appeal to any man that understands the virtue of their Indulgencies and Masses Reliques and Pennances the omnipotent power of Absolutions and other ways of reconciling a sinner to God in the Roman Church Are not some of those practices which make up a great part of their Religion but the Mint Anise and Cummin of Christianity Are not divers others of them inconsistent with the life and power of Godliness I mean their Crossings and Unctions their voluntary Whippings and Severities their superficial Confessions and Abstinencies their mumbling over their Prayers without devotion or attention Were not those dark and superstitious Ages wherein Popery first stole into the World times of the greatest Licentiousness and Irreligion I confess the Monasteries were Seminaries of Vertue and Piety for some Ages but as the Monks encreased in Wealth and Revenues so they degenerated into Idleness and Luxury This is so plain a Truth that even some of their own Authors that are most devoted to the Papal See cannot deny or conceal it I know 't is usually imputed to the Jesuits that they allow men to lye and forswear themselves to swallow a thousand Venial Sins without danger of Damnation and to repent of as many Mortal Sins without forsaking them It is commonly said Than they undertake to pardon or dispense with some of the most monstrous Crimes and that some of the blackest ones are with them lawful or meritorious and these are the Guides of Souls in the Church of Rome But I will be so just to that Order as to acknowledge they not only affirm but prove it too that this is the Practical Divinity of the Church it self Is not the very Canon Law stuff't with Forgeries and Wickedness Are not such extravagant Maxims to be found in the Divines and Casuists of other Orders as the more sober Heathens abhorred Are not the Books publisht with the Authority and Approbation of the Church Are not the Authors of them entrusted by her with the Consciences of men Why don't they acquaint the World what expurgatory Index hath condemned the Writings of the three Cardinal Jesuits what Anathema's their Church hath bestowed upon them (f) Bellarmine Baronius and Tolet. Were not their Persons had in admiration and are not their Writings applauded by the teaching governing part of the Church The truth is the Interest and Grandeur of Rome are supported by them and they must be maintain'd whatever becomes of the Souls and Consciences of Men. I do not think that Popery is able to root out all good Nature and if any of that Communion be so eminent for Vertue and Charity as I hope they be we must not thank the Doctrines of their Church or the Integrity of the ruling party for it but either their natural Dispositions or the over-ruling Grace of God which have preserved them from the Contagion of their Religion 3. This is the way to propagate a meer empty formal Religion amongst us A Religion that teaches men to build their hopes of Salvation upon such Conditions as may be observed without offering Violence to their sensual Lusts and dearest Interests And so long as they desire to go to Heaven with as little trouble as they can I do not wonder that they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts heap to themselves Teachers having itching ears (g) 2 Tim. 4.3 They will be content to offer God the Calves of their lips rather then to give him their hearts to censure or commend many Sermons rather then to put one in practice to put on a sowre or demure countenance rather then a broken and contrite heart to present God Almighty with variety of Phrases or the most pathetical Expressions rather then to pray with Faith and Devotion Humility and Heavenly-mindedness in which the Spirit of Prayer consists For such things as these serve for ostentation and vain-glory they are very obvious and sensible they are no great Enemies to the Passions and Interests of men Whereas Purity and Devotion Self-denial and Meekness Obedience and Charity Mortification of the Will and Affections have less of the Pomp and Form though infinitely more of the Life and Power of Godliness in them Thus I have given you a short Account of the most natural and pernicious effects of Vice and Wickedness upon a Church and Kingdom And since these things are so I would make an humble Address to all in Authority That as you value the Honour and Security of our most holy Religion or the Peace and Happiness of your King and Country you would endeavour to suppress the growth of Vice and Immorality For what Peace so long as there is so much Riot and Luxury Leudness and Debauchery Injustice and Oppression customary Swearing prophane Drollery and contempt of Religion among us What Peace so long as such a Deluge of Sin and Wickedness overflows the Nation For these the Lord hath a Controversie with the Inhabitants of the Land therefore shall the Land mourn (h) Hosea 4.1 3. These are the Nurseries of Plots and Treasons of Schism and Sedition But if you cannot compel men to be truly Pious and Holy you may at least force them to sin with more modesty and civility If you cannot quite banish Sin out of the Nation yet 't is in your power to stigmatize it with disgrace and make it sneak into Corners you may restrain it from being bare-faced and impudent from infecting the Land and involving us in the guilt of it If you cannot root out all secret Wickedness you may stop the growth of horrid Impieties of publick and crying Sins If wicked men will have the exercise of their Irreligion in private yet I beseech you let them not sin in the face of the Sun and openly make Proselytes in defiance of the Laws of God and Man And would you have men make conscience of all their Oaths Contracts and Promises Would you have them be Loyal to the King Obedient to Magistrates and Serviceable to one another Do what you can in your several Spheres to encourage and promote the practice of solid and substantial Religion But if we desire the suppressing of Atheism and Immorality we must take heed of those licentious Doctrines and Principles which are most apt to lead us into such practices For what wonder is it to see men act in conformity to their Principles What reason is there to hope that the generality of the World will be better then the Doctrines of their Religion incline them to be I will mention the principal of them and leave you to judge whether the natural result of them be not the banishing true Religion and Holiness out of the Nation 1. I begin with the Principles of the Leviathan That there is nothing but Body in the World and that the very notion of an Incorporeal Being implies a Contradiction (i) Leviathan c. 4. c. 5. c. 12. c. 34. That men are good or evil fatally and unavoidably And that God may be
