which is against the Law of Nations in the treachery and of common sense and reason in the contradiction But the errour in extream that I would warn you of hath the face of sincerity and Christian honour and perfection maintaining the soul to be all in all and the body or outside of our duties to be nothing and not worth the ordering or regarding who therefore seldom or never open their hands in charity to their brethren in distress but think it enough to pity and relieve them in their hearts that think good works needless least they justle out Faith which is the heart of all Religion that think decent ceremonies and habits in Gods service lawfully ordain'd and answering but to the body to be slighted as Inconsistent with the worship of God in Spirit and Truth which answers to the Soul and that there are to be no Masters or Superiours according to the flesh whatsoever St. Paul saith here to the contrary v. 22. but all to be thou'd with Hat on as equalls because the Soul hath but one Superiour to it that is God The root of such mens mistake lies in this that they conceive Subordinates to be contrary and comparatives wholly to destroy the positive that heart and hand cannot go together that the body and the soul and God and man and Heaven and Earth be inconsistent because the one doth so far excell and out-go the other Two errors there are Antient and modern contrary to one another yet twins of the same womb that have much annoyed and moth-eaten the beauty and glory of the Christian Church in its severall ages all along and brought needless straits and troubles upon many a well-meaning Christian 1. That of Monkery 2. that other of Nonconformity the root and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of both being in the one a Melancholly in the other a willfull Imagination of Inconsistency where there is none for the soul may be saved without going a begging and God may be worshipped as well as Idolatry incurr'd by the reverence of the knee For though this present World compared to that to come be nothing with the Monk as the knee compar'd to the heart is nothing with the Non-conformist wherein both be very right and Orthodox yet considered apart and by themselves out of such comparison they recover again their positive necessary and convenient beinâ— and their use and goodness with their being by consequence As the Earth is nothing in respect of Heaven and England therefore so small a part of the Earth is less than nothing in all reason However by it self positively considered it is a large Territory of many dayes Journey consisting of several Counties and famous Towns and Cities affording large materials for Laws and Government and Order But if Monk and Seperatist be compar'd as to the consequence of their principles or the sincerity of their Discipline the one is found to wrong himself only the other publick peace and order The one to despise the World which agrees with a Christian the other to despise Government which too much agrees with Antichrist Jud. 8. 2 Thess 2.4 withall it 's far easier to flesh and bloud to abstain from bowing or kneeling or capping than to wear Sack-cloath or to live on Bread and Water all ones life It s easier I say and less subject to taking cold to change you into thou than to walk bare-foot all the year therefore the Monk stands further off from the Hypocrite than the Quaker though from the unwise both much at equal distance To place all Religion and Service of God in opere operato or the work outwardly done though without the heart or understanding is Idle and Popish To place none in the outward Reverence of the body before Angels and men is Rude and Fanatical and Scandalous To perform all the parts of our outward duties with care and Reverence but to judge them as nothing and as meer formality compared to the truth and sincerity of our hearts to Christ this is Orthodox and Regular Religion and well pleasing in the sight of God and Reason For great is the natural greater or more sensible is the moral difference between our Bodies and Souls The Body like matter in Plato is a vast spungy dull Earthly lump and substance without any life or spirit But the Soul is a contract and strong and indivisible divine and lively essence and spirit being that in the Body what God is in the World tota in toto Giving life and motion and vigour to all its parts minimum maximi mâ—jus maximo minimi a Mole-hill of Gold is worth a Mountain of Oare But the moral difference between them currant in Conversation and the esteem and value of God and man seems much greater Five words of real English truth from the heart are better received with all men than ten thousand Complements and Grimaâ—ces Though a vast Estate be greatly valued in the World for the port and respect that attends it yet health and life have far the pre-eminence when ever they stand in Competition Yet the one and the other both Estate and life set against the Soul become so little worth that they both must expose themselves at its beck into Martyrdom and Sequestration and the Canons mouth to defend and make good but any one Article of Faith any one Principle of Honour and Loyalty in the heart And your Hectors bid higher who by their Hair-brain Duells and sickly Luxuries and hazardous and ignominious Lusts do loudly maintain that an erroneous thought or fancy of the Soul is of more value and price than health and life and all the World What then must be the worth and value of thoughts sober and wise and true What of the Soul it self the Matrix and mother of them all Therefore God who understands the nature of the Soul takes it for no service at all but rather a contempt which is offered to him by the lip without the heart Mat. 15.8 Ones whole life spent in his service without the heart is not one hour or minute spent therein If I speak with the Tongue of men and Angels and have not Charity that is do it not for the Glory of God and the Edification of men from my heart I am but as sounding-brass and a tinckling-cymbal If I bestow all I have to the poor and give my body to be burnt and have not Charity that is do it for a vain Glory or for some other respect than from my heart to God it profiteth me nothing 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. But this second and principal part of my Text touching the Heart and Soul of our Actions may for distincter method be further explained and illustrated two ways By shewing 1. The Quomodo 2. The Quare The Quomodo how we are to Act is expressed in those words 1. From the heart 2. To the Lord. 3. Not to men 2. The Quare why we are so to Act is insinuated in those two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
