Judges have Absolved nor Absolves whom his Judges have Condemned whatsoever the People and Republicans may Now from this Principle That the Authority of Conscience stands founded upon its Vicegerency and Deputation under God Several very important Inferences may or rather indeed unavoidably must ensue Two of which I shall single out and speak of As First We collect from hence the Absurdity and Impertinence And Secondly The Impudence and Impiety of most of those Pretences of Conscience which have born such a mighty sway all the World over and in these poor Nations especially 1. And first for the Absurdity and Impertinence of them What a rattle and a noise has this word Conscience made How many Battles has it fought how many Churches has it robbed ruined and reformed to Ashes how many Laws has it trampled upon dispenced with and addressed against And in a word how many Governments has it over-turned Such is the mischievous force of a plausible Word applied to a detestable Thing The Allegation or Plea of Conscience ought never to be admitted barely for it self For when a Thing obliges only by a borrowed Authority it is ridiculous to alledge it for its own Take a Lieutenant a Commissioner or Ambassador of any Prince and so far as he represents his Prince all that he does or declares under that capacity has the same force and validity as if actually done or declared by the Prince himself in Person But then how far does this reach why just so far as he keeps close to his Instructions But when he once baulks them though what he does may be indeed a Publick Crime or a National Mischief yet it is but a Private Act and the Doer of it may chance to pay his Head for his Presumption For still as great as the Authority of such kind of Persons is it is not founded upon their own Will nor upon their own Iudgment but upon their Commission In like manner every Dictate of this Vicegerent of God where it has a Divine Word or Precept to back it carries a Divine Authority with it But if no such Word can be produced it may indeed be a strong Opinion or Perswasion but it is not Conscience And no one Thing in the World has done more Mischief and caused more Delusions amongst Men than their not distinguishing between Conscience and meer Opinion or Perswasion Conscience is a Latin Word though with an English Termination and according to the very Notation of it imports a double or joynt Knowledge to wit One of a Divine Law or Rule and the Other of a man 's own Action And so is properly the Application of a General Law to a Particular Instance of Practice The Law of God for example says Thou shalt not steal and the Mind of Man tells him That the taking of such or such a thing from a person lawfully possessed of it is Stealing Whereupon the Conscience joyning the Knowledge of both these together pronounces in the Name of God That such a Particular Action ought not to be done And this is the true procedure of Conscience always supposing a Law from God before it pretends to lay any Obligation upon Man For still I averr that Conscience neither is nor ought to be its own Rule I question not I confess but meer Opinion or Perswasion may be every whit as strong and have as forcible an Influence upon a man's Actions as Conscience it self But then we know Strength or Force is one Thing and Authority quite another As a Rogue upon the High-way may have as strong an Arm and take off a man's Head as cleverly as the Executioner But then there is a vast Disparity in the Two Actions when one of them is Murther and the other Iustice Nay and our Saviour himself told his Disciples That Men should both kill them and think that in so doing they did God service So that here we see was a full Opinion and Perswasion and a very Zealous one too of the high Meritoriousness of what they did but still there was no Law no Word or Command of God to ground it upon and consequently it was not Conscience Now the Notion of Conscience thus stated if firmly kept to and throughly driven home would effectually baffle and confound all those senceless though clamorous Pretences of the Schismatical Opposers of the Constitutions of our Church In defence of which I shall not speak so much as one syllable against the Indulgence and Toleration granted to these Men. No since they have it let them in God's Name enjoy it and the Government make the best of it But since I cannot find that the Law which tolerates them in their way of Worship and it does no more does at all forbid us to defend ours it were earnestly to be wished that all hearty Lovers of the Church of England would assert its excellent Constitution more vigorously now than ever And especially in such Congregations as this in which there are so many young Persons upon the well or ill principling of whom next under God depends the happiness or misery of this Church and State For if such should be generally prevailed upon by Hopes or Fears by base Examples by Trimming and Time-serving which are but Two Words for the same