to bribe Gods justice or engage mens charity to purchase favour with God or man or his own clamarous conscience but he prays because he wants and loves and believes he wants the fuller presence of that God whom he loves he loves the presence which he wants he believes that he that loves him will not suffer him to want any good thing that he prays for And therefore he do's not bind up himself severely and limit himself penuriously to a morning and evening Sacrifice and solemnity as unto certain rent-seasons wherein to pay a homage of dry devotion but his loving and longing Soul disdaining to be confin'd within Canâ—nical hours is frequently soaring in some heavenly raptures or other and sallying forth in holy ejaculations He is not content with some weak assays towards Heaven in set and formal Prayer once or twice a day but labours also to be all the day long sucking in those Divine influences and streams of grace by the mouth of faith which he beg'd in the morning by the tongue of prayer which hath made me sometimes to think it a proper speech to say the faith of Prayer as well as the prayer of faith for believing and hanging upon Divine grace doth really drink in what Prayer opens its mouth for and is in effect a powerful kind of praying in silence By believing we pray as well as in praying we do believe A truly godly man hath not his hands tyed up meerly by the force of a National Law no nor yet by the authority of the fourth commandment to keep one in seven a day of rest As he is not content with meer resting upon the Sabboth knowing that neither working nor ceasing from work doth of itself commend a Soul to God but doth press after intimacy with God in the duties of his worship so neither can he be content with one Sabboth in a week nor think himself absolved from holy and heavenly meditations any day in the week but labours to make every day a Sabboth as to the keeping of his heart up unto God in a holy frame and to find every day to be a Sabboth as to the communications of God unto his Soul Though the necessities of his body will not allow him it may be though indeed God hath granted this to some men to keep every day as a Sabboth of Rest yet the necessities of his Soul do call upon him to make every day as far as may be a Sabboth of communion with the blessed God If you speak of Fasting he keeps not Fasts meerly by vertue of a civil no nor a divine institution but from a principle of godly sorrow afflicts his â—oul for sio and daily endeavours more and more to be emptied of himself which is the most excellent Fasting in the world If you speak of Thansgiving he do's not give thanks by laws and ordinances but having in himself a law of thanksulness and an ordinance of love engraven upon and deeply radicated in his Soul delights to live unto God and to make his heart and life a living descant upon the goodness and love of God which is the most divine way of thank offering in the world it is the hallâ—lujah which the Angels sing continually In a word wherever God hath a tongue to command true godliness will find an hand to perform whatever yoke Christ Jesus shall put upon the Soul religion will enable to bear it yea and to count it easie too the mouth of Christ hath pronounâ—'d it easie Mat. 11. 30. and the spirit of Christ makes it easie Let the commandment be what it will it will not le grievous 1 Joh. 5. 3. The same spirit doth in some measure dwell in every Christian which without measure dwelt in Christ who counted it his meat and drink to do the will of his Father Joh. 4. 34. 2. And more especially the true Christian is free from any constâ—aint as to the inward acts which he performeth Holy love to God is one principal Act of the gracioâ—s soul whereby it is carryed out freely and with an ardent lust towards the object that is truly and infinitely lovely and satisfâ—ctory and to the enjoyment of iâ— I know indeed that this springs from self indigency and is commanded by the soveraignty of the supream good the object that the Soul eyes but it is properly free from any constraint Love is an affection that cannot be excorted as sear is nor sorâ—â—d by any external power nor indeed internal neither the revenues of the King of Persia or the treasuâ—es oâ— Aegypt cannot commit a rape upon â—â— Heb. 11. 26. neither indeed can the soul it self raise and lay this spirit at pleasure which made the Poet complain of himself as if he were not sole Emperour at home Non amo te Sabidi nec possum dicere quare c. Though the outward bodily Acts of Religion are ordinarily forced yet this pure chast virgin-affection cannot be ravished it seems to be a kind of a peculiar in the soul though under the jurisdiction of the understanding By this property of it it is elegantly described by the spirit of God Cant. 8. 7. if a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned It cannot be bought with money or money-worth cannot be purchased with gifts or arts and if any should offer to bribe it it would give him a sharp and scornful check in the language of Peter to Simon Thy money perish with thee love is no hireling no base born mercenary affection but noble free and generous Neither is it low-spirited and slavish as Fear is therefore when it comes to full age it will not suffer this Son of the Bond woman to divide the inheritance the dominions of the Soul with it when it comes to be perfect it casteth out fear sayes the Apostle 1 Joh. 4. 