of Defence of the Being of God was written by any man before him If a man would make a judgement upon the genius and way of his Discourse he might possibly be tempted to fear that it is persons rather than Things that are the object of his Indignation and it may be the fate of some to suffer under the Infamy of Atheism as it is thought Diagoras did of old not for denying the Deity nor for any absurd conceptions of mind concerning it but for deriding and contemning them who without any interest in or sense of Religion did foolishly in Idoliatrous Instances make a pretence of it in the world But whatever wickedness or miscarriages of this nature our Author hath observed his zeal against them were greatly to be commended but that it is not in that only Instance wherein he allows of the exercise of that vertue Let it then be his Anger or Indignation or what he pleases that he may not miss of his due praises and commendation Only I must say that I question whether to charge persons enclined to Atheism with profaning Johnson and Fletcher as well as the Holy Scriptures be a way of proceeding probably suited to their Conviction or Reduction It seems also that those who are here chastised do vent their Atheism in Scossing and Drollery jesting and such like contemptible efforts of Wit that may take for a while amongst little and unlearned people and immediately evaporate I am afraid more of those who under pretences of sober Reason do vent and maintain opinions and principles that have a direct tendency to give an open admission unto Atheism in the minds of men than of such fooleries When others fury and raving cruelties succeeded not he alone prevailed qui solus accessit sobrius ad perdendam Remp. One principle contended for as Rational and true which if admitted will insensibly seduce the mind unto and justifie a practice ending in Atheism is more to be feared than ten thousand jests and scoffs against Religion which methinks amongst men of any tolerable Sobriety should easily be buried under Contempt and Scorn And our Author may do well to consider whether he hath not unwittingly I presume in some instances so expressed and demeaned himself as to give no small Advantage to those corrupt Inclinations unto Atheism which abound in the hearts of men Are not men taught here to keep the Liberty of their Minds and Judgements to themselves whilest they practise that which they approve not nor can do so which is directly to act against the light and conviction of Conscience And yet an associate of his in his present design in a modest and free Conference tells us that there is not awider step to Atheism than to do any thing against Conscience and enforms his Friend that Dissent out of grounds that appear to any founded on the will of God is Conscience but against such a Conscience the Light Judgement and Conviction of it are men here taught to practise and thereby in the judgement of that Author are instructed unto Atheism And indeed if once men find themselves at Liberty to practise contrary to what is prescribed unto them in the name and authority of God as all things are which Conscience requires it is not long that they will retain any regard of him or Reverence unto Him It hath hitherto been the Judgement of all who have enquired into these things that the great concern of the Glory of God in the world the interest of Kings and Rulers of all Governments whatever the good and welfare of private persons lyes in nothing more than in preserving Conscience from being debauched in the conducting principles of it and in keeping up its due Respect to the immediate Soveraignty of God over it in all things Neither ever was there a more horrid attempt upon the Truth of the Gospel all common Morality and the good of Mankind than that which some of late years or Ages have been engaged in by suggesting in their Casuistical Writings such principles for the guidance of the Consciences of men as in sundry particular instances might set them free as to practice from the direct and immedsately influencing Authority of God in his Word And yet I doubt not but it may be made evident that all their principleâ— in conjunction are scarce of so pernicious a tendency as this one general Theorem That men may lawfully act in the Worship of God or otherwise against the Light Dictates or Convictions of their own Consciences Exempt Conscience from an absolute immediate entire universal dependance on the Authority Will and Judgement of God according to what Conceptions it hath of them and you disturb the whole harmony of divine Providence in the Government of the World and break the first link of that great chain whereon all Religion and Government in the world do depend Teach men to be like Naaman the Syrian to believe only in the God of Israel and to Worship Him according to his Appointment by his own Choice and from a sense of duty yet also to bow in the house of Rimmon contrary to his Light and Conviction out of Complyance with his Master or with the men of Samaria to fear the Lord but to worship their Idols and they will not fail at one time or other rather to seek after Rest in restless Atheism than to live in a perpetual conflict with themselves or to cherish an everlasting Sedition in their own bosomes I shall not much reflect upon those Expressions which our Author is pleased to vent his Indignation by such as Religious rage and fury