with the first in its adversity and contempt For every Religion expresses what honour it hath for the Deity it worships by the respect and honour it enjoyns to be paid to its Ministers and Attendants And amongst all degrees of Christians from the lowest to the highest neither Christ nor his Ministers can be said to be either lov'd or honour'd where both are not lov'd and honour'd equally if not above themselves And no man can despise the Ministers of his Religion without despising his Religion nor despise his Religion without despising himself for where is a man's self more than in his God or Idol If Christ and his Religion be to be honoured it is to be invited to sit equal with us in our Feasts if not above wherein no Church is more proportionable than this of England which hath its Minâ—stry so adequate and comporting with the several degrees and conditions of its Laity like Arteries with the veins along the body from the toe to the head But now far otherwise is it amongst Christians Teachers and Disciples when the world hath possessed their hearts And Christ dwells but at their tongues only many there are besides Quakers it is to be feared that would be well contented to be without any Gospel at all on condition to be Tith-free and judge no sort of men better to be spared or retrenched in this Commonwealth than Christs Ministers And if they had Power enough in their hands would judge an 100 l. per annum to be revenew enough or two much for any Bishop to support himself and Family and to keep Hospitality and relieve the poor and strangers and to defend the Church against its Enemies and not 10000 l. per annum too much for themselves to spend upon their lusts and Vanity And in some Nations the Lay sort Raign and Rule and the Clergy hold the stirrup or serve under revocable pay like other workmen and trained thereby to be as observant of the state as of God neither hath the degenerate Clergy been behind in over-reaching to the degenerate Laity in grudging and subducting especially in the Roman Church who conceived she never had enough untill she had all not only their Lands but their Liberties and all became her Tenants or Vassals or tributaries from the Plow to the Throne Now how would these two contrary lusts tear and destroy one another if God had not raised Kings to preserve the peace between them How would Religion and good literature all fall to the ground and Atheism and Barbarism or equivalent Ignorance and superstition come again in their place if Kings were not Nursing Fathers to secure their Rights and Defenders of the Faith to maintain their Priviledges and quietness to correct on the one hand the Idolatrous Avarice of some hard hearts who would starve the Lord Christ to cherish their Lord Mammon And to check the Hypocrisie and worldliness of others on the other hand who Christopher-like carry Christ upon their backs to begg mens hearts who make use of Purgatory and the world to come to gull men out of this present who call all men to be their Paymasters for the unvaluable unrequitable mysteries of the Gospel which they at best but counterfeit and make them Vassals for ever afterward upon the score of that Tribute and acknowledgement who claim a Supremacy over Princes not upon the score of the Pulpit and the Eternal obligations thereof which they quit but upon the score of their Chairs which was borrowed from the Throne and intended it should return to its subordination thereunto Though Spiritual Graces wherewith they are ill stock'd are above all Temporal reward as much as Salvation is above an Earthly Crown yet it doth not follow that the Instruments and conveyers of Grace are Superiours here in in this world to all that receive it by their Ministry The message and Author is but not the messenger Kings hear Gods word as Subjects to Christs whole word it is but not as Subjects to those that Preach it but their Masters rather It is an ill and Un-evangelical Inference and too much savouring of Antichrist from Spiritual Doctrines to raise Secular Superiority and to make wordly Rule and Ambition the chief end of the everlasting Gospel Ego Rex meus was a perfidious Traiterous crime in Wolsey to transfer his Masters honour and Soveraignty upon himself which is their great Disease at Rome and constant Boldness upon Christ A Pursiveant though sent from a King to Arrest a Peer is not Superiour in quality thereby to the Peer although his Authority and errand be we may as well conclude all Centinels to be Generals of the Field or every Chaplain declaring Christ will in a Sermon before the King to be Primate of the Church and every Christian who Conquers the world by his Faith to be Emperour of this world as Popes to be Supremes in Christian Kingdoms and Churches over mens souls and bodies because they are the Servants and Officers of Christ who is When St. Ambrose boldly durst suspend his Soveraign and Theodosius meekely yielded to the censure of his Subject there was no Superiority either lost or got by this in either both doing their parts of Servants herein the Bishop of fidelity about his Master's mysteries the Emperour