18. Neither indeed is it directly under the authority of any law whether humane or Divine it is not begotten by the influence of a divine law as a law but as holy just and good as we shall see more anon quis legem dat amantibus ipse Est sibi lex amor the Law of Love or if you will in the Apostles phrase the spirit of love and of power in opposition to the spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. 7. doth more influence the godly man in his pursuit of God than any law without him this is as a wing to the Soul whereas outward commandments are but as guides in his way or at most but as spurs in his sides The same I may say of holy delight in God which is indeed the flower of love or love grown up to its full age and stature which hath no torment in it and consequently no force upon it Like unto which are holy confidence Faith and Hope ingenuous and natural Acts of the Religious Soul whereby it hastens into the Divine embraces as the Eagle hastneth to the prey swiftly and speedily
should take their communion with God to consist in an overly acquaintance with him profession of him performances to him I am confident it is not possible that men should have any true feeling of happiness in such acquaintance no more than a man can be really filled with the seeing or carving of meat which he eats not Before I apply the Doctrine give me leave to lay down some rules or positions tending further to explain and clear it 1. This must be held which I toucht upon before that there can be no communion between God and man but by a likeness of nature a new a divine principle implanted in the soul A beast hath no communion with a man because Reason the ground of such communion is wanting Of all the Creatures there was none found that could be a meet help for Adam that could be taken into the humane society till Eve was made who was a humane person So neither can there be any conjunction of the soul with God but by oneness of spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit 2. There can be no communion with God but by a Mediator no Mediator but Christ Jesus who is God-man Two cannot walk together nor hold communion except they be agreed And there can be no agreement made between God and man but by Christ Jesus Therefore it is said here our communion is with the Father and the Son q. d. with the Father by the Son And faith whereby the Soul and God are united is still said to be faith in Christ as we find up and down the Scriptures 3. There can be no perfect communion with God in this life Ouâ— communion with Heaven whilest we are upon earth is imperfect our resemblance to God is scant and dark in comparison of what it shall be We know but in part love but in part enjoy but in part we are but in part holy and happy There can be no perfect communion with God till there be a perfect reconciliation of natures as well as persons and that cannot be whilest there is any thing unlike to God in the soul whilest any impure thing dwells in the Soul which cannot truly close with God nor God with that The Holy Spirit can never suffer any defiled thing to unite it self with it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not lawful for any impure thing to mix it self with pure Divinity so Socrates the Heathen What communion hath righteousness with unrighteousness saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 6. 14. and so far as a righteous man is in any part unrighteous so far he is a stranger to God The unregenerate part of a regenerate man hath no more communion with God than a wicked man than the devil himself hath no more than darkness hath with light 4. Our communion with God must be distinguished from the sense and feeling of it Many have run upon sad miscarriages and those indeed extreams whilest they place communion with God in the sense and feeling of it in raptures of joy extasies and transports of soul which indeed if they be real are not so much it as the flower of it something resulting and separable from it Communion with God cannot be lost in a Saint for then he is no Saint for it is the proprium quarto modo of a Saint to have communion with God and a Saint under desertion hath communion with God even then as reaâ—â—y though not so feelingly as at any other time so far as he is sanctified But the sense of this communion may be very much if not altogether lost and oftentimes is lost 5. A souls communion with God cannot be interrupted by any local mutations It is a spiritual conjunction and is not violated by any confinement the walls of a Prison cannot separate God and the godly soul banishment cannot drive a soul from God Coelum non animum mutant c. The blessed Angels those ministring spirits when they are dispatcht into the utmost ends of the world upon the service of God are even then beholding the face of God and do enjoy as intimate communion with him as ever The case is the same with all godly souls whose communion with God â—os not depend upon any local situation It is not thousands of miles that can begâ—t a distance between God and the soul Indeed nothing but sin dos it or can do it Your iniquities have separated between you and your God Isa 59. 