Religious villany religious lunacies serious and Consciencious Villanies wildness of godly madness men lead by the Spirit of God to disturb the publick peace the world filled with a buzze and noise of the divine Spirit sanctified fury sanctified barbarism pious villanies godly disobedience sullen and cross-grained godliness with innumerable others of the like kind which although perhaps he may countenance himself in the use of from the tacite respect that he hath to the persons whom he intends to vilifie and reproach yet in themselves and to others who have not the same apprehensions of their occasion they tend to nothing but to beget a scorn and derision of all Religion and the profession of it an humour which will not find where to rest or fix it self untill it comes to be swallowed up in the Abysse of Atheism We are at length arrived at the last Act of this Tragical Preface and as in our progress we have rather heard a great Noise and Bluster than really encountred either true difficulty or danger so now I confess that Weariness of conversing with so many various sounds of the same signification the summ of all being Knaves Villains Fools will carry me through the remainder of it with some more than ordinary precipitation as grudging an Addition in this kind of employment to those few minutes wherein the preceding Remarques were written
Scripture smutty passages weak impertinent Discourses yea profane scurrilities which some others whom for their Honors sake and other Reasons I shall not name have in their Sermons and Discourses about sacred things been guilty of he might provide matter enough for a score of such Dialogues as the Friendly Debates are composed of But to return That the Advantages mentioned are somewhat peculiar unto Dialogues we have a sufficient evidence in this that our Author having another special design he chose another way of writing suited thereunto He professeth that he hath neither hope nor expectation to convince his Adversaries of their Crimes or Mistakes nor doth endeavour any such thing Nor did he meerly project to render them contemptible and ridiculous which to have effected the writing of Dialogues in his mannagement would have been most accommodate But his purpose was to expose them to persecution or to the severity of Penal Laws from the Magistrate and if possible it may be to popular Rage and Fury The voice of his whole Discourse is the same with that of the Jews concerning St. Paul Away with such fellows from the earth for it is not meet they should live Such an account of his thoughts he gives us pag. 253. saith he The only cause of all our Troubles and Disturbances which what they are he knows not nor can declare is the inflexible perverfeness of about an hundred proud ignorant and seditious Preachers against whom if the severity of the Laws were particularly levelled how easie would it be c. Macte nova virtute puer sic itur ad astra But I hope it will appear before the close of this Discourse that our Author is far from deserving the reputation of Infallible in his Politicks whatever he may be thought to do in his Divinity It is sufficiently known how he is mistaken in his Calculation of the numbers of those whom he designs to brand with the blackest marks of Infamy and whom he exposeth in his Desires to the severities of Law for their Ruine I am sure it is probable that there are more than an hundred of those whom he intends who may say unto him as Gregory of Nazianzen introduceth his Father speaking to himself Nondum tot sunt anni tui quot jam in sacris Nobis sunt peracti victimis Who have been longer in the Ministry than He in the World But suppose there were but an hundred of them he knows or may know when there was such a disparity in the numbers of them that contested about Religion that it was said of them All the World against Athanasius and Athanasius against the World who yet was in the right against them all as they must acknowledge who frequently say or sing his Quicunque vult But how came he so well acquainted with them all and every one as to pronounce of them that they are Proud Ignorant and seditious allow him the Liberty which I see he will take whether we allow it him or no to call whom he pleaseth Seditious upon the account of reall or supposed principles not complyant with his thoughts and apprehensions yet that men are Proud and Ignorant how he can prove but by particular Instances from his own acquaintance with them I know not And if he should be allowed to be a competent judge of Knowledge and Ignorance in the whole compass of Wisdom and Science which it may be some will except against yet unless he had personally conversed with them all or were able to give sufficient instances of their ignorance from Actings Writings or Expressions of their own he would scarce be able to give a Tolerable account of the Honesty of this his pâ—remptory censure And surely this must needs be looked on as a lovely gentle and Philosophick Humour to judge all men Proud and Ignorant who are not of our minds in all things and on that ground alone But yet let them be as ignorant as can be fancied this will not determine the Difference between them and their Adversaries One unlearned Paphnutius in the Council of Nice stopped all the learned Fathers when they were precipitately casting the Church into a snare And others as unlearned as He may Honestly attempt