did not write this to a private Brother or in some special Case but to the Church as a General and standing Truth and therefore now as Authentick and proper as then And if this be true I cannot see how any or even the most part of the Church that are still but Brethren to the rest of one voluntary Communion and Profession can with any shew of Reason impose upon them and escape the Reproof of this Scripture for all Societies are to govern themselves according to their Institution and first Principles of Union Where there is Violence upon this part Tyranny and not Order is introduced Now since Perswasion and Conviction began all true Christian Society all Christian Societies must uphold themselves upon the same free Bottom or they turn Antichristian I beseech you here let us examine our selves faithfully and I am of belief that something of this will yet appear amongst us that shew great Reverence to that free Name But to make good their unreasonable conceit of Church Authority they object Christ's Words GO TELL THE CHURCH that is say they The Church is the Rule and guide of Faith whatever the Church agrees upon and requires your assent to and Faith in that you must necessarily believe But though as before 't is confest in a sense we must believe as the true Church believes yet not because she so believes but for the same Reasons that she her self does so believe because none can truly believe as she believes but must so do upon the same principles and motives for which they believ'd that first made up that Christian Church To talk of being the Rule and Guide in point of Faith is to contradict Scripture and justle Christ out of the Office which is peculiar to him and his Spirit he is given to his Church an Head that is a Counsellor a Ruler a Judge and is called a Lawgiver and says the Apostle The Children of God are led by the Spirit of God And he was Wisdom and Righteousness to the Church Apostolick and is so to his own Church all the World over Besides 't is absurd that the Church can be the Rule and Guide of Faith for as such she must be her own Rule and Guide the Faith of the Members being that of the Church which cannot be But what then can be the meaning of Christs words Go tell the Church Very well I answer 't is not about Faith but Injury that Christ speaks and the place explains it self which is this Moreover if thy Brother shall TRESPASS against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone here is Wrong not Religion Injustice not Faith or Conscience concerned as some would have it to maintain their Church power if he shall hear thee thou hast gain'd thy Brother but if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three Witnesses every word may be established and if he shall neglect to hear them TELL IT UNTO THE CHURCH but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a Publican Verily I say unto you whatever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven c. The matter manner of which passaged eliver'd by Christ shews that he intended not to set up Church power about Faith and Worship unto which all must bow even without if not against conviction The word TRESPASS and FAULT prove abundantly that he only means private and personal Injuries and that not only from the undeniable signification and use of the word TRESPASS and FAULT but from the way Christ commands for accommodation viz. that the person wrong'd do speak to him that commits the Injury alone if that will not do that he take one or two with him but no man can think that if it related to Faith Worship I ought to receive the Judgment of one or two or three against mine own This has not been the practice at least not the principle of the most degenerated Church since the Primitive times for most if not all agree that nothing below the Church can detemine about matters of Faith and even many with reason cannot go so far yet Christ seems to fix a blame upon him that complies not with the Person he has offended but more if he refuse to give satisfaction after one or two have also intreated him therefore it cannot relate to matters of Faith and scruples of Conscience but personal and private Injuries Which is yet clearer from this part of Christ's saying viz. That in the Mouth of two or three Witnesses every Word may be established Which Implies a Tryal and Judicial proceeding as is customary in civil cases about personal and private Trespasses for it were not so proper to speak of Witnesses on any other account This is interpreted beyond exception by the Apostle to the Corinthians where he reproves and forbids them to go to Law one with another before Unbelievers arguing thus Do you not know that the Saints shall Judge the World and if the World shall be judged by you are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters This shews