they are Unlawful in reality and not only in supposition they shall be gratified by their Abolition or amendment if that will do And if they cannot prove their Accusations would they be so unjust as to have not Justice but Injury done to the Innocent by abrogating those Modes of Worship and Customs in the Church which the whole Church has allowed that Government which God appointed which he has approved by maintaining supporting and defending it to this present day against all the Opposition of Infidels and Hereticks those two Gates of Hell One would think that Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis were satisfactory to men of Reason and Sobriety Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus id quidèm verè est Catholicum That which every where always and by all has been received must needs be a Catholick Truth but such is the Power Rule Authority of Bishops for Guiding the Church and appointing the Modes of Worship And they who will oppose this spring Tide of Universal Testimony will but drown themselves in the Odious name of Schismaticks and Heriticks of whom these have been the Characters Mos semper fuit Hereticorum quorum Doctrinam non possunt confutare illorum vitam in Odium trahere It has always been the Custom of Hereticks to asperse the lives of those whose Doctrines they have not been able to confute Which has been the constant Practice of late years against Episcopacy and Episcopal Men to throw dirt upon the Profession and Persons and then proclaim them Odious when in truth the blackness is in their own Mouths and not either in the Persons whom they calumniate or in the Office Treating the Church as some Impudent Villains do the Modest Woman whom they cannot Debauch Cry out A Whore a Whore and set the Rabble upon her who roll her in the Kennel and cover her with dirt till no body can tell what she is made of and then believe she is what they have made her ugly and what the other would have made her but could not Criminal St. Bernard gives us a second Property Haerent ad singula quae injunguntur Exigunt de quibusque rationem male suspicantur de omnî Precepto nèc unquà m libentèr acquiescunt nisi cum audire contigerit quod fortè libuerit They stick at every thing which is by Authority enjoyned they require a a Reason nay and we may add are not satisfied with Reason for every thing they are Jealously suspicious of every Precept of their Superiors nor do they ever willingly acquiess in their determinations unless it happens that they are agreeable to their own Judgment and as St. Augustine says Nisi quod ipsi faciunt nihil rectum Existimant They think well of nothing or Judge it right but what they do themselves LET St. Cyprian give them a third Mark. Initia Haereticorum c. Vt Praepositum Superbo tumore contemnant Sic de Ecclesia receditur sic Altare prophanum Foràs Collocatur sic contra pacem Christi Ordinationem atque unitatem Dei rebellatur The Original of Hereticks is Contempt of those who are set over them So men separate from the Church So is a prophane Altar erected out of it So men become Rebells against the Peace of Christ Order and Vnity because as in another place he says Episcopus qui unus est Ecclesiae praeest Superbâ quorundam presumptione contemnitur The Bishop who is one and set over the Church is by the proud Presumption of some Men Contemned We may write a Probatum est to these Prophetique Truths I might Pyle up Endless Authorities and swell this Discourse to a Volume but if what I have already said be not sufficient to Convince the greatest Enemies of Episcopacy that it is a Government of Gods appointment in the Church I think all that can be said will be to no purpose and if this will more would be supersluous if they will not believe the Scripture If they will not believe the Church Mat. 18.17 it is our Saviour's Rule Let them be as Heathen men and Publicans CHAP. XVI HAVING now found a Divine and unerring Rule of Faith and Life in the Scripture of Truth and having also found there who are by God appointed to be Governours of the Church viz. Bishops There remains only the great Enquiry after the Judg of Controversies and Differences which is abslutely Necessary in the Church of God to determine Differences which may happen not only about Matters of private Opinion but even the sense of the Scriptures and the Interpretation of the Holy Rule And as these Differences may be of several Kinds and Natures so there are several Judges appointed by God to hear and determine them that so the Church may be preserved in Peace and Charity As to what is matter of Faith Essentially Necessary to Salvation That God is the Sole Judg of himself And therefore it has by him long since been determined and received in the Church and what ever by all must be believed must be easy by all to be known and is therefore plainly set forth in Holy Scripture Nor can any be Judg of this but what cannot Err or deceive us which is only God And to say the Church is the Judg of this and that it cannot Err because the Catholique Church does not Err is to argue Fallaciously à non esse ad impossibile esse For that part of the Catholique Church whilest on Earth consisting of Men of whom some shall be saved and some Reprobated No man having a power to know which of them are those who shall be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation that they shall not Err and to distinguish them from those who shall not be so preserved and therefore there being a Possibility that those who may be Reprobates from the Faith themselves may yet be of great Authority in the Outward Visible Church it is unreasonable to admit them as Judges of Faith who Erring themselves my lead us into Errors too And therefore God who speaks to us in Scripture is only the Judg of what is matter of Faith and what not and it is to be tryed by that Rule and no Authority has power to impose any thing as matter of Faith Essentially necessary to Salvation but what is there to be found The Harmony of the Universal Church that such things as are offered as matters of Faith are agreeable to Scripture is in things not clear and