of Submission to his Saviours Steward All orders and degrees in the Church are every one in the Postures of Servants to Christ and Servants to another for Christ his sake 1 Cor. 3.22 and he alone the only Master and Soveraign Math. 23.8 In this world it 's true it 's otherwise where some are Servants others are Masters some Rulers and others Ruled all to be regarded as unto Christ in their several Superiorities by Christians who are to serve and obey them all from the heart upon Christs account in addition to their Civil obligation which is correlative to their Civil Superiority for as we are Christians we serve none but Christ and those that Rule and Govern if Christians do it as his Servants and Pious Kings have justly esteemed it to be a greater Dignity to be Servants of Christ than Soveraignes of this world Whosoever therefore misguides or mis-governs his Inferiour or wrongs or deceives his Neighbour or disobeys or dishonours his Superiour Christian violates his Faith and duty first to his Heavenly Soveraign in his heart before he wrongs any other on Earth by his outward Act. And it is our concern and honour as to detect and shun all such as are Traytors and Faithless to our Saviour so dearly to embrace and love them from our hearts that are true But though Kings meddle not with the Substantialls of Religion or the rights of Christ yet with the out-side or Circumstantials that fall within their charge and cognizance they well may and must whatsoever in Church matters is of Temporal not of Eternal moment neither determined by Christ nor necessary to Salvation but conducing only to Order and Peace and Decency and good
useful to all and to one another when united and confederated together in lawful bands and Brother-hoods as I need not prove your vocation and establishment to be which is founded not only upon the indispensable needs of men but the express allowance also and the approbation of Laws both Humane and Divine It is not Wealth or Gold or Purse makes Interest and Power but men and friends as Cicero observes in his offices for those without these would little avail to our aid or comfort neither are we ever sure of men to be on our sides or fully to be trusted in till first we are sure of their hearts and nothing more wins and binds the hearts of men unto us than our hearts to them whether with our gift or without nothing so charms the heart of another as a heart to meet it as no loss more weakens and dethrones than the loss of hearts Now this communion and fellowship of hearts and souls is no where so to be learnt or acquired as in the School of Christ who is the sole legislator and judge of Souls and hearts I 'le Instance therefore in a concise description of a true and false Brother or member of this or that Society whether greater or smaller according to the Christian pattern and the Apostical rule of my Text to point but at the one or the other is sufficient praise and reproof for either A right Brother then of his Society is him in a word that is true hearted which no man ever was or will be without discharging every duty that lies upon him out of conscience to God and his Saviour he considers aright his livelihood and priviledge his love and honour from that Company or Charter to which he relates and his duty arising from his priviledge and the blessing of Heaven showring upon him and his while he conscientiously performs his duty He considers that by being of a Society he hath a new and a larger self than before being co-extended and co-multiplied according to the number and considerableness of the whole Brotherhood whereof he is and with this new-self a new-self preservation by consequence and a larger care doth grow upon him before he was but one and had but one to care for now he is grown into hundreds and hath hundreds therefore to love and tender even as he is tendered by them For it 's manifest the whole body owns the concerns of every the least member belonging to it and if a toe be but crushed the pain goes to head and heart and all He conceives it therefore but equity and reason that he should answer love with love that his gratitude should indent with his advantage from his Society yea that his returns of love should exceed his receipts like the good ground that repairs an handful of seed with an Harvest He loves therefore every Brother of his community equall yea above himself or his own single concern therein being thus match'd and exhausted in his disbursments and duty towards any one what stock hath he left to answer the love of the whole community who are hundreds of friends and defenders of him who is but one against them here he finds himself insolvent and over match'd with love and studies to get out of debt but cannot and gladly would he meet some streit or tryal or expence some happy kind of prejudice or honourable undoing of himself to do them some publick good and to testifie his preference of them by prostration and an humble annihilation of himself before them this is but the temper and due disposition of every member towards the publick good and preservation of that Body or Community whereof he is all true and Generous Spirits have their greatest wish and bliss when an opportunity is offered them to preserve and defend their Country though with the manifest hazard of their lives Dulce decorum est pro patriâ mori and so it is and ought to be in some parallel proportion in every lesser Corporation It is not only the duty but the delight of every genuine member thereof to Sacrifice his whole private interest therein for its publick welfare when necessity shall require and a greater allegiance to a greater Society or stronger relation shall not countermand him Thus he lives and thus he dies and when he dies his whole Society die with him in grief and sorrow for the loss of so dear a Brother so true a heart yea they will not suffer him to die nor his