love Man and he who rightly loveth Man must love God Now what I would establish in mens minds is the conduciveness of this connected and comprehensive Love to the worthy and happy estate of all Societies be they Kingdoms Churches or Families c. which I shall endeavour to do by representing the matter as it stands 1 In the Ordination of God 2 In the Government of God 3 In its own nature and effects By all which it will appear that the Society and no other but that where love presides is worthy and happy 1 As it stands in the Ordination of God Gen. 20.4 Exod. 20.5 Deut. 7.9.19 and 11.13 c. and 30.6 c. Joshua 23.11 c. Judges 5.31 Psal 14.7 and 29.11 and 33.11 and 85.8 and 94.14 and 105.24 43 and 122.6 and 125.2 and 145.15 20 and 148.14 and 149.4 and 119.132.165 Prov. 14.34 and 8.17 21 and 15.17 Isai 26.1 2 3 and 51 and 58.12 and 60.12 and 65.8 to 25 and 66.10 14. Jer. 18.7 9. Rom. 8.28 God hath settled the matter past all peradventure as will appear if you consult the fore-cited and other Scriptures 2 God's righteous Government requires that good success and happiness should attend such Communities because there being no Kingdoms or States c. hereafter there are no rewards there for them so that they would go without recompence should it be omitted in this life which is inconsistent with God's righteous and gracious Government to admit therefore it is here if any where that Nations are thereby exalted Prov. 14.34 3 The nature and effects of love Happiness is connatural with love they are inseparable Whilst love presides the Nation must cease to be before it can be other than happy by it Societies are so formed that all their parts are made blessed thereby For what is it that settleth a Nation or makes it prosperous but what results from or is the contrivance of Love and the things which reproach and ruin a Kingdom are contrary thereunto Where a Kingdom is founded and governed by Love how pleasant looks it even like the description given Psal 133. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in Vnity c. which the aforesaid Poet thus Paraphraseth I. Blest day wherein I live to see The Tribes like Brethren all agree Like Brethren striving who shall my best Subjects be II. God has by them restor'd my Crown And they secur'd what was their own For what on me they pour'd upon themselves fell down III. Th' Anointing Oil they on me spent On them in Acts of Favour went As if for them as much as me the Oil was meant IV. Like that which on the High-Priest shed At first it only wet his Head But then o're Beard and Clothes and all was quickly spread V. Or like those Mists which from the Main The Sun draws up to send again In Dews first on the Hills and then the humble Plain VI. With such th' Almighty loves to dwell And Souls agreed his Praise can tell How on them blessings when on others vengeance fell Where Love disposeth to associate with what pleasant gusts do they go thereto and so soon as they be gathered it binds them fast together so united as none dare to offend them and so inoffensive as not to provoke others The foundation of their Concord is the root or stock of Peace yea Isai 30.27 of quietness and assurance for ever being An Obediential Faith and Affiance in God as he in Christ is reconciling the World to himself extended in great Righteousness true Charity Purity and Humility these good things they learn of God these are their business and delight and by these they continually walk with him Micah 6.8 They establish their Union by such Principles and Rules as will make all concerned in the State understand that their interest is cared for The Union appears to be Common Benefit so settled as fore-seeing the whole cannot be happy where any part is miserable In a word they unite and abide as Members one of another Therefore if any be afflicted they like good blood run to the wounded parts relief Their Magna Charta is to love God above all and to love others as themselves Their Petition of Right to do as they would be done unto and on these hang all their Precepts Which alwaies are no more than are needful and are such as every man's Conscience and Reason approves and are also for Publick good Being 1 Such as stop the main Springs of Calamity 2 Such as direct or assist to growth in Vertue and Peace The former is done by prohibiting and watchfully suppressing all Vice especially those which are most noxious to Publick Order and Interest Such as Atheism Prophaneness Contempt of God and Religion Covetousness Ambition Peevish moroseness and Flattery Also Revenge excepting that of Forgiveness if the Injury be private and when publick that prosecution publick Justice and general Good requires to bring Traytors against King or State to just punishment Yet herein so as if one part of the Government differ in desire or opinion as to the execution of just vengeance on Persons they will charitably compound taking in full satisfaction for the blood of the Traytor such Laws as will sufficiently secure against or put an end unto like Treasons for future the gentlest way so it effectually secure the Government and promote the ends thereof they alwaies choose There is one other evil they prohibit and carefully suppress viz. Suspicion and though about this they have some explanatory Proviso's to prevent unreasonable Credulity and Supineness c. especially when the Head and thereby the whole Body is in apparent or immanent danger yet their general Rule is this To believe our Neighbour is good or to hope he will be so As they thus prohibit to stop Vice so 2 They enact for growth in Vertue This is done by commanding two things 1 Personal Inspection Reformation and Watchfulness And then 2 Neighbourly in order to this latter They bear their Infirmities and cover their Faults until they can be shewn them in private and there they do it with greatest sweetness They never reprove Sinners publickly but for most weighty causes and then so do it that the Guilty may see their love is fervent and may be awakened not through lowdness and noise but by the smart though yet sweet penetration of Reason and Love which shines so clearly in his Corrections that the Offender cannot but grieve for himself when he sees the Reprover was sorry for him first They command Seriousness without Morosity and enjoyn Chearfulness without Levity They prescribe Patience whereby to secure Self-possession against Moral-slavery and loss And that no excellencies may escape their notice and aspirings they have one act which hath more than ordinary Sanction you will find it Verbatim thus Finally Phil. 4.8 Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things
