is transacted here on Earth between man and man the Inside is performed in Heaven through Faith between the Soul and God The height and stature of a Right Christian reaches from Earth to Heaven pedibus terram terit caput inter nubila condit The Originall Model and Truth of all his actions is order'd and contriv'd in his upper-man in his Sanctum Sanctorum where there is access to none but God and his conscience Christ and his heart his outward Actions in his lower man or outward court of the body are but Copies and Proclamations of those Rules from above and are all executed by and towards deputies our hands being the Proxies of our Souls and our Neighbours and Superiours the Proxies of Christ And should a lust or Idoll or Self-interest or Carnall fear steal in or usurp like Lucifer or Antichrist the Throne of Christ in the upper man the Soul the Inferiour faculties below will serve and worship this Impostor or Usurper with the same Allegiance the same fear and trembling as Christ himself which is an abominable Idolatry and confusion and a vile and treasonable Prophanation and subversion of Christs Honour and Soveraignty in us together with that of our own Liberty and felicity Therefore the heart is to be always watch'd and guarded against invasions Prov. 4.24 and kept free and entire for Christ and whatsoever we do we are to do it for no other end or respect and for no mans sake but Christ which is the benefit and Interest of the superiour and Inferiour too The Master or Superiour is happy in the fidelity and Religion of his Servant who is now as diligent in his work behind the back as before the face directing his service not to man who cannot always see him but to Christ from his heart present at all times and places to him in his heart and faith And the servant is much more happy not only in his Immense and Infinite reward for his labour above what his Earthly Lord or Master could ever reach to give but in the glorious liberty and dignity of his condition being not so much Servant as brother to his own Lord and Master in Christ whose Servants both are alike and the chief Rulers of the Earth and the Angels of Heaven count it their chief honour and glory so to be The text as we all men consists of two parts Body and Soul The Body in those words whatsoever ye do ye that is ye Servants which takes in all ranks and orders and degrees of men all from the Plow to the Throne being but Servants Servants either of man or God or both and the word whatsoever comprehends all the duties and Actions of them all The Soul or the heart of my text in the other words do it from the heart as unto the Lord and not unto men where there are two parts of this the heart the right ventricle and the left the right or positive part in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the Lord and the left or Negative part in the other and not unto men 1. In the right part the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or quatenus ipsum as Logicians say between the Lord and the heart whatsoever is done or not done from the heart is done or not done to the Lord in effect and whatsoever is or is not done for the Lord is or is not done from the heart because of the concatâ—nation or eternall correlation between these two for ever Inseparable Liege and Subject God and the Soul for though a sincere Heathen and a carnall Christian seem both miserably out the one for want of God the other for want of the â—earâ— in worship yet in neither where one is present iâ— the other correlative really ever wanting and Socrates and Cicero who serv'd false Gods actually did design the true God in their hearts and will rise up in judgement against such nominall Christians oâ— Catholicks who actually worship Christ but design another end in their hearts their Backs or Bellies or secular conveniences by him and whatsoever is the aim of our heart is our God And this chief end and treasure at the bottom of the heart and intention which as our Saviour notes Math. 6.21 goes ever with the heart is that which as the Soul of the action gives life and formality to it and denomination to the worshipper either of a true worshipper or true Christian where the chief end at bottom is the true God or Christ or of an Idolator or Atheist where the chief end in the heart is the world or self which God well knows and every mans conscience can best tell him which it is 2. The negative part not unto men yea to men as secondary Masters by the order of Christ the chief to Masters according to the flesh v. 22. but not from fleshly motives or worldly respect or fear that were contrary to the nature of the Soul and the faith of Christians for the Soul knows none to be loved or feared but God alone or in reference to him and faith sets us above the world and consequently above all wordly fears or ends in our actings if our actings be Christian and our Christianity be true To dwell on the first part or body of the text and to enumerate all the fair limbs and lineaments of duty belonging to all sorts of men in their severall ranks and orders were in effect to sum up to you the whole duty of man which yet without the second part or the heart in my text would prove but a meer Anatomy or Skeleton the shell without the kernell the body without the soul And though the outside of our duties be nothing if compar'd to the inside or heart therereof and the latter is to be chiefly done yet the former is not to be left undone for how can that be done from the heart which is not done at all or well done before God which is ill done before men before whom we are bound to glorifie God as well as within our hearts I shall therefore fall to the heart and life of my text after warning and detection given of a great and dangerous errour among Christians which lies in the extreme where faults use to lie Not theirs do I mean with whom their body and its wellfare are all in all with them and their immortall Souls but as ciphers out of sight out of mind which is a very Catholick Irreligion not to be refuted here because such cannot pretend to be Christians because they are no men and no men because they deny their Souls falling short of nobler Infidels and Heathens in Wit and Spirit and Religion and hearding themselves unworthily with the beasts that perish having no signs of manliness left but the false magnanimity of wounding and damning there no Souls and vilifying the Lord Christ his Scriptures and Ministers and that before any open renunciation of their Christianity