the same at any time And for our Authors Projection for the obtaining of Quiet by severe dealings with these men in an especial manner one of the same nature failed in the instance mentioned For when Athanasius stood almost by himself in the Eastern Empire for a Profession in Religion which the supream Magistrate and the generality of the Clergy condemned it was thought the Levelling of severity in particular against Him would bring all to a Composure To this purpose after they had again and again charged him to be Proud and Seditious they vigorously engaged in his Prosecution according to the Projection here proposed and sought him neer all the World over but to no purpose at all as the event discovered For the Truth which he professed having left its root in the hearts of multitudes of the people on the first opportunity they returned again to the open avowing of it But to return from this Digression this being the Design of our Author not so much to expose his Adversaries to common Contempt and Laughter as to Ruine and Destruction he diverted from the beaten path of Dialogues and betook himself unto that of Rhetorical Invective Declamations which is peculiarly suited to carry on and promote such a Design I shall therefore here leave him for the present following the Triumphant Chariot of his Friend singing io triumphe and casting Reflections upon the Captives that he draggs after him at his chariot wheels which will doubtless supply his Imagination with a pleasing entertainment untill he shall awake out of his dream and find all the Pageantry that his Fancy hath erected round about him to vanish and disappear His next attempt is upon Atheists wherein I have no concern nor his principal Adversaries the Non-Conformists For my part I have had this Advantage by my own Obscurity and small Consideration in the World as never to converse with any persons that did or durst Question the Being or Providence of God either really or in pretence By common reports and published discourses I find that there are not a few in these dayes who either out of pride and ostentation or in a real complyance with their own darkness and Ignorance do boldly venture to dispute the things which we adore and if I am not greatly mis-informed a charge of this prodigious Licentiousness and Impiety may from pregnant instances be brought neer the doors of some who on other occasions declaim against it For Practical Atheism the matter seems to be unquestionable many live as though they believed neither God nor Devil in the world but Themselves With neither sort am I concerned to treat at present nor shall I examine the Invectives of our Author against them though I greatly doubt whether ever such a kind
have as good and better grounds to suspect him to have no conscience at all who upon unjust surmises shall so injuriously charge them as finding him in a direct transgression of the principal Rules that Conscience is to be guided and directed by than he hath to pronounce such a judgement concerning them and their sincerity in what they prosess And whether such mutual censures tend not to the utter overthrow of all peace love and security amongst mankind is easie to determine Certainly it is the worst game in the World for the Publick to have men bandying suspicions one against another and thereon managing mutual charges of all that they do surmise or what else they please to give the countenance of surmise unto I acknowledge the notion insisted on namely that mhilest men reserve to themselves the freedom and liberty of judging what they please or what seems good unto them in matters of Religion and the Worship of God they ought to esteem it their duty to practise in all things according to the prescription of their Rulers though every may contrary unto and inconsistent with their own judgements and perswasions unless it be in things that countenance Vice or disgrace the Deity where of yet it may be it will not be thought meet that they themselves should judge for themselves and their own practise seeing they may extend their conceptions about what doth so unto such minute Instances as would frustrate the whole design is exceedingly accommodated to the corrupt lusts and affections of men and suited to make provision for their security in this world by an exemption from the indispensable command of professing the truth communicated and known unto them a sense of the obligation where of hath hitherto exposed innumerable persons in all Ages to great difficulties dangers and sufferings yea to death the height and summ of all For whereas men have been perswaded that with the heart man believeth unto Righteousness and with the mouth Confession is made unto Salvation the latter clause is in many cases hereby sufficiently superseded and the troublesome duty seeming to be required in it is removed out of the way It will not it may be be so easie to prove that in the Religion of the Mahumetans there is any thing enjoyned in practise that will directly fall under the limitations assigned unto the complyance with the commands of Supeperiours contended for And therefore let a man but retain his own apprehensions concerning Jesus Christ and the Gospel it may be lawful for him yea be his duty to observe the worship enjoyned by the Law of Mahomet if his lot fall to live under the power of the Grand Seignior or any Soveraign Prince of the same