wild fancies the World these latter days hath been too sadly acquainted withal And whether Religion get any ground by such things let any man judge or how those men deserve to be cryed up as the only spiritual Preachers who vent Doctrines so destructive to Religion I cannot tell And now Reader after I have begged thy pardon for this tedious preface though I must confess I did not design it much shorter when I first entred upon it I must tell thee that I am not alone in my high esteem for the Church of England No there are thousands in the Kingdom and those men too whose excellent and Regular lives and whose universal learning may justly be speak them a place amongst the most improved men who are ready to defend this Church with both their Tongues and Pens and of such I will only name two the one is that incomparable person Dr. Stillingfleet who in his Sermon upon Matth. 21.43 Pag. 158. calls this Church one of the best Churches in the Christian World and in the same place complains that it should puzzle the wisest of men to find out expedients to keep it from ruine The other is that excellent and no less laborious than learned Dr. Tillotson in a Sermon before the King where he tells us that he had been according to his opportunities not a negligent observer of the Genius and Humour of the several Sects and Professions in Religion and upon the whole matter that he does in his Conscience believe the Church of England to be the best constituted Church this day in the Christian World and that as to the main the Doctrine and Government and Worship of it are excellently framed to make men soberly religious securing men on the one hand from the wild freaks of Enthusiasm and on the other hand from the gross follies of superstition But if thou wilt neither believe them nor me for our bare saying so read the following discourse without prejudice and if through the strength of thy former received apprehensions thou wilt not wholly be drawn over to us yet I hope thou wilt be so far convinced as to believe that neither the Church nor her Officers and publick Dispensers are so had and obnoxious as some men through weakness and others through malice have represented them Farewell POSTSCRIPT Reader THe two first sheets of this small book were most of them preached before the Judges of Assize at Chelmsford in Essex and therefore if thou findest any thing in them as an Appeal to them I pray impute it to that Further Reader I must desire thee if thou meetest with the word why used improperly as sometimes I find upon a perusal of the sheets it is impute it to custome and a mode of speaking upon which score it dropt so unwarily from my Pen. Whatsoever other faults there are give me but the common allowance the ordinary miscarriages of a Press require and I will ask no more THE CONTENTS THE Design of the Treatise laid down 1. To prove that we of this Church have all necessary advantages for gaining eternal life 2. To enquire how it comes to pass such a Church is so generally disesteemed Pag. 5. The first of these proved at large by considering what is necessary to eternal life Two things laid down 1. A sound Belief of all things necessary and the Church found guilty of no defect in that particular p. 6 7. 2. An Holy practise is found necessary and the Church of England found abounding with every thing necessary to promote that p. 10 usque 28. 2. An enquiry how it comes to pass such a Church is despised p. 28. Two sorts of men found faulty p. 29. 1. Professed Enemies Those considered 1. As persons disaffected upon a worldly account p. 29. 2. Persons disaffected upon a pretence of Conscience and Religion p. 31 32 33 34. 2. A consideration of false Friends as Enemies to the Church and those ranked into two sorts 1. As Persons considered in their Political capacity and two ways the Church proved to suffer by them 1. By their vicious lives and conversations especially if they be men of Power and Authority p. 35. 2. By their neglecting the execution of those Laws that are made for the Churches Honour and Safety p. 38. 2. This Church proved to lose its esteem by false Friends considered as persons dedicated to an Holy Office p. 42. Thirteen Reasons more given of the present contempt of the Church of England 1. The misconstruing of Judgments and making every calamity the effect of Gods Anger for the Churches encroachments upon the Rights of Christ p. 46. Three useful and seasonable enquiries proposed to those who are so bold and forward in particularizing the Reasons of Gods Judgments p. 51 53 55. 2. Another Reason of the Churches suffering assigned from the jealousie of many of the Gentry especially those who have swallowed down the Principles of Mr. Hobbs lest the Clergy should encroach too much upon their power in those Countreys where they live p. 56. 3. The Churches loss considered by erecting Schools of Academick studies and thereby poysoning the youth of the Nation p. 62. 4. The Churches loss considered by idle tales against the Reverend Bishops and their regular Clergy p. 65. 5. Another account of the neglect of this Church from Simoniacal contracts p. 70. Two injuries proved and asserted from hence p. 71 72. With an expostulation with the Lay-Patrons in order to a more conscientious disposal of their livings p. 73. 