of every unjust Yoke by mutual Forbearance and bearing up one another as living Stones of that Temple where there is not to be heard the noise of either Ax or Hammer no squabble or clamour about Forms or Opinions but a peaceable study and endeavour of provoking one another to Love and good Works What I with the Worthy Doctor 's help have said on this Head beareth along with it both a detection and reprehension of the degeneracy of the present Age and a warmth and encouragement to hasten these good Times by endeavouring to correct our Lives according to this Pattern we have of them 4 Our true English Constitution in Laws and Temper in Persons while we do no violence nor suffer it to be done to either doth dispose to comprehensive Love beyond any Constitution or Temper in other Nations Luk. 19.12 13. which is a Talent Christ hath given us to traffick with in his absence commanding us to improve it to his best advantage that he may receive the benefit of it when he returneth and may see our increase unto God when he shall come and shew himself in that Regal illustrious manner upon us We then hide our Lord's Money and shall be doomed as unprofitable Servants as Rejecters of his Person and Government and executed for being Enemies thereunto if we use it not to increase in Love 5 How bad soever by degeneracy we have made our selves though as Sardis Rev. 3.1 2 4. we are ready to die yet are there things which remain and works still with us which we holding fast and strengthning we remembring and perfecting by Love before God may bring us to wear the glorious Robes in Royal Presence as reward for behaving our selves as we ought We also in this World may equal in glory or fame the greatest of Kingdoms and be deemed by all People the most worthy Nation And farther 6 We may subordinate to Christ be a light to lighten the Gentiles and be God's Salvation to the ends of the Earth i.e. Revealers to them of God's Righteousness or the way of Living which is acceptable unto and which is blest by him We may also be the glory of his People Israel i.e. Reformers of the Religion of the Jews bringing them from the Type and Ceremonial to the Substance also the Religion of the Christian bringing them from empty Forms dividing and burthensom Rites from Opinions which gender Strife from precepts about Meats and Drinks c. unto the Kingdom of God to Righteousness to Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost i. e. Mercifulness Peaceableness and a delight to do good one to another to that Joy which results from Unanimity holy Christian Joy which is according to the will of God and wrought by his Spirit All which whensoever accomplished will bring honour and glory as to them who receive it so to us who instrumentally bring them to it Could I see our Nation converted into Love I should expect the Nations about us would soon be gathering thereunto As a Great Man elsewhere hath said so say I here It is not my purpose to wrong the worth of any by denying the praise where it is due or by preferring a less excellent But he that finds a King so as is herein described hath what will cause the Nations afar off to wish him their King and bring them to him as the Queen of Sheba c. were brought to see and praise Solomon Whenever a Kingdom appears made up of such King and Subjects as those be who are dwellers in Love it will be Omen that God is near to draw all Nations to himself like the Morning Star after the Night of blackness or thick darkness will indicate the Day at hand wherein the Sun of righteousness will arise on the Universe with healing under his wing to give unto sick and lost Man saving and eternal health The fame and greatness of their prosperity will be so as to compel the blind the halt and maimed Nations to come to tast of their Feast and tasting will see and dislike as their enjoyments so all their practices in a State far from God They will also begin to arise or go to their true Father who so soon as he sees them up and going will run and embrace them will shew his love and manifest himself and his Will to them in which they will find abundant strength and true joy not as their former which if at all was but scant or foolish laughter and at best as the crackling of Thorns under a Pot for melody and duration Now as bringing this to pass will be glorious so to be first therein would be advantage and more glory to us For then as the first begotten from the dead and the first Divine-born of Nations we might expect to receive from God and Man i.e. such doubled portions from God as shall cause all Nations to deem us the most beloved of him O that the Shields of the Earth were thus in love that they would therein begin to Kiss the Son who also is love for he is God Why do the Heathen rage Psalm 2. and the People imagine a vain thing c. Which the aforesaid Divine Poet thus paraphraseth I. What makes this stir Why do the People rage And all their little Kings engage Their ancient Strifes they mind no more Forget they once were Enemies And though they ne're agreed before Now all conspire against their God to rise II. Their God's become their Common Enemy And his Anointed they defie Off with his yoke let 's break his bands Away with all his Chains they say Our necks we know let 's try our hands If they can rule as well as those obey III. But he who reigns above sees all their pride And do's their boasts and threats deride If they go on He 'll to them speak And if God speaks sure man shall hear For when his voice doth Cedars break Proud Libanus which bears them quakes for fear IV. Yet let them rise and do their worst my Throne Stands fixt as th'Hill 't is set upon Sion which cannot be remov'd And that no farther doubt may be Whether God has my choice approv'd I 'll shew his Seal and publish his Decree V. Thou art my Son This day I Thee begot He spoke the word who changes not Ask of me and the World is thine The utmost skirts of all the Earth Nations unknown beyond the Line Whose Countries yet have neither Name nor Birth VI. Thou shalt their Sovereign be and to Thee all Who will not stoop shall lower fall Their Potsheards shall Thy Scepter feel For since its rule they 'l have no more From Gold it shall be turn'd to Steel And make them dust who were but earth before VII Be wise O Kings and you who others give Their Laws hear Mine that you may live Great as you are look not too high For one above you stills your noise Yet since your Office calls you nigh Serve