perswasion But the case is clear in the Religion of the Papists which is under the protection of the greatest number of supream Magistrates in Europe It will not be pretended I suppose by our Author that there is any thing in the confession of the Church of Rome or imposed by it on the practices of men that directly gives countenance unto any Immorality especially as the sense of that term is by him stated and it is no easie matter for ordinary men to prove and satisfie themselves that there is ought in their Modes of Worship of such a tendency as to cast disgrace upon the Deity especially considering with how much learning and diligence the charge of any such miscarriage is endeavoured to be answered and removed all which pleas ought to be satisfied before a man can make sedately a determinate judgement of the contrary Let then men's judgements be what they will in the matters of difference between Protestants and Papists it is on this Hypothesis the duty of all that live under the Dominion of Soveraign Popish Princes outwardly to comply with and practise that Religious Worship that is commanded by them and enjoyned The case is the same also as to the Religion of the Jews Now as this casts a Reflection of incredible folly and unexpiable guilt upon all Protestant Martyrs in casting away their own lives and disobeying the Commands of their lawful Soveraigns so it exposeth all the Protestants in the World who are still in the same condition of subjection to the severe censures of Impiety and Rebellion and must needs exasperate their Rulers to pursue them to destruction under pretence of unwarrantable obstinacy in them For if we wholly take off the protection of Conscience in this matter and its subjection to the Authority of God alone there is no plea left to excuse dissenting Protestants from the guilt of such crimes as may make men justly cry out against them as the Jews did against St. Paul Away with them away with them it is not meet that such Fellows should live or Frotestantes ad Leones according to the old cry of the Pagans against the Primitive Christians But if this should prove to be a way of teaching and justifying the grossest Hypocrisie and Dissimulation that the nature of man is capable of a means to cast off all regard unto the Authority of God over the wayes and lives of men all the Rhetorick in the World shall never perswade me that God hath so moulded and framed the order and state of humane affairs that it should be any way needful to the preservation of publick peace and tranquility Openness plainness of heart Sincerity in our Actions and Professions Generous honesty and an universal respect in all things to the supream Rector of all the great Possessour of Heaven and Earth with an endeavour to comply with His present revealed mind and future judgement are far better Foundations for and ligaments of publick peace and quietness To make this the Foundation of our Political Superstructure that Divisum Imperium Cum Jove Caesar habet God hath immediate and sole power over the minds and inward thoughts of men but the Magistrate over the Exercise of those thoughts in things especially belonging to the Worship of God and in the same Instances seems not to prognosticate a stable or durable building The Prophet was not of that mind of old who in the name of God blamed the people for willingly walking after the Commandment of their Ruler in concerns of Worship not warranted by Divine appointment nor was Daniel so who notwithstanding the severe prohibition made against his praying in his house continued to do so three times a day But besides all this I do not see how this Hypothesis is necessarily subservient to the principal design of the Author but it may be as well improved to quite distant yea contrary ends and purposes His design plainly is to have one Fabrick of Religion erected one Form of External Worship enacted and prescribed which all men should be compelled by penalties to the outward profession and observance of these penalties he would have to be such as should not fail of their end namely of taking away all professed Dissent from his Religious establishment which if
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
and is affirmed to be unspeakable and full of glory he that knows not is scarce meet to Paraphrase upon St. Pauls Epistles Neither is that Peace with God through Jesus Christ which is rought in the Hearts of Believers by the Holy Ghost who creates the fruit of the lipps peace peace unto them a matter of any more affinity with a Moral peaceableness of mind and Affections Our Faith also in God and our Faithfulness in our Duties Trusts Offices and Employments are sufficiently distinct So palpably must the Scripture be corrupted and wrested to be made serviceable to this presumption He yet adds another proof to the same purpose if any man know distinctly what that purpose is namely Titus 2. 