6. The Churches damage by the careless and remiss attendance of many of her professed admirers upon her publick Devotions and Instructions p. 74 75. 7. The Churches Honour proved lost by a careless consideration of those confusions that followed her dissolution by the pretended Power of the Long Parliament p. 76. 8. This Church found a great loser by misinterpreting and misapplying of several Texts of Scripture Some of those Texts named and the unworthiness and falseness of those interpretations reflected upon p. 78 79 80 81. 9. The credulity and easiness of the Common people to take in whatsoever is suggested by men pretending to more than ordinary Sanctity and Holiness proved another cause of the Churches present ruine p. 82 83 84. 10. The Church proved a loser by the Common peoples stiff adherence to whatever they have heedlesly sucked in p. 85. 11. The ill success of the Church laid at the door of those Atheistical Principles that have spread so far and near in the Kingdom p. 87. An enquiry made after the Reason of the present growth of Atheism p. 88. Four Reasons of it assigned 1. The changeableness of many mens Principles pretending to more than ordinary Godliness p. 88 89 90 91 92. 2. The wicked and vile actions of many boasting of extraordinary piety p. 93 94. 3. Unworthy Scandals and Reflections fastened upon Church-men p. 96. 4. The Non-execution of such Laws which are made on purpose to command the People to wait upon
ungodly men are so ready to punish them for their defence and propagation of it And upon this very account they clap one the other upon the back and resolve unanimously to go on with what they have begun notwithstanding all the opposition they shall meet withal for who would not suffer the loss of Estate Liberty or Life itself in a cause against which such ungodly men are severe and bitter and who would not expect Heaven for a reward hereafter who meet with such harsh and cruel dealings from men who do too much by their oaths and curses betray themselves to be the Agents and Instruments of Hell And though this is but a popular plea and will not hold water when it comes to be thoroughly searched and tryed though laws are never the worse for the wickedness of those to whom the execution of them is committed and though Justice is the same thing when done by a wicked as a Godly Magistrate yet for our Sions sake I could wish with all mine Heart that our Magistrates when such Malefactors are brought before them would execute publick Justice like men who do not appear to sacrifice to their own revenge but who design a publick good to wit the reducing people to those Principles of subjection and obedience without which we must needs be exposed to continual dangers and hazards It is not to be imagined how these refractory persons are silenced when they appear before Magistrates of Prudence and Discretion such as treat them with all tenderness and pity representing to them the evil of their doing and gravely admonishing them against such doings for the time to come executing the Laws upon them with all the symptomes of grief and trouble with all the demonstrations of a Spirit that carries in it true compassion for those who ignorantly err and a readiness heartily to pray for those who are obstinate and wilful this is to follow the Apostles advice to restore our sain Brethren with the spirit of meekness and this is the only way to beget in them a belief that as truly pious tender and gracious spirits may lodge in the Breasts of men every ways obedient to those Laws they by their wily Preachers are made to believe are destructive of the Rights of the Lord Jesus as in any men of any other yea of their own particular perswasion Nay for ought I know this prudent and compassionate carriage may be the occasion of their recovery from their present separation For certainly nothing more pacifies Wrath and Anger from which we all know Nonconformity receives no inconsiderable strength and addition than a word in season a soit word a wise carriage even to Delinquents themselves especially when all this is done by men of Authority and Reputation in their Neighbourhood And therefore I do here put up my hearty Prayers to Almighty God for all our Chiefs and Worthies in whose hands the defence and safety of our excellent and yet despised Church is lodged that as Judgment may run down like water and Righteousness like a mighty stream so That Righteousness may meet with Peace and love and they may kiss each other and as I do not wish the suspension of any Laws wherein the welfare of Societies is wrapt so I do wish that whensoever they are put in execution it may be in such a way as may convince gainsayers and stop the mouths of all those who lye at catch to take advantage from the haltings either of Magistrates or Ministers Lastly This Church loses very much of its deserved reputation by those mean and seamy provisions and supplies that are made for many of her Children whose educations and improvements entitle them to greater encouragements than most of the Vicaridges in England are endowed withal and till this be remedied as I hinted somewhat before we must never have things so prosperous and successful on the Churches side as she does indeed deserve For 't is impossible considering