Truth that darling of my Soul nay I will further ingage that though it comes disguised and wrapt up in Calumnies and reproaches the most disadvantageous dress to apparel Perswasion in yet will I not refuse to Embrace her Nor because it comes from my Enemies and with all the Circumstances which may make it appear so will I therefore become theirs and my own by being an Enemy to Truth The sword which was design'd to kill may sometimes by a happy accident Cure by cutting the Imposthume and though the Lancet be sharp yet if it Cures my Feavor by discharging the Malignant humor of my blood I shall not refuse the assistance I may receive from such a profitable Wound and would be glad to escape a Shipwrack even by the Rock upon which I am split CHAP. II. HE that will Build secure must first clear the Foundation and if he finds either Sand or Rubbish he must remove them and not think his time or labour lost which is spent in sinking deep to find a firm and solid Bottom where he intends to set a weighty Pile and raise a lasting Fabrick For otherwise he can expect no better success than the foolish builder in the Parable Matt. 7.26 who built upon the Sand which was not able to indure the violent shock of the noisy Tempest but when the Wind and the Rain made their attaque upon it it presently Fell and great was his Folly that built it as well as the fall of it WHOSOEVER they be that will Embrace Truth and put on Charity the Bond of Christian Perfection and the fulfilling the Royal Law of Liberty must seriously Resolve to devest themselves of what is contrary to it The great inquiry of the World is that of Pilate to our Blessed Lord Joh. 18.38 What is truth but with him they scarcely put the hasty Interrogatory before they go out not finding Patience enough to stay for an answer and therefore they take up that which first offers it self to them under that Sacred Name which all Impostors challenge but none possess And having once received the Counterfeit Mettal with that Character and Superscription so great is the Authority even of the Name of Truth that it goes for Currant Coin with the Credulous who are either Unable or Unwilling to bring it to the Touchstone themselves or to suffer others who can to Give it the Test Nay so strong and forcible are the Impressions which this Counterfeit Treasure makes in the Minds of Men that it is a matter of the greatest difficulty to perswade them to relinquish it or to change their flawy Bristol or their fiery Flint for a Real Diamond the inestimable Pearl of Price so that you cannot go about to undeceive and disabuse them but they take you for a Cheat and suspect you guilty of a Design to Rob them of that Treasure which they value as their Life and it may be above it and though you be able to prove and demonstrate that it is only the shining and Chymical Glass of over-heated Zeal yet will they jealously suppose all you say is only to deceive them and that you disparage theirs to give a lustre to your own which they believe you would put off to them for your own advantage WE must therefore indeavour to shew what are the Enemies of Truth and by consequence of Vnity and Charity before we can come to discover her from the Crowd of pretenders for it has always been the successful industry of him who is the Enemy of all Truth to ruin Unity and Charity by setting up Counterfeits and apparelling them like this Glorious Queen thereby to rob her of her Lawful Empire over the Minds of Men and make them pay Homage to Error and Falshood under her Usurped Name THE first Enemy of Truth is self Interest There is in all Mankind a Natural Love to themselves and a kindness to the present concerns of Life and therefore nothing is more Common than to make an Estimate of truth in proportion to the advantages they possess by her and though men talk much of Naked Truth yet they Generally leave the Courtship of her to Fools or Philosophers and Esteem that worth marrying which hath the fairest Ornaments and the best Portion and whoever does molest and disturb or in their opinion go about to divorce them from such an advantageous Alliance shall difficultly perswade them that he is their Friend Men usually are as jealous of a rich and profitable Error which they have Espoused as they can be of the greatest Treasure they possess And whosoever shall go about to perswade them out of this must be look't upon as an Enemy to their real happiness of which he would rob them under the pretence of being theirs and the Friend of Truth Nay though you be able to give them the clearest Demonstration that they shall advantage themselves even in these beloved Circumstances of Interest Riches Honor and Reputation yet shall you gain little Credit by your pains and rarely perswade them to make an Experiment in regard that they look upon their present Condition as a most sensible certainty but upon what you propose as a hazardous Contingency and are unwilling to exchange one Bird in the hand for two in the Bush DAILY Experience convinces of this for though it is evident both to Sense and Reason that Temperance Sobriety Justice Chastity Fidelity and Honesty are the most certain Methods whereby men may obtain Health Reputation Honor and Riches and even long Life to Enjoy all the Happiness of this World yet few there are that will venture upon the Practice of these Excellent Virtues the Interest of present pleasure prevails more with the Lascivious and Intemperate the Interest of certain though unlawful Gain which they do possess is more valuable to the Unjust the Dishonest Fraudulent and Covetous than all the promises in Reversion and future Expectancies that you can make them and they are so Enamour'd of these profitable Falshoods that they will neither believe you nor Truth it self Nay so powerful is this Interest that it will manage men even against the Dictates of Nature and Common Reason against the Infalliable Testimony of Experience for who is he that does not love and value his Life above all things and yet every month produces many sad Examples of Men and Women who have not been deterr'd from pursuing what they thought their Interest by Thefts Robberies and Murders though they did in every such Undertaking run not only a private hazzard of their Lives from the just revenge of persons so injur'd by them but the more certain Arms of Publique Justice which in a thousand Instances before their Eyes they know to have so long a reach and so sure a stroak and the Old saying Non nosti longas Regibus esse Manus has not been able to restrain Ambitious Minds from profitable Treason and the Great Interest as they have falsly thought of Rebellion against their Soveraign