name to see corruption but attend him solemnly to his grave loaded with respect and mourning What to leave him there behind them No but to combat death for his rescue and to raise him from the dead in the strength of their love to which nothing is impossible and to bring him back into a life of honour and immortality in their hearts and memories this life of honour and good name being a new life and better than natural life it self in the sense of civilized mankind But he is before-hand with them being pre-embalm'd and secur'd against all assaults of death by his brazen wall the Testimony of a good conscience for a good conscience is infinitely better and more durable than a good name This is the Original life of honour to which that from our neighbours is but the Counterpart and eccho subject to mistakes both of love and malice But his blessed Saviour who is greater than his conscience is as much before-hand with him in point of life to be restored as he was with them his merciful Saviour graciously considers this poor man in all his toyl and imployment his heart did ever aim at me and shall I do nothing for him in his low condition now he is given by all for lost he considers when his feet travell'd toward his Patients his heart the same time travell'd towards Heaven and God that he tender'd the lives and purses of his charge the bills and reputation of his directors the orders and weal of his Society either his obedience to it or place of trust in it which all carry some equivalence to life all from his heart and conscience doing as he would be done by in the sight of Christ his Lord and Judge extracting by Divine Chymistry some service and worship to his Saviour out of every imployment on Earth Christ therefore owns him to have been his Minister and Servant all the while and not the Communities Now to be provided for and considered by a bountiful Master who hath ability and inclination to effect it to some purpose and this good and faithful Servant shall now enter into his Masters joy and be crowned with that astonishing bliss and Immortality to which all honour and good name here below so much valued in the world were but empty shadows and chances and peace of conscience it self which passeth all understanding but a short glimpse and fore-tast Dearly beloved and honour'd let me leave this lesson in your mind In
example before men belongs to Christian Kings to regulate by discretion with the advice of their Clergy Numb 27.21 Mal. 2.7 for their Transitory Nature makes them more allyed to this present world where Kings are Soveraigns than their bare Connexion to Holy duties doth make them appurtenances to the other immortal world where Christ only Raigns and Rules For Instance whether it be more decent to perform Divine service in a Gown or Surplice or in a Cloak or Querpo whether with the people having all their Hats on as do the Jewes or the Minister as the French or all bare both Minister and People as usually amongst us whether kneeling or sitting be the best and seemliest postures at several Offices before men for it is clear before God that the heart is all in all whether a Bason at the Ministers Elbow be more comly than a Font or whether the Font stand best in the Chancel with the other Table for the other Sacrament or at the Church door in token of our entrance by it Whether the Cross may be used in Baptism or the Ring in Marriage Whether the King have not power to found and endow Churches and to alter Sees and to translate the Metropolitan from one place to another as he thinks fit for any new convenience or redress These things are nominally spiritual but really secular and belong to Christian Temporal Jurisdiction which no way intrenches herein upon Divine Institution or Soveraignity which hath left out such matters and causes free for Christian Kings to regulate even in the Church and Temple as did the Kings of Israel The Church being part of their state and Province where Kings and Subjects are Christian and the one to order every thing to the Lord Christ whose Deputies and Vicars now they are and the other to obey them in all such their Orders from the heart as to the Lord Neither is there any peril of Soul or Salvation by such transitory matters as wears and postures of the Body where they are not ordained for to honour or acknowledge Idols and false Gods there may be great danger in contention 1 Cor. 11.16 and disobedience to those Divine and Eternal Laws which command obedience and Conformity to humane Neither are the Circumstances of Religion made equal hereby to the substantial parts thereof being observed to such several Ends and intents sufficiently distinct and different as are the Authorities that appoint both the one and the other God himself in those and Kings as his Deputies and delegates in these though many mens too much placing their Heaven and zeal and humour and scruples upon Ceremonies and shadows make them substances as to themselves For the difference between Time and Eternity or the Body and the Soul or sense and faith or word and sword or Heaven and Earth or peace of Conscience and the peace of the Kingdom is not more fixt and manifest and unconfounded than is that between the inside and outside of the Church the one lying within the Perambulation and Jurisdiction of Divine Soveraignty the other of humane neither of the Popes over us in England nor the latter but only there where he is a Temporal nor the former even at Rome it self where so he is And O! the Unchristian Arts and Methods that have been us'd by Popery all along both above and under-board according as it was high or low to wrest this Ecclesiastical Supremacy and Prerogative from Christian Kings which is their manifest and undoubted right and chiefest Glory in their Temporal Crowns and a peculiar Talent for their management in order to an Eternal Sometimes openly and above-board by an