how things go and are apprehended by the major part of the World for Clergy-Men to conciliate a just respect to themselves and thereby to recommend the Government to the love and liking of the Vulgar without such Incomes as are agreeable to their Function and will enable them to be of the giving as well as receiving hand And truly when I have sate down sometimes and considered with my self the several reasons and occasions of the late cruel and blondy War I could not but resolve both it and the dreadful consequences of it amongst some other things into this of which I am now complaining and I have often thought that it had not been possible for the people of England to have been drawn into such a combination and confederacy against so excellent a Prince had they not been strangely perverted and abused by some discontented and self-seeking knaves And who they were 't is no hard matter to conjecture for if you had gone before the War into Cities and incorporated Towns where usually the spiritual Livings are made up of few and petty Tythes there you should have found a Male-contented Gentleman had fixt his habitation making some tolerable snow of Hospitality especially to the Mayor or Aldermen and their Brethren and by his advice and means a factious Preacher brought in depending upon voluntary subscriptions for his livelihood who by tones and gestures by shrugs and winks by all popular artifices was continually suggesting suspicions of the Government to the people the Dames especially who they say in those places and in those times governed the Right Worshipful themselves and the great Themes of their Discourses were the Wickedness of the times the encroachments of the Bishops upon the Rights of the Lord Jesus the stinting of the spirit by Forms of Prayer the severe dealing with the people of God that was themselves but withal which was a great cordial to their oppressed spirits the great Reasons of the Saints joyful expectation of better times fetched out of Daniel or Revelations places admirably fitted to the Dames apprehensions and understandings with an hundred such like popular insinuations as these and by this means the people were taught to suspect their Governours as Enemies to the cause of God and from thence brought to an hatred of them and so by degrees fitted for any undertaking these cunning Leaders should in the name of God and the Lord Jesus animate them unto And by these ways were the people of England seduced into the most unnatural rebellion which ended in the most horrid Murther that History can parallel Whereas had these Great Towns been furnished with such Encouragements as might have invited men of integrity and learning to have sate down amongst them the People had been better taught and consequently disposed to nothing but what was expressive of Loyalty and Obedience of their hearty affection and esteem for him to whose care and Government the providence of God had committed them For let but the common people hear nothing but what is
spirits in whose publick Liberty there is no danger pray enquire after the treatments those Worthies whose Consciences obliged them to follow the Fortunes of that late incomparable King of blessed memory met withal from them and that will save me the labour of giving an account of the temper of a great part of them 'T is true were they all of that nature and disposition of that Learning and wisdome some of them are there might be some apology made for them but alas the common Followers I and many of their Teachers too are violent and headstrong quickly enflamed and over-heated and then for want of knowledge and due consideration of things with great difficulty managed and kept within any proper and allowed bounds a thing which some of their very Preachers have complained of to my self and others And therefore why you who are the Instruments of Justice out of pity to some few whose parts and piety may possibly recommend them to the esteem and love of all good men should suffer herds of men whose zeal outstrips their knowledge whose Passions surmount their Prudence whose Religion many times is more the result of the temper of the Body than the rational conviction of the soul why you I say should suffer the Laws to be violated when no other end can be proposed than shewing a compassion to some few who deserve a name among the wise and truly learned I profess I cannot tell Especially when at the same time the Honour of the Laws by a neglect of Justice is exposed to the contempt and scorn of such Numbers who must if we would follow those Maxims of Policy which all wise Governours ever since Communities of men were agreed upon have observed who must I say be kept in with bit and bridle And having thus addressed my self to the Ministers of Publick Justice I cannot obtain a Writ of Ease from my self until I have said something to those very persons whose designs I have in the foregoing Treatise exposed and whose Methods of ruine to the Church and Kingdom I have discovered And here I am not afraid to tell them that many of them are my Acquaintance in whose civil conversation I have and do take pleasure and to whom upon some scores I have stood engaged the piety and strictness of many of their Lives I admire and love these with some other things would