This Caelestial Champion is hardly to be exceeded oâ— out-done by any but by â— Joseph encountring flames burning not only his flesh but his very Soul and outgoing all other Martyrs that keep the Field by running away from his enemy and his thoughts and from himself into the bosome and protection and fear of God transforming the flattering visage of his lust into deformity and flat Rebellion against Heaven by the glass of consideration or consultation with his Heavenly Interest and gratitude How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.9 Chastity and purity of Soul and Body being a Divine transcendent vertue in every Age and zone but in the torrid zone of youth lovely and admirable beyond measure where the storm is greatest and the walls weakest there to make good one's post against all the Arts and Fireworks of Satan or his blandishments and deceitful Treaties and Counsels wherein he ever was stronger than in the Field or storm This is such a proof of victorious loyalty and courage and grace and wisdom all in one part as is hardly to be parallell'd or exceeded either in Earth or in Heaven It is doing Gods will on Earth not as but in some manner above what it is done in Heaven by those Glorious beings who are not infested with that war and contagion and clog of flesh and blood that may give greater lustre and merit to there obedience from its difficulties How much is he in Heaven while on Earth who is in a manner more than in Heaven by the Glory of his highly rewardable service and loyalty Yet the conflict of this Heavenly Victor seems as easie as shutting the eye or turning away the face from beholding vanity if compared to the archievements of another great Peer not to be estimated or understood by Carnal judges the contentment and serenity of a Lazarus at Dives his gate pin'd with hunger and thirst macerated with Sores and Boiles and tempted the more to unevenness by the Pride and Inhumanity of Dives more unnatural and merciless and Ansyber than his dogs who came and lick'd his sores A poor man in the eye of this World is like a wither'd plant out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness or desirable beauty in him but is despiz'd and rejected of men and shunn'd by friends and slighted in his Vote and Testimony by the Law which was ordain'd to do right to all men And forsaken as it were by God himself who seems more bountiful to the wicked that Blasphem his name who yet fare deliciously and are fill'd with his hid Treasures while the poor mans portion is short of the Fowls of the Air or the Rich mans Kennel enough to subdue the strongest Spirit and to bring down the stoutest heart to be without heart or life not only by the unsupportable pressure and discouragement but by the endless continuance of such a life-less life without all prospect of relief A condition that Agur prayed against least I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain Prov. 30.9 And all the World shunnes like paena damni and finds not that evil in perjury or perfidiousness or the Gallowes or Hell and damnation it self as in a poor and narrow fortune which sets one out of the World while it disables him to be of the fashion in it or to live up to his quality and degree He therefore that can be thankful to his God in poverty as well as plenty and bless him upon a Dunghill no less than on a Throne and though his outward man perish hath his inward man renewed day by day and is rich in Faith though poor in Pence and alive in Heaven while dead on Earth and viewing his condition with the right end of the prospective finds his poverty to be his riches and his misery to be his felicity and himself to be in the midst of Heaven when he was thought out of World for what else is it to be a perfect Christian than to be dead to this World and alive to Christ wherein a poor man hath the advantage above the Rich Carrying his Mortification ever in readiness about him while the Rich are to fetch it far off with labour and cost and much Discipline and difficulty and to strive against pride and intemperance and the snares and temptations of wealth wherewith the poor is seldom troubled but is strong in God who is his trust while Mammon is the strength and trust of the other and is cloth'd with Graces while the other with but Wormes and Clay and hath the feast of a good Conscience to match the other's surfets and the roomes of his understanding clear'd from all Childish conceptions by a manly Faith and looks upon fashions to be but stage appearances and Earthly dignities to be but bubbles and delicious fare but the Dainties of the dead and stately Mansions but as Childrens Turretts rear'd with Cards and this World to that to come to be but as the Earth is to Heaven for quantity and his Heavenly condition not to grow greater by addition or lesser by substraction of the goods of this World to or from it He I say that can thus live in death by his Faith and is hearty and contented amidst wants and honest and true in Rags is that Christian Phenix which the Psalmist conceived was hardly to be met with Who O Lord shall give thee thanks in the Grave or declare thy loving kindness in Destruction Lo the man is found that shall It is the poor that receive their evil things in this World yet praise God continually for his goodness nevertheless and are full of heart though not of present pay in his service and resolve to trust in him though he kill them These that are full of Halelujahs in their pains and wants how fit are they already to be of the Quire of Glory Therefore in the Sermon in the Mount where several of the blessed Citizens and chief Peers in this Heavenly Kingdom are recounted by our Saviour in their several ranks and orders the place of Primier Nobles and chief Probationers of Glory is remarkably assigned to the poor the really poor in Fortune expresly Luc. 6.20.16.25 Blessed be the poor for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven blessed are ye that hunger now for ye shall be filled blessed are ye that weep now for ye shall laugh As well as the poor in Spirit or humble in heart amidst their greatest affluence wherewith they are not puffed as if it were their own but are diligent Stewards thereof under God for their poorer Brethren and Neighbours whose needs with their Compassion entitles them to an equal share The Rich that are humble and liberal the Poor that are thankful and contented act both equally above this World in the Society and view of God in Heaven Which points and discovers one other order in the Heavenly City that are to â—it above them also for these Stars of the
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
