the Treatise we have had under consideration and it is that given by a King unto those that should pertake of the like Royal Authority with himself Psalm 2. 10 11 12. Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the earth Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Kiss the Son left he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him And he who can inform me how they can render themselves more like unto God more acceptable unto him and more the Concern and Delight of mankind than by relieving peaceable and innocent persons from their Fears Cares and Solicitousness about undeserved evils or from the suffering of such things which no mortal man can convince them that they have merited to undergo or suffer he shall have my thanks for his discovery And what is it that we treat about What is it that a little Truce and Peace is desired unto and pleaded for What are the concerns of publick good therein Let a little sedate consideration be exercised about these things and the causelesness of all the Wrath we have been conversing withall will quickly appear That there is a sad degeneracy of Christianity in the world amongst the Professors of Christian Religion from the Rule Spirit Worship and Conversation of the first Christians who in all things observed and expressed the Nature Vertue and Power of the Gospel all must acknowledge and many do complain Whatever of this kind comes to pass and by what means soever it is the interest and design of them who are present gainers by it in the world to keep all things in the posture that yields them their advantage Hence upon every Appearance of an Alteration or Apprehension that any will desert the Wayes of Worship wherein they have been engaged they are cast into a storm of passion and outrage like Demetrius and the rest of the Silver-smiths pretending divisions present settlement ancient veneration and the like when their gain and advantage whether known or unknown to themselves is that which both influenceth them with such a frame of Spirit and animates them to actings suitable thereunto Thus in the Ages past there was so great and universal an Apostacy long before fore-told overspreading Christianity that by innumerable sober persons it was judged intolerable and that if men had any regard to the Gospel of Christ their own freedom in the world or everlasting blessedness there was a necessity of a Reformation and the reduction of the profession of Christian Religion unto some nearer conformity to the Primitive times and pattern Into this design sundry Kings Princes and whole Nations engaged themselves namely what lay in them and according to the sentiments of Truth they had received to reduce Religion unto its pristine Glory What Wrath Clamours Fury Indignation Revenge Malice this occasioned in them whose Subsistence Wealth Advantages Honour and Reputation all lay in preserving things in their state of defection and Apostacy is known to all the world Hence therefore arose bloody persecutions in all and fierce Wars in many Nations where this thing was attempted stirred up by the craft and cruelty of them who had mastered and managed the former declensions of Religion to their own use and advantage The guilt of which mischiefs and miseries unto mankind is by a late Writer amongst our selves contrary to all the monuments of times past and confessions of the Adversaries themselves endeavoured to be cast on the Reformers However a work of Reformation was carried on in the world and succeeded in many places in none more eminently than in this Nation wherein we live That the end aimed at which was professedly the Reduction of Religion to its antient Beauty and Glory in Truth and Worship is attained amongst us some perhaps do judge and absolutely acquiesce therein and for my part I wish we had more did so For be it spoken as I hope without offence on the part of others so without fear of giving it or having it taken on my own there are among many such evident Declensions from the first established Reformation towards the old or a new and it may be worse Apostacy such an apparent weariness of the principal Doctrines and practices which enlivened the Reformation as I cannot but be troubled at and wherewith many are offended For although I do own a dissent from some present establishments in the Church of England yet I have that honour for the first Reformers of it and Reformation it self that love to the Truth declared and established in it that respect to the Work and Grace of God in the conversion of the souls of thousands by the Ministry of the word in these Nations that I cannot but grieve continually to see the acknowledged Doctrines of it deserted its ancient principles and practices derided its pristine zeal despised by some who make advantage of its outward constitution inheriting the profits emoluments and wealth which the bounty of our Kings have endowed it withal but not its Spirit its Love its stedfastness in owning the Protestant Truth and Cause But to return for these things may better elsewhere be complained of seeing they relate only to particular persons That what is done in Reformation be established that any farther publick work of the same nature be attempted or the retrivement of what is done to its original condition and estate belongs to the determination of the Supream Magistrate and to that alone Private persons have no Call no Warrant to attempt any thing unto those purposes However many there are who dislike some Ecclestastical Constitutions and Modes of outward Worship which have been the matter of great contests from the first Reformation but much more dislike the degeneracy from the Spirit way and principles of the first Reformers before mentioned which in some at present they apprehend And therefore though many seem to be at a great distance from the present established Forms of the Church of England yet certainly all who are humble and peaceable when they shall see the Ministry of the Church as in former dayes in some measure acted rightly and zealously towards the known ends of it and such as are undeniably by all acknowledged namely the Conviction of the World the Conversion of Souls and Edification of them that do believe and the discipline of it exercised in a conformily at least to the Rule of the Discipline of the secular powers of the earth not to be a terrour to the good but to them that do evil and in these things a demonstration of the Meekness Humility Patience forbearance condescension to the weakness mistakes errings and wandrings of others which the Gospel doth as plainly and evidently require of us as it doth that we should believe in Jesus Christ will continually pray for its prosperity though they cannot themselves joyn with it in sundry of its practices and wayes In the