Thing to abandon and betray the Church of England by nauseating her pious prudent and wholsome Orders of which I have seen some scurvy Instances we may rest assured That this will certainly produce Confusion and that Confusion will as certainly end in Popery And therefore since the Liturgy Rites and Ceremonies of our Church have been and still are so much cavilled and struck at and all upon a Plea of Conscience it will concern us as becomes Men of Sense seriously to examine the force of this Plea which our Adversaries are still setting up against us as the Grand Pillar and Buttress of the good Old Cause of Non-conformity For come to any Dissenting Brother and ask him Why cannot you communicate with the Church of England Oh says he it is against my Conscience my Conscience will not suffer me to Pray by a Set-form to Kneel at the Sacrament to hear Divine Service read by one in a Surplice or to use the Cross in Baptism or the like Very well And is this the Case then that it is all pure Conscience that keeps you from complying with the Rule and Order of the Church in these matters If so then produce me some Word or Law of God forbidding these things For Conscience never commands or forbids any thing Authentically but there is some Law of God which commands or forbids it first Conscience as might be easily shewn being no distinct Power or Faculty from the Mind of Man but the Mind of Man it self applying the General Rule of God's Law to particular Cases and Actions This is truly and properly Conscience And therefore shew me such a Law and that either as a Necessary Dictate of Right Reason or a Positive
TWELVE SERMONS Preached upon Several Occasions By ROBERT SOUTH D. D. The Second Volume Never before Printed LONDON Printed by I. H. for Thomas Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1694. TO THE University of Oxford Reverend and Learned Sirs THESE Discourses most of them at least having by the favour of your Patience had the Honour of your Audience and being now Published in another and more lasting way do here humbly cast themselves at your Feet imploring the yet greater Favour and Honour of your Patronage or at least the Benevolence of your Pardon Amongst which the Chief Design of some of them is to Assert the Rights and Constitutions of our Excellently Reformed Church which of late we so often hear Reproached in the modish Dialect of the Present Times by the Name of Little Things and that in order to their being laid aside not onely as Little but Superfluous But for my own part I can account nothing Little in any Church which has the stamp of undoubted Authority and the Practice of Primitive Antiquity as well as the Reason and Decency of the Thing it self to warrant and support it Though if the supposed Littleness of these matters should be a sufficient Reason for the laying them aside I fear our Church will be found to have more Little Men to spare than Little Things But I have observed all along that while this Innovating Spirit has been striking at the Constitutions of our Church the same has bin giving several Bold and Scurvy strokes at some of Her Articles too An Evident Demonstration to me that whensoever Her Discipline shall be destroyed Her Doctrine will not long survive it And I doubt not but it is for the sake of This that the former is so much maligned and shot at Pelagianism and Socinianism with several other Heterodoxies Cognate to and Dependent upon them which of late with so much Confidence and Scandalous Countenance walk about daring the World are certainly no Doctrines of the Church of England And none are abler and fitter to make them appear what they are and whither they tend than our Excellent and so well stocked Universities and if these will but bestirr themselves against all Innovators whatsoever it will quickly be seen that our Church needs none either to fill Her Places or to defend Her Doctrines but the Sons whom she Her self has brought forth and bred up Her Charity is indeed Great to Others and the Greater for that she is so well provided of all that can Contribute either to Her Strength or Ornament without them The Altar receives and protects such as fly to it but needs them not We are not so Dull but we perceive who are the Prime Designers as well as the Professed Actors against our Church and from what Quarter the Blow chiefly threatens us We know the Spring as well as we observe the Motion and Scent the Foot which pursues as well as see the Hand which is lifted up against us The Pope is an Experienced Workman He knows his Tools and knows them to be but Tools and knows withall how to use them aud that so that they shall neither know who it is that uses them or what he uses them for and we cannot in reason presume his Skill now in Ninety-three to be at all less than it was in Forty-one But God who has even to a Miracle protected the Church of England hitherto against all the Power and Spight both of her open and concealed Enemies will we hope continue to protect