the meaning of Church Authority is those dayes and is a natural Exposition upon Christ's words in case of Trespass and Refractoriness Tell the Church And 't is yet the Practice of all sober just and quiet People raher to refer their Controversies to approved men than to tare one another to pieces at Law But it is worth our notice that as any Decision up on an arbitration oblieges only the Parties to sit down content with the awardment of such loss or gain as they the Arbitrators think equal as the next best way to accommodate differences and not that such awardment should alter their first Thoughts and Opinion they had of their right or force them to declare they are of the Arbitrators mind So is it most unreasonable where the Church is only an Arbitrator about Personal trespasses or umpire at most to imagine a Power to determine and impose Faith and that upon severe Penalties as well of this unto which Christ's Church has no relation as of the other World I say this very thing well weigh'd breaks all their Fallacies to pieces and decides the business beyond all contradiction between those that stand upon the Spirit within and the Scripture without on the one hand and such as meerly rest upon the Traditions of Men and Authority of the Church on the other hand For if in an Arbitration I am not bound to be of the Arbitrators mind though for Peace sake I submit to their Award and that the Church Power in this place controverted relates only to external and personal Trespasses Injuries or Injustices as the place it self plainly proves there can be no sense reason or modesty in the Earth on the part of those high Church men who
requires at our Hands What I have said against Excess in Apparel is also applicable to Excess in Furniture For as Finery is more valued than Clothes so is the Furniture than the House It is a most Inexcusable Superfluity to bestow an Estate to line Walls dress Cabinets embroider Beds with an Hundred other unprofitable Pieces of State such as Massy Plate Rich Chiny Costly Pictures and Painted Windows of no use in the Earth only for Show and Sight the Interest of which Money so ill employed might probably Maintain the Poor of a Numerous Parish O Lord God! hast thou given us Plenty and should we see others Want should we clothe our Dead Walls and let thy Poor go Naked Can we feed our Eyes with these Objects and not feed the Hungry with Bread and spend our Money upon Lifeless Pictures but shut up our Bowels to thy Living Image the Poor and N edy of the Earth Rebuke this Evil Mind and bring down the Pride of all Flesh O Lord for thy Name 's sake The Last Excess is that of Feasting and Voluptuousness Immoderate Eating and Drinking with that strain of Mirth and Jollity which is the Mode and Practice of the Times Dives is almost got into every Family especially those of Note and Estate it is Want of Wealth and not Will that the Greatest Part of the Nation is not guilty they mostly sin to their Ability that is sad But the Sin of Voluptuousness is swell'd to that Bulk that there are more Receipts for Eating and Drinking than there are Precepts of Life in the Old and New Law the Book of Cookery is grown as big as the Bible and I fear read to be sure practised oftner In this Art the Lust of the Flesh is deeply concern'd there is not so much Care of the Stomach as of the Palate of Health as Pleasure 't is the Taste the Gust the Relish that makes the Victuals go down therefore the Sawce is preferred before the Meat Twelve-penny worth of Flesh with Five Shillings of Cookery may happen to make a Fashionable Dish plain Beef Mutton or any other thing is become Dull Food But by that time its Natural Relish is lost in the Crowd of the Cook 's Ingredients and the Meat sufficiently disguised to the Eaters it passes under a French Name for a very Good Dish But there is one thing in this Impiety more than ordinarily Condemnable it destroyes Hospitality and wrongs the Poor For that Expence which is now flung away upon a Vicious Palate upon a French Soup or Sawce in former Times afforded several Dishes of substantial Victuals which did not only feed Strangers or Neighbours but the Poor who have now little more than what the Dogs had then Empty Dishes to lick This is Abusing the Providence of God Tyrannizing over the Creatures made for man's Use and sacrificing their Poor Lives not to our Lives but to our Lusts 'T is against such as these that the Creation groans and from whose Intemperance it cries to be delivered God in all Ages hath had a Controversie with Voluptuous Men and the Testimonies of sacred Records are Strong and Numerous against them I will mention a few of them Voluptuousness was the Sin of the Old World they were Eating and Drinking Marrying and giving in Marriage pleasing the Lust of the Eye