reconcile me to them did not my zeal for the Nations happiness my duty to a Church by whom I and all the World may be sufficiently instructed in all things necessary to be believed and practised Further did not my Fears and God knows those too well grounded of the return of a Religion amongst us and that caused chiefly by these mens stubbornness the agreement with which must at the same time be to fall out with all those Faculties whereby we are in capacities to discern things that differ Did not these things with many others thus dispose of and command me I say I could wish these men all the happiness in this World that upon good Grounds they could desires And therefore pray Sirs let me entreat you to consider what you are a doing whilst so resolvedly you continue to separate from our Church why truly pardon me if I err I think I do not I cannot say you are doing the business of Religion for that I am sure may be as well nay all things considered better done by those under the Discipline and Government of our Church as I have shewed in the beginning of this Treatise In which I am the more satisfyed from the observations I have made of many of your admired Followers whose Lives as far as I can discern are spent most upon pitying Publick Magistrates and Ministers and shaking their heads at the times with many other popular and usual artifices of misrepresenting things or persons not just according to their Minds Again I cannot say you are doing the Business of your Governours setling the People in the notions of obedience and submission begetting in them venerable thoughts of those who are Gods Trustees on Earth no for we find no sooner do men wheel off from our Church and list themselves under your Banners but presently they grow jealous of the Powers of the Nation and are always furnished with idle tales and groundless whispers to lessen their Reputation among the Common People Nay further I cannot say you are doing your own business for alas throw us but once down and you know by old experience that you are all together by the ears and scarce ten of you can agree together upon any thing that may be the Foundation of a future settlement but all are striving to be the Greatest and every man hath such a fond opinion of his own way as to think nay to proclaim it deserving to be the Nations Standard yea and to pronounce bitter Curses against all those who will not concur in Judgment with him And truly for the satisfaction of a great many well meaning persons who at present are imposed upon I could wish were it but lawful to permit it and consistent with the Kingdoms and Churches safety that the Ball might lie at your feet for a few days methinks I see what animosities and heats what strifes and contentions would presently be in the midst of you and how quickly all you who now combine together against our poor despised Church would fall into a thousand parties and what variety of Churches we presently should have formed and the best of it is every one of them vogued to be according to the pattern in the Mount And therefore Brethren for Gods sake recollect your selves and do not sacrifice the Protestant Religion to your own lusts and passions comply with the Laws in imitation of the old Puritans as far as you can and then I do not doubt but our Governours will find out some way or other to let you understand their Resentments of your orderly complyance and certainly 't is better to build our hopes of future kindness from our Prince upon publick manifestations of peaceableness of Spirit than upon threats and menaces than upon bold and daring actions whereby we intimate unto him that if he will not give us according to our Wills and Pleasure we will snatch it from him and that by force too whether he will or no. One word more and I have done I beseech you do not say that this intimation of Popery in and through your disobedience to the Churches Laws is a popular plea invented on purpose to make you odious among the People I profess as it is mentioned here by me 't is no such thing but the result of a full satisfaction I have that nothing can make way for that Religion but the ruine of the Church of England And truly I am so far from rendring you odious that if you could agree among your selves upon any thing consistent with the Churches Peace and Safety I would give my Prayers and all honest endeavours whatsoever to contribute towards your contentment But till then pray give us leave to secure our selves from such desolations as will end in your destruction as well as ours by all agreeable ways and means whatsoever And now after all this if you will suffer your selves to be so provoked as one while to pity me and then again revile me I have no more to say but that I am fully satisfied in my own Conscience in what I have done and that for a requital I am resolved to make you the objects of my hearty pity and the subjects of my Prayers but not mine anger and revenge for that is not to follow our Masters command To love our enemies to bless them that curse to to do good to them that hate us to pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us which may be done with Tongues as well as Hands which good and excellent advice I am resolved through the assistance of Gods Gracious Spirit to pursue