2. nothing but sin is contrary to this divine fellowship and so nothing but that can interrupt this spiritual society To speak properly sin dos not so much cause the souls distance from God as it self is that distance Man and Wife remain one though at a hundred miles distance and believing souls do maintain a certain spiritual communion one with another though in several parts of the world The society and communion of godly souls one with another so far as it is spiritual cannot be interrupted by bodily distance much less then the fellowship of God with the godly soul who carryes about with him and in him a divine nature the image of God a holy godlike disposition whither soever he goes 6. This communion with God which I have been speaking of is much better than all outward acts and enjoyments duties and ordinances whatsoever though they be never so many or specious God himself long since decided this matter that a broken and contrite heart is better than all Sacrifices Psal 51. 17. that to obey was better than Sacrifice 1 Sam. 15. 22. that mercy was better than Sacrifice Hos 6. 6. that to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with God was to be preferred before thousands of Rams and ten thousands of Rivers of Oyle Mie 6. 7 8. It holds in reference to Gospel duties though they may seem more spirituall than the oblations of the Law A real soul-communion with God a communion of hearts and natures of wills and affections of interests and ends is infinitely more excellent than all hearing praying celebration of Sabboths or Sacraments Jam. 1. 25. as the end is more excellent than the means For so stands the case between them Yea I will add though some proud and wanton spirits have made strange work with it yet it is a sure and most excellent doctrine that this spiritual communion is a continual Sabboth a Sabboth of communion is much better than a Sabboth of rest this is the Sabboth that the Angels and Saints in Heaven keep though they know no such thing as a feast day in the week have no reading preaching or praying amongst them This is a continual praying an effectual way of praying in silence A right active sucking faith dos vertually contain a prayer in it Right believing is powerful praying The knees eyes and tongues bear the least share in prayer the whole of the work lyes upon the soul and particularly upon faith in the soul which is indeed the life and soul
shadow of the Divine Light not to be compared with the Beauty of Holiness An immortal Soul doth more resemble the Divine Nature than any other created Being but Religion in the Soul is a thousand times more divine than the Soul it self The material World is indeed a darker Representation of Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness it is as it were the footsteps of God the immaterial World of Angels and Splrits does represent him more clearly and are the Face of God but Holiness in the Soul doth most nearly resemble him of all created Things one may call it the Beauty and Glory of his Face Every Creature partakes of God indeed he had no Copy but himself and his own Essence to frame the World by so that all these must needs carry some resemblance of their Maker But no Creature is capable of such communications of God as a rational immortal Spirit is and the highest that Angel or Spirit or any created Nature can be made capable of is to be holy as God is holy So then if the Poet may call the Soul and St. Paul allows him in it Divinoe particula aâ—ra sure one may rather speak at that rate of Religion which is the highest perfection that the Soul can attain to either in the World that now is or that which is to come One Soul any one Soul of man is worth all the World beside for glory and dignity but the lowest degree of true Holiness pure Religion Conformity to the Divine Nature and Will is more worth than a World of Souls and to be preferr'd before the Essence of Angels I have often admir'd three great Mysteries and Mercies God revealed in the Flesh God revealed in the Word and God revealed in the Soul This last is the Mystery of Godliness which I am speaking of but cannot fathom It is this that the Apostle says transcends the sight of our Eyes the capacity of our Ears and all the faculties of our Souls too 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen c. Christ Jesus formed in the Soul of man incarnate in a heart of Flesh is as great a Miracle and a greater Mercy than Christ formed in the Womb of a Virgin and incarnate in a humane Body There was once much glorying concerning Christ in the World the Hope of Israel but let us call out to the powers of Eternity and the Ages of the World to come to help us to celebrate and magnifie Christ in us the hope of Glory or if you will Christ in us the first fruits of Glory 1. This will then help us in our discoveries of that precious part Religion There is nothing in the world that men do generally more seek or less find no nation in the world but hath courted it in one way or other but alas how few that have obtained it At this day there are many claims laid to it all pretending a just title the men of Judab cry she is of Kin to us the men of Israel say we have ten parts in this Queen and we have more right in Religion than ye according as they contended of old about King David 2 Sam. 19 They say of Christ as it was foretold though perhaps not in the same as was foretold loe here he is and loe there he is which haâ—h made many say he is not at all or if I may go on in the same allusion they live by the rule that there follows they will not go forth to seek him any where Mighty strivings yea and wars there have been about the Prince of peace whose he should be And at this day no question more debated nor less decided than which is the Religious party in the Land Oh would to God men would dispute this controversie with works and not with words much less with blows Religion is of an eminent pedegree of a noble descent you may find her name in the Register of Heaven and look where God is there is she She carryes her name in her forehead the Divine disposition that she is of the Divine works which she worketh which no one else can work the same do bear witness which is she I am ready to say with the man that had been blind Joh. 9. 