and common Acceptation which strikes no small stroke in the regulating of the conceptions of the wisest Men about the signification of words nothing else is intended by Moral vertues or Duties of Morality but the observation of the Precepts of the second Table Nor is any thing else designed by those Divines who in their writings so frequently declare that it is not morality alone that will render men acceptable to God Others do extend these things further and fix the denomination of moral firstly upon the Law or Rule of all those Habits of the Mind and its Operations which afterwards thence they call moral Now this Moral Law is nothing but the Law of Nature or the Law of our Creation which the Apostle affirms to lye equally obligatory on all men even all the Gentiles themselves Rom. 2. 14 15. and whereof the Decalogue is summarily expressive This Moral Law is therefore the Law written in the hearts of all men by Nature which is resolved partly into the Nature of God himself which cannot but require most of the things of it from Rational Creatures partly into that state and condition of the nature of things and their mutual Relations wherein God was pleased to create and set them These things might be easily instanced and exemplified but that we must not too much divert from our present occasion And herein lyes the largest sense and Acceptation of the Law Moral and consequently of Moral Vertues which have their Form and Being from their Relation and conformity thereunto Let it be then that Moral Vertues consist in the universal observance of the requisites and Precepts of the law of our Creation and dependance on God thereby And this description as we shall see for the substance of it is allowed by our Author Now these Vertues or this conformity of our minds and actions unto the Law of our Creation may be in the light and reason of Christian Religion considered two wayes First as with respect unto the substance or Essence of the Duties themselves they may be performed by men in their own strength under the conduct of their own Reason without any special assistance from the Spirit or Sanctifying Grace of Christ. In this sense they still bare the name of Vertues and for the substance of them deserve so to do Good they are in themselves useful to Mankind and seldome in the Providence of God go without their reward in this World I grant I say that they may be obtained and acted without special assistance of Grace Evangelical though the wiser Heathens acknowledged something Divine in the communication of them to Men. Papinius speaks to that purpose Diva Jovis solio juxta comes undeper Orbem Rara dari TerrÃsque solet contingere virtus Seu Pater Omnipotens tribuit sive ipsa capaces Elegit penetrare Viros But old Homer put it absolutely in the will of his God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus we grant moral vertue to have been in the Heathen of old For this is that alone whereby they were distinguished amongst themselves And he that would exclude them all from any interest in moral vertue takes away all difference between Cato and Nero Aristides and Tiberius Titus and Domitian and overthrows all natural difference between good and evil which besides other abominations that it would plentifully spawn in the World would inevitably destroy all humane Society But now these moral vertues thus performed whatever our Author thinks are distinct from Grace may be without it and in their present description which is not imaginary but real are supposed so to be And if he pleases he may exercise himself in the longsome disputes of Bellarmin Gregory de Valentia and others to this purpose innumerable not to mention Reformed Divines lest they should be scornfully rejected as Systematical And this is enough I am sure to free their Religion from Villany who make a distinction between Moral Vertue and Grace And if our Author is otherwise minded and both believe that there is Grace Evangelical â—â—â—â—ever there is Moral Vertue or that Moral Vertues may be so obtained and exercised without the special assistance of Grace as to become a part of our Religion and accepted with God and will maintain his Opinion in Writing I will promise him if I live to return him an answer on one only condition which is that he will first answer what Augustine hath written against the Pelagians on this Subject Again these moral Vertues this observance of the Precepts of the Law of our Creation in a consonancy whereunto originally the Image of God in us did consist may now under the Gospel be considered as men are principled assisted and enabled to and in their performance by the Grace of God and as they are directed unto the especial end of living unto him in and by Jesus Christ. What is particularly required hereunto shall be afterwards declared Now in this sense no man living ever distinguished between Grace and Vertue any otherwise than the cause and the effect are to be or may be distinguished much less was any Person ever so Bruitish as to fancy an inconsistency between them For take Grace in one sense and it is the efficient cause of this Vertue or of these Vertues which are the effects of it and in another they are all Graces themselves For that which is wrought in us by Grace is Grace as that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit To this purpose something may be spoken concerning Grace also the other term whose ambiguity renders the Discourse under consideration somewhat intricate and perplexed Now as the former term of Moral Vertue owed its Original to the Schools of Philosophy and its use was borrowed from them So this of Grace is purely Scriptural and Evangelical The World knows nothing of it but what is declared in the Word of God especially in the Gospel for the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. All the Books of the Ancient Philosophers will not give us the least light into that notion of Grace which the Scripture declares unto us As then we allowed the sense of the former term given unto it by its first coyners and users so we cannot but think it equal that men be precisely tyed up in their conceptions about Grace unto what is delivered in the Scripture concerning it as having no other Rule either to frame them or judge of them And this We shall attend unto Not that I here design to treat of the nature of Gospel Grace in general but whereas all the Divines that ever I have read on these things whether Ancient or Modern and I have not troubled my self to consider whether they were Systematical ones only or otherwise qualified allow some distinctions of this term to be necessary for the right understanding of those passages of Scripture wherein it is made use of I shall mention that or those only which are