impudent pretence of Plenitude of Power when they had none at all they have eagerly endeavoured to hook unto themselves our Kings Royal Priviledges about Investures and nomination of Bishops and the Crowns off from their heads which is too well known For any ones Temporal right that had any reference or Relation towards the Church was straightway the undoubted Appurtenance of St. Peters Chair under that pretence they caus'd King Henry the Second in the Controversie about the exemption of the Clergy which was an absolute invasion of his Royal Government and Authority to be whipt and stript by his Subjects like a Malefactor in Bridewell for the good of his Soul and in breach of his Royal Trust and Dignity to allow Appeals to Rome to heal his wounded Conscience Their poisoning Attempts and Invasions and Powder-plots against Queen Elizabeth and King James are fresh in Memory When open Arts can do no good they 'l work their Ends in Masquerade and smaller undertakings Here possessing Quakers and raising Sects to resist and Blaspheme our Religion and Government There endeavouring to get more considerable Instruments into power to promote their Romish Interest in Protestant Shapes with greater succcess and lesser noise because less discern'd to corrupt our hopeful Clergy and destroy honest men under-hand and imbroile the Nation by widening the differences between Protestants which were ready to close and multiplying Non-conformists whether they would or not For it is obvious and easie to observe that all or most of our Presbyterian Dissenters of the younger sort throughout the Nation did see their Errour and desert their Party upon the Restauration of our Church And that the Elder sort were no less convinc'd from the experience of late confusions but that it was harder for the one than for the other in point of Reputation to change and walk contrary on a suddain to their former Actings And the secret enemies of our Protestant peace and union laid hold of this advantage as Non-conformists alledge and cast in politick Provisoes and obstructions to make their Repentance harder still if not impossible to the trouble of our Government and the joy of Rome Some ambodextrous Pens like Mountebanks upon a Stage shall publickly wound and confute and presently heal and defend the Church of Rome as faithfully as any of her own Inquisitors and as safely as any of our own Authors by this double stile falling fiercely upon their first Deserters and such as begin to espy and loath any of its grosser Errours enough in time if not so carefully prevented and discourag'd to cause a general defection throughout the host because they are not perfect Protestants in a moment able to see and relinquish all her Corruptions at first waking And therefore the sincere Irish Clergy shall be rigorously chid for beginning an Orthodox Allegiance in disobedience to their Church and violation of their Oaths And the Jansenists for defending Catholick Doctrines with the like sincerity to Christ and dis-rellish to the Pope And the Distinguishers of the Church of Rome from its more corrupt Court as Pestiferous and rash beginners or some Ho-body Hoyes and no right Sons of the one Church or of the other against all Principles of Christian Charity which forbids to quench the smoaking Flax or break the bruised Reed as also against common humanity and
by his high disloyalty though not by his resolution and many other great parts if rightly used And what makes our Frustrations to be Panegyricks in many mouthes of his Attainments but that having the same men and courage and preparations and more we take not the same method to prosper in a good cause as he did in a bad And to borrow light from vanity what can the skill of the best Player avail if the Dice be altogether against him For some will say that Interest and reason of State all may see that the temper of the whole Nation and the wise may observe that Heaven and fate forbid the banes and realliance of this Land with Popery For who are more miserably rent and divided then we now of this Nation are though restor'd Our people distrusting their Princes and our Princes their people whereby our strength and glory by mutual subductions is brought to nothing like a Merchant that hath 10000 l. Stock and is 20000 l. in Debt and all this only by striving against fate And making Popery and our selves the weaker by favouring it against Profession Interest Duty Oaths Trusts halting between God and Belial between Christ and the Pope between Protestant and Papist being as they say neither good fish nor flesh but deservedly weak and improsperous and contemptible and acting all in the dark like men under fear or guilt or self condemnation yet a sincere Resolution to be firm and true to God and Protestant truth without further doubling Cures the whole Nation in an Instant clears all Debts dissolves all jealousies and fears strengthens all Interests opens all hands and hearts and purses and makes us Brittains again happy and united within our selves and serviceable to our friends and formidable to our enemies and acceptable to God All our Divisions in this Nation for these 1600 years and upwards were ever rais'd and fomented by harbouring Rome within our bowels either with or against our wills The Picts from the North and the Scots or Irish from the West were enemies heretofore to the Brittains though much their flesh and bloud solely upon the score of Rome upon the like inducement as Roman-Catholicks at this day are enemies to our peace and Nation the one gnawing our bowells as the other did Infest our borders upon the same score of Rome For the Roman power ruling here while Picts and Scots were unreduc'd forc'd the Brittains to serve and fight against them whether they would or not and them to fight against us by consequence and Provocation The Roman cheat since prevailing upon many through their want of love