Flock and Admirers receive it not as Divine thereby making their last errour worse than their first viz. receiving that for Antidote which is none because it hath less Religion and less Reason so far as it justifies what the Doctor opposeth viz. Separation and more venom by far than the Sermon Both Sermon and Antidote leave me less in love with Ecclesiastical Impositions and Separations so I will not wifely or unwisely offer ought in favour of either But with the Antidoter's leave I will put two Cases which I hope may prove more edifying I will leave the Knight wholly his own but will presume to use T. R. to nominate two Elect Ladies equally such as St. John sent his second Epistle unto in love and holiness Catholick most beloved of God and most worthy the Communion of Saints in every of God's Ordinances The Case of Mrs. T. is only supposed for I have not heard that any Conformist hath in fact been so rigid as the Case mentioneth him to be The Cases are as followeth Section IV. MIstress T. cometh to a Conforming Doctor and addresseth to him thus Sir I am a lover of God and Man Jesus Christ with all his Members are precious to me I would approach unto and obey the one in all his Ordinances I would manifest my love to the other and be so with them that we may be as one in remembring loving and praising our dearest Lord for his love in life and death to us Therefore Sir permit me to receive Sacramentally the Body and Blood of my Saviour by eating Bread and drinking Wine as he ordained with you on your next Commanion-day But Sir I must tell you I do sometime communicate with Christians called here Non-conformists and this I do not because they are in Non-conformity but because they are Christians And though I will joyn heartily with you in your form of Prayer and Praise to God yet I desire to receive in the Primitive namely Festival posture that being most suitable to Praise or Thanksgiving Beside I would save an Appeal to the Canon if any charge my kneeling with adoring Bread and Wine To whom I presume the Doctor replies to this effect I would give you Sacramentally the Body and Blood of our Lord because he gave them both in dying for thee I would eat and drink with thee at his Table We Christians are One Bread and you being Christ's true Disciple I have no terms in God's name to put upon you as a Minister of Christ I receive every true Christian But being in this Church of England under Laws and Oath to keep to that posture of kneeling which certainly as used in our Church you may do without sin I must desire you to forbear coming unloss you will so Receive MIstress R. cometh to Mr. Alsop at Westminster being a Nonconformist Preacher and addresseth in terms the same or like with what Mrs. T. useth to the Conformist craving to receive with him on his next Communion-day and farther saith But I must tell you we having a very Holy Man for our Parish Minister and one whom my Husband though put out for Non-conformity did with many other Christians deem given to us as a Return of Prayer With whom my Husband when living did himself joyn and to it ever advised me This Minister being also very moderate and indulgent to me I shall now and then attend his Preaching and also Receive with him This I do not because he conforms to the Church of England but because he is a Christian and doth nothing in Administration but what I may be present at without sin Farther I thus do because as I think I cannot totally separate and be innocent I Pray therefore because I esteem your Person and Ministry let me break Bread with you on your next Communion-day To whom I presume Mr. Alsop returns to this effect I believe you are Christ's true Disciple that you love him and that he loveth you also that he died for you But I will not give you Sacramentally his precious Body and Blood unless by a Promise or otherwise you bind your self never to receive this Sacrament from your Parish Minister or with those who Congregate with him So that unless you will therein totally separate from them I desire you to forbear coming with me In both these Cases there is I confess a mischievous Imposition But where Guilt is let any man judge the Doctor a Conformist cannot admit Mrs. T. because the Law of the Land c. forbids But Mr. Alsop denies Mrs. R. without warrant from God or Man The Prudence and Charity of our Governours will in time as I hope take away one And others also may in time learn Christ better than to lay such yokes on his Disciples which cannot because ought not to be born These are worse than Humane being Inventions destructive of Love Section V. It is most apparent that these evils are yet with us and that we are divided by them and that by these Divisions our Church and State are near to ruin We who have been the praise of the whole Earth for Prudence Justice Valour and Success in all our enterprizes for Purity Substance and Vigour in Religion for Order Union and Love and by these and other Vertues in Self-possession both as to Liberty and Safety I say we who have thus been are now become by their contraries a terrour to our selves and the derision and contempt of Nations round about us so that they neither love nor fear nor trust us and we choosing thus to do neither God nor Man will either pity or spare us O England O State and Church in England do not destroy thy self Return return that thou maist be saved There is a hand hath wrote that which I think concerns you read it and then judge Mal. 3.7 Even from the daies of your Fathers ye are gone away from mine-Ordinances and have not kept them Return unto me and I will return unto you saith the Lord of Hosts But ye said Wherein shall we return Though this hath in it less of terrour than we merit yet if we hasten not to deserve better than that in the first and last clause I fear the purport of that writing which Belshazzar saw upon his own Palace-wall Dan. 5.5 c. MENE MENE TEKEL VPHARSIN will soon occur to the sense of our King and People The Prophet's Charge exhibited against Kings and People then most aptly representeth the practice we and our Kings have been in for many Generations and the return made thereunto doth alike set forth our present temper or inclination as to real Reformation We are patient to hear the Charge when it is in general that things with us are amiss and we accept or bear the Advice if it be remote from the particular wherein we most need to amend But nothing is more difficult on the one hand than this to bring a King and People to see those particular Sins to be very sinful