so Pure and Rational so Innocent and Self-denying a Constitution still And next under God we must rely upon the Old Church of England-Clergy together with the Two Universities both to Support and Recover Her declining state For so long as the Universities are Sound and Orthodox the Church has both Her Eyes open and while she has so 't is to be hoped that she will look about Her and consider again and again what she is to change from and what she must change to and where she shall make an End of Changing before she quits her Present Constitution Innovations about Religion are certainly the most Efficacious as well as the most Plausible way of compassing a Total Abolition of it One of the best and strongest Arguments we have against Popery is That it is an Innovation upon the Christian Church and if so I cannot see why that which we explode in the Popish Church should pass for such a piece of Perfection in a Reformed One. The Papists I am sure our shrewdest and most designing Enemies desire and push on This to their utmost and for that very Reason one would think that we if we are not besotted should oppose it to our Utmost too However let us but have our Liturgy continued to us as it is till the Persons are born who shall be able to mend it or make a Better and we desire no greater security against either the altering This or introducing Another The Truth is such as would new model the Church of England ought not onely to have a New Religion which some have been so long driving at but a New Reason likewise to proceed by Since Experience which was ever yet accounted one of the surest and best Improvements of Reason has been always for acquiescing in Things settled with sober and mature Advice and in the present case also with the very Blood and Martyrdom of the Advisers themselves without running the Risque of New Experiments which though in Philosophy they may be commendable yet in Religion and Religious Matters are generally fatal and pernicious The Church is a Royal Society for settling Old Things and not for finding out New In a word we serve a Wise and Unchangeable God and we desire to do it by a Religion and in a Church as like Him as may be without Changes or Alterations And now as in so Important a matter I would Interest both Universities so I do it with the same Honour and Deference to Both as abhorring from my Heart the Pedantick Partiality of preferring one before the other Since if my Relation to One should never so much encline me so to do I must sincerely declare that I cannot see how to place a Preference where I can find no Preheminence And therefore as they are both Equal in Fame and Learning and all that is Great and Excellent so I hope to see them always one in Iudgment and Design Heart and Affection without any Strife Emulation or Contest between them except this One which I wish may be perpetual viz. Which of the Two Best Universities in the World shall be most serviceable to the Best Church in the World by their Learning Constancy and Integrity But to Conclude There remains no more for me to doe but to beg Pardon of that August Body to which I belong if I have offended in assuming to my self the Honour of mentioning my Relation to a Society which I could never reflect the
sufficiency in God to do it for him And what can be more agreeable to all Principles both of Reason and Religion than that a Creature endued with Understanding and Will should acknowledge that Dependance upon his Maker by a free act of Choice which other Creatures have upon him only by Necessity of Nature But still there is one Objection more against our foregoing Assertion viz. That Prayer obtains the things prayed for only as a Condition and not by way of Importunity or Perswasion For is not Prayer said to prevail by frequency Luke 18. 7. and by Fervency or Earnestness in Iames 5. v. 16. and is not this a fair proof that God is importuned and perswaded into a Grant of our petitions To this I answer two Things 1. That wheresoever God is said to answer Prayers either for their Frequency or Fervency it is spoken of him only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the manner of Men and consequently ought to be understood only of the effect or issue of such Prayers in the success certainly attending them and not of the manner of their efficiency that it is by perswading or working upon the Passions As if we should say frequent fervent and importunate Prayers are as certainly followed with God's grant of the Thing prayed for as Men use to grant that which being overcome by excessive Importunity and Perswasion they cannot find in their hearts to deny 2 ly I answer further That frequency and fervency of Prayer prove effectual to procure of God the Things prayed for upon no other account but as they are Acts of Dependance upon God which Dependance we have already proved to be that Thing essentially included in Prayer for which God has been pleased to make Prayer the Condition upon which he determines to grant