to the truth makes men enemies and Spies and Traitors to their own Countrey not through force but by their own choice and zeal to serve and promote the ambitious ends of Forreigners which less intoxicate than mens own personal lusts and passions and renders them therefore more inexcusable and despicable than any other Traitors or Malefactors whatsoever that set up for themselves An hearty embraceing of the Ancient Apostolick Brittish Faith which the Scotch and Irish defended with us heretofore against Monk Augustine and planted amongst the English before he and his Successors sowed their Tares amongst them which our Roman-Catholicks are so fond of would unite these three Nations as one man in mutual love and peace and truth and prosperity and renown and strength and Gods blessing which was the whole aime and designe of this discourse and an effectual care taken against Roman seducers on the one hand and compassion towards the seduced on the other and the exemplification of our own right faith by an answerable good life would under God easily effect this reduction They are unnaturally unkind to their own Countrey that take part with Rome against it which was ever a bad neighbour to our Brittain returning us evil for good It destroyed our Empire through the ambition of Maximus our Church through Monk Augustine whereas we ever did but Cures upon it Planting the first Gospel amongst them before the arrival of St. Peter or St. Paul Ridding their Roman World of the remainders of their old Pagan Idolatry which there was in great power and value by the zeal of our Great Constantine and healing their new Christian Idolatry in good part wherewith it was as much enamour'd by our Henry the 8th his President Let them beware of the Repentance of another Generous Prince descending together from the same Royal Brittish stock and of no less a spirit who being once fully undeceived shall see great wrongs to the Innocent to be repair'd great indignities to his own Interest and honour to be reveng'd and chastiz'd as King Henry did his Incest great oppression to patient Protestancy both at home and in Neighouring Kingdoms yea and great abuse to all Christendom in general by Holy frauds and Impostures and abominable Idolatries to be reliev'd and redress'd to whom Cromwel their Terrour was but a Blazing-warning Meteor who shall unite to himself both the heart of God and of the three Nations by his zeal for his cause and glory against such Hypocrites and everlasting troâ—â—â—â—ers of Kingdoms and Churches and judge it a design commensurate to his Princely Grandeur and Renown to go along with Fate and Providence to put a period to their Kingdom of Lyes and Forgeries and Profanations and begin the overthrow of Turkish by suppressing Christian Antichrist the great enemy of Souls and Truth which gave the other its chief rise and growth and was the first president in Christian Kingdoms of Rebellion against lawful Soveraigns upon the pretence of Religion the only obstacle of the Union of all Christian Churches by his Pride and usurpations And the most dangerous enemies to all humane Society and Government and to all Faith and Truth among men and Christians which support them by Dispens'd Perjuries Licensed Dissimulations Equivocations Mental Reservations Canoniz'd Tteasons c. The like practices being never known or heard of in the World before amongst sober Heathens nor the most wild and barbarous much less amongst the Primitive Christians and Martyrs but only the Gnostick Disciples of Simon Magus If it be the Fate of Brittain to give Rome another Cure and Castigation without which neither England nor Christendom are like be at rest And none are easier and sooner reduc'd than such whose principles and practices have long warr'd against Heaven and the Brittish Proverb saith Drwg y Ceidw Diawl ei wâas The Devil ill brings off his Servant It were to be wish'd and prayed it might please the Almighty to effect it mildly by the Authority and power of a generous and lawful Prince like as Constantine was from hence and not for our neglect raise a Tyrannical Cromwel for the scourge and ruine of their Degenerate Church as he did Ruffinus heretofore for the overthrow of their Degenerate Empire who is a Balaus Cent. 1.42 reported to be a Brittain born and his name greatly proves his Original were he born elsewhere
and that promise to be believ'd and relyed on and God to proceed to his Creation upon that belief or performance in fiction of the condition so insisted on The Red Earth being as much qualified to pass its word for human performance at mans first Creation as Corrupt nature to pass its word for Christian performances upon our Regeneration by Grace which is the root and venom of Pelagianism if Pelagius himself went so far 3. It greatly soyles and wrongs unworthily the noble spring and genuine clearness of Evangelical obedience which must now begin to arise and proceed from Interest and self-ends within us which before did spring from gratitude and Gods grace without us constraining us to give the whole glory to him and leaving nothing to our selves to boast off these two obediences differing from one another as the obedience of a Servant upon the score of Salary and contract which is necessary and servile from the obedience of a child upon the score of duty and nature which is also necessary but more Generous or the mutual love between hearty friends from that which is between Politicians to one another both proceeding as all our Actions do from self-preservation the one Immanent and sordid the other between true friends Transitive and Divine The one loves himself in his Friend where by the mutual Transmigration of love each conceives himself to be the other The other loves his friend in himself and for his own Immanent ends that is he loves himself but not his friend It is a great slavery and grievance to be tyed up to