of Folly Pride usually sets Ambition upon Action and what the one Projects the other Executes For that any person should despise the Precepts of Virtue and Religion the Principles of Loyalty and Obedience per fas nefas the Common Ladder of Ambition aspire at high things great places of Trust Honour Dignity or Command in the World must certainly be the Effect of Pride for such Tempers are always Opiniatres of their own Merits Haughty Minds think and believe therefore that they deserve whatsoever they can Desire and more than they have and the higher they rise still the more Proud and Ambitious they grow looking upon their past Acquisitions as the just reward of their Wisdom and Conduct which still swells them with bigger Desires and larger Thoughts so that in reality Ambition knows no Hercules Pillars because Pride cannot write a Nè plùs ultrà upon their Merits for this is the Dropsie of the Mind and the more Men drink the the more they thirst Totum licet hauserit Hermum Ardebit majore siti thus the young Macedonian swell'd with his Victories over the Unfortunate Persian and his Allies and being told of more Worlds Aestuat infelix angusto limite Mundi his Ambition boil'd over at his Eyes that he was confin'd to one nay so strangely was he transported with this unruly Tumor that nothing would satisfie him but to be a God as if he had intentions to depose his adopted Father and conquer Heaven too when he came there Now it is the Constant Temper of these hot Complexions to make every thing stoop to their Designs because they think every thing ought to bow to their Merits nor will they spare even Religion it self to which they will yet seemingly bend only to bend it to their Interest and they do most frequently abuse that Sacred Name because by that Method they are inabled more easily to abuse others with their well acted Hypocrisie and double-gilt Dissimulation and it being the sole Prerogative of Heaven to know mens hearts their Great Master-piece is to cover their Ambition with the soft Mantle of Religion and to act that part of their Lives so to the Life as rather to out-do the most sincere and innocent as to what is visible than by any remissness in their outward appearance to hazard a discovery of what lodges within Nor indeed is it possible to distinguish such golden Sinners from the most splendid Saints without a narrow consideration whither their Designs must lead them and in what they will End and this is the true Reason why the innocent and well-meaning among the ordinary rank of People are so often imposed upon surprised with and carried on in a good opinion of their proud and Ambitious Leaders who cover those horrid Vices with the Glorious Names of Zeal for the Lord of Hosts Fervency of Spirit and Active Piety for the Cause of God for if they would consider whither of necessity these Principles of Disobedience which they infuse into them both against their King and their Church would at the last lead them and of what nature the Practises are which are deduced from them it were impossible that People should be seduced by such Troops to adore and almost Deifie those persons whose main Design is only to serve their own present Interest and the future Aims of their Ambitious Pride BUT lest any Person should think the Expression of Deifying too harsh I can bring Evidence from those who heard it from the persons mouth that spoak it who affirmed That be did believe that if our Saviour were upon Earth he could not speak more Heavenly than such a One naming the Person who was then the admired Orator of the Place but lest he should be Exalted above measure for his Golden and Divine Talents and to shew you how Fickle and Unconstant these Hosanna's are it was not long after that the very same Person who had so Exalted him to Heaven did as much debase him and being an illiterate Fellow who could neither Write nor Read yet he had it seems made so good use of the others Gifts and Talents in Preaching and Extempore Prayer that he offer'd to wager 20 l. that he would quote Scripture with his Master from Genesis to Revelations and you may be assured then that he would Preach and Pray with him for 40 l. having so much more confidence of Himself and his own Abilities as he wanted Learning to know Himself and his own Deficiencies THE Nature of Pride and Ambition is always to Establish its own Greatness upon the Ruine of whatsoever does oppose them and by all ways and means to lessen others in order to greaten themselves that so by trampling upon the necks of their Enemies they may Exalt their own Power and Esteem and because there is nothing that does Elevate men to that degree of Excellency in the Minds of the Multitude like an Opinion of their Sanctity and Devotion therefore it is that this is the beloved Ingine which Ambitious Minds make use of to carry on cover and effect their own Designs of Greatness by the assistance of Popular Tumults which they usually inrage like Elephants by shewing them the Scarlet Robes both of the Prince and Priest as objects of hatred to animate and inflame them against those Sacred Persons by whom they are worn I might confirm this by many Forrein Instances but I rather chuse one at home both because it nearly concerns us and ought to make the greater Impression upon us The late Usurper Cromwel was in this Art so perfect and accomplisht as not to deserve to be undervalued as a Copy but Esteemed an Original of Pride Hypocrisie and Ambition One would admire that People who many of them knew the Man and his Conversation who saw the Curious Disguise of his Dissimulation and Flattery thrown off by his own hands who are sensible how by this only Artisice of pretending Religion though by the assistance of their Blood and Money he threw down the peacable Government both of Church and State how by a bloody Civil War and the Murther of his Royal Master he himself aspired to the Throne and how he Established an Arbitrary Tyranny against which he pretended and made the People believe he fought and how to the great affliction of all Parties especially the Presbyterians he took away one Religion but set up none nor indeed had any because he was of all as they were most serviceable to his present Interest and Affairs One would I say admire that those who though they saw not these gloomy Days yet have sufficiently heard of the Horror and Confusion of those times and cannot but believe the truth of the Relations should yet swallow down the hook which is baited with Liberty and Sanctity But because it may not be unuseful in this present Age so fond of outward shews I will give a short Character of his Ambition and those Arts by which Heaven for our Sins permitted him who
