A VINDICATION OF THE True Christian RELIGION In Opposition to the Abominations of POPERY IN A SERMON Upon Ezek. 21. 24 25 26 27. Being the Text appointed by the Pope for Master Whitebread one of the Popish Conspirators to preach upon the accomplishing of their Wicked Design for taking away the Life of his Most Sacred Majesty Wherein the King the Church together with his Majesties Laws Constitutions and true Protestant Subjects of England are clearly Justified and the Pope the Church and Popish Faction of Rome are justly charged to be guilty of the like Dreadful Curse in the New as hath been denounc'd against Revolted Israel in the Old Testament By J. Thomas Rect. of S. Nicholas Preached at Cardiffe Before the Bayliffs and Aldermen there Feb. 2. 1678 9. London Printed for Isaac Cleave at the Star next to Serjeants-Inn in Chancery-Lane 1679. Imprimatur W. JANE EZEK XXI 24 25 26 27. 24. Therefore thus saith the Lord because you have made your iniquity to be remembred in that your transgressions be discovered so that in all your doings your sins do appear because I say that ye are come to remembrance ye shall be taken with the hand 25. And thou prophane wicked Prince of Israel whose day is come when iniquity shall have an end 26. Thus saith the Lord God remove the Diadem and take away the Crown this shall not be the same exalt him that is low and abase him that is high 27. I will overturn overturn overturn it and it shall be no more until he comes whose right it is and I will give it him I Thought it not unseasonable being desir'd to explain this Text which as it is credibly reported was intended by the Popish Faction to Consummate and Cloak the horrible malice of their Bloody Conspiracy against the Life of his most Sacred Majesty but conceiv'd it useful and necessary to apply it to whom most properly it appertains as well for the justifying of his Royal Person and Satisfaction of all honest Protestants as also for the Reproof and Conviction of our Adversaries I shall proceed to handle this Text with all humility of mind faithful love to Truth and due regard to the Testimonies of the Holy Scriptures with the sense of the first General Councils and the Doctrine of the Fathers in the first five or six hundred years after Christ whereby you may evidently perceive and be fully satisfied that the King and Church of England who hold the true Apostolick Faith and bind themselves by Mutual Oaths to uphold and maintain the same are not sentenced with the dreadful Curse of God as was denounced against Judah and Jerusalem but that the Antichristian Pope of Rome that Man of Sin now of a long time reveal'd with all his bloody and Idolatrous Train the Ignatian Tribe have their Judgment denounc'd in the New Testament which lingreth not and their Damnation slumbereth not I observe with S. Augustine not the Monk that all Holy Writ is so tempered by the Holy Ghost that quod alibi obscurius alibi clarius explicitur one portion of Scripture explains another and that is acknowledged by all the Orthodox to be the most certain and undoubted Exposition Wherefore that this Text may be rightly understood the Matter therein contained must for it requires it be consulted of in our Bibles in the following particulars I. The Time when this Prophecy was declar'd II. The Causes wherefore this Prophecy was declar'd III. The Event being a dreadful Curse denounced Wherein observe 1. The Authority Thus saith the Lord. 2. The Charge Thou wicked and prophane 3. The Parties Prince and People 4. The Confusion I 'll overturn c. 5. The Duration Until he comes IV. The Promise annex'd Wherein observe 1. The Kingdom of Christ promised He comes 2. His Claim Whose right it is 3. Divine Institution I will give it him Of all these in order by Gods assistance with Inferences from and Application to the whole matter I shall conclude with the uses proper for our selves to make of it And first of the Time when 1. The Time when this Prophecy was made is easily known when we look upon Ezek. 1. 1 2 3. where the Prophet gives the World to understand expresly the Year the Month and the Day the Word of the Lord came unto him Now saith he it came to pass c. in the fourth month in the fifth day of the month which was the fifth year of King Jehoiakin's Captivity the Word of the Lord came unto Ezekiel the Priest in the Land of the Caldeans c. Compare this with 2 Kin. 24. 