Men such things as they need and duly apply to him for So that still there is nothing of Perswasion in the case And thus having shewn and I hope fully and clearly how Prayer operates towards the obtaining of the Divine Blessings namely as a Condition appointed by God for that purpose and no otherwise And withall for what Reason it is singled out of all other Acts of a Rational Nature to be this Condition namely because it is the grand Instance of such a Nature's dependance upon God We shall now from the same principle inferr also Upon what account the highest Reverence of God is so indispensably required of us in Prayer and all sort of Irreverence so diametrically opposite to and destructive of the very Nature of it And it will appear to be upon this Tha◠in what degree any one lays aside his Reverence of God in the same he also quits his Dependance upon Him Forasmuch as in every Irreverent Act a Man treats God as if he had indeed no need of Him and behaves himself as if he stood upon his own bottom Absolute and Self-sufficient This is the natural Language the true Signification and Import of all Irreverence Now in all Addresses either to God or Man by Speech our Reverence to them must consist of and shew it self in these Two things First A carefull Regulation of our Thoughts that are to dictate and to govern our Words which is done by Premeditation And Secondly a due ordering of our Words that are to proceed from and to express our Thoughts which is done by pertinence and brevity of Expression David directing his Prayer to God joyns these two together as the two great integral parts of it in Psalm 19. 14. Let the Words of my Mouth and the Meditations of my Heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord. So that it seems his Prayer adequately and entirely consisted of those Two things Meditation and Expression as it were the Matter and Form of that noble Composure There being no mention at all of Distortion of Face sanctified Grimace solemn Wink or foaming at the Mouth and the like all which are Circumstances of Prayer of a later date and brought into request by those fantastick Zealots who had a way of praying as astonishing to the Eyes as to the Ears of those that heard them Well then the first Ingredient of a pious and reverential Prayer is a previous regulation of the Thoughts as the Text expresses it most emphatically Let not thy Heart be hasty to utter any thing before God that is in other words Let it not venture to throw out its crude extemporary suddain and mishapen Conceptions in the face of Infinite Perfection Let not thy Heart conceive and bring forth together This is monstrous and unnatural All Abortion is from Infirmity and Defect And time is required to form the Issue of the Mind as well as that of the Body The fitness or unfitness of the first Thoughts cannot be judged of but by reflexion of the second And be the Invention never so fruitfull yet in the Mind as in the Earth that which is cast into it must lie hid and covered for a while before it can be fit to shoot forth These are the Methods of Nature and it is seldom but the Acts of Religion conform to them He who is to pray would he seriously judge of the Work that is before him has more to consider of than either his Heart can hold or his Head well turn it self to Prayer is one of the greatest and the hardest Works that a man has to doe in this World and was ever any thing difficult or glorious atchieved by a suddain Cast of a Thought a flying Stricture of the Imagination Presence of Mind is indeed good but Hast is not so And therefore let this be concluded upon That in the Business of Prayer to pretend to Reverence when there is no Premeditation is both Impudence and Contradiction Now this Premeditation ought to respect these three Things 1. The Person whom we pray to 2. The Matter of our Prayers And 3 ly The Order and Disposition of them 1. And first for the Person whom we pray to The same is to imploy who must needs also non-plus and astonish thy Meditations and be made the Object of thy Thoughts who infinitely transcends them For all the knowing and reasoning Faculties of the Soul are utterly baffled and at a loss when they offer at any Idea of the great God Nevertheless since it is hard if not impossible to imprint an Awe upon the Affections without sutable Notions first formed in the Apprehensions We must in our Prayers endeavour at least to bring these as near to God as we can by considering such of his Divine perfections as have by their Effects in a great measure manifested themselves to our Senses and in a much greater to the Discourses of our Reason As first Consider with thy self how great and glorious a Being that must needs be that raised so vast and beautifull a Fabrick as this of the World out of Nothing with the breath of his Mouth and can and will with the same reduce it to Nothing again and