and Religion LOUD and clamorous are the Complaints and Declamations against the vitiousness and Debauchery of the present Age and not without too evident Truth and Reason Impiety which was formerly used to wait for the twilight dare now walk bare fac't and stare upon the Sun St. Paul says of the modest Debauchees of his Age They that are drunken are drunken in the Night but now licentious men are become so impudent as to scorn to throw the Mantle of Darkness over their vitious Intemperance that they take a Pleasure and a Pride to Riot in the day time and to affront God and Men and even humane Nature it self by their prodigious and Publique Sins and Follies They who did ill formerly hated the light but now Men study to affront it and oblige that pure and innocent Blessing to become not only a Witness but an Assistant to their Brutish and shameless Disorders and would loose their greatest pleasure should they not expose themselves and their deeds of Darkness to the discovery of the Day ALL this is laid upon the Government of the Church which though it be as innocent as the light by which they are boldly acted yet must they conspire in the guilt of these horrid Crimes if we will believe Dissenters who blush not to lay this false Accusation to the Charge of the Government that thereby they may render it Criminal and Odious and themselves and Party Clear and Innocent when as in truth and reality the Guilt of these miscarriages will be found to lie at their own Doors and let them wipe their mouths never so demurely and say they have done no Evil Prov. 30.20 with Solomon's Common Woman let them wash their hands with Pilate and say they are guiltless I doubt not to make it appear to the contrary It is a bold Charge and I know they will start at it as much as the Disciples did when our Saviour told them That one of them should betray him and be as forward as they to Cry out Is it I Who we but what if it prove true and be made good against them I will indeavour it and yet with all the Christian Compassion that I am capable of for I have no design to Expose their Persons to hatred but to bring them to true Repentance by shewing them the Danger of those Ways which with the specious shew of Righteousness and Holiness deceive them into a Contempt of the terrible Authority of the Church and others by their Example into all Sensuality and Impiety THAT Christ left to the Governors of his Church the Power of the Keys is most Evident from his own plain and clear Words For when he was to leave this World he called his Apostles to him and Then said Jesus unto them again Joh. 20.23 Peace be unto you as my Father hath sent me even so send I you there is their Mission and Commission for their Function and Government and when he had said this Matth. 18.18 he breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the holy Ghost there is their Unction and Ordination their ability to perform the Duty and discharge the trust reposed in them Whos 's soever Sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained There is the Office and the Power which was put into their hands the Expedient by which they were to govern and Rule the Church of God And though the Romanists endeavour to Monopolize even in the literal and worst sence this great Power only to Saint Peter and his Successors as they pretend the Roman Bishops only are yet nothing is more clear than that our Saviour intended them all an Equal share and a Power to derive it to their Successors in all Churches to the End of the World His gracious Promise of being with them extending unto all Times Places and Persons who should succeed any of the Apostles as well as St. Peter The Church being built not only upon him but upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Christ Jesus being himself the Chief and Corner-stone in whom and by whom the whole glorious Fabrique is Vnited and Compleated THIS Power of the Keys of binding and loosing is the Power of Excommunication of Offenders and Absolution of Penitents and is indeed all the Power which Christ left with his Church and the only Jurisdiction which the Governors can exercise in and over it For all Corporal Punishments are properly and peculiarly vested by God himself in the power of the Temporal and Civil Magistrate who carries the Sword and is ordained of God for that very purpose and Design as St. Paul acquaints us Rom. 13. for he beareth not the Sword in vain but is the Minister of God a Revenger to Execute punishment upon him that doeth Evil. AN Instance of this terrible Sentence of Excommunication we have inflicted upon the Incestuous Corinthian and that with a great Formality 1 Cor. 5.5 This is my Determination saith the Apostle In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ when yeare gathered together and my Spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one to Satan as he tells us in another place that he had delivered Hymeneus and Alexander to Satan that they might learn not to Blaspheme By virtue of this dreadful Power it was that the Primitive Governors of the Church even when they had no assistance but all opposition from the Secular Powers yet kept the Flock of Christ in all Obedience Subjection good Order and Discipline Then were Christians Miracles of Charity Piety and Devotion to the wondring Pagans when they were obliged to those Duties by no Humane Laws when there were no fears of Prisons Tortures Confiscations or Banishment unless for being and owning themselves to be Christians but the only fear of Excommunication and being put out of thâ— Fellowship of the Saints here on Earth and denyed Entrance into the Congregation of the Faithful of being debarred from receiving the Holy Eucharist and joyning in the publique Service and Worship of God was more forcible to make them Holy Obedient and Vnanimous than all the Torments devised by Persecution were able â—o make them Prophane or Vitious For why They did believe that unless the Governors of the Church the Successors of the Apostles did remit their Sins on Earth they should not find remission in Heaven they therefore believed it because Christ the Eternal Truth had said it They did believe that unless they were United by Communion to the Holy Catholique Church they could never hope for the Remission of Sins the Resurrection of the Body unto Life Everlasting which is the most ancient Confession of the Christian Faith and which with great probability is supposed to be delivered by the Apostles to the Church as a short sum of Faith necessary to Salvation NOR were they more fearful of this formidable Sentence of Excommunication than desirous of the Absolution of