and follow and therefore let those against whom this little Treatise is chiefly levelled deal with my person or good name as they please I am prepared for it THE END Lately Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Amen-Corner THE Estate of the EMPIRE or an Abridgment of the Laws and Government of Germany farther shewing what Condition the EMPIRE was in when the Peace was concluded at Munster Also the several Fights Battels and Desolation of Cities during the War in that EMPIRE And also of the GOLDEN BVLL In Octavo The Sycillian Tyrant Or The Life and Death of AGATHOCLES With some Reflections on our Modern Usurpers Octavo The ROYAL MARTYR and the Dutiful Subject In two Sermons By Gilbert Burnet In Quarto The Generosity of Christian Love Delivered in a Sermon by William Gould Quarto The Witnesses to Christanity By Sy. Patrick D. D. Octavo Ductor Dubitantium Or Bishop Taylors Cases of Conscience The Fourth Edition Folio The Life and Death of K. CHARLES the First By R. Perenchief D. D. Octavo
easily have chose a Subject that would have run more smoothly as to some mens apprehensions and affections and given it may be less displeasure But jacta est alea here I stand and considering the Circumstances in which you Noble and Worthy Persons are the Trust committed to you and the Oaths that are upon you to discharge that Trust I will be plain and if I must be censur'd for it I will bear it patiently because 't is for my love to the best constituted Government in the World Therefore 1. I will prove that we have all necessary Advantages in this Church of which we are Members for eternal Life and therefore need not go away from it which will best appear if we consider what is absolutely necessary to the gaining of this eternal Life And upon enquiry we find but two things in neither of which I am sure the Church of England is wanting or deficient 1. A sound Belief of all necessary Articles and Propositions of Faith 2. An holy Practice of all Duties that are enjoyned us 1. For a sound belief of all things necessary in order to eternal Life we stand upon as good ground as any sort of men in the Christian World For our Belief is of nothing but what is plainly laid down or easily deduced out of Holy Scripture and there is not an Article which we can say was framed by a Pack of Men met together barely to advance an Interest or serve a Passion We hear nothing in all the Thirty Nine of the necessary belief of a fictitious Purgatory or a Sense-contradicting Transubstantiation We are not commanded under the pain of Hell and Ruine to believe the Infallibility of an usurping Pope or the Meritoriousness of good Works We meet with none of those Trent-doctrines that were framed by faction and voted to no other purpose than to keep up the present Pomp and Grandeur of the Court of Rome which were at first started by interest and have ever since to the violation of the Peace of Europe been kept on foot by Pride Nor is the Lawfulness of taking up Arms against our Soveraign when he as we fancie will not promote Religion and advance Gods Glory and secure the Interest of his elect and darling People in their Civil and Religious Priviledges one of the Articles of our Faith No no our Belief is of such things as are in Scripture and were entertained as Doctrines and determined so in subordination to the Authority of Scriptures by the four first General Councils And indeed our Church would have been very much to blame if under a pretence of rooting out unnecessary and ungrounded Articles of Faith she had invented others as useless and as dangerous having neither face nor footing in the Holy Scriptures This would have been to have propagated Division so long as the world had stood and given others too great an occasion to believe that it was not Conscience but some other Principles of another Dye that put them upon a Separation from the Church of Rome And therefore she took care that the Terms of her Communion in point of Doctrine should be few and obvious such as no man that is not obstinate and resolved should deny a ready complyance with and if any man can rise up and prove that there is one Doctrine that hath any malign or poysonous influence either upon mens Understandings or else upon their Manners I will stand obliged to quit the power I have of mine own disposal and surrender my self his Bonds-man Nay so little liable are our declared Doctrines to any Imputation so unquestionably agreeable to Holy writ the Protestant Standard of all Doctrines that our very Adversaries themselves cannot in all their Declamations against our Church forbear extolling the exact Care and Wisdom of our first Reformers in this particular and most of them testifie their readiness to subscribe to the Truth thereof as I could prove from their declared Opinions in several of their printed Treatises Yea if need be I could make good this following Story which I think is no small Vindication of our Churches Doctrines That one of them who is now the Oracle of their Party to whom upon all occasions they apply themselves and in whose Judgment they repose no little confidence though I shall not name him because he hath been brought so much upon the Stage already I say I could make good that this very Person when being intrusted and invited