a manner as the Holy Ghost in Scripture either commands or allows of As for any other kind of Praying by the Spirit upon the best enquiry that I can make into these matters I can find none And if some say as I know they both impudently and blasphemously doe that to pray by the Spirit is to have the Spirit immediately inspiring them and by such Inspiration speaking within them and so dictating their prayers to them let them either produce plain Scripture or doe a Miracle to prove this by But till then he who shall consider what kind of prayers these pretenders to the Spirit have been notable for will find that they have as little Cause to father their Prayers as their Practices upon the Spirit of God These Two things are certain and I doe particularly recommend them to your Observation One that this way of Praying by the Spirit as they call it was begun and first brought into use here in England in Queen Elizabeth's days by a Popish Priest and Dominican Fryar one Faithfull Commin by Name who counterfeiting himself a Protestant and a Zealot of the highest form set up this new Spiritual way of Praying with a design to bring the People first to a Contempt and from thence to an utter Hatred and Disuse of our Common-prayer which he still reviled as only a Translation of the Mass thereby to distract men's Minds and to divide our Church And this he did with such success that we have lived to see the Effects of his Labours in the utter subversion of Church and State Which hellish Negotiation when this malicious Hypocrite came to Rome to give the Pope an account of he received of him as so notable a service well deserved besides a thousand Thanks two thousand Ducats for his pains So that now you see here the Original of this Extempore-way of praying by the Spirit The other thing that I would observe to you is That in the neighbour Nation of Scotland one of the greatest Monsters of Men that I believe ever lived and actually in league with the Devil was yet by the confession of all that heard him the most Excellent at this Extempore-way of Praying by the Spirit of any Man in his time none was able to come near him or to compare with him But surely now he who shall venture to ascribe the Prayers of such a Wretch made up of Adulteries Incest Witchcraft and other Villainies not to be named to the Spirit of God may as well strike in with the Pharisees and ascribe the Miracles of Christ to the Devil And thus having shewn both what ought to be meant by Praying by the Spirit and what ought not cannot be meant by it let us now see whether a Set-form or this Extemporary-way be the greater hinderer and stinter of it In order to which I shall lay down these three Assertions 1. That the Soul or Mind of Man is but of a limited Nature in all its Workings and consequently cannot supply two distinct Faculties at the same time to the same height of Operation 2 ly That the finding Words and Expressions for Prayer is the proper business of the Brain and the Invention and that the finding Devotion and Affection to accompany and go along with those Expressions is properly the Work and Business of the Heart 3 ly That this Devotion and Affection is indispensably required in Prayer as the principal and most Essential part of it and that in which the Spirituality of it does most properly consist Now from these three Things put together this must naturally and necessarily follow That as Spiritual Prayer or Praying by the Spirit taken in the right sense of the word consists properly in that Affection and Devotion that the Heart exercises and imploys in the Work of Prayer so whatsoever gives the Soul scope and liberty to exercise and imploy this Affection and Devotion that does most effectually help and enlarge the Spirit of Prayer and whatsoever diverts the Soul from employing such Affection and Devotion that does most directly stint and hinder it Accordingly let this now be our Rule whereby to judge of the Efficacy of a Set-form and of the Extempore-way in the present Business As for a Set-form in which the Words are ready prepared to our hands the Soul has nothing to doe but to attend to the work of raising the Affections and Devotions to go along with those words So that all the Powers of the Soul are took up in applying the Heart to this great Duty and it is the Exercise of the Heart as has been already shewn that is truly and properly a Praying by the Spirit On the contrary in all Extempore-prayer the Powers and Faculties of the Soul are called off from dealing with the Heart and the Affections and that both in the Speaker and in the Hearer both in him who makes and in him who is to joyn in such Prayers And first for the Minister who makes and utters such Extempore-prayers He is wholly imploying his Inventions both to conceive Matter and to find Words and Expressions to cloath it in This is certainly the work which takes up his Mind in this Exercise And since the Nature of man's Mind is such that it cannot with the same vigour at the same time attend the work of Invention and that of raising the Affections also nor measure out the same supply of