sight and hearing when the Christian Soul comes upon the Stage to Act its part before its God alone like a Nightingale in a still calm it being below the Soul to sing her part to any other ear neither can the heart own any competent spectator of its Actions but Him alone who can search and judge it And what is more agreable as with this text so with the great care of our Saviour also in the right ordering of our Religious Actions our Alms and Fasting and Prayer that we do all to Gods eye alone and not to be seen of men Math. 6.1 2 3. For if we do the same for men we have our reward that is they must pay us who set us on work or for whom we chuse to work but if for God in secret then God who seeth in secret shall reward us openly If we pray in our Closets it must be to God alone intirely being more seen and heard by him alone than if we prayed in the sight and hearing of the whole world If we pray in the Church where we are seen of men we are not so to pray that men may praise our devotions but that God may approve our hearts we are to Pray in private between God and our heart in the midst of the congregation as in a desert In duties of the Pulpit Bench or Shop our chief aim must not be lucre or vain glory the fear or the favour of any but the approving of our hearts and consciences to Christ which will make us just and bold and sober and tender We are not to be dejected or cast down for any loss but the loss of Christs favour by our sins which sorrow is its own cure we are not to esteem our selves better than others in any thing but where we can out-go them in conformity to our meek and humble Saviour which kind of humility is true and Divine Grandeur nor to count our selves at ease amidst our ease and plenty till we find it to go well with Christ and his Church which is our zeal and Loyalty The Christian that Acts all in Christ and through Christ and for Christ super-induces Christ upon himself and upon every other person he hath to do with as the colour of the glass shall colour all the objects the eye sees through it even as envy and malice on the contrary sees the Devil in every Brother and finds him in it self His hope of life and Salvation ebbs and flows according as he finds himself in or out of Christ Rom 8.1 and he finds himself in or out of Christ according as his thoughts words or actions agree or disagree with the person of Christ which as a Christian he hath put on for his rule and measure Gal. 3 27.-5.24 He dares not approach his Neighbours bed because he earries Christ in him and upon him wheresoever he moves shall I take a member of Christ to make it a member of an Harlot God forbid 1 Cor. 6.15 He preferrs every Brother or Sister in humility before himself against his pride because Christ to his Faith is in every Brother or Sister Rom. 12.10 1 Cor. 8.12 He is faithfull and diligent in his Masters business against his sloath and temptations considering with himself he serves not man but Christ as in my Text. In a relation of husband or wife Christ and his Church are to be acted betwen them the one is to love his wife for all her frailties as Christ loved his Church the other is to honour her Husband against her discontents as the Church honours Christ Eph. 5.22 25. He obeys his Superiors in all lawfull injunctions against his scruples because Christ in his Faith rules in them who is worthy to be submitted to Prov. 8.15 Rev. 1.5 He forgives his enemies against his stomach because Christs will is now his will and not his own Math. 5.44 He is liberal to the poor against his avarice because Christ to his Faith is in the poor as really saith St. Chrysostome as in the Sacrament Math. 25.40 He neither wrongs nor imposes on nor scandalizes any man with his good will that to his Faith were to wrong or impose upon or scandalize Christ himself 1 Cor. 8.12 as much as in him lyes which he abhorrs and trembles at Neither is he weary of praying or doing good as his flesh would suggest because to his Faith it s the same to him as being in Heaven with Christ all the while 1 Cor. 15.58 Heb. 11.1 he startles at the first step or motion to any sin because to his Faith which makes the threats of Christ ever present to him as well as his rewards it signifies here to him the same with departing from Christs presence into everlasting flames with the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25.41 Good God! what an Heaven upon Earth it were to live among Christians if all that were Christians by name were Christians indeed and in truth And none can be truly saved but those alone who are truly Christians in heart to Christ and not in appearance to men only And so much for the Quomodo how we must do all from the heart to Christ and not to men Next follows the Quare or the two reasons why we are so to act the first implyed in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the other in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 1. Soul and 2. the Lord. 1. The first is from the fundamental nature and fabrick of our Souls which bear a connatural imbred allegiance and subjection to God and no other to whom they are as Unisons or Correlates as the eye was made to answer the Light or the herb Heliotropium to move at the motion of the Sun or as your common Daisies that as it were with mourning and joy shut and open according as they lose or enjoy the Sun Our Souls are not sui juris independant unaccountable beings that were for a Creature to be the same as God is but are subject and responsible for all their most inward designs and actions and that to God alone and no other All Earthly powers and their threats and bonds they flight and defie as Sampson did his Wit hs and Cords or Leviathan doth Iron and Brass to him but as straw and stubble But God or Christ they will own as their Leige who governs them by a Vice-Roy I mean Conscience which is the same with the heart in my Text which seems to be no other than the Soul it self made an Officer or Register both for and against it self to view and record and report all passages impartially against the great Tribunal being a manifest demonstration of the immense power of that Almighty Soveraign who thus controlls and rules this potent and lofty spirit the Soul of man and all for its good Rather than to be without a God to Worship by way of virtue and Religion the Soul will chuse an Idol to serve by way of Vice and Idolatry There are two experiments to