the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life until the Day of the Flood This also was the Condition of Sodom Christ himself has exprest it in these words In the Dayes of Lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded the same Day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained Fire and Brimstone from Heaven and destroyed them all The Prophet Ezekiel has it in these words speaking to Jerusalem Behold thâ—… was the Iniquity of thy Sister Sodom Pride Fulness of Bread and A undance of Idleness was in her and her Daughters neither did she strengthen the Hand of the Poor and Needy and they were Haughty and committed Abomination before me therefore I took them away as I saw good And it is very Remarkable that the Voluptuouâ—ness of the Israelites was joyned with their Idolatry It is said that when Moses was in the Mount the People Impatient of his Stay sat down to Eat and to Drink and rose up to Play they had got a Calf of Gold and were Dancing about it But it was a Dismal Ball and they paid dear for their Junket for several Thousands were Slain and it is said That God Plagued the People Job's Children had as Ill Success in their Festivals they went from House to House Eating and Drinking and a Tempest rose and smote the Four Corners of the House and Kill'd them But most express is that Complaint of God by the Mouth of the Prophet Amos against the Voluptuous Jews Ye that put so far away the Evi Day and cause the Seat of Violence to come near that lie upon Beds of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their Couches and eat the Lambs out of the Flock and Calves out of the midst of the Stall That Chant at the Sound of the Viol and invent to themselves Instruments of Musick like David that drink Bowls of Wine and anoint themselves with the chief Ointments but they are not grieved for the Affliction of Joseph Therefore now shall they go Captive with the First that go Captive and the Banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed And I will turn your Feasts into Mourning and all your Songs into Lamentation and I will make the End thereof as a bitter Day I shall Sum up these Excesses and Conclude the Instances with the Story of Dives more commonly known then reverently believed It is delivered to us by the Great Lord of Truth in these Words There was as Certain Rich Man which was cloathed in Purple and Fine Linnen and fared Sumptuously every Day And there was a Certain Beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his Gate full of Sores and deâ—iring to be fed with the Crums which fell from the Rich Man's Table moreover the Dogs came and licked his Sores And it came to pass that the Beggar died and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom The Rich Man also died and was buried And in Hell he lift up his Eyes being in Torments and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his Bosom And he cried and said Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his Finger in water and cool my Tongue for I am Tormented in this Flame But Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy Life-time receivedst thy good things likewise Lazarus Evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented And besides all this between us you there is a Great Gulf fix'd so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence This Great Passage
new Religion neither suffer so ill an use to be made of such Dissents as to carry them beyond their true bounds for the meaning of those Arts of ill men is to set the People further off from one another then they really are and to aggrevate Differences in Judgment to Contrariety in affection and when they have once inflam'd them to Variance and Strife nothing can hinder Persecution but want of Power which being never wanted by the strongest side the weakest though truest is opprest not by Argument but Worldly Weapons The seventh and last Cause I shall now assign for Persecution is this That Holy living is become no test among us unless against the liver The Tree was once known by its Fruits 't is not so now the better Liver the more dangerous if not a Conformist this has made way for Persecution There was a time when Virtue was Venerable and good Men admired that 's derided and Opinion carries it He that can perswade his Conscience to comply with the times be he Vitious Knavish Cowardly any thing he is protected perhaps preferr'd A Man of Wisdom Sobriety and Ability to serve his King and Country if a Dissenter must be blown upon for a Phanatick a man of Faction of disloyal Principles and what not Rewards and Punishments are the Magistrates duty and the Governments interest and support Rewards are due to Virtue Punishments to Vice Let us not mistake nor miscall things let Virtue be what it al. wayes was in Government good Manners sober Living and Vice