dispersed at a common Charge would induce one to believe the Case were our own and particularly one intitled An account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government c. where the Writer does Greg. Naz. Or. 1. as Nazianzen says Arm himself to be Eloquent against the Truth abusing that the better to abuse others into a belief of the most Notorious Calumnies and Sarcasms against the Government the King and his Ministers the Judges and who not As if all conspiring to alter the Establisht Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical And is as Industrious as Malicious to set us all into a Flame To do this at a Season when we are under the apprehensions of a Forrein War for the defence of our selves and all Europe against the danger of a Neighbour too near not to be feared and grown too great to be suffered looks and certainly is a Design of the greatest Mischief and if the Authors are not Dissenters either from the Church of England or from all Religion as well as from the Court of England and the Interest of England the World is strangely mistaken the Sibboleth which lisps so demurely in every Page plainly shews that it was Penn'd by the Men of Ephraim who have a design to Quarrel with our Royal Jephtha their Deliverer by the unparallel'd Amnesty from the Ammonites of their former Delinquencies THESE are the proper effects of Jealousies and Misunderstandings between a Prince and his People the natural result not only of Diversity of Government in the Church Tollerated but permitted even by Connivence And what can be the end of Disunion between these two whom God has joyned together and no man ought to put asunder and who ought to live together in all the happy Caresses of a Conjugal Affection what can be expected from such a Divorce but a troublesome Raign to the Prince an uneasy Life to the People who must always be under the apprehensions of dismal Revolutions and unhappy Days and whilest neither of them esteems themselves secure they both become Miserable Whereas on the contrary Unity in the Government of the Church being as before was said Political as well as Religious will remove all these unnecessary Fears and Imaginary Dangers it will beget Love and a mutual Confidence in each other between a King and his Subjects which is the only happiness of the Crown as well as of the Nuptial State Of which one may say as the Poet. Faelices tèr ampliùs Quos irrupta tenet Copula Nec malis divulsa Querimonijs When there is no Murmuring or Complaining but the one Obeys with Pleasure what the other Commands with Love and love the one as much to be Commanded as the other to Command But alas this is so far from being hoped for so long as there is this Disunion in the Political Government of the Church as it would be if there were so in the Political Laws of the State it being as impossible to satisfie all Parties with the one as with the other and there being notwithstanding the same reason that those who are dissatisfied should yet yield Obedience as well to the one as to the other since they are both of the same Nature and levell'd at the same End FROM what has been said it is evident that a Disunion in the Political Government of the Church in the same Nation Lays the perpetual Foundation of Dreadful Changes and Revolutions in the Government of the State and by sowing Jealousies Fears and Discontents in the Minds of Men it gives continual Opportunities to the Ambitious Covetous Envious Proud and Discontented to run the Nation into Civil Broyls and Intestine Quarrels for which reason Solomon gives this necessary Caution to all those who will be the Disciples of true Wisdom My Son fear thou God and the King and meddle not with those who are given to change Which of necessity all Dissenters must be whilst they believe themselves the only People who Worship God in Spirit and Truth and therefore contrary to the manifest Design of the Gospel were they what they pretend or believe indeavour their own Establishment by force and violence the confusion and utter subversion of the Government which does oppose them and their pernicious Practices so dishonourable to Christian Religion and the Protestant Cause so destructive of Peace and Charity so contrary to the common good of all Society and the Happiness of Mankind in General and in particular to the safety and security the Settlement and Establishment of that Church and Nation of which they are Members and to which by the Rules of Religion they owe all Obedience CHAP. XI NOR will the Mischief of this Disunion in the Political Government in the Church confine it self at home or be contented with making us unhappy among our selves but will most certainly Expose any Nation to the Power and Attemps of Foreign Enemies for Vnity in any Government is like the state of Health in the Natural Body where the Muscles are firm and Robust the Nerves strong the Ligaments compacted the Joynts close the whole Strength intire and vigorous and every Member obedient to the Head whereas on the contrary want of Vnion renders the Body Politique crazy and infirm the Head may command the Hands or the Feet but they are out of joynt and cannot move or if they do it is with so much Pain or Trouble with such a Feebleness and Languor as is next to Impotence it self and when any People are in this Condition they become an Easy Prey as well as a great Temptation to any Foreign Power FOR first This render them contemptible to their Foreign Enemies for Men always make a Judgment of the strength of any Nation in proportion to their Vnity among themselves for what does it signifie though a Nation be never so Rich or Populous if they be not Vnanimous their Enemies must needs thus Argue with themselves What though this People abound in Money and swarm with Inhabitants so long as they are like a Rope of Sand it is a sign of the goodness of their Country as well as the Weakness of the Nation there will be the better booty and the cheaper Victory the Conquest will pay us well for our Pains and our Pains cannot be great to subdue a People who are already half Conquered by their Civil Dissentions we are not to go to dispute a bloody Conquest but a certain Victory Their mutual Fears have alienated the Affections of the People from their Prince and they who have been so Prodigal to waste all the stock of Loyalty which was left them as a Patrimony from their Ancestors will easily be tempted to sell the Reversion of their Allegiance to a new Soveraign Nor shall an Invader ever need to fear a Party who for ready Money in hand and large Promises of future Payments and Gratifications in whatever they demand which he may Pay he knows as he pleases will not either actually joyn with him or