negligent Therefore the inspired King recommends it as their wisdom to all Earthly Kings To kissâ— the Son lest he be Angry and so they persh from the right way Psal 2.10 12. This Son is the Messia the Lord Christ in my Text whom to kiss is to submit to his Laws to love his nature and to imitate his way and example to win the hearts of the World And to chuse rather to die as he did for the liberties of their people than devour their Birth-rights or Sacrifice their Lives in whole â—hecatombs and Myriads to their pleasure and ambition Full Dominion and full Liberty which both covet Governours and Governed are both obtain'd when both observe this Rule in my Text Governed obey from their hearts as unto Christ and Governours rule from their hearts according to Christs mind and will for the same Gospel which binds the one to submit binds the other to protect and to be compassionate tender Fathers as well as the other dutiful and mild Children That the Prerogative of the Prince should be preserv'd by the people as their own Interest and Glory and the liberty of the people preserved by the Prince as his chief trust and honour Even as the Church loves Christ above its own life and Christ his Church in like manner and that they preserve not each themselves apart which would tend to coldness and alienation and trespass and removal of bounds in the party unreasonable but that they mutually transplant and place their own preservation and Interest in the maintenance of each others right as it were forgetting their own and this begets endearment and firm trust and union and peace between both parts and the contrary tends to separation and to divide the Nation and Kingdom against it self especially when the one or the other part shall plead themselves free from their duty jure divino and the other bound which suggestion cannot be from the God of peace and order but from Satan and Antichrist the contrivers of Confusion But when both are as they should be that is both discharge their duty from the heart as unto Christ which is all that the Church meddles to direct in state matters then both should have their wills and great peace and blessing from God besides the soul best directs the body and the body best obeys the soul when both are as they should be and enjoy their several healths natural and moral being free from all Disease and Vice but let the one be Sottish or the other Hydropical and be enclined to neglect or over-reach the one the other they shall observe no bounds but covet on Insatiably against one another to the burden and ruine at last of both The happiness and bliss of a Nation consists in this when the Prince who is the soul and the people who are as the body enjoy both their several healths Mens sana in corpore sano which all good Subjects ought and will ever pray and wish for and is only attainable when both observe and follow the directions and Prescriptions of this Text. Thirdly this Text is of use to discover and confute false Doctrines that creep in among us some more covertly others more openly and with a high hand threatning the utter Subversion of the Church It serves first to convince Socinians or Modern Arrians and Anabaptists who labour to suppress and overthrow and deny the Divinity of our Saviour God blessed for ever For if the Lord in my Text who is in the following verse expressly affirm'd to be the Lord Christ be not the High and true God then to do all from the heart as unto him were flat Idolatry in us Christians which yet our Inspired Apostle prescribes and binds upon us all as our indispensiable duty and that in contradistinction to men do it saith he to the Lord and not to men manifestly owning thereby his God-head besides there are two Attributes implied in this and another parallel Paragraph Eph. 6 5.-8 belonging to this Lord. 1. First that he is the searcher of the heart 2. That he is the Judge of of the world according to the secrets of the heart which are not communicable either of them to any Creature in Heaven or Earth neither to Angels nor Archangels but to him alone who is the true God Christs Divinity which these dangerous Hereticks would overthrow is the main Pillar and Foundation of all our Christian comfort For because he was truly God that was it gave price and Infinite value to his death for our Redemption whereby he became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soveraign Lord of Christians as our Creeds acknowledge And because he was the eternal Son of God that also was it that gave beauty and exstasie to his unparallel'd astonishing humility and love in condescending to take our nature upon him to die in it for us when we were his enemies whereby he became Lord of Hearts and all knees in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth bound to bow unto him and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2 6-11 Rom. 5.10 This merit and humility of his death is that which is recommended in Sacraments to our remembrance and in Brotherly Charity towards one another to the Worlds end And the impudent imitation of Antichrist is not the least proof amongst many of Christs Divinity as St. Chrysostom well observes who would not have acted his part so forgetfully as falsely to assume to be God 2 Thes 2.4 if Christ had not been truly so SECTION I. The Controversie reduced to one single point in General of Obedience to the Right Soveraign of the heart and Protestancy found Loyal and Popery the contrary in its principles and Practice BUt in the Second place I shall chuse to enlarge and insist upon a more necessary Exhortation because the danger of seduction grows daily greater that you and all other Christians here in Britain would be carefull to preserve your selves true and stedfast members in the day of tryal of an higher Society into which you were early enrolled for more Holy and Eternal purposes and to be obedient to your own good Laws and the Governours that are over you by Providence and by consequence to God himself in them and not to fall off as many false hearts are like to do like leaves in Autumn upon a cold nip or trial into forraign Dirt and Captivity and imposture from which the Wisdom and zeal of your Progenitors have set you free for Originally as the learned on both sides know our Brittish Church never was a Daughter of Rome nor Subject to its See being Ancienter in Christ and Seniour to the Church and Chair of Rome it self or the first arrival of St. Peter there were the Tradition or Legend true But what availeth it to have been unless we still be a true Church agreeing with the mind of Christ which some will by no means allow Take therefore for some instance the