to Magistrates one of the Capitals and Honour the King is connected with Fear of God The excellent Preacher concludes his whole Argument Eccl. Chap. 10. with a strict prohibition of all hard and undutiful thoughts and risings of heart against Rulers notwithstanding their errours in Government and Corruption in living not so much as secretly in their hearts to wrong them both for Conscience and for fear of wrath as the Apostle likewise directeth Rom. 13.5 4 To the Non-Conformists in England c. whose being so and being made so is matter of grief to me I say to them study to be quiet and do your Own business Which beside what Doctor Stilling fleet in his late Sermon and others before have told you is to do what Laws do not forbid you what is most needed what you are specially qualified unto what the best of you in times past when associated for most good have recommended as great Duty and lamented past neglect as grievous Sin And what if now managed with prudence and love will as I think bring more Souls unto God and more comfort and profit to your selves than the way of exercise you are in It is Sirs to go from house to house in the Parishes where you inhabit upon the work of Personal Instruction The nature whereof the manner of performance the motive and obligation thereunto may be seen in Mr. Baxter's Reformed Pastor Christian Concord the Worcestershire and other Counties Agreements to which I refer I do not foresee what you can object hereunto neither do I think ought will happen to obstruct you therein from without but what may soon be removed by care prudence humility and love in its management My self for one and many more there are who do not receive you or contribute to you in your present way of Separation would do their utmost to strengthen and encourage you herein And those who now are joyned to you if true Christians will in no wise draw back but rather proceed for so good a work Yet if any of them who have not well learned wherein Purity Spirituality and true Christian Liberty consisteth through suspicion of your return to Egypt or to Garlick and Onions should withhold from you God will make it up in others and will if they be sincere reveal himself farther to them and bring them back with advantage to you It is now near twenty four years since the generous and pious Mr. Tho. Wadsworth now with God expressed to me at Newington-Buts to this effect When I came first to minister at this place I began to think my business lay not so much in my Pulpit as in the Houses of my Flock not to eat or drink with them or there to receive a Fleece from them but to bring them fully to God I therefore inquired who were worthy and whoso consented into their Houses I entred on some daies weekly I was yet not satisfied being I saw many Families within my Parish bounds remaining ignorant of and averse unto God And being sometime after quickned by Mr. Baxter in private Letters to me and his Gildas Salvianus I resolved upon and exercised Personal and Family Instruction through my whole Parish I found many obstinate and many dismally ignorant equal to the darkest corner in the Vniverse But I thank God my labour was not in vain They being brought by my House-ministration unto the light and life Divine I had more success in one year in this way than I could expect in twenty the other Ministers ought to seek out the bad to make them good gathering and edifying those who are made so to their hand is the less needful work I should not doubt of success herein somewhat equal to what appeared in Newington many years since God being as present and as powerful now as then But I must humbly offer this to them that they treat us not with Mint Anise and Cummin but with the weighty matters of the Law with what recommends itself to every man's Conscience And so discourse that both matter and manner thereof may manifest you design not to beget dislike to the Publick Forms c. but only to bring us more fully to God i. e. to that temper and practice which King Bishops and People cannot but see is best for the whole This I own is the Duty also of every Conforming Minister and the neglect thereof their Sin I wish you were both at it with all your might for this under God would procure such degrees of Light Life and Love that our Service to God would be serving him in Spirit and Truth and an acceptable Service unto him though it were performed in the worst form I ever yet heard of among Protestants To the pure Worshipper all these Forms are pure i. e. none of them shall prejudice a good Man or his sacrifice to God If this be so we have gained this point That to be holy is far preferrable to pure Administrations since the purest of them are not pure to the unholy Should not then the means most likely to increase Holiness be dearest unto us and such as hath been said is Personal Instruction especially if we add that this practice will be promotive of Love than which there cannot be a more purifying Grace Which brings me to the Second General Head of which I shall discourse in the next Chapter CHAP. IV. SECT I. TO Love i. e. as St. Paul I told you saith Let all your things be done in Charity If what I have hitherto wrote signifie nothing yet if King and Subjects if Pastors and People if Friends and Foes will Love our Kingdom will be holy and happy and without it were our Ordinances in Church and State the most pure or Spiritual we should yet be without Righteousness and Peace i. e. a very wicked and miserable People Let 1 Joh. 4.16 then our whole be Love let it be the temper and abode of our Souls The excellency and benefit whereof is obvious to those who dwell in God and in whom God doth dwell for God is Love those who do this are most like God and are very dear to him By the natural intimacy of self-Self-love by our own frame by the nature of God his love and Relation to us as Creator and in Jesus Christ Redeemer as also by the nature and end of his Ordinances c. of which many have treated we may see as our obligation and inducements thereunto so also the true nature and offices of Love By it in this Discourse I intend what our Saviour hath put together as first and second Matt. 22.37.39 Ver. 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind Ver. 39. Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self calling one the great Commandement and the other like unto it adding that these are the fulfilling of the Law These connext are to be our temper and practice No man truly loveth God who doth not