to assist in drawing up something which might be a band of Union and enlarge the Pale of this present Church did propose that our Articles might be reduced to Thirty Six though but for his affected singularity he might as well have said Thirty and nine and those made the Conditions of our Communion And according to the wonted Clemency of most of those who call for Toleration when they cannot rule and govern pressed that whoever refused Subscription to them should undergo the penalty of being banished his Native Kingdom an Expression that begot in the breast of a late Reverend Prelate that sate by a resentment agreeable to his known Candour and Moderation and extorted from him a smart reproof of the haughty Separatist for his apparent Cruelty and All this I think makes good that 't is not our Doctrine from which these men can fetch the Grounds and Reasons of their going from us 2. Let us therefore descend to the other thing requisite to Eternal Life which is an holy and upright Practice and well-composed Life and a regular Conversation which are the chiefest things in which Holiness does consist and he who esteems himself so upon any other score he labours under a very foul mistake For intance He that Saints himself upon the account of some sudden and vehement slashes of indiscreet and sulphureous Zeal of some imagined Raptures and supposed intimacy and correspondence with all the three Persons in the Trinity he that strokes his Breast as the only acquaintance with God and Christ purely for his listing himself into such a Party and entertaining such Opinions as the good Apostles and Primitive Christians never had any knowledge or conviction of further he that hath no other Plea for his excelling Goodness than his observing uncommanded Fasts and slighting Days appointed by Authority for solemn Commemoration of past Blessings and hearty petitions for Mercies wanted he that hath no other way to make out his internal Graces than by a solemn Winke and a meager Face than by a scornful pity of the ignorance of his Betters and bewailing with a doleful sigh the carnal state of his Neighbours though indeed they understand Religion in its Design and end every way better than himself than by declining these publick Places of Worship and running into the Camps of separation I say he is false in the Measures he takes of himself and does not weigh himself in a proper and allowed Ballance For these things we find may be done by men of the most debauched
them as the Natures of such things will bear neither understands his Bible nor yet hath well studied those Articles of the Church that he hath formally subscribed unto to suppose which of any Person dedicated by an Holy Office to God I think is very uncharitable Well then cannot you of the Separation for to you I speak these things meet with as good Reasons for the Being of a God for the Truth of the Messiah for the Necessity of Internal Holiness for the carrying your selves suitably to that Creature-state in which you are and so for all other Requisites to be known in our Legal places of Worship and from Men invested with a Legal as well as Divine Authority as from others who take up this publick way of Preaching without the allowance nay against the Command of the Laws of their Countrey I tell you to deny this is to be prond and vain and to arrogate too much to your selves A fault too common amongst some men who would make others believe they are the most dead and mortified persons in the World and yet at the same time care not whose Reputation they waste and spoil so they may advance their own 2. The other way whereby we profit is by having our Affections raised suitably to the Nature and Excellency of things believed and known Now I must confess while we are in the Body and many Notices of things are conveyed into our Understanding through our Senses we have need of all agreeable helps to reconcile us wholly to Religion and the several Duties of it and he that hath the advantage of a mellow Voice of a taking Delivery of a Gesture not fantastical but winning upon the truly wise as well as others he ought to be esteemed and loved and the Church ought to judge her happiness the greater in having the aid and assistance of such a Man But alas this is not founded in every mans Temper and if some men would purchase it with all they do enjoy it is not to be bought And therefore where it is 't is to be prized and where 't is not men ought not to be undervalued for that is to be so unreasonable as to despise them for what they cannot help nay 't is to reflect upon him that made them Well but be it so that these things contribute very much to the raising of our Passions pray tell me have the Nonconformists engrossed this kind of Temperature of body to themselves can none but they speak with loud voices with a becoming Pathos with a smart Accent are all the dutiful Sons of the Church either troubled with Colds or weakned by Catarrhs or almost choaked as soon as they begin to speak with a defluxion of Rheum and all this a Judgment upon them for their Conforming No such matter let but these men lay aside their prejudices and attend our publick Churches and they shall quickly find out men whose Countenances are as grave and awful whose Voices are as melodious and sweet