profit of the difference and laugh at the follies and credulity of the appellants The Supremacy of the King in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal being that which hath been learnedly evinced by our Writers and is solemnly recogniz'd every day in Gods presence in Prayers and Oaths according to the settlement of our Laws by the Wisdom of the Nation But though this inside of the Church be properly Secular and Temporal because visible yet the Secular Causes which belong to the determinations of Christian Secular Authorities are well and orderly distinguishable into Ecclesiastical and Christian or Temporal and Civill as the whole Commonwealth may be considered either as a Society of men or a Society of Christian men or Church In the first respect as men all are Subject to their own Kings and Laws in matters of life limb and property whether they be Christian or Holy or Heathen and Antichristian as they were before Christ came into into the World and must be to the Worlds end For Magistracy is Gods Ordinance whom all men therefore are to be subject to from the heart which alwayes attends what God appoints though manag'd by a Claudius who was weak and infamously credulous or Nero who for his cruelty was believed by many to be Antichrist for to such the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul command obedience and subjection not only for fear of wrath and power but for Conscience sake and the fear of God Rom. 13.5 1 Pet. 2.14 16. For they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rom. 13.2 Yet on this undoubted unforfeitable right of Earthly Kings and Governours according to their several Constitutions by the Laws of their Kingdoms the Pope like a fift Monarch hath ever and still doth affect and design new incroachments as before upon the King of Heaven and spiritual pretences of Superiority Not only by exempting his Subjects and Clergy from secular subjection assuming to be the mother of the Child that 's not her own but also through his Emissaries and influence in the time of his Reign and Power in bringing the Lives of Subjects to the Stake and their States into Forfeiture from their Posterity for Opinions and the Heads and Crowns of Kings themselves to the like danger for the like insufficient cause Absolving Subjects of their Allegiance which Christ binds on every Soul and leading them into perjury and Rebellion which God forbids and damns being not only Traytors against Heaven and Earth therein but which is infinitly worse Traitor-makers as Satan is worse than a sinner and as many Traitor-makers by their Doctrine and what lyes in them as there are Subjects or Polls in any Kingdom they would absolve and seduce Which made the Nation joyn unanimously against their methods not only by Acts of Treason since the Reformation but of premunire long before A very Apostolical and comely deportment in a chief Professor of Christian Holiness and vertue that he and his Missionaries should deserve to be thrust and shoulder'd out like Pests by a wise and a Religious people and their Friends and the door made fast against them with the strongest Barricadoes that could be thought of Hanging and Drawing and Quartering Yea many of his own Confessors and Martyrs our Native Roman-Catholicks to this day who sincerely adhere to all his other Doctrines though Flead Alive with penalties and inconveniences for it yet disclaim and desert his infallible guidance in this particular and would be ready to venter Lives and Fortunes for their Laws and Countrey against any Invasion of the Land though countenanc'd or authoriz'd by the Pope for though such Loyalty be looked upon at Rome with an evil eye as hath lately appeared in the Irish Excommunications for the like principle and profession of Allegiance yet they are resolved to be true to their King let who will call them Hereticks for being honest Subjects And this their Resolution must be grounded either upon Policy or vain glory to avoid the danger as well as the Infamy of Rebellious principles or upon Conscience to God which only is true honour I am apt if I do no wrong to believe the last and to acknowledge and own all such by Consequence as true English Protestants as any in our own Church for preferring Conscience before the Pope which as I have proved is the chief point in difference between Papists and Protestants And the rather if they deal alike with the rest of their opinions which set us at distance from one another by the same rule which if it be good and right must hold in the rest as well as this dismissing all other Tenets that are excepted against and have no support from God or Conscience or the Scripture but the bare Authority of the Pontifical Chair For being so dangerously and perfidiously deceived while trusting to its judgement and of right interpreting in a case so evident and plain and Important as Neck and Estate and Salvation can amount to If they will suffer themselves again to be over-rul'd to differ from their Brethren upon no reason of Conscience but this bare Authority alone whereof they have had tryal of its fidelity and the old sophisme of believing as that Church believes This cannot be counted worthy and filial piety and well weighed Religion in them but a negligent unadvisedness equivalent to plain fault and folly especially there being present suffering and future hazard in the Case according to the known Proverb The Friend that deceives me once it is his fault twice it is my own All differences in our Religion being thus easily compos'd between us if they stand constant to their good principle throughout its consequences as reason binds them to and there will be no reason else to believe or trust their Loyalty what a day of bliss would it be to them and us to go hand in hand together like Christian as well as English brethren to their Churches and ours what peace to themselves in their concerns both within and without what tears of joy would it cause in their Protestant Tenants and dependants who would willingly resigne their lives to see that blessed day what acclamation and bone-fire throughout the Nation for the restoration of its strength and Union what Ecchoes and Halelujahs amongst the Angels of Heaven that delight in mens Salvation and return from Errour But should they offer to make themselves and us and the Nation happy with such a Festival How must they expect to be well lash'd for this by their Old Friends for Hereticks and Schismaticks and Apostates from the Holy See besides the ignobleness of changing and being unconstant to which I shall not now reply But those of them that through Gods Grace assisting them nowithstanding such discouragements and obstacles that will be leaders and examples to their brethren in such paths of Peace and Life and count it Glory and magnanimity to adhere to truth through shame and calumny and but an Heathenish
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