praise of this Prince some part of the XLV Psalm I. Prophetick Fancy doth my heart With glorious Raptures fill 'T is of the King I speak my tongue Prevents the Writer's quill II. Fairer than fairest Sons of men Grace on thy lips is pour'd God therefore hath on thy lov'd head Immortal blessing shour'd The Rhime is not bad and the Reason very good to our purpose for you may therein see Happiness and Love in a perpetual connexion within him and how far it thence descends to all his Dominions we may see anon in the other part of that Psalm for I guess it will not be long ere we be disposed again to sing in his praise who is so good in himself and so good to us in whom also we must be blest because his temper and his practice are founded upon or are streams issuing from as the best moral so the most natural grounds or springs of Happiness All which will be most manifest when you have heard me speek to these three things 1 The foundation on which he is built 1. Supream 2. Subordinate 2 The principle or spring in him of action 1. Divine Love 2. Good-will 3. Knowledge and Internal sense 3 His practice or tenour of actions 1. Publick to God 2. Private to Man Of which I will speak but very briefly and therefore too promisenously in the next Section Section III. 1 His Supream foundation is Vnion to God in being most affectionate unto Religion which he alwaies establisheth and promotes in his Dominions and unto the true Professours and Practisers thereof in his Kingdoms I will for once spoil the Poesie though not the sense of Doctor Woodford on Psalm 15. ver 4. IV. Whose heart against a wicked man does rise And shews true scorn yet pity by his eyes The good he honours counts them dear Worthy his love and favour too All who in truth God's Sacred Name do fear And when he to his Word does swear What he has sworn though he is sure to lose will do 2 His subordinate foundation is Vnion to his People to their Persons and Interests whereby they are his own and in his opinion or sense but one Soul in sundry bodies himself in divers Skins 2 The principle or spring in him of action is Divine Love i. e. the Love of God prevalent in him Good-will i. e. Benevolence to Man tenderness of Compassion as of a Parent to her Infant hanging on the breast Benignity of Nature like that in God spoken of 1 Pet. 2.3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious or how sweet the Lord is From these as also lastly from knowledge and sense that God hath raised him for the Peoples good he considers them as he doth himself and so extendeth the same liberality and kindness to them that stand in need of it also the same care and protection that in the like case he would wish to himself He apprehends himself as the mean between God and the People i.e. that he is debtor to both and accordingly all his practice is Piety towards the one and Beneficence to the other He abuseth not himself by thinking he is his own man or by tying himself to himself He acts as he is the States and not as if the State were his That these and such like are the spring will appear by what is alwaies issuing from him in the third thing proposed 3 The course of action or practice he is in 1 Publick in which 1 By improving and securing his Peoples enjoyments by redressing their real grievances and relieving their necessities he doth what is possible to make all Orders of Men under him so happy as the condition of this World will bear He considers what hath been done and what is begun to be done that nothing be imperfect or ill executed 2 He with diligence or care rules his Subjects by Law I mean here though I except not God's the Laws himself with his People in their Representative as one have made Those being especially if they be for Common good alwaies most sacred or dear to him In Mean towards the People rather a Guardian or Surety than their Lord or Master 3 He ascends unto the hearts of his Subjects as to the safest the highest and most desirable Throne and by constant goodness and seasonable bounty like God he gains that gift from them Which when he hath gotten neither Wife nor Brother nor any other importuning thing can dispose him to hazard or forfeit but secure it he doth to himself and to his for ever in applying alwaies thereto what gained them at first choosing rather to be loved than to be adored by them 4 He will not make Evil daies or confederate with or assist those who do so by Blood by Rapin by Truce-breaking or by being without natural affection to his People or such like mentioned by St. Paul to Timothy 2 Epist 3. 2 His Practices more private are of like Nature For 1 He chooseth such Ministers of State and Law whose temper is sound and most sutable to Law and who will unmoveably adhere thereto He judgeth of their temper by their conforming in practice to God's and to his own Laws 3 Prerogative and Will he shuns as less Divine and most Inhumane He deems Tempters thereto Imps of Hell well knowing that no other Prince than he who is the Prince of Darkness leads men captive at his will He therefore carefully avoids as the occasion so the appearance of this evil By which he appears to be no mean spirited thing as it is felicity to have power to do what a man will so is it true greatness to will that a man should Hereby in temper he is a-kin to the Greatest Majesty in Heaven who therefore commands because the things are for our good Deut. 10.12 13. Micah 6.8 and who sometimes proposeth to reason the matter out with us Also frequently appeals to Sense or Conscience within us about the equity and the abundant and the condescending kindness he hath done us saying oft Isal 5.3 4. Are not my waies equal O house of Israel Or this And now O Inhabitants of Jerusalem and Men of Judah Judge I pray you betwixt me and my Vineyard What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it There is indeed one sort of Prerogative which in imitation of God he is sometimes in i.e. to perform acts of Goodness and to scatter abroad or disperse what is gracious to the deservers of Evil. These he may do because he will do them for herein is no hurt so Prudence direct as it alwaies doth in him But when the thing to be done will be pain or punishment to any that it then shall be done because I will I find not with God nor with Good men I was about to say only with men as such 4 He admits none to come to places in Church or State by unworthy means nor hinders them in the discharge