destructive to Peace and Government That Catholicks hold it an Article of Faith I speak their own words that the Pope can depose Kings and absolve Subjects from their Allegiance I stand amazed at the ignorance or dishonesty of some of them that profess to the World they never found any such Principles asserted in any of their General Councils As if we had out-done them in their old trade of Forgery As if the General Councils of Lyons and Trent the third and fourth Councils of Lateran were meer fictions of the Protestants I am sure either these are the Doctrines of the Church of Rome or Transubstantiation itself is none of them either these are her Doctrines or she hath none at all 2. I might from hence take occasion to vindicate the peaceableness and loyalty of the Reformed Religion that excellent Religion which is the best Friend in the World to Kings and Princes And yet it suffers in the esteem of some men for the Crimes of those that with as much reason arrogate the Name of Protestants as the Papists do that of Catholicks to their own party I know no Protestant Church in the World that hath by any publick act maintained any treasonable Principles 'T is certain we have been educated in a Faith of Loyalty and Obedience and I hope we shall never be tempted by any though never so specious pretences to desert it Whether there be amongst us a sort of men that under the disguise of zeal against Popery labour to undermine the Government I know not but if there be they are either Papists in Masquerade or at least such as serve the interest of Rome though against their wills as truly as the Pope's own Creatures I am sure neither the Church of England nor the best Reformed Churches in Christendom will own them God deliver us from the sad effects of a fiery seditious Religion whether of an Enthusiastick or Roman Catholick Spirit 2. I should now come to shew what we are to contribute towards the peace of the Church the composing or suppressing our religious quarrels which have almost eaten out the life and soul of Christianity among us But having already spent most of the time allotted for this Exercise I shall only recommend to you these two things wherein every one that hears me is concerned 1. I doubt not but a right understanding of the nature of Christianity would go a great way towards the abating our contentions about it It must needs put an end to some of our controversies and secure us from the sad consequences of the rest of them if we had a true notion of the difference between such things as are essential to Religion and such as are at a great distance from it Now true Religion consists in the imitation of the Divine perfections Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect (k) St. Matth. 5.48 As he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of Conversation (l) 1. Pet. 1.15 that is so far as we are capable of being like to the most excellent Being in this faln and imperfect State And this consists in the mortifying of our Lusts and Passions in living a Life of Spiritual Purity and Devotion Self-denial and Meekness Justice and Charity Patience Peaceableness Sobriety Chastity and because in many things we offend all (m) St. James 3.2 through ignorance or inadvertency or weakness when we have done our best we are to trust in the Merits of Christ for the pardon of our sins and the acceptance of our imperfect Righteousness These are the substantials of our Religion about which all wise and good men are agreed however we differ about other matters Did we make conscience of these as we ought to do we should soon find by happy experience that they are infinitely more for the honour of God the peace of the Church and the good of one another then an hot and fiery contention about speculative indeterminable and unprofitable Questions Could men be perswaded to a greater care and study of this Catholick Christianity the minding of it would take up so much of our time and pains that we should hardly be at leisure to raise or foment differences Yet if any Disputes should arise about lesser matters yet we should all agree in obeying our Superiours where we are not sure of the unlawfulness of their commands in loving praying for doing good to one another Now since these things are so let us bring our Opinions and Practices to this trial 1. As to matters of Doctrine or Opinion it is too evident that the Articles of Faith are monstruously swelled of late in the Roman Church I mean by the addition of 12 new Articles of Pius the fourth not one of which is to be found in the Scriptures or the Creeds of the Primitive Church I cannot mention without horror the dreadful Anathema's they denounce against all that presume to deny any of them but to the honour of the Church of England let it be said whatsoever is imposed on us as necessary to the Salvation of all men is contained in the Apostles Creed This is the Faith of the first and best times of Christianity the Faith into which we are baptized and the belief of this Creed hath a direct influence on our Christian practice which is the great business of Religion Let us therefore contend earnestly for this Faith which was once delivered to the Saints (n) Jude v. 3. Let us not entertain any other Opinions which invalidate the necessity of an holy life let us not propagate our private conceptions with the breach of the publick peace order then we shall have no reason to quarrel with one another for simple invincible Errors 2. Let us judge of matters of practice by the same rule and then we shall lay the greatest stress upon such things as bring us to the nearest conformity to God we shall not build our hopes of Salvation on any outward observances or abstinences about the mode of our Worship but on the great indispensable Duties of Christianity We shall comply with the Injunctions of Authority in all things about which Christ hath not left us any standing Law For since many things done by Christ and his Apostles were occasional and temporary fitted to the circumstances of those times but not of ours since they were not founded on any moral reason nor have we any command for the continuance of them since there is no Law in Scripture about these things there can be no transgression in the practice or disuse of them otherwise then as they tend to the dividing the Church the contempt of Authority or the scandalizing our Brethren But this brings me to the second thing 2. Let us remember that we are under Christian Laws and Government and from hence we shall learn these three things 1. That we ought not to provide for our own safety or the