3. here in is a marvelous thing that ye know not Religion who she is and yet she is the mighty power of God opening the eyes changing the hearts and as it were deifying the souls of men Why do we not also go about enquiring which of those many stars is the Moon in the Firmament If ye ask of the Religions party I will point you to the blessed and eternal God and say As he is so are they in their capacity each one resembling the Children of a King or I will point out the Religions Christian by the same token as Christ himself was marked out to John the Baptist Joh. 1. 33. upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining the same is he If ye enquire about the Children of God the Apostle shall describe them for you Ephes 5. 1. The followers of God are his dear Children That which is most nearly allyed to the nature and life of God that call Religion under whatsoever disguises or reproaches it may go in the world Examine the world by no lower a mark than that Character that is given of David 1 Sam. 13. 14. and the man that doth appear to be after Gods heart viz. comformable to his image complyant with his will and studious of his glory pitch upon him for that is that man under what name soever he goes of what party or faction soever he is And let no soul examine it self by any lower marks than this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 participation of the Divine nature conformity to the Divine Image Examine what alliance your soul hath to God whose is the image and superscription Religion is a divine accomplishment an efflux from God and may by its affiniâ—y to Heaven be discerned from a brat of Hell and darkness Therefore Christians if you will make a judgement of your state lay your hearts and lives to the rule the eternal goodness the uncreated purity and holiness and see whether you resemble that Copy For conformâ—ty to the image and will of God that is Religion and that God will own for his when all the counterfeits and shadows of it shall fly away and disappear for ever I fear it may be imputed as a great piece of vanity and idle curicâ—ty to many 〈◊〉 speculative Christians that they are very inquisitive prying into the hidden roâ—â—s of Gods decree the secrets of predestination to find out the causes and method of their vocation and salvation in the mean time they are not sollicitous for nor studious of the relation and resemblance that every religious soul bears unto God himself the heaven that is opened within the godly soul it self and the whole plot and mystery of salvationsalvation translated upon the heart of a true Christian There is
IMMANVEL Or A discovery of TRUE RELIGION As it imports a living Principle in the minds of men grounded upon Christ's Discourse with the Samaritaness 1 Joh. 4. 14. Being the latter clause of The Voice Crying in a Wilderness Or a Continuation of the Angelical Life Mostly Composed at the same time By S. S. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Jer. 31. 33. 〈◊〉 that believeth in me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living Water Joh. 7. 38. 〈◊〉 itatem Philosophi quaerunt Theologi inveniunt Religiosi Possident Comes Mirandul LONDON Printed Anno Dom. 1667. A Treating Preface TO THE READER AMongst the many stupendious spectacles that are wont to surprize and amuze inquisitive and considerative minds there seems to be nothing in the world of a sadder and more astonishing observation than the small progress and propagation of Christian Religion This I call a sad observation because Religion is a matter of the most weighty and necessary importance without which it is not possible for an immortal soul to be perfected and made happy I call it astonishing because Christian Religion hath in itself such advantages of recommending itself to the minds of men and contains in it such mighty engines to work them into an hearty complyance with it and to captivate their reason unto itself as no other Religion in the World can with any face pretend to I do earnestly and I suppose rationally and Scripturally hope that this veritas magna those sacred Oracles will yet much more prevail and that the founder of this most excellent Religion who was lift up upon the cross and is more exalted to his Throne will yet draw more men unto himself and this perhaps is all the millennium that we can warrantably look for But in the mean time it is too too evident that the Kingdom of Sathan doth more obtain in the World than the Gospel of Christ either in the Letter or power of it As to the former if we will receive the probable conjecture of learned enquirers we shall not find above one sixth part of the known World yet Christianized or giving so much as an external adoration to the Crucified Jesus As to the latter I will not be so bold as to make any Arithmetical conjectures but judge it more necessary and more becoming a charitable and Christian spirit to set down in secret and weep over that sad but true account given in the Gospel Few are chosen and again Mat. 20. 