Restauration was not their procurement but our own Victory This is to be said it was Bloodless and cost us not one blow and had its cost been never so dear yet Victory to generous minds is only an inducement to Moderation It is a glorious Victory to conquer and to make our Enemy stoop by Benefits and of an Enemy to become a Friend 3 What have our days since been but so many sundry times in which God hath called us to this connected and comprehensive Love For 1 The Happy Restauration giving Being and vigour unto Love Peace was within our Walls and Prosperity in our Palaces Our Face was then most attractive of Love like unto that I have in the fore-going Chapter described the State of Love to be Not as a Kingdom which is become pale or wan through shivering or Swooning-fits nor like a Nation dispirited or bleeding by some alteration in ancient Constitutions or Ascertaining points which the wisdom of Ancestors thought best for the whole to keep doubtful or granting through Inadvertency Corruption or under pretence of Affection so many and so great Impositions as to make both Prince and People as Poor as Spain Or as may sometime or other be improved to alter a whole Frame of Government or by New terms of Ministration or Communion in the Church or such like things which never are but when Love grows cold and when a Plague disease attends a Nation 2 Our Glory was too soon eclipsed by hidden Works of Darkness I mean the horrid Plot and Popish Contrivances and sundry caetera's things which be as in their nature so for my intended brevity too many for me So pernicious is the first step from Love that when we begin to deviate from it we scarce escape perdition If ought interpose to re-call us as once did his Majesty's gracious Commission to treat at the Savoy also his gracious Declaration in matters Ecclesiastical yet on we go and needs we must when Ill-will doth drive us Prelacy and Ceremony with it must be re-established and no doubt of the Peoples acceptance For said one Right Reverend as I was credibly informed in every Town with Popular applause the May-pole is restored And being that new Additions were convenient to keep from Conformity the best of the Brethren why was it not as wise to think the Novelties to be added would also please because at or abou that very time there were added in design or fact some Cubits in height to the May-pole in the Strand So vain do the best of Men become when they will depart from Love 3 Soon after came War and Plague then Fire with most distressing Jealousies at home and then War again from abroad With every of these we were sorely afflicted and in the last put to open †Chatham James 4.5 shame Now from whence came all these on us came they not hence even of our lusts that war in our members And is it not think ye high time for us to return to Love who have thus smarted by and for the contrary thereunto 4 What is the late discovery of the Plot and the preservation of our King to this day but the declaration from Heaven for Love That God doth and will interpose to save the Friend and the State thereof and such though too weak therein may our King and State be deemed compared with other Nations Which will farther appear if some Circumstances in this discovery be duly considered As 1 Were the first Discoverers other than mean few and strange Ones too attempting it most disadvantagiously like as when men reveal matter of highest Treason to they know not who or like as when Andrew comes to discover to Simeon and Levy how that James intends to rob or kill John on purpose that John knowing it may save both i.e. life and money and as Andrew thought save Simeon and Levy too whereas Simeon for some time before had been picking John's Pocket and Levy in the same gainful Confederacy had been suggesting unto John to kill himself If Titus in Oliver's daies wrote Killing no Murther Timothy if he pleaseth may now print no word of Killing lest Murther come out 2 Were not many and some no small Ones obstructing its discovery One while Brow-beating to discourage and other while bribing to corrupt the Witnesses hiding Papers and stifling many Informations brought to them relating thereunto On account of these I presume it was that the House of Commons chose to proceed by a Committee of Secresie in the examination of this Plot for had they then been or should they hereafter be more publick herein the same Power and Artifice used to prevent discovery will be applied to Sham the Evidence upon the publick Trials of the Plotters In which I shall less doubt of the success they desire in case this advantage be given them to know afore-hand the full Proof that is against them and the whole management thereof for they seem to me to be in other respects at this time not meanly assisted for an escape 3 Hath it not remained to be a Plot after all Attempts to extirpate or weaken the belief of it by talking of Old ones 40 41 42 and 48 and framing of New ones And is not its Credibility strengthned by the Attempts made to make it fall 5 Was not our King's life in unparallel'd dangers and if he doth not believe his Death was consulted or conspired is not that one of them and yet he liveth And doth not all this tell us God is for Love seeing he as it were immediately appeareth to bring to nought the devices of Devils and Men against it So that it seems now as if Heaven had ordained that no hand shall plant †Alteration in Civils Thorns anew as none shall gather Grapes of those of Old planted with us Should any then proceed to contend with God and to attempt what they must fail in Will not the one be Impiety and the other greatest folly 6 The wild and cruel Methods which some have taken to introduce a happy Millennium have been detected in the strange and horrid practices of Vennour and his Company and God's hatred thereof manifested in their punishment And instead thereof others of singular Learning and Piety in our Church have stated it more consonant as to general expectation so to the nature of God and to the Laws of his Creation and Providence A Specimen of which I will give you in the words of the excellent Doctor More Preface to Mystery of Godliness The true happiness of those daies is not to be measured by Formalities or Opinions but by a more corroborated Faith in Christ and his Promises by Devotion unfeigned by Purity of heart and Innocency of life by Faithfulness by common Charity by comfortable Provisions for the Poor by chearful Obedience to our Superiours and abundance of Kindness and discreet Condescensions one to another by unspotted Righteousness and an unshaken Peace by the removal