15 16 17. verses and there you shall find that this King Jehoiakin the King of Judah was carried away to Babylon in the eighth year of his Reign and the King of Babylon made Mattaniah his Fathers Brother King in his stead and changed his name to Zedekiah insomuch that by these places of Scripture it evidently appears that Ezekiel began to prophecy much upon the midst of King Zedekiah's Reign for he reigned eleven years For by that you see that the fifth of Jehoiakin's Captivity must be the fifth of Zedekiah's Reign The Text calls this time Iniquitas Termini by an Enallage for Terminus Iniquitatis when Iniquity shall have an end that is now is the time come that all the revolt and back-slidings of Judah and Jerusalem by Idolatry Blood-shed and Prophaneness is come to remembrance and it shall now end in Zedekiah's days who shall with the people be carried Captive unto Babylon 2. The Causes wherefore this Sentence was denounc'd are twofold the first is the provocations of the people moving and incensing Gods wrath against them and to this relates the first verse of the Text which saith you have made your iniquity to be remembred and in the 23. verse next before the Text it is said But he will call to remembrance the iniquity which according to the Original may be well translated Hereby you call to remembrance that is by this contempt and disdain which you cast upon my Word in the mouth of my Prophet which seemeth to you as a false divination ver 23. you do provoke me to call to remembrance all your wickedness and the iniquity of your forefathers for this obduration of heart against my Messenger and breach of Allegiance to the King of Babylon shews what you are ver 24. So that in all your doings your sins do appear because I say that you are come to remembrance that is by this your hardness of heart and contempt of the Prophets Doctrine you force me saith the Lord to remember your Idolatry Bloodshed Prophaneness and Apostasies in all kinds all which the Prophet sets down in the next Chapter Ezek. 22. 2. The second Cause here mentioned is God provoked and expressed in these words Ye shall be taken with the hand which seems as if it were the Instrumental Cause but indeed the King of Babylon was the Instrumental Cause of their Captivity to
their call c. and the King heard thereof he was wroth and sent forth his Armies and destroyed those Murtherers and burnt up their City It is strange to see with what a scornful state the proud ambitious Usurper of the Chair of Peter would trample upon the Necks of all his Brethren and how he looks from aloft upon the honest Protestants reproving him he looks upon them far below him and with supercilious looks despiseth them for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Thus he and all his Train of the Scarlet Conclave the Cardinals with the sly Jesuite thinking themselves righteous despising others as the Spirit of God rebuketh them Luc. 18. 9. do aggravate their former Revolt and Apostacy this thousand years standing and call all to remembrance that at last they shall through the fire of Gods wrath hereby incens'd be taken with the hand as the Text speaks But as for the meekness and humility of the Church of England and our readiness to condescend and submit to the Truth let the World be our Witness as learned Bishop Jewel declares it If any learned man of our Adversaries or of all the learned that be alive be able to bring any one sufficient Sentence or Testimony out of any old Doctor or Father or out of any old General Council or out of the holy Scriptures of God or any one Example of the Primitive Church whereby it may be clearly and plainly proved that there was any private Mass or that the Bishop of Rome was delegated for Universal and Supreme Head of the Catholick Church with Invocation upon Saints worshipping of Images and buying of Indulgences and Pardons or that the Roman Church was accounted and call'd the Universal and Catholick Church or any thing own'd as Transubstantiation at that time for the space of six hundred years after Christ we are content to yield and to subscribe otherwise we hold our selves strictly obliged to retain the Religion and Faith of Christ which we do now profess and as it is now by our Laws established Inference the third from God provoked Ye shall be taken with the hand Idolatry Bloodshed Oppression Prophaneness and Blasphemy are the crying sins that provoke God safest and hasten his unavoidable Judgments soonest In Ezek. 22. 3. The City maketh Idols against her self to defile her self Idolatry is an open defiance to the Deity therefore abhorr'd of God above other sins and call'd by Gods Spirit the Abomination and therefore it is said in the Text v. 24. Because you have made your iniquity to be remembred this was so odious that it was the cause that made other sins to be remembred and for Bloodshed and Idolatry being put together it is expresly declar'd by the Prophet Chap. 22. 4. that they have hasten'd their destruction And thou hast become saith he guilty in thy blood which thou hast shed and hast defiled thy self with thine Idols which thou hast made and thou hast caused thy days to draw near And as to their oppression prophaneness and blasphemy it is declared in Ezek. 22. to be so notorious and palpable that God blew the fire of his wrath to consume them Their sins did testifie against them the way of peace they knew not truth was fallen in their streets and equity could not enter and Esay crys out that he wondred there was no Intercessor Es 59. 