whose Expressions are as weighty and well chosen as any of the separated Brethrens are and consequently who are every way as well fitted by natural Gifts of Body to raise mens Affections as the others are I and these men are not sprinkled here and there but you shall find them in most Countreys and Cities And therefore no man can have any reason upon this account to leave our Church And if this thing was but searched to the bottom I believe we should find something else besides the Information of their Judgments and the raising of their Affections that these men place their profiting in but I list not to render any persons pretending to Religion ridiculous However before I leave this head I will venture at so much that when I consider abundance of these People that run into these holes and corners how peevish and wayward they are how proud and haughty disdaining every person that goes not along with them into the by-paths of Separation reflecting upon them as poor carnal and ignorant Creature further when I consider how ignorant and illiterate many of them are not understanding the common Reasons that may be given for Religion and those several Truths that make up the Body of it and how most of their skill and cunning chiefly consists in repeating and making use of some broken pieces of Scriptures and discoursing of Jesus Christ in a rude and nonsensical way Further when I consider how little they understand the Difference betwixt us and them and what slender Reasons they give for their leaving our publick Worship and how readily they follow any man that separates purely upon that score though his Principles do more widely differ from what they pretend are their own than theirs from ours Further when I consider the bitterness of their Spirits expressed by their very angry looks when they meet any of us in our accustomed Garbs and by those unchristian as well as ungentile and unmannerly Titles with which they load us Why these with many other things that might be named do perswade me that there is not so much profit reaped by hearing these men as they would make the World believe for I am sure these things argue much of the Leaven of the Pharisee but nothing at all of the Temper and Spirit of the Gospel and he that hath no better Evidences than these of his Saintship I am sure will find no other than the foolish Virgins entertainment at the last Day 3. Let us take a view of the Advantages we have for Eternal Life by a Holy Life as this Holiness is expressive of it self in those Duties that belong to man especially our Governours and Superiours And here I am sure the Members of our Church stand upon a better ground than any other sort or profession of men whatsoever and for the defence of this Truth I dare enter the Lists both with the Conclave and the Classis at the same time together Let any man though prejudiced to the utmost stand up and tell me where and when he hath met a man truly governed by the Principles of the Church of England that hath taken the Sword into his hands upon any pretence whatsoever against his Lawful Soveraign or that hath made it his trade and business to whisper things against his Governours and to insinuate Prejudices into the Minds of his Neighbours against the present management of Affairs Where can you find a man amongst us who contrary to the Commands of his Lawful Soveraign hath entred into an Oath framed and drawn up on purpose to overthrow the Fundamental Rights and Priviledges of the people as well as the Essential Prerogative of his Prince much less can you shew me a man managed by the Doctrine and declared Opinion of this Church who hath shut the door and kept close Guards upon the Chief Magistrate of his Countrey and after that hath barbarously embrued his hands in his Princes Blood No no you must go beyond the
by Raising the Dead or else speaking those as St. Peter did who this moment are in a compleat state of Health into death immediately God forbid they should be invested with such a power for I believe we should have but very few Bishops left alive amongst us then Can they alter the Course of Nature and change the essential Property of any thing and do great cures even by opposite and contrary Means as our Saviour did No alas when we make a just enquiry into their abilities we find the men maugre all their boastings are but like unto us and all this confidence in particularizing the Grounds and Reasons of Gods Judgments is founded in pride and Self-conceit in an overweening value they have for themselves and an implacable hatred they have entertained against the Church of England And though the Principles of Separation have been the Instruments of as dreadful Effects to this Nation and wrought as great Confusions as History almost can parallel yet so vain are many of these Men that there cannot be a Storm or a Tempest that there cannot happen the least Ruffle or Disorder upon Nature but presently it is to give intimation of the wrongs and oppressions they are under and to warn both the King and Bishops to treat them more gently for the time to come And by this means the easy people are emboldened to very vile thoughts of the Government and to any mischievous undertaking that tends to its Ruine for who would not willingly be ridd of a Constitution