it may be we are owing for that Dislike and Aversion if not hatred of Dissenters to Episcopacy rather to their little travail in Antiquity which they despise because they do not know than to any solid Arguments they can bring against it I am satisfied that it is necessary for the Discovery of the Rise Growth Reason and occasion of Errors and Heresies which are apt for want of this to revive and spring up again and to see how they have been condemned by the Catholick Church and the Reasons why all that I have to say is That it may be so restrained as not to deserve St. Pauls Character of vain Philosophy by committing Outrages and Insolencies upon our Faith For till such time as men come to quit themselves from these Usurpations upon their Understanding 1 Tim. 6.20 by the Oppositions of Science falsly so called and can be perswaded not to Credit their own Opinions or those of their Party with an equal certainty as they do those Truths which are Divinely revealed from Heaven there is little possibility of Reconciling them one to another in the amicable composure of Christian Meekness as it is to Reconcile their Opinions one to another or to Truth and so long as men contend with the same Animosity and Eagerness for either side of a Theological Question as they do for that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude they will never entertain any kinder thoughts of one another than that both are Hereticks when after all their hot Contention they cannot arrive at a higher degree of knowledge than Probability and that amounts to no more than this that though one part of the Opinion may be true yet it is possible that both may be false and why then should this be obtruded upon any other Person as de Fide THERE is nothing that puzzles our Understandings more than the Modes of things nor are we more in a Mist than when we come to the How 's How is this done or how comes that to be so this is indeed the Terra delfuego the Intellectualis Incognita in which the boldest Adventurers are but Coasters and can give but a lame account of all those vast Territories and Inland Regions of the Understanding I dare undertake to plunge the most learned Philosopher in the World about the meanest Insect the smallest Plant how they are produced how preserved and increased and how they return again to the Common bosom of the first Matter and though this present Age notwithstanding the derision of the Ignorant has made the greatest Advances in Experimental Philosophy and travail'd further in the Modes of things than all that ever were before yet I am confident their knowledge does but shew them their Ignorance and teaches them Modestly to confess that their highest attainments are terminated in Probabilities and rational Conjectures and not in Certainties What is plainer than that the Sun shines and that by the light of it we discover all visible Objects but how remains sub judice and will do so till Elias comes as the Rabbins say and will be the perpetual puzzle both of the Peripateticks and Cartesian Globularians Since then we are such strangers to our very senses and their Natural Objects which appear plain to us with which we converse so constantly and familiarly how can we expect to make greater progresses of knowledge in the Vnderstanding when the Soul it self would be a great Riddle in despight of all Philosophy if Faith did not come in to its reskue nor can I tell which way without that assistance it would be able to defend its Original or Duration its Immortality or Distinction from that of Brutes more then in degrees And though an Apostle who himself was admitted into the Glorious Regions of the third Heavens 2 Cor. 12.2 3. could not tell how Whether in the Body or out of the Body God knows and therefore Experimentally assures us 1 Cor. 13.12 That we see through a Glass darkly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the obscurity of a riddle and that we know but in part Yet all this notwithstanding such is the Opinion that we have of our Knowledge and Discoveries and more commonly in Divinity than any thing that Magisterially we pronounce our Opinion for undoubted truth our beloved Fancies for Objects of Faith and our Conjectures for Certainties and proud of our imaginary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole World must know it to do us Honor for the Discovery and must honor us by believing it or become our Hatred There can never be the least hope of Vnity no more than there is possibility of Vnanimity unless men will agree about some Common Principles which may be the Centre of Christianity where though their Opinions in Circumstantials which are not contrary to Faith and good Manners may be permitted to be drawn at a distance towards the Circumference yet all their Actions may be United and terminate in the Vnity of Charity I know it is a high and hazardous Attempt to offer any such thing to the Consideration or but View of the World the hight amazes me and is ready not only to turn my Brains but all the Resolutions I can assure my self withal back again from the Enterprise I tremble though even with the greatest Humility I speak my thoughts in an Affair of that Moment the very thinking of which is not excusable from all Presumption and looks but too like being wise in my own Eyes and prudent in my own Conceit but as I do it with all submissive Charity so I hope I shall find Charity from others and that part of it which hides a multitude of Faults THERE are three things which appear the Foundation of all Dissention First What is Matter of Faith Secondly What is the true Form of Government Thirdlp The Judge of Differences and Controversies For Christians dissent and separate from one another either because they imagin of each other that they do not believe aright or because they dislike the Government or because they will not submit to any Determinations being not agreed among themselves of a Common Judge of Controversies WE will begin with the first Now Faith being the Foundation of Christian Religion is The firm Assent of the mind to the Certainty of such Propositions as are the Conditions required by God to be by us believed in Order to our living well here So as that we may obtain Eternal Happiness hereafter in Heaven For as the Author to the Hebrews Heb. 11.6 says Without Faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those that seek him Faith being therefore the Foundation of Practice and so absolutely requisite to Salvation and the Design of Almighty God 1 Tim. 2.4 6. being that all men should be saved by coming to the knowledg of the Truth For Christ gave himself a Ransom for All. It must