16. Esay Jeremy and Ezekiel spend their breath and their books in declaring the falling away of these people from God and his worship insomuch that at last you see the fierce anger wrath and indignation of God fell upon them in this King Zedekiah's time 4. Inference from the Charge Thou wicked and prophane Prince is this It is such as revolt from the Faith despising holy things and fall to the practises of the Heathen World that the Scriptures call wicked and prophane and never charge any so that keep the true Faith and Worship of God These people were justly charged and their Prince also as wicked and prophane and that for these Reasons 1. They had forsaken the Lord and his Law which is declar'd by good King Josiah in 2 King 22. 13. Our Fathers hearken'd not unto the words of this Book meaning the Book of the Law found by Hilkiah in the House of the Lord to do according to all that is written concerning us And this falling away from Gods Law the Scripture calls Fornication comparing these people of Israel to sordid men Ezek. 16. 15. Thou playedst the Harlot and pourest out thy fornications on every one that passed by 2. They despis'd the holy things of the Lord Manasseh built Altars for Baal in the House of the Lord and set a graven Image of the Grove which he had made in the House of which the Lord had said In this House will I put my Name for ever Therefore doth Ezek. Chap. 22. 8. cry out against them Thou hast despised my holy things and hast prophaned my Sabbaths And ver 26. Her Priests have violated my Law and prophaned my holy things I am prophaned among them 3. These people were justly called wicked and prophane for they follow'd the Idolatrous practises of the Heathen World Zedekiah did as Jehoiakin had done and Jehoiakin as Jehoiakin his Predecessor and he did as Jehoahaz and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his Fathers Manasseh and Ahab had done Now Manasseh built up the High-places rear'd up Altars for Baal made a Grove and worshipped the Sun and the Moon and the Planets and all the Host of Heaven 4. They delivered their Children to pass through the fire to Moloch at Topheth and shed Innocent blood And behold saith the Prophet the Princes of Israel every one were in thee to their power to shed innocent blood like ravening Wolves to destroy Souls for dishonest gain Ezek. 22. 27. These Abominations were grounds enough to charge them as the Prophet doth here Thou wicked and prophane And besides all these there did Oppression and Usury Lewdness and Uncleanness reign in the highest degree amongst them Now having seen who the Scriptures call wicked c. in the Old Testament it lies upon us to know who are so charged also in the New Testament and for what and that appears plainly 2 Thes 2. 7 8 10. S. Paul tells you He who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked be revealed i. e. He that letteth and opposeth Christs Doctrine and Kingdom is that wicked one which in his appointed time shall be reveal'd and in the 10th verse he gives the reason why he calls him wicked Because they received not the love of the Truth This is much like that of Queen Esther spoken concerning Haman who had conspir'd to destroy all the Inheritance of God the Generation of the Jews This Adversary and Enemy is that wicked Haman So in Eph. 6. 12. we find that the Church of Christ
of God as much as in him lyeth The Oath The things that I have here promis'd I shall perform and keep so help me God and the Contents of this Book This Oath is published in King Charles the Martyr's Answer to a Remonstrance c. of the 26th of May 1642. The same Oath for matter you may find in an old Manuscript containing the Form of Coronation c. in the publick Library at Oxon. Is not this as firm and as great a Covenant as blessed King Josiah made who stood by a Pillar and made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his Commandments and his Testimonies and his Statutes with all their hearts c. and all the People stood to the Covenant 2 King 23. 3. So all the People of England and all his Majesty's Subjects bind themselves strictly by two Oaths called the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to obey the King's Laws in all true Faith and Allegiance renouncing all Forreign Powers and declaring the King's Majesty Supreme Head and Governour in all matters as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal next under Christ in all these His Majesty's Dominions Thus do both Prince and People most unanimously and faithfully protest to stick to the Profession of the Protestant Religion as it is by Law establish'd being no other than the same as christ and his Apostles taught and the pure Times of the Primitive Church maintained in the first Centuries after Christ 2. For the purity justness and reasonableness of His Majesty's Laws whereby we are Govern'd the Common Civil and Ecclesiastical all the malice of our Adversaries cannot impeach them of the least savour of Idolatry or Impiety Prophaneness or Blasphemies as those of rebellious Israel under the Old did and of the Roman Papists under the New