26 Mat. 7. 14. Few there be that find it being grieved after the example of my compassionate Redeemer for the hardness of their hearts and praying with Joah in another case The Lord make his people an hundred times so many more as they be It is besides my present purpose to enquire into the immedâ—ate causes of the non-propagation of the Gospel in the former sense only it is easie and obvious to guess that few will enter in by the way of the tree of life when the same is guarded with a flaming sword And it were reasonable to hope that if the minds of Christians were more purged from a selfish bitterness fierce animosity and arbitrary sowrness and possest with a more free generous benign compassionate condescending candid charitable and Christ-like spirit which would be indulgent toward such as are for the present under a less perfect dispensation as our Luk. 9. 49 50 54 55. Saviours was would not impose any thing harsh or unnecessary upon the sacred and inviolable Consciences of men but would allow and maintain that liberty to men which is just and natural to them in matters of Religion and no way forfeited by them then I say it might be reasonable to hope that the innate power and vertue of the Gospel would prove most victorious Judaisme Mahumetisme and Paganisme would melt away under its powerfull influences and Sathan himself fall down as lightning before it as naturally as the eye-lids of the morning do chase away the blackness of the night when once they are lift up upon the earth But my design is chiefly to examine the true and proper cause of the non-progress of the Gospel as to the power of it and its inefficaciousness upon the hearts and Consciences of those that do profess it And now in finding out the cause hereof I shall content my self to be wise on this side Heaven leaving that daring course of searching the decrees of God and riffing into the hidden rolls of eternity to them who can digest the uncomfortable notion of a self-willed arbitrarious and imperious Deity which I doubt is the most vulgar apprehension of God men measuring him most grosly and unhappily by a self-standard And as I dare not soar so high so neither will I adventure to stoop so low as to rake into particulars which are differently assigned according to the different humours and interests of them that do assign them each party in the world being â—o excellently favourable to itself as to be ready to say with David The earth and all the Psal 75. 3. inhabitants of it are dissolved I bear up the pillars of it ready to think that the very interest of Religion in the world is involved in them and their perswasions and dogmas and that the whole Church is undone if but an hair fall from their heads if they be in the least injured or abridged Which is a peece of very great fondness and indeed the more unpardonable in as much as it destroys the design of the Gospel in confining and limiting the holy one of Israel and making God as topical as he was when he dwelt no where upon earth but at the Temple in Jerusalem Waving these extreams therefore I conceive the true cause in general of the so little prevailing of true Religion in the hearts and lives of men is the false notion that men have of it placing it there where indeed it is not nor doth consist That this must needs be a cause of the not prevailing of the Gospel whereever it is found I suppose every body will grant and that it is almost every-where to be found will I doubt too evidently appear by that description of true Christian Religion which the most sacred Author of it the Lord Jesus Christ made to the poor Samaritaness which I have endeavoured briefly to explain according to the tâ—nour of the Gospel in this small Treatise which I first framed for private use in a season when it was most behovefull for me to understand the utmost secrets of my own soul and do the utmost service I was able towards the salvation of those that were under my roof expecting every day to render up my own or their souls into the arms of our most mercifull Redeemer and to be fully swallowed up into that eternal
life into which true Religion daily springs up and will at length infallibly conduct the Christian soul unto This work thus undertaken and in a great measure then carryed on I have since perfected and do here present to the perusal of my dear Countrey having made it publick for no private end but if it might be to serve the interest of Gods glory in the world which I do verily reckon that I shall do if by his blessing I may be instrumental to undeceive any soul mistaken in so high and concerning a matter as Religion is or any way to awaken and quicken any Religious soul not sufficiently ravisht with the unspeakable glory nor cheerfully enough springing up into the full fruition of Eternal life What a certain and undefeatable tendency true Religion hath towards the eternal happiness and salvation of mens souls will I hope evidently appear out of the body of this small Treatise But that 's not all though indeed that were enough to commend it to any rational soul that is any whit free and ingenuous and is not so perfectly debauched as to utterly from right reason For it is also the sincerest pollicy imaginable and the most unerring expedient in the world for the uniting and establishing of a divided and tottering Kingdom or Common-wealth To demonstrate which was the very design of this Preface It is well known Oh that it were but as well and effectually believed that godliness is profitable to all things and that it 1 Tom. 4. 