from them in Religion Generally abroad throughout Christendome those in whose hands the Civil Powers are and who may be supposed to have inclinations unto the severe exercise of that power which is their own such as they think possibly may become them as men and Governours would be inclineable to moderation towards dissenters were they not excited provoked and wearied by them who pretend to represent Jesus Christ to the world as if any earthly Potentate had more patience mercy and compassion than he Look on those Lutheran Countreyes where they persecute the Calvinists it is commonly declared and proved that the Migistrates for the most part would willingly bear with those dissenters were they not stirred up continually to severities by them whose duty it were to perswade them to clemency and moderation if in themselves they were otherwise enclined And this hath ruined the interest of the Protestant Religion in Germany in a great measure Do men who destroy no more than they can nor punish more than they are able and cry out for Assistence where their own arm fails them render themselves hereby like to their heavenly Father Is this Spirit from above Doth that which is so teach men to harrase the consciences of persons their brethren and fellow-servants on every little difference in judgement and practice about religious things Whom will such men fulfill the commands of patience forbearance waiting meekness condescension that the Gospel abounds with towards Is it only towards them who are of the same mind with themselves They stand in no need of them they stand upon the same terms of advantage with themselves And for those that dissent arise kill and eat seems to be the only command to be observed towards them And why all this fierceness and severity Let men talk what they please those aimed at are peaceable in the Land and resolve to be so whatever may befall them They despise all contrary insinuations That they are in their stations severally usefull to the Common-wealth and collectively in their industry and trading of great consideration to publick welfare is now apparent unto all indifferent men It is or must be if it be for any thing as surely no men delight in troubling others for trouble sake for their Errors and Mistakes in and about the Worship of God All other Pleass are meer pretences of passion and interest But who judgeth them to be so guilty of errors Why those that stir up others to their hurt and disquietment But is their Judgement infallible How if they should be mistaken themselves in their judgement If they are they do not only err but persecute others for the Truth And this hath been the general issue of this matter in the world Error hath persecuted Truth ten times for Truths once persecuting of Error But suppose the worst suppose them in errors and under mistakes let it be proved that God hath appointed that all men who so err should be so punished as they would have Non-conformists and though I should believe them in the truth I would never more plead their cause And would these men be willingly thus dealt withall by those who judge or may judge them to err It may be some would because they have a good security that none shall ever judge them so to do who hath power to punish them for they will be of his mind But sure none can be so absolutely confined unto themselves nor so universally in all their affections and desires unto their own personal concerns as not to have a compassion for some or other who in one place or other are judged to err by them who have power over them to affix what guilt they please unto that which is not their crime And will they justifie all their oppressors All men have an equal right in this matter nothing is required but being uppermost to make a difference This is that which hath turned Christendome into a Shambles whilest every prevailing Party hath judged it their duty and interest to destroy them that do dissent from them Once more what name of sin or wickedness will they find to affix to these errors Nullum criminis nomen nist nominis crimen No man errs willingly nor ought to be thought to tempt or seduce his own will when his error is to his disadvantage And he is innocent whose will is not guilty Moreover those pretended errors in our case are not in matters of faith nor for the most part in or about the Worship of God or that which is acknowledged so to be but in or about those things which some think it convenient to add unto it or conjoyn with it And what quietness what peace is there like to be in the world whilst the sword of vengeance must be continually drawn about these things Counsels of peace patience and forbearance would certainly better become Professors of the Gospel and Preachers of everlasting peace than such passionate and furious enterprizes for severity as we meet withal And I no way doubt but that all generous noble and heroick spirits such as are not concerned in the impaleed peculiar interest and advantages of some and do scorn the pedantick humours of mean and emulous souls when once a few more clouds of prejudices are scattered will be willing to give up to God the Glory of his Soveraignty over the consciences of men and despise the thoughts of giving them disquietments for such things as they can no way remedy and which hinder them not from being servants of God good Subjects to the King and usefull in their respective lots and conditions And now instead of those words of Pilate What I have written I have written which though uttered by him maliciously and despightfully as was also the Prophecy of Caiaphas were by the Holy Wise Providence of God turned into a Testimony to the Truth I shall shut up this Discourse with those of our Saviour which are unspeakably more our concernment to consider Matth. 24. 45 46 47 48 49 50 51. Who then is a faithfull and wise Servant whom his Lord hath made Ruler over his houshold to give them meat in due season blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Verily I say unto you he shall make him Ruler over all his goods But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart my Lord deferreth his coming And shall begin to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the druâ—ken The Lord of that servant shall come in a day that he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cuâ— him assunder and appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth FINIS