Soul bemire Quit from these thy Praise I 'le sing Lowdly sweep the trembling String Bear a part O Wisdom's Sons Free'd from vain Religions Lo from far I you salute Sweetly warbling on my Lute India Aegypt Arabie Asia Greece and Tartarie Carmel-Tracts and Lebanon With the Mountains of the Moon From whence muddy Nile doth run Or whereever else you won Breathing in one vital Air One we are though distant far Rise at once let 's Sacrifice Odours sweet perfume the Skies See how Heavenly Lightning fires Hearts inflam'd with high Aspires All the substance of our Souls Vp in Clouds of Incense rolls Leave we nothing to our selves Save a Voice What need we else Or an Hand to wear and tire On the thankful Lute or Lyre Sing aloud his Praise rehearse Who hath made the Vniverse This Bathynous is the Deeply-thoughtful man one of that good Company whoare all free Spirits mutually permitting one another the liberty of Philosophizing without any breach of Friendship With this Theorbo he play'd to the same Tune and sang this very Song somewhat larger to the good-liking and profit of that excellent and free Society I remember one of them told me that it did not so much increase his Passion of Joy as regulate establish and fix it Methought said he I was placed in the third Heaven all the while I heard so sweet an Instrument so lovely a Voice and so exalted Philosophy and Morality joyned together in one Harmony The Conclusion Speak O Man the sense of Conscience Is not this better than squabbling about Ceremonies be it for or against them or then long and eager Disputings about the Jus Divinum of Forms of Government The more men grow in Grace or Divine and Manly knowledge the greater sight and relish have they of substantial Goodness And it being that Good Part shall never be taken from the sincere chooser of it Whereas on the contrary The Good Man whether he will or no very oft loseth the aforesaid Jus Divinum's I have no goodness to boast of and that I have so little to do otherwise with it is my reproach and grief But further degrees of light by the mercy of God in Christ I have since Anno 1653 before which though I was young my mind was in concern for Salvation Presbytery being next me Episcopacy was withdrawn before I could know any thing and my Education thereto directing I soon grew hot for them against the Army and all that then were Separatists the Independents not excepted which was inflan ed by our Provincials sending forth their Jus Divinum of Presbytery Which mission of theirs occasioned a new appearance a pretence to Jus Divinum elsewere it was that of the Excellent Doctor Hammond in his Dissertations concerning the Divine Right of Episcopacy Though this Great Man was then as ever since a Stranger to me yet I went as I had before done our own to read his by which I found the English Prelacy and Presbytery in Contest but Jus Divinum in neither And how Independancy comes to have better pretence than these had thereunto I never yet saw What in my Opinion bid fairest of any for it was the Worcestershire and some other Counties their Agreements the first published by the much to be valued and Pious Mr. Baxter Yet in these it was not the Form so much as their Agreement to bear with each other and to Love together with that of Personal Instruction c. Upon the whole as I then discerned so do I still that these various Pretenders though on all sides very good Men are vain in their pretence to a Divine Right in their different Forms God hath left the matter undetermined and so ought it to remain until he shall please farther to reveal or settle in this Affair Be not wise above what is written nor religious overmuch is Divine Counsel I will not transcribe it again but I pray thee go back to page 75 and read the words of Doctor More there inserted which shew us where Jus Divinum is and when we may expect to see it amongst us it will never be found in Prelacy Presbytery Independancy or in other more separate but less charitable Form amongst us in that the things which constitute these so as we call them are too small and are too capable of being wrought to gender Strise for to deserve that worthy name Divine Ordination or Right of Government over God's Church We should rather expect to find it in what God and the Law of Creation in Man saith is Great and which cannot be wrought to any ill purposes because it can never be in any Church or Society but will bar against it and will purge or purifie from it and more especially will put away all the sorts of Uncharitableness Hatred Gal. 5.20 21 22. Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murthers Drunkenness Revilings and such like and constitute in their stead The fruit of the Spirit Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Faith i.e. Fidelity Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law i.e. Be we never so strict and zealous observers of other Laws that can never engage any of us to neglect these as many of us that pretend to be all for Order or that maintain the necessity of pure Administration are yet found to do behaving themselves so carnally in their Religion and opposing all other Christians so bitterly as if they thought that the Gospel did as much countenance their Earthliness and their persecuting others as it doth countenance or oblige in their Opinion to those Ceremonies or forms of Worship Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith or to which Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of Bondage I pronounce to you as my Opinion that if you depend on Church Order and pure Administration of Ordinances for Justification or have such opinion of them and practice thereon as I have noted Christ shall stand you in no stead For though you should at last be found those who have eaten and drunk in his presence in form as he would have you and have in his Name i.e. by his power or to his glory done many wonderful works yet being without Charity these and Christ also shall profit you nothing Himself hath said St. Matthew 7.23 When such like is pleaded Then will I profess unto them saying I never knew you depart from me ye that work Iniquity One work of which then to be mentioned himself hath exprest Mat. 25.41 42 43 45. which you will find to be the neglect of Charity I therefore conjure you by all those benefits which are afforded us in Christ by the great joy and pleasure there is in loving one another and other advantages thence issuing to us and to our Nation of which I have discoursed that you love one another mutually having as it were the same Souls and so Affections and Designs all studying and taking care for this same thing