a high degree who serve not their enemies with that measure as they have been and would again be serv'd by them had they power but though Papists are as Antichristian Idolators to them for a Christian Brother may be an Idolator according to St. Paul 1 Cor. 5.11 and they but as stubborn Hereticks at worst to Papists yet they have been never brought to the stake for their unsound opinions and practice by the writs of their own Invention nor to Tyburn ever but for their Treasons against the State They look upon Protestants but as Dogs though far better Christians than themselves But Protestants take them for what they are but have no malice to their persons though they abhor their errours and the severity of our Laws against them is only to secure our selves from their cruelties and unquietness For where Christ and the heart are excluded as in the Romish Church too much naught but burning and destroying all dissenters as Hereticks serves the turn when it is within their power and is never out of their Study and Inclination when it is not And O the malice they shew towards those that revolt from them to the Truth And this wisdom and temper descends not from above but is Earthly Sensual and Devilish as before Jac. 3.15 And what can be the cause of this Hellish Inhumanity towards Christian Brethren but the want and absence of the heart and Conscience or which equally destroys it the giving of it to the Pope instead of Christ whereby a Papist is of a piece with the Pope in all things which yet adds not one Cubit to his Stature nor to his virtue or Graces or humanity or Eternal Protection but he is still on Earth as he was before as a Christian is one with Christ in Heaven and partaker on Earth of his meek and gratious and Heavenly dispositions It 's another-guess perfection to be United to Christ than to the Pope which is the true difference between a Protestant and a Papist the one puts on Christ the other puts on the Pope by their several resignations of their private Wills and Judgements It 's more Heavenly and Divine to be of Christs mind and disposition than of the holy inquisitions ' A mans heart or his Will or his end aâ—e much allyed and ever go together and it ever chuses and adheres either to God or to an Idol And such is the man as his choice of his Lord is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He whose heart and end is joyn'd to Christ and Heaven is Holy and Heavenly as Christ is if to any Creature such as is the Will of the Master will be the Will of his Man also To be a Roman-Catholick therefore makes not a Disciple of Christ but a Mute or a resign'd Vassal of the Pope whose Will and height and carnal Interest must therefore be the Law of Heresie and distance and hatred and damnation with such a one And what crosses the Pope's gain or Authority is laesa Majestas or Ecclesiastical Atheism or high Treason against the Roman Heaven to be vindicated and destroyed by the Angels of that Heaven with utmost zeal and fury And BABYLON is observ'd more zealous and severe for its Idol than SION for its God the reason is for where Christ is out of the heart Offenders find no Mediator or mercy And herein the Popish far out-does the Turkish zeal in cruelty Truth can better breath in Turkie than at Rome and the horns of the Mahometan Antichrist are less curst in this respect than those of the Roman Satan was not a Lyar but a Murderer also from the beginning from whom the Romanists prove their descent as well by their stakes and fire-piles as by their Legends and dispensations And it is remarkable to use conjectures with submission on mystical Scriptures Of the Beast with two horns like a Lamb and speech like a Dragon that its special mark and Character was to make fire come down from Heaven Revel 13.12 13. as of the other Beasts with 7 heads and ten horns to overcome Gods Servants with the Sword v. 1.7 And which of these Beasts is Antichrist and who meant by either is the question 1. It s out of question that with the Ancients the Empire that should succeed the Roman should be Antichrist whether it be the Popish which takes place and precedence of the German or Turkish or both for both de facto have in great part succeeded it 2. That the number 666 pointed at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as clear from Jreneus who lived near a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan the Apostolical times to know their key and secret tradition about this mystery Now there are three parts to be considered in the old Roman Empire The Magistracy Militia and the Mitre or its civil Authority its Military Conquests its Heathenish Idolatry It s civil Authority wherein several Kings succeeded it or rather were restored to their own by its fall cannot be Antichristian because Ordain'd and approved by God To be a terrour to evil workers and encouragement to the good Rom. 13.3 But the other two parts of Imperator and Pontifex Maximus might well descend to Antichristian successors by Gods just Judgement to be both a scourge and an intoxicating Cup for degenerate and divided Christians The first probably falling to the share of the Turk who hath made such Conquests over the Saints by his Sword such havock in the Churches of Christ by his Victories v. 7. being the same Beast with the Roman Heathen Empire in effect which Conquered all in like manner with the Sword but was wounded by Constantine and other Christian Emperours but afterwards is heal'd again of that deadly wound v. 3. to whose recovery the â—ope did contribute v. 12. The residence of both being Rome new and old And the special confidence and Character of the Turk being his Sword where with he does all And their Priests never read nor expound their Alcharon in their Mosch's but with a naked b Ricold contra sect Mahomet c. 10. Sword in their hands or hanging by for Terrour And Mahomet Prophesied his Sect should last as long as it could keep the Sword and no longer But the Popes bid as fair to the succession and reviâ—ing of the Heathenish Pontificat of Rome as well as of the Apostate Jewish as both were Enemies tâ— Christianity in the garb of Religion anâ— Ecclesiastical Authority For they wave the name of Bishop used amongst Christians and chuse that of Pontifex in 〈◊〉 with Heathen's only and never met in any Canonical Scripture neither are they deficient in Heathenish Polytheism having errected a Pantheon of as many tutelar Saints and Patrons to be call'd on as there were Gods at Rome withal as the Turk is the Heathen-Roman Power recovered so the Pope is the Image of both v. 15. as well in Empire and Dominion far and wide as in cruelty and shedding the bloud of Christians And yet this Infernal