which they are to Govern which is the Word of the Infallible God who cannot lye or be deceived and I suppose that they may act contrary to this Rule and that presumes they are not Infallible but if they follow the Rule then I say they cannot Err and should the Pope do so all Christians over whom he may Challenge a lawful Jurisdiction as their Patriarch ought to submit to him But it is Evident that the Roman Church does Err and has Erred in many things forsaking the Rule setting up the Authority of the Pope to alter and change that Rule by introducing new Articles of Faith new Books of Scripture and old Traditions his own Canons Decretals and Councels for a Rule nay his own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Sentence and Determination for an Infallible Rule of Faith and Life which is as far from me to believe of our Bishops as to say or believe it of him NOR does this Jurisdiction of Bishops either take away that subordination which for convenience of Government is among them or intrench upon the Supremacy of the Civil Magistrate since his Supremacy consists in a Temporal Soveraignty and pretends not to any Pastoral Power but only such Kingly and Civil Authority in Cases Ecclesiastical as Constantine and several other Religious Emperors had and Exercised to whom even Popes as well as other Patriarchs yielded subjection as I can make appear out of the Epistles of Gregory the Great to Mauritius and the Ecclesiastical Historians in a hundred places And nothing is more plain than that Christ himself owned a Subjection as well as Commanded one to Cesar As for the Civil Magistrate and his Power I think nothing more Evident than the Duty all their Subjects whether Laicks or Ecclesiasticks owe them and that they have Prescription the Law of God Nature Nations and those of their own on their side for the Defence of their Titles to their Crowns and Scepters and that the Church and Faith is and ought to be their Particular Care as well as it is their Interest the quiet of the State ever depending in a great Measure upon the Peace of the Church and that they have a Coercive Power by virtue of which they may compel men to Obedience to the Laws both Civil and Ecclesiastical which in conformity to the Law of God are to promote the Peace Happiness Unity and Prosperity of their People Nor was this Doctrine ever deni'd till the Papacy growing great and the Empire declining began to think of a Temporal as well as a Spiritual Monarchy and to Unite St. Paul's Sword to St. Peter's Keys And till the Presbyterians reviving the Heresy of Aerius and his levelling Principle began to indeavour to set up their Spiritual Democracy in the Church in order to their Erecting it also in the State as the sad Probatum which they writ to their late deadly of the Solemn League and Covenant might convince us without the dangerous necessity of a second Experiment Ictus Piscator sapit The burnt Child dreads the fire and we have a great deal more reason to do so than to kindle it again and run our fingers into the Flame to try whether it will burn as hot now as formerly it did CHAP. XVII The CONCLVSION TO draw to a Conclusion I think it is evident from all that any person can in reason desire to give him Satisfaction That the Powers and Government in this Church and Nation are Lawful and of Gods appointment That Vnity in Faith and Obedience to their Government are the only Expedients to secure unto us Peace and Religion and that if these be our Desires the other are our Interest and ought to be our diligent indeavours and our constant Practice It is this Unity this Obedience that must make us Happy at home and Terrible abroad which are the only Ways to procure and Establish a lasting Peace both in our Souls in our State in our Church and with our Foreign Neighbours who may be obliged more by our formidable Vnity than by our feeble Arms or other Alliances I would gladly know therefore of Dissenters who and our sins are the great Obstructors of our Happiness Are you certain that the Government of Bishops is Unlawful and Antichristian Can you prove that any of the Commands of the Church or State are Unlawful contrary to plain Scripture and Publique Interpretation If you can you may pretend Conscience for your Disobedience but if you cannot and I am assured it is impossible how do you think you shall escape the dreadful and Revenging Power of the Judg of all men when he shall come in flaming Fire taking Vengeance on those that know not God and obey not his Gospel Flatter not your selves with the vain Opinion of your Sanctity Many shall say Lord have not we Prophesied in thy Name to whom he will answer Depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity for I know you not and well he may for he says Positively He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and him that sent me is not this Disobeying the Gospel The Holy Ghost says he has made Bishops you say they are Antichristian he sends them to Instruct you in the way of Righteousness and to Watch for your Souls you Watch for their Ruine their Lives Honors and Estates he commands you to Esteem them highly you despise them contemn and Vilifie them He commands you to Obey you not only refuse but teach that to Obey is Damnable He planted them among you to plant the Faith you vow and swear to Extirpate Root and Branch Go on and Prosper said the False Zedechiah with his Horns of Iron but Ahab fell Be not deceived you may Mock the Messengers of God but God is not to be Mocked if you sow the Wind your shall reap the Whirlwind the terrible Tempest of his Wrath and Indignation They that lay Snares for the Innocent shall be Ensnared in the Works of their own hands You believe you know God but in Works you deny him for as Saint John saith of himself and his fellow Apostles and of their successors as all lawful Bishops are and will be to the end of the World 1 Joh. 4.6 We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth us not Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error The Holy Church of God in all Ages for God has a Church in all Ages according to his Promise acknowledg this to be the sense and Meaning of the Scripture which I have shewn how then will you avoid this guilt with which St. John charges you this spirit of Error which he assures us is to be known by this Character of not hearing those whom God hath sent ARE you certain that you are in the Right and that all the Saints and Martyrs Bishops and Confessors who believed thus lived and dyed in Antichristian Error Ignorance and Superstition strangers to these