8. hath the promises and blessings of the life that now is and of that which is to come that the right seeking of the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness hath no less than all things Mat. 6. 33. annext to it How unmeasurable is the body and bulk of that blessedness to which all the comforts of this life are to be as an Appendix to a volume But men are apt to shuffle off generals therefore I will descend to instances and shew in a few Particulars what a mighty influence Religion in the power of it would certainly have for the political happiness and flourishing state of a Nation Wherein I doubt not but to make it appear that not Religion as some slanderously report but indeed the wâ—nt of it is the immediate trouhler of every Nation and individual society yea and soul too according to that golden saying of the holy Apostle From whence come Jam. 4. 1. wars and fightings Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members Here let me desire one thing of the Reader and that is to bear in his mind all along where he finds the word Religion that I have principally a respect to the description given of it in the Text and that I mean thereby a divine principle implanted in the soul springing up into everlasting life And now I should briefly touch those faults both in governours towards their subjects subjects towards their governours and towards each other which do destroy the peacefull state and the sound and happy constitution of a body politick And indeed I fear it will run upon some inconvenience if not confusion to wave this method But out of a pure desire to avoid whatever may be interpretable to ill will curiosity presumption or any other bad disposition and that it may appear to any ingenuous eye that I am more desirous to bind up than to rake into sores I will expresly shew how Religion would heale the distempers of any Nation without taking any more than an implicite notice of the distempers themselves First Then it is undoubtedly true that Religion deeply radicated in the nature of Princes and governours would most effectually qualifie them for the most happy way of reigning Every body knows well enough what an excellent Eucrasie and lovely constitution the Jewish polity was in under the influences of holy David wise Solomon devout Hezekiah zealous Josiah and others of the same spirit so that I need not spend my self in that enquiry and so consequently not upon that argument Now there are many wayes by which it is easie to conceive that Religion would rectifie and well temper the spirits of Princes This principle will verily constitute the most noble heroical and royal soul in as much as it will not suffer men to find any unhallowed satisfaction in a divine authority but will be springing up into a Godlike nature as their greatest and most perfective glory It will certainly correct and limit the over-eager affectation of unweildy greatness and unbounded Dominion by teaching them that the most honourable victory in the world is self-conquest and that the propagation of the image and Kingdom of God in their own souls is infinitely preferrible to the advancement or enlargement of any temporal jurisdiction The same holy principle being the most genuine off-spring of divine Love and Benignity will also polish their rough and over-severe natures instruct them in the most sweet and obliging methods of government by assimulating them to the nature of God 1 Cor. 7. 22. 2 Cor. 3. 17. who is infinitely abhorrent from all appearance of oppression and hath most admirably provided that his servants should not be slaves by making his service perfect freedome The pure and impartial nature of God cannot endure superstitious flatterers or hypocritical professors and the Princes of the Earth that are regenerate into his Image will also estimate men according to God I mean according to his example who loves nothing but the communications of himself and according Lâ—v. 2. 11. to their participation of his Image which is only amiable and advanceable in the world What God rejected in his fire-offerings Religion will teach Princes to disgust in the devotions as they call them of their Courtiers I mean not only the leaven of superstitious pride and dogged morosity but also the honey of mercenary prostrations and fawning adulations In a word this Religious principle which makes God its pattern and end springs from him and is alwayes springing up into him would soveraignty heal the distempers of ruling by humour self-interest and arbitrariness and teach men to seek the good of the publick before self-gratifications For so God rules the world who however some men slander him I dare say hath made nothing the duty of his creature but what is really the good of it neither doth he give his people Laws on purpose that he might shew his Soveraignty in making them or his justice in punishing the breach of them much less doth he give them any such statutes as which himself would as willingly they broke as kept so he might but the penalty What I have briefly said concerning political governours the judicious Reader may view over again and apply to the Ecclesiastical For I do verily reckon that if the hearts of these men were in that right Religious temper and holy order which I have been speaking of it would plentifully contribute towards the happy and