ill Manners and ill Living Reduce all to this let such good Men have the â—miles and Rewards and such ill Men the Frowns and Punishments of the Government this ends Persecution and lays Opinion to sleep Ill men will make no more advantages by such Conformity nor good men no more suffer for want of it In short As that Religious Society deserves not the Protection of the Civil which is inconsistent with the Safety of it so those Societies of Christians that are not only not Destructive of the Civil Government but Lovers of it ought by the Civil Government to be secured from Ruin God Almighty open our Understandings pour out the Spirit of thorow Reformation upon us that we may be all Conscientiously Dispos'd to seek and pursue those things which make for Love Peace and Godliness that it may be well with us both here and forever For yet a little while and the Wicked shall not be yea thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be but the Meek shall inherit the Earth and shall delight themselves in abundance of Peace The Wicked PLOTTETH against the Just and â—nasheth upon him with his Teeth the Lord shall laugh at him for he seeth that his Day is coming Psal 37. 10 11 12 13. The Judgment of King James King Charles the first about Persecution for Religion VVE find it asserted by King James in his Speech to the Parliament in the year 1609. who said That it is a pure Rule in Divinity That God never loves to plant his Church with Violence and Blood and furthermore said It was usually the Condition of Christians to be Persecuted but not to Persecute And we find the same things in substance asserted again by his Son King Charles the first in his Book known by the Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 printed for R. Royston as followeth Pag. 67. In his Prayer to God he said Thou seest how much Cruelty amongst Christians is acted under the colour of Religion as if we could not be Christians unless we Crucifie one another Pag. 28. Make them at length seriously to consider that nothing Violent and Injurious can be Religion Pag. 70. Nor is it so proper to hâ—w out Religious Reformations by the Sword as to pollish them by fair and equal Disputations among those that are most concerned in the Differences whom not Force but Reason ought to convince Sure in Matters of Religion those Truths gain most upon â—eâ—s Judgments and Consciences which are least urged with secular Violence which weakens Truth with Prejudices Pag. 115. It being an Office not only of Humanity rather to use Reason than Force but also of Christianity to seek Peace and ensue it Some Words of Advice from King Charles the first to the then Prince of Wales now King of England c. Pag. 165. My Counsel and Charge to you is That you seriously consider the former Real or Objected Miscarriages which might occasion my Troubles that you may avoid them c. Beware of Exasperating any Faction by the Crosness and Asperity of some mens Passions Humours and private Opinions imployed by you grounded only upon Differences in lesser matters which are but the Skirts and Suburbs of Religion wherein a charitable Connivance and Christian Toleration often dissipates their Strength when rougher Opposition fortifies and puts the Despised and Oppressed Party into such Combinations as may most enable them to get a full Revenge on those they count their Persecutors Pag. 166. Take heed that Outward Circumstances and Formalities of Religion devour not all Difficulties in printing have occasion'd some Faults which pray Excuse and Amend Page 8. line 18. after Quality add in saying p. 14 l. 10. was r. is p. 16. l. 5. these r those l. 27. Law r. Laws p 27. l 5 with r of p 29 l 31 of dele p. 33 l 1 hath r have p 39 l 10 r Salamin p 32 l 9 r who p 56 l 11 this r thy p 63 l 22 the dele l 31 and r if not p 78 l 20 r of your p 79 l 1 as dele l 26 r discord all c. p 82 l 3 whom r which p 83 l 1 r mutable state p 105 l 24 in r on p 11 1 l 1 r believeth p 118 l 2 preaching r packing p 120 l. 32 their r your p 132 l 8 r that impossible p 133 l 24 r Ages stood p 134 l 32 r have been p 137 l 6 they r she p 138 l 27 â—r the. p 139 l 9 r therefore l 16 read imbecil l 23 r Perfection p 140 l 28 r reject p 143 l 14 r for peace p 153 l 32 ciâ—il 1 personal p 156 l 13 ever r over l 30 r hurt p 178 l 7 Poper Judge p 183. l 11 the dale l 28 r and is it p 184 l 26 r let us p 185 l 14 those r three p 〈◊〉 l 22 intruded r intended p 202 l 4. r concerned p 208 l 17 r Proâ—… 16 r is it reasonable p 219 l 25 r undoing p 225 l 18 recerâ—… 〈◊〉 p 227 l 26 we r true p 229 l 29 r laid p 231 l 25â— and dele p 235 l 10 r Governments l 13 this r the. p 241 l 11 his r their l 22 refuse 〈◊〉 refuse p 244 l 3 r imprudent p 245 l 4 enslave r encrease THE END Isa 28. 1 3 7. Prov. 23. ver 29 30 31 32 33. Exod. 20. v. 4. Lev. 20 10.