Divine Truths of Worshipping God which you pretend to have discovered If you are certain shew it us that we may be so too Truths of this Nature must be clear and shining Error is dark and obscure If you are not certain as it is impossible you should you are certainly Proud and Presumptuous to Despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities which God has appointed in both Church and State And if it be certain that you are in Error and fight against God while you disturb the Peace of the World destroy Charity Peace and Concord by Hatred Strifes Seditions do you think that you shall ever see God to receive the Blessing of the Peace-Makers who shall be called the Children of God If Bishops be the true Shepherds as is Evident from Scripture Antiquity Oecumenical Councels and the Testimony of all those Martyrs the spirits of Just Men now made Perfect how will you answer the Chief Shepherd and Great Bishop of Souls at his appearing for climbing over into his Fold for Stealing and Killing and Destroying both the Sheep and the Shepherds How will you answer for all the Blood which has already been shed in the Quarrel to maintain your Vsurpations upon all things Civil and Sacred For all those Injuries Oppressions Spoiles Devastations and that Sacriledge which you have been the occasion of whilest you pretended by the Sword of Rebellion to Erect your Government Do you think that when God makes Inquisition for Blood Psal 9. that he will not remember the Complaint of the Poor the souls of so many Pious Innocents and their blood Cries like Abels but above all the blood of the Royal Martyr with those that St. John saw under the Altar crye aloud and of those who served at his Altar here Quousque Domine How long Lord Holy and true dost thou not Avenge our blood IN short either you must shew that the Government in Church and State are Unlawful and that your whole Charge against them is as true as it is Black or you are Calumniators You must prove yours a true Church or you are False Accusers of that which is you must shew that the Impositions are Unlawful or your Disobedience must be so and you will appear to be the Devils Factors and not Gods Ministers whilest you preach Religion to Destroy it and your Disobedience to indifferent things will be Damnable sin You will be accountable not only for your own Guilt but for that of all those who deceived by your Example and Doctrine Glory in what is the shame of Christianity thinking Reformation consists in Ruine and true Religion in open Rebellion and that to be a Friend of God it is requisite a man should be an Enemy to his Church IN the Name of God therefore consider seriously of these things If this be true Receive it and Repent if it be False shew it Where and in What for I profess my self as willing to embrace Truth from you as desire you should receive it from me Let not the vain shame of Revoking your Opinions the fear of losing the Esteem Flatteries and Benevolences of your Followers Mislead you Truth is an Excellent Companion though never so Naked It is better to Blush here than Burn Eternally Let not the hopes of the Churches Revenue animate you to Kill the Heir that the Inheritance may be yours Church Lands have not been Lucky to their Possessors Laqueus erit illi qui devorat Sacra says Solomon It is a Snare to devour Holy things They are Gods Portion you will bring a Snare upon your Souls and it may be upon your Necks which may spoyl the pleasure of those sweet Morsels And be assured that God will not forsake his Church for ever there are Praying Legions in that Glorious Army both in Heaven and Earth and more are they that are with us than they that are against us our Mountain may be full of Chariots and Horses of Fire though you see them not God will not suffer his Darling always to dwell among Lions or to lye under the Saws and Harrows of Iron She shall come up out of the Wilderness leaning upon her Beloved She shall look forth as the Morning fair as the Moon clear as the Sun and terrible as an Army with Banners Tanquam acies Ordinata with flying Colours in good Discipline and Comely Order take Heed lest whilest you think your selves upon Jacobs Ladder climbing up to Heaven that by sighting against this Army you do not prove your selves the Gates of Hell which shall not prevail against it but will against you If God arise for the Meek of the Earth his Enemies will be scattered and they that hate him shall flee before him but not be able to out fly his Vengeance Arise O Lord God thou and thy Ark into thy Resting-place let thy Priests be cloathed with Salvation and let thy Saints rejoyce in thy goodness And let all them that wish and pray for the Peace of Jerusalem Prosper and let all the People say Amen FINIS THe Author's Absence from the Press hath occasion'd the following Errata's which I hope the Candid Reader will Correct with what other Faults he finds Errata PAge 4. line 6. r. Impostor p 21. l. 7. for at one r. atone p. 27. l. 23. r. Cardinalis p. 31. l. 24. dele learn to do well p. 52. l. 9. r. Stratagem p. 65. l. 7 for there r. these p. 94. l. ult r. Menaces p. 128. l. 2. for Honor r. favour p. 133. l. 26. r. Imprudent p. 152. l. 22. for External r. Eternal p. 174 l. 31. for if â— that p. 226. l. 18. r. has not p. 287. l. 12. r. of Age. A Catalogue of some Books Printed for and Sold by Jonathan Edwin at the Three Roses in Ludgate-street THe Commentaries of C. Julius Caesar of his Wars in Gallia and the Civil Wars betwixt him and Pompey Translated into English with many excellent and judicious Observations thereupon as also the Art of our Modern Training or Tactick Practice by Clement Edmonds Esquire Remembrancer of the City of London Whereunto is adjoyned the Eighth Commentary of the Wars in Gallia with some short Observations upon it Together with the Life of Caesar and an account of his Medals Revised Corrected and Enlarged in Fol. The History of the Reigns of Henry the VII Henry the VIII Edward the VI. and Queen Mary the First Written by the Right Honourable Francis Lord Verulam Viscount St. Alban the other Three by the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God Francis Godwyn Lord Bishop of Hereford in Fol. The Countess of Pembrokes Arcadia written by Sir Philip Sidney Knight the Thirteenth Edition with his Life and Death a brief Table of the principal Heads and some other new Additions in Fol. The French way of Excercising their Infantry as it is now used in the Armies of his Most Christian Majesty in Fol. sticht Parthenissa that most Fam'd Romance the Six Volumes compleat composed by the Right