Act towards God upon low and selfish Principles when we may and ought to move upon Generous and Transitive to Act as children as it were upon childish motives when we may and ought as men to appear before a Prince in old Rags when we may in good Apparrel To have no other Opinion of Christian Heroes but that they were chiefly guided by self-interest That St. Paul loved himself as much or more than Christ or King Arthur his skin above his Church and Country than which what greater Indignity can be offerâ—d to their memories 4. It curtails the rewards of the other life which will be scanter to those that were Religious for their own benefit and Interest only than to those that acted out of thankfulness to their Redeemer above any private ends whatsoever for the one serv'd Christ the other themselves the ends of the one was duty and service more than reward of the other reward and benefit more than duty The one shall have more in the end of what was less in his Intention the other no more by his bargain than what he aim'd at The one obtains Heaven as a Gracious recompence for the improvement of his Morality the other a Heaven of Heavens above his contract or expectation for walking answerable to his High Calling and Dignity 5. It s a weaker tye and engagement â—o Holiness of Life this principle I say of Grace in suspence than freely bestowed and absolute under the one men act by option and choice under the other by obligation and necessity It is in mens power juri suo cedere to dispense with their option and to quit their felicity for a lust or as they please but it is not in their power to dispense with their obligation or deny the truth and its equitable consequence withall the one strives to arrive to spiritual greatness upon the stock of nature the other to maintain it in himself already had by walking answerable to himself Failer in the one is the loss of what he never had in the other an Infamous degradation from the highest Dignity enjoyed The fall of the one is like that of Adam from Paradice to wrath of the other like the fall of Angels from Heaven And the greater is the precipice the greater is mens fear and caution about their Station 2. Whether Ministers of the Gospel may not press to Christian duties upon the principles of Morality and Philosophy as well as upon supernatural principles of Faith seeing the same God is the Author of Nature and Reason as well as of Grace and Faith For answer sure both may be us'd in their place for both work upon the Soul in the strength of self-preservation which necessitates to Action but the self-preservation driven at by the one is immanent and homely by the other transitive and generous and Heavenly But they than prefer the one and condemn the other method mutually censure and traduce one another as the Corrupters of the Faith or depravers of mens Manners and fasten odious characters of Calvinists or Puritans or Pelagians or Arminians upon each other For many by Preaching unconditional Grace are observ'd to beget a Sect of Libertines and Hypocrites instead of Christians who let them never so much forget the duty of Justice and Charity and Truth to their Neighbours or of Obedience and Loyalty towards their Christian Governours though none more selfish and censorious and covetous and proud or more contrary to the meek and self-denying Heavenly temper of our Saviour yet none must be more Gods people or greater Saints in his Church because of a dexterity they have above others to give him the honour of his free Grace by fervent Complement and a wordy profession whilst others must pass but for Moral men or meer Heathens in Civil termes that live better and Prate less Others on the other side to prevent such unworthy abuse of Grace as to make it a cloak for maliciousness or to turn it into wantonness mould the Gospel anew by strong Parts and stick it all over with Provisoes and Conditions as Tyrants their Acts of Oblivion and make a New Moral Phylosophy of Christian Divinity with some Scripture leaves spread for Ornament about the Corners but the substance of the Aliment being from the breast of Nature And that Rock of free-Grace whereon so many stumbled and fell is far remov'd out of all sight and mention that Christians shall be as free and faâ—e hereafter from the danger of its influence as Heathens ever were and shall no more be abus'd or lull'd into Vice or immortality upon hopes of a Saviour to bring them off but they must bring themselves off or Christ shall serve them in little stead which the other traduce as an Arminian or manifestly Pelagian method of Salvation contrary to the mind of Christ and his Apostles and the Holy Scriptures For the Solution of this difficulty and to contribute endeavours to reconcile the well meaning sort of either side Men are to be consider'd and distinguish'd into several degrees and orders into Heathens or Christians which differ in kind and these again into Babes or Perfect men in Christ which differ but in degree for all are either wholly selfish and worldly and Carnal as are all out of Christ or highly Spiritual and self-Annihilated and Heavenly as are those within the School of Christ as are of the highest form