security of our Religion by Tumults Insurrections or any other unlawful means For 't is impossible that true Religion should be promoted by sin wickedness by such ways as are contrary to the nature and ends of Religion The Christian Religion neither commands nor allows us to fight for the Lord of Hosts by breaking his Laws and it was establisht by doing good by patient and constant suffering for it Let it therefore be the peculiar glory of Turks Papists to propagate their Religion with sword and bloodshed but let us regulate our zeal with prudence obedience and charity which make up the truly Christian temper of English Protestants and let no private passion or interest transport us beyond the bounds of our Duty to God and our Allegiance to the King For if they do we shall convince all impartial men that we have as little sense of true Religion as our Adversaries 2. We are also to obey the commands of our Superiors as far as we can without sin For either all the Gospel Precepts of obedience signifie nothing at all or they signifie thus much that we ought to come up to Authority as far as we can without disobeying the Law of God Let us therefore lay aside all prejudice and groundless disaffection let us come with modest and humble dispositions ready to obey in all lawful things and resolved to make the breach no wider then we are bound in conscience to do Could men be perswaded thus far and there is no reason why they should not we might yet hope to see though not a perfect union yet a lasting peace in our days For men would proportion their zeal to the nature of things they would seek out for information they would not take up objections upon trust nor revile the legal Constitutions the number of Dissenters would be much lessened and they would joyn with us in a joynt opposition of the common Enemy They would bear with such inconveniences as are not sinful for what Church under Heaven is perfect in all matters of worship and discipline they would yield to a restraint of their liberty in the exercise of it for the peace of the Church For must not every Member of any Society part with something that he desires might he choose for himself in order to the publick Good 3. Where any thing is of a doubtful signification we must put the most favourable construction of it that it is fairly capable of Were this favour shall I say or common equity allowed to the Constitutions of our Church which is to all other things of Human composure we should hear no more of those vehement charges of Antichristianism and Popery that are drawn up against them I am sure 't is neither conscience nor prudence to expose the Church of England to the hatred of forreign Protestants and who can believe that they way to keep out Popery and strengthen the interest of the Reformation is by inflaming the popular fury against that Church which is the strongest Bulwark in Christendom against the Papal Usurpations And now I shall draw to a conclusion Oh that we would know in this our day c. If the Judgments of God which we have already groaned under cannot sure the dangers that threaten us our Religion might help to abate our heats and suppress our differences We know the wonderful zeal of the Jews for the interest of every private party and their inapprehensiveness of the common danger made them become a prey to the Romans Did not Christianity decay in the Church of Corinth as their Schisms Factions encreased Did not the divisions in the Eastern Churches end either in a total subversion or a dismal corruption of Christianity among them How were the glorious beginings of the Reformation obstructed by the differences of some of the chief Reformers And if our Adversaries of Rome have of late made many Proselytes in these Kingdoms their success is not owing to the goodness of their cause but to the force of those Arguments which we have put into their hands Were not the former conquests of these Nations the effects of our own divisions God grant that saying may never be applied to us which was used of our Forefathers that whilst they severally quarrelled among themselves they were all overcome by the common Enemy We are told by one of their own Authors That the most effectual way to destroy the Protestants is by dividing them from and against one another (o) Windeck de Haeres extirp p. 415. The advice of Campanella (p) Cap. 25. p. 207. hath been pursued by the Romish Emissaries that have been industrious in heightning our Animosities and blowing up every spark into a flame in working on the passions of discontented men making harangues against the Church and Government in subdividing us into lesser parties and promoting a general Toleration They know well enough that the reformed Religion in England must needs fall with our Church they have seen how hard it is to set up a better or any establisht Church in the room of it they are convinced that a number of petty Sects and divided Interests cannot long maintain their ground against the Roman Forces If then we be concerned in good earnest as I hope we are to preserve the Reformed Religion let us all endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (q) Ephes 4.3 And that you may understand what kind of Religion they are labouring to introduce I will conclude with a short account of Popery 'T is a Religion that teaches you to put off humanity that you may be Catholicks and to deny your senses in a plain sensible matter to know the will of God without a Bible to pray to him by a Proxy and to worship him just as the old Heathens did to believe twice as much as Christ and his Apostles require and to leave out one Commandment which God himself enjoyned to promote Christian Charity by killing one another and convert men with fire and faggot to deny a known truth without telling a lye and to swear to a known falsity without perjury to obtain pardon of your sins without repentance and to go to Heaven without holiness to worship a Deity of your Priests making and then to sacrifice him to God And now let all wise and good men offer up their prayers to God that he would make up those breaches which our sins and the subtilty of our enemies have made in the Church that he who is the Prince of Pesace would inspire us with that wisdom that is pure and peaceable and all our Governours with wisdom and courage to suppress the growth of Atheism and Prophaneness of Superstition and Idolatry of Schism and Sedition FINIS