Or in the words of St. Paul Coloss 3. ver 12 13 14 15. Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and Beloved bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man hath a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so do ye And above all these things put on Charity which is the Bond of perfectness And let the Peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also you are called in one body and be ye thankful By all which we shall be as the pictures and resemblances of God prized and valued by him we shall shew his Spirit hath sanctified us and is given unto us and by the most excellent Bond we shall be united indissolubly one to another and tyed to the exercise of all Graces not only as our duty but delight We shall hereby be perfectly skilled in all necessary and perfecting knowledge particularly the unspeakable Love of Christ the knowledge of which is a Science of great concernment to us far beyond all other Sciences for hereby our hearts will be enflamed with Love to God will be fortified against temptation to evil and will be filled with the Vertues which are most Divine Now the God of Peace or which delighteth in the Peace and Unity of Christians that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepheard of the Sheep through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and eternal Spirit three Subsistences or Persons and but one God be glory for ever and ever Amen Postscript I Am not ignorant of Exceptions the more Curious may make against the management of this Discourse being wrote by one who is more willing than able to do well As 1 That I have started many things but have not pursued them as I ought 2 That I have insisted too little on the Explication of things i. e. as Divines are wont to say The Doctrinal part Answ 1 I intended to have delivered my whole mind in two or three Sheets to make it as little labour to me and charge to others as I could 2 I conceive that they who under God are to help us do fully understand the matters I do here only point to So that it may be here if ever said A word is enough to the Wise 3 I more doubt the Rectitude of the Will in applying or choosing unto Practice than the capacity of the Meanest to understand the things I have proposed unto 4 The Nature of some things required my stop to farther proceedure into them and others are explicated or fully stated already by some of greatest comprehension and ability in our Church In special the late excellent Bishop Wilkins in his Discourse of Natural Religion out of which I took one part of the Analysis pag. 31. and Isaac Barrow D. D. in his Sermons Mr. Baxter in his Cure of Church Divisions c. and the most Worthy Citizen of London Mr. William Allen in several of his Treatises Also that Great Man Edw. Stillingfleet D. D. now Dean of St. Pauls in his Irenicum From whom I expect de novo as great a Healer as was his Weapon Salve His Temper his Wisdom and Goodness I know are disposing thereto rather than to self-Vindication or Conquest over his Antagonists 5 Which is enough alone I have not the ability or leasure of other men and do reach in great part my design if I hereby excite some of Ability to be doing that so it may be well done Lastly The Pair of Extreams in our Church may see their Sin and their Recovery from it by what I have wrote in the first and third Chapters Provided they afford them more thoughts as they ought if they will give any than I have given words to them The like may I say to the Pair of Extreams in our State For thereby men may see their station in this Kingdom the Constitution they are under and their duty therein part of which is to be Faithful and Constant thereunto King-Flatterers and Republicans or Self-Designers know themselves to be so and a Prince needs no more to find them out than his own Observation of them in their daily mean towards his Person or Government To the latter more especially in two things 1 In Suggestions to a Variation in that Constitution Wherein the Prince is already Supream and unto which he hath sworn Adhesion 2 In Proposals to Things less acceptable to his People and which the King cannot but see if he looks into any thing are not necessary to the maintenance of the Government or his true Greatness therein These two or such are alwaies Casts of the Office of the Flatterer or Leveller in his Kingdom So that a more particular account of this matter would have been as too tedious so almost needless Sincere Obedience to God and Charity or as I have said Doing our own Business and Love have Natural and Moral tendancy to Knowledge and Wisdom i. e. to the seeing and to the well-managing of all things so that he who is Upright shall not fail of Science requisite to the knowing and doing of his duty in the station God hath set him He hath Infallibility nearer or more secured in God's Promises to him than the Pope and Conclave at Rome have they being not so good Men. Besides so far as any one proposeth to Vertue or Grace he doth propose as to all Wisdom and Knowledge as hath been said so unto all that is neceslary to cure all Maladies For Vertue in the Blossom and Fruit being of the same nature with that in the Root Peace and every thing prosperous or truly desirable thence must come Contrary hereunto is Sin of which St. James saith Chap. 1.14 15. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own hearts lust and enticed Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Most fully to this purpose is Prov. 14.14 The Backslider in heart shall be filled with his own waies and a Good-man shall be satisfied from himself In short Men must have and Nations will find as they are corrupted and lapsed or as they be restored and renewed by Grace I will conclude with the words of St. Paul Gal. 6. ver 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Which is most true of Kingdoms and Societies of Men. Now of Obedience to God of vigour or sincerity therein and of Love I have spoken though little yet I hope what may be understood and what a good Heart will improve to every needful purpose in his Converse with God or Man If the Antidoter or any for him be displeased at me I will not be overcome of that Evil but endeavour to overcome