worldly design and private ends shall be most Uncatholick and so the Catholicism of their Church is more like to fall and vanish likewise But if they call themselves Catholicks for distinction from Protestants who pass with them but for Hereticks they are again very grossly mistaken in their Criticism For Orthodox b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phot. tit 12. c. ◠is contrary to Heretick and Catholick to Jew which was the first and Original sense of this word upon the Gentiles being taken into the Church as well as Jews And Protestants are no more Jews than themselves as is not doubted Nor perhaps so much for they are liker to the Jews in confining Gods Church within the Roman Pale as the other did within their Palestine But we Protestants Catholickly extend and enlarge it to all Nations according to the promises made to Abraham the Catholic◠Fathe◠of many Nations as the name God gave him imports as well as the particular Father of the Jews Therefore the Title Catholick more belongs in Truth and reason to Protestants than to our Romanists who are so restrain'd and Vncatholick and Jewish-like in the bounds of their Church which they so confine to Rome And by their waving the Title Orthodoxe which had been more proper for their distinguishing design they fatally allow Protestants for such and disallow themselves They therefore are in Truth neither Orthodox nor Catholick but only New Roman or a private Earthly Church below or a modern Italian Jerusalem that is in exile and bondage with her Children Not favouring either of the Apostolical purity of the right Christian or the Orthodoxy of the Ancient Roman or the Heavenliness and Spirituality of Jerusalem which is above the Mother of all true Christians who are in Heaven by Faith They are therefore in Truth but New Roman-Catholicks as who should say an Old-New a Particular-universal a Spiritual-carnal a Heavenly-earthly Church made up of Contradiction and Hypocrisy and Earth Whose chief end and Interest is the Advancement and glory of Rome not of Christ high like Kites in their soring pretences to eye Dunghills for prey the better making silly Souls to believe the only way to be saved is to become their Spiritual Slaves and Tributaries and to go to Rome and Heaven to be all one Which with an answerable personal Holiness of life without which none can see God might well be true of the old Apostolical Rome and any other Church agreeing with it in the like sound Rule and Doctrine but it is far from true as to the Modern Apostatical for it is a great and a gross mistake to take or imagine the Church of Rome Ancient and present to be one and the same because of the same Sirname and patch'd Succession for it is not name-sake or Succession which yet goes far with superficial judgments unlike to God that by their principles neglect and lay by the heart but the same soundness of Life and Doctrine or hearts in the same Heaven not feet in the same house or Countrey that make Churches to be the same and true the want whereof or any notorious corruption in Faith or Manners by the rules of Christianity cuts off and debars the Communion of Christians Members much more the Succession of Christian Governours For how can any succeed to be Heads where by the Apostolical Law they are out of capacity to be members of a Christian Church 1 Cor. 5.11 The old Roman Church for the first 400 years before Rome was burnt and several times sack'd and brought to the dust as before did disapprove the wayes and Doctrines of the Modern and consequently its Communion as much as we Protestants for she did not Worship Saints or Images nor slight and suppress the Scriptures under colour of respect nor curtayle Sacraments and Divine Institutions Nor usurp'd upon Christ nor Crowns nor Churches nor Consciences nor upon the liberties of our Brittish Church in particular as they cannot Instance in one Pall or appeal in any Age or History Pope Gregorie's account upon diligent search above 1000 years agoe to omit other Arguments is abundant proof and certainty there was none nor endur'd to carry God about in a Cage and to create as many Christs and Saviours as there be Wafers in Churches and Cities and Altars and every one of equal Deity and Worship to our Saviour in Heaven God blessed for ever which amongst them cannot otherwise fall out as we have shewed but that a Wafer should be Christ and Christ but a Wafer by their Hypothesis which excludes the heart whereby Christ by consequence is excluded and a gross Capernaitical sense of such Spiritual Mysteries as necessarily introduc'd nor made the Authority of man more than that of Scripture the Rule of Faith and Heresie nor burnt fellow Christians for their Errours much less for the same Truths which themselves maintain'd as Protestants are or are in danger dayly to be serv'd by the present nominal Church of Rome with other innumerable Superstitions and Unchristian cruelties and loathsome Fraud and Legends and Infernal Dispensations for sins and duties But was Orthodox in her Faith and Regular and sober and Christian like in all her Church-Rites and Practices and well approved of and acccorded with by this and all Christian Churches by all brotherly love and Communion as the distance of places did permit yea with some preference of honour before many other lesser and obscurer Churches for its Imperial situation and numerous Martyrs yet without any danger of being caught in any Noose by such respect or honourable Appellations which no doubt were return'd to every Church though lesser with the like or greater humility and respect than they were given In which Christ-like victories and contests between Brethren and Churches the Christian ambition did heretofore consist but the present Church of Rome abuses and converts the Christian honour of her equals into aliment and fuel for her Pride not exalting others for their humility as God doth but concluding against them from it through the barbarous forgetfulness of her own mutual Divine and Christian part and no Eulogy shall occur in History but must bespeak Supremacy to her alone and Slavery and Subjection to the rest of Christendom like the Wolf going to School who could discern nothing but Agnus in every word and Syllable and letter pronounced unto him No this Church of Rome is no more the old than a Cock is a French-man because both are Gallus in Latine than there City or their People or their Language is the same being all of a new and a different Situation and dialect and descent The Race of Old Romans are sooner to be met and found in Venice and else-where than in Gothick Rome where more inclination not only after Roman civility but also after Ancient Roman or Protestant Orthodoxy doth appear as some of their wisest Clerks and later Historians have given a tast And the parties in this Bill and Plea for this Roman Supremacy