or of a Number of such Men as are so great eye-fores to God himself that the very sight of them is continually provoking him to work great Desolations in the earth 2. I ask these men whether we as obedient Churchmen have not as much right to make use of this Argument against them as they against us truly I think it will be no easy matter to disprove it Nay considering that earthly Government is a dim and obscure Representation of that excellent Order and Harmony that is in Heaven and that Magistrates are Gods Vicegerents and his immediate Stewards on Earth I think that those who live in Obedience to them upon a satisfaction thâ— things they command are not unlawful may pretend to as great nay greater kindness from God than these men can do and consequently be better enabled by him to expound Judgments than they are And now upon this account suppose should tell them that the Plague and the Fire was for the murdering one King and Banishing the other was for laying violent hands upon the Ancient and Primitive Order of Episcopacy and turning the Aged and Reverend Prelates out of their Estates as well as Liberties suppose further we should tell them that the continuance of Gods anger is for their adherence still to those Principles notwithstanding we have in these late years seen issue from them such horrid Distractions and Animosities such unnatural Quarrels betwixt Neighbours and Neighbours nay betwixt some Parents and Children I say suppose we should tell them this and much more why would they not pronounce us monstrously uncharitable and presuming upon a greater information from Heaven than we have any warrant to do from Scripture but why the Pride and Uncharitableness should lye altogether on our side I profess I cannot tell unless they can demonstrate their Right as I said before to comment upon all the visible Expressions of Gods Anger by working some unquestionable Miracles before our Eyes 3. I ask these great pretended Acquaintances of Heaven whether it be not a Sign of great Hypocrisie and unsoundness of Mind to prevent and hinder the influence of any Argument or Consideration whereby God designs to lay mens Pride in the dust and to work them into that state of Humiliation and Self-abasement which becomes all men in this frail and imperfect State For certainly 't is the proper character of a good and an honest Christian who takes up his Religion upon Gospel-Motives that he is one that will make use of all Ways and Methods to work his mind up to such a Temper as God requires from him and therefore this good Man if at any time God suffer great ruines to overtake the World why he knows he cannot better and more suitably comport himself than by being humbled under his Anger than by reflecting upon himself with that severity of mind that becomes any man who hath had an hand in such provocations but now for a Man or a Body of Men to impute these Judgments to others and to shift them from themselves it is to abate the force of that Argument that may be fetched from Gods present heavy Dispensations and as persons unconcerned to leave all those ways of Humiliation prescribed in Scripture to be undertaken and done by others for as for themselves they can wash their hands they are pure and clean than which there cannot be a greater instance of Pride and Vanity of an unsound and a very corrupted Mind And therefore if by these Questions I can but bring these great opiniators to a perswasion that Gods Judgments are sent forth to punish and terrifie men of all Opinions and Judgments whatsoever from a sinful course of Life and that when he appears with his Sword in his hand every man ought to smite upon his Breast and say What have I done I think I shall do both Religion and themselves a very great Right 2. This Church suffers very much by the Jealousie of many of the Gentry especially those who have swallowed down the Principles of Mr. Hobbs lest the Clergy should overtop them or at least encroach too much upon their Power and influence in those Countreys where they live Many of them I say for God forbid I should impeach all or most of them for certainly there is no spot of Ground in the Christian world where there are better bred Gentlemen than in this famous Island who understand respect and kindness to all sorts of Persons in proportion to those several places and conditions they are fixed in and who have a particular esteem for the Clergy both upon the score of the Dignity of their Function and their just opinion of those Degrees the University for a compensation of those improvements they have made in several Arts and Sciences have deservedly conferred upon them And I must needs say this further that I have met with very few Branches of the Ancient Gentry upon whom Civility and Modesty have been entailed from many preceeding Generations or in my present Neighbourhood that have not been very punctualand zealous in keeping up the Reputation of the Ministery both by their own personal carriage to them and their readiness to secure them from the assaults and rudeness of the untutored Rabble But however we cannot expect but in great flocks there should be some diseased Sheep and even amongst those who either have or ought to have had better Education we must expect to meet with some who want that