Testament do The Common-Law being certain reasonable Customs refined by succeeding Ages and gathered out of Divine Natural and Moral Principles our Civil and Canon-Laws being all grounded upon the Word of God and the Decrees of General Councils and the Sence of the Fathers in the first six-hundred years after Christ and in this it is as clear as the Sun at Noon-day that neither His Majesty nor his People can be charg'd for wickedness nor prophaneness in their Profession nor Laws 3. For the Doctrine which we reach it is briefly contain'd in the Creed call'd the Apostles Creed the Lords-Prayer and Ten Commandments and explain'd throughout the whole Bible we believe nothing we pray for nothing and we practice nothing as necessary to Salvation but what is plainly prov'd by evident Scriptures And as for the Government Discipline and Worship of our Church it is acknowledg'd by all Judicious Protestants to be the best constituted Church this day in the whole World and that in the main the Doctrine Discipline and Worship being so decently and excellently fram'd for edification that it makes all Men that duly observe it truly and soberly religious securing them as a Reverend Divine saith on the one side from the wild Freaks of Enthusiasm and on the other from the gross Follies of Superstition 4. As for any violence and cruelty we thank God the World is our Witness we can wash our Hands in Innocence none condemn'd to death for bare perswasions in point of Conscience or different Opinions in matters of Religion It is Fellons and Traytors because they have not the fear of God before their Eyes by the King's Law do dye His most Sacred Majesty being of that gracious and Lamb-like Disposition that he laboureth rather through tenderness to regain than through severity to compell Dissenters to Unity of Spirit and Uniformity in Religion 5. And lastly weigh our Practices I mean the Lives and Conversations of those that are true Sons and Observers of the Church we ingenuously confess that through our carelesness and want of more strictness in many things we do offend all but withall at our daily and publick as well as private Devotion we pray for true repentance and forgiveness and there 's not a Christian Man that hath a little Grain of Charity in him that will deny but that we through a certain though not so Universal as wish'd Obedience receive and submit to the Truth Will Law and Gospel of Jesus Christ To these things if I had time to amplifie I would nor do desire no more Credit than shall be due to the fair Evidence of clear Scripture and sound Reason the two Master Pillars of a good Cause Now upon these and other like grounds is founded the unmovable settled ends of our fixed hopes through Faith in our dear Saviour that we are not Sentenc'd with Idolatrous Israel under the Law are not nor shall be condemn'd with Antichristian Popery under the Gospel And I conclude this Point with that of our Saviour in Joh. 14. 27. Confiding that it is appertaining to us as much as to any other particular Church in the World for some have called the English Church the Primogenita of the Catholick and for certain it is a Member of the true Catholick and therefore may expect her Share in the Legacy of Christ Peace I leave with you Peace I give unto you not as the World gives give I unto you therefore let not your Heart be troubled neither let it be afraid And this leads me to the next Inference Sixthly The sixth Inference is from Christ's coming The Lord's goodness is so far extended to his beloved Spouse the true Church Catholick and to every Member thereof that in the greatest distress and confusions in the World Christ and his comforts will attend the faithful Job 5. 19 20 21 c. He will deliver thee in six troubles and in seven there shall no evil touch thee in Famine he shall redeem thee from Death and in War from the power of the Sword thou shalt be hid from the Scourge of the Tongue neither shalt thou be afraid of Destruction when it cometh What unspeakable comforts satisfaction and rejoycing all the holy Martyrs of Jesus have ever had in their sufferings will be too long to relate here He comes whose right it is and I will give it him I think you do evidently perceive and are fully satisfied by these things already said concerning this Text that there needs no further discourse to make all Men apprehend how free and plainly unspotted with the Charge and Curse here denounced against Jerusalem the present State of England stands The City of Jerusalem and Israel were curs'd mark as you have heard for breach of their Oath and Allegiance and further Rebellion to the King of Babylon though a Pagan King together with their Contempt of God's Word Idolatrous and Prophane Practises but the English Protestants are hated censured accus'd and persecuted by the Popish Faction for no other cause more than for bearing true Allegiance to the rightful and lawful King of their Realm and maintaining as by Oath they are bound that the Pope hath no power to