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
first Magnitude must give place to the Sun and Moon these Primier Peers must yield precedence to the Royal bloud to the exact and lively Images and descendants of the Son of God who being light of light very God of very God yet left his Glory to express his Charity and for us men and for our Salvation came down from Heaven and made himself to be of no Reputation a man of sorrows and contempt to exalt others from misery to rest and honour such his Genuine off-springs and special Images are they only for no other in this World are dignified to such a singular capacity who most resembling the Eternal Son in the height of their birth and Power and Wealth and Wisdom and Authority and Command and trust in their several Spheres and Neighbourhoods yet delight to transfer their Wealth and Honour from themselves upon others upon their poorer Brethren that are in want and weakness and to copy out the Divine humility of the Incarnation and to quit their glory as Christ did to put on the griefs and wants and the miseries of others to make them happy and ful and become eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and Fathers to Orphans and Husbands to Widows and Champions for the oppressed and Gods on Earth to the Poor and weak And consume the least share of their estate upon themselves much less ignobly upon their Lusts and Luxury but in the return after others have been serv'd receive them again entire and doubled and trebled with the hearts of the refreshed along with them and the Acclamations of their Country and the blessing of their Church and the reward of God in the Establishment of their houses and the Salvation of their souls for both Exinanitions upon the score of charity in the Copy as well as in the Original end in highest Glory to have a name above every name in Heaven or Earth that all hearts and tongues should confess and praise them to the honour of the Lord Jesus whom they so Imitate and the glory of God the Father whom they so please The Heavenly Magnanimity and Serenity of the contented poor is out-done in several features of divine lovelyness by the Exinination of the Rich and liberal not only in the exact likeness to Christ in his humility and Exaltation and the transitive love and preference of others before themselves but in the difficulty of the Victory and conflict it being easier to bear Poverty than Riches as Winter is more healthy of the two than Summer hard Frosts pinch but excessive heats Intoxicate sometimes exhale the strength at all times and more souls miscarry under wealth than under want and our Streets are fuller of the Blasphemies of the Rich than of the Poor These give Divine honour to their bags and put their trust Idolatrously in uncertain Riches and say unto their Gold thou art my confidence others take and receive Divine honour to themselves and the fears of the Poor and the admiration of the sensual and childish upon the score of their wordly power and pomp and glory till an Angel sometimes smite them for example that they be eaten up of Worms Acts 12.23 Others though of private condition think nothing too much to be spent in Luxury and Liveries nothing too little on Alms and Charity to attract mens eyes to see their power which they value above all blessings a fashion more currant in civitate mundi then in civitate Dei more suitable to vain Heathens than sober and Baptiz'd Christians The middle condition excels both extreams in safety but not in honour and reward the Poor for his Patience and the Rich for his sobriety and bounty shall have higher Thrones in the other World with this pre-eminence that the Patient Poor shall have life Eternal hereafter Luke 16.25 the communicative Rich have it delivered to their hands to lay hold off here as the Apostles affirms laying up in store a good foundation for themselves against the time to come that they may lay hold on Eternal life 1 Tim. 6.9 But though none have properly this singular opportunity and Priviledge of resembling their Lord in such a depth of love and height of Glory but those alone to whom it is given to be Great and Rich in this present World who have much wealth and greatness to quit and leave for the relief of the Needy as Christ did great Parts to prostrate great State and Dignity to undervalue for Christ and his poor Members Yet every charitable Christian hath this capacity and Priviledge in the Kingdom of his heart and in the sight of God though not in the Kingdom of the World and in the sight of men for so the Widows mite was her Exinanition and is in proportion of every liberall giver of a narrow Estate and Fortune in our Saviours Book of Rates wherein all mens Actions and Persons are Rated and computed by the heart And the true Church is a Kingdom of hearts where all we do is to be done from the heart as unto the Lord and he is in Heaven whose heart is in Heaven and with Christ at Gods right hand whose heart is there with Christ though he be on Earth in the flesh The Christian begins to be in Heaven in this World wafted beyond all the dangers of Fabulous Purgatory when he begins to converse entirely from his heart with Christ in Heaven for non ubi animat sed ubi amat there all men are where there hearts are their hearts being with Christ the men themselves are by consequence with him wheresoever else they may be in their mortal Bodies Heaven there begins where this Christian conversation begins that leads to Heaven and is already in it as the Ocean in reason many be said to begin not at the Rivers mouth but from the first spring of the River that Travels towards it for means are the beginnings of those ends for which they serve and similar parts thereof And every step from our home in the right way is more or less an entrance into our Journie's end The Christian's first setting forth for Heaven is like the beginning of a small Rivulet which many a time a hot Summer or sharp Winter of temptation wholy dries up and stops but recovering it self again by the Influence and pity of Heaven in Dew and Rain and falling in with other Rivers that speed towards the same Sea either they into it or it into them it grows bigger and stronger by the Communion and drawing towards its latter end and hoping to be disembogued at last into its rest it finds it self repell'd again and again with a kind violence and an useful growth and Sea-like largeness and swelling so that it becomes hard to distinguish where the River ends or where the Sea begins and being rewarded and comforted for these frequent stops and interruptions with Divine foretasts of that finall brackishness into which it is to be in the end dissolv'd and season'd with it