s insensibly received and admitted into its rest at last and then and there lost forever and found forever in the Bosom of the Immense Ocean so is it most an end with every Christian soul at the beginning and progress and end of his Christian Race who is as sure to reach to his rest and glory in the bosom of God forever as Rivers to reach the Sea which they are reaching every day nearer and nearer as they move towards it in the channel that leads unto it and is the very same Element with it To conclude if all could be perswaded and won to walk up to this short and Catholick Rule which reaches all Nations and Churches and Conditions and Vocations and degrees to discharge all their duties to one another from the heart as unto Christ there would be more truth and veracity in the World not only towards Brethren but towards enemies and strangers who have Christ in mens hearts to hold in their behalf any promise pawn'd and made unto them the violation whereof carries as much of Atheism and contempt of Christ within the heart as dishonesty without towards him it wrongs There would be more meekness and patience towards enemies and persecutors if not for their sakes yet for Christs who commands forgiveness and love to enemies More obedience or submission to all Governours to the best for Christ's sake and their own to the worst for Christ sake however being our necessary duty and their due Almes There would be more love and readiness to help one another by Counsel or Purse or Prayer instead of eating and devouring one another by Craft and Power when it shall be consider'd that every benefit or wrong we do to our Neighbour without we do both in a higher degree and greater edge to Christ himself within our hearts to our Eternal reward or reckoning This would make men true Christians and Loyal Subjects and tender Fathers and Governours and just Masters and right members in their respective Communities and Societies and trusts and Genuine Sons of the Church not only of England our Mother on Earth but of Jerusalem above the Mother of us all in Heaven to the saving of our Souls Infallibly when the whole stock of Mountebank Indulgencies shall faile to effect the Cure This little Commandment well observ'd would be the Harmony of the World set Heaven and Earth in Tune again and God at peace with his Creatures and plant joy and concord and the peace of God which passeth all understanding in every Kingdom in every City in every Family in every Breast And that Angelical Prophetical Anthem at our Saviours Birth would recover its Truth and Power in the World And Glory should be to God on high and on Earth peace and good will towards men FINIS A Particular Table of the Contents PART I. MOral experiments proving the Body to be as nothing in comparison of the Soul pag. 1 2 11. Masters and Princes Symbols of Christ how 4. How the Stature of a Christian reaches from Earth to Heaven p. 5. The Heart is never without its God p. 7. 20. Sincere Heathens and Carnal Christians compar'd and which preferr'd 7. Outside Duties in Religion necessary though nothing when compar'd to the Inside p. 8. None ought to vilifie their own Faith before a fair and open Renuntiation ibid. Sincere and dangerous mistakes arising from the comparative excellency of the Soul above the Body p. 9 Monkery and Non-conformity compar'd p. 9 10. How a thought of the Soul true or false is preferr'd before Estate Health and Life p. 11. Three properties requir'd to Act from the heart p. 12. Of force about Religion p. 13 14. Both good and bad men are for pleasure and the difference and the necessity of Divine Grace to set the will free p. 14 15. The Heart is for God and Christ and none beside why How p. 16. seqq Two reasons why the heart is so and how the Soul is Correlate to God p. 19. seqq An Irrefragable proof of the Deity from wicked mens experience and why it operates not upon some p 20 21. The Scheme and Hypothesis of the Christian Faith out of St. Paul and Creed and Fathers and Baptismal Vow p. 21 22. The right rule to chuse or avoid Communion with Churches p. 23. The Christian Hypothesis the best foundation and support of Societies p 23 24. A description of a true and right member of a Society p. 25. seq Honour is more than Life Conscience more than Honour what more than Conscience p. 27. Of a false member and of self-love how sordid and destructive of it self p. 28. seqq What makes good Men good Subjects good Rulers p. 31. seqq The great Rule of doing as we would be done by fenc'd and exalted by the Text p. 32. seq Blind obedience and implicit Faith in the Church of Rome to Superiours fairly examin'd and found unsound and unworthy p. 32. 33. seq What is Truth p. 37. Which the greater sin Tyranny or Rebellion p. 38 39. Plenitude of Soveraignty and Liberty consistent p. 40. Christs Divinity prov'd against Socinians p. 41 42. SECT I. An Exhortation to adhere to the Church of England against Rome p. 43. seqq The way to be Infallible p. 44. Worship in an unknown Tongue excludes the heart p. 44. seq Men are to be Infallible for themselves first for their Brethren next p. 47. The Controversy consists in the Election of a right or wrong Infallible guide p. 47. This Question stated in the sense of both parties p. 48 49 51. All other Controversies would end if this were decided p. 51. Obedience to the wrong is disobedience to the Right Soveraign ibid. Three Questions propos'd to find out the true p. 52. The heart cannot be without a guide Christ or sin or man of sin p. 53. The Principles of Government with the last p. 54 55 No Law of Christ or Conscience or Countrey must be heeded against his Authority and Interest p. 56 57 The Soul is Gods Temple and the Pope instead of Christ affects to be Soveraigâ— there p. 61 62. Great folly and danger to hearken to a Perkin Warheck p. 63 64. The Principles of Protestants how they prove the uniform Loyalty of the heart to Christ as the right Soveraign p. 63 64. How the Brittish Church knowes the Scriptures to be Gods word p. 64. How our Controversies about things indifferent are decidable by these Principles p 65 66. Christ is the Judge of quick and dead and who are his Depuâ—â—â—â—on Earth 47 67. And nothing to be acted against him by â—â—â—s Authority p. 67. Such as be Hereticks with the Pope but Catholicks with God are in no danger p. 67. SECT II. Rome no Mother Churâ—h to us not Loyal to Christ her Soveraign p. 68 69. Every Church may be consider'd three wayes 1. According to its Inside 2. Outside 3. Or extraction p. 69. Jerusalem above not Rome is the Mother Church to all Christians in respect of their inside