11. Where he tells us that the same Apostle make the Grace of God to consist in Gratitude towards God Temperance towards our Selves and Justice towards our Neighbours But these things are not so For the Apostle doth not say that the Grace of God doth consist in these things but that the Grace of God teacheth us these things Neither is the Grace here intended any Subjective or inherent Grace or to speak with our Author any Vertuous Quality or Vertue but the Love and Grace of God himself in sending Jesus Christ as declared in the Gospel was is manifest in the words and context beyond contradiction And I cannot but wonder how our Author desirous to prove that the whole of our Religion consists in Moral Vertues and these only called Graces because of the Miraculous Operations of God from his own Grace in the first Gospel converts should endeavour to do it by these two testimonies the first whereof expresly assigns the Duties of Morality as in Believers to the operation of the Spirit and the latter in his judgment makes them to proceed from Grace Our last inquiry is into what he ascribes unto his Adversaries in this matter and how he deals with them thereupon This therefore he informs us pag. 71. It is not enough say they to be compleatly vertuous unless ye have grace too I can scarce believe that ever he heard any one of them say so or ever read it in any of their writings For there is nothing that they are more positive in than that men cannot in any sense be compleatly vertuous unless they have grace and so cannot suppose them to be so who have it not They say indeed that moral vertues as before described so far as they are attainable by or may be exercised in the strength of Mens own wills and natural faculties are not enough to please God and to make men accepted with him So that vertue as it may be without Grace and some vertues may be so for the substance of them is not available unto salvation And I had almost said that he is no Christian that is of another mind In a word Vertue is or may be without Grace in all or any of the Acceptations of it before laid down Where it is without the Favour of God and the Pardon of sin where it is without the renewing of our natures and the endowment of our Persons with a Principle of spiritual life where it is not wrought in us by present efficacious Grace it is not enough nor will serve any mans turn with respect unto the everlasting concernments of his Soul But he gives in his Exceptions pag. 71. But when saith he we have set aside all manner of vertue let them tell me what remains to be called Grace and give me any notion of it distinct from all morality that consists in the right order and government of our actions in all our Relations and so comprehends all our Duty and therefore if Grace be not included in it it is but a phantasme and an imaginary thing I say first where Grace is we cannot set aside vertue because it will and doth produce and effect it in the minds of men But Vertue may be where Grace is not in the sense so often declared Secondly Take moral vertue in the notion of it here received and explained by our Author and I have given sundry Instances before of Gracious Duties that come not within the verge or compass of the Scheme given us of it Thirdly The whole aimed at lies in this that vertue that governs our actions in all our Duties may be considered either as the Duty we owe to the Law of nature for the ends of it to be performed in the strength of nature and by the direction of it or it may be considered as it is an especial effect of the grace of God in us which gives it a new principle and a new end and a new respect unto the Covenant of Grace Wherein we walk with God the consideration where of frustrates the intention of our Author in this discourse But he renews his charge pag. 73. So destructive of all true and real goodness is the very Religion of those men that are wont to set grace at odds with vertue and are so farr from making them the same that they make them inconsistent and though a man be exact in all the duties of moral goodness yet if he be a graceless person i. e. void of I know not what imaginary Godliness he is but in a cleaner way to Hell and his conversion is more hopeless than the vilest and most notorious sinners and the morally Righteous man is at a greater distance from grace than the prophane and better be lend and debanched than live an honest and vertuous life if you are not of the Godly Party with much more to this purpose For the men that are wont to set grace at odds with vertue and are so far from making them the same that they make them inconsistent I wish our Author would discover them that he might take us along with him in his detestation of them It is not unlikely if all be true that is told of them but that the Gnosticks might have some principles not unlike this but beside them I never heard of any that were of this mind in the world And in truth the liberty that is taken in these discourses is a great instance of the morality under consideration But the following words will direct us where these things are charged For some say that if a man be exact in all the Duties of moral Goodness yet if he be a Graceless Person void of I know not what imaginary Godliness he is but in a cleaner way to Hell I think I know both what and who are intended and that both are dealt withal with that candour we have been now accustomed unto But First you will scarce find those you intend over forward in granting that men may be exact in all the Duties of Moral goodness and yet be graceless persons For taking Moral vertues to comprehend as you do their duties toward God they will tell you such Persons cannot perform one of them aright much less all of them exactly For they can neither trust in
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
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