Spirits and Intention for the carrying on the Operations of the Head and those of the Heart too it is certain that while the Head is so much imployed the Heart must be idle and very little imployed and perhaps not at all And consequently if to pray by the Spirit be to pray with the Heart and the Affections it is also as certain that while a Man prays Extempore he does not pray by the Spirit Nay the very truth of it is that while he is so doing he is not praying at all but he is studying He is beating his Brain while he should be drawing out his Affections And then for the People that are to hear and joyn with him in such Prayers it is manifest that they not knowing before-hand what the Minister will say must as soon as they do hear him presently busy and bestirr their Minds both to apprehend and understand the meaning of what they hear and withall to judge whether it be of such a Nature as to be fit for them to joyn and concur with him in So that the People also are by this Course put to study and to imploy their apprehending and judging Faculties while they should be exerting their Affections and Devotions and consequently by this means the Spirit of Prayer is stinted as well in the Congregation that follows as in the Minister who first conceives a Prayer after their Extempore-way Which is a Truth so clear and indeed self-evident that it is impossible that it should need any further Arguments to demonstrate or make it out The Sum of all is this
distinct Petition Add to this the Excellent contrivance of a great part of our Liturgy into Alternate Responses by which means the People are put to bear a considerable share in the whole Service which makes it almost impossible for them to be only idle Hearers or which is worse meer Lookers on As they are very often and may be always if they can but keep their Eyes open at the long tedious Prayers of the Nonconformists And this indeed is that which makes and denominates our Liturgy truly and properly a Book of Common-prayer For I think I may truly avouch how strange soever it may seem at first that there is no such thing as Common or Ioint-prayer any-where amongst the principal Dissenters from the Church of England For in the Romish Communion the Priest says over the appointed Prayers only to himself and the rest of the People not hearing a word of what he says repeat also their own particular Prayers to themselves and when they have done go their way Not all at once as neither doe they come at once but scatteringly one after another according as they have finished their Devotions And then for the Nonconformists their Prayers being all extempore it is as we have shewn before hardly possible for any and utterly impossible for all to joyn in them For surely People cannot joyn in a Prayer before they understand it nor can it be imagined that all Capacities should presently and immediately understand what they hear when possibly Holder-forth himself understands not what he says From all which we may venture to conclude That that excellent thing Common-prayer which is the joynt Address of an whole Congregation with united Voice as well as Heart sending up their Devotions to Almighty God is no-where to be found in these Kingdoms but in that best and nearest Copy of Primitive Christian Worship the Divine Service as it is performed according to the Orders of our Church As for those long Prayers so frequently used by some before their Sermons the Constitution and Canons of our Church are not at all responsible for them having provided us better things and with great Wisdom appointed a Form of Prayer to be used by all before their Sermons But as for this way of Praying now generally in use as it was first took up upon an humour of Novelty and Popularity and by the same carried on till it had passed into a Custom and so put the Rule of the Church first out of Use and then out of Countenance also so if it be rightly considered it will in the very nature of the thing it self be found a very senceless and absurd practice For can there be any Sense or Propriety in beginning a new tedious Prayer in the Pulpit just after the Church has for near an hour together with great variety of Offices sutable to all the Needs of the Congregation been praying for all that can possibly be fit for Christians to pray for Nothing certainly can be more irrational For which Cause amongst many more that old sober Form of Bidding Prayer which both against Law and Reason has been justled out of the Church by this Upstart Puritanical Encroachment ought with great Reason to be restored by Authority and both the use and Users of it by a strict and solemn Reinforcement of the Canon upon all without exception be rescued from that unjust Scorn of the Factious and Ignorant which the Tyranny of the contrary usurping Custom will otherwise expose them to For surely it can neither be Decency nor Order for our Clergy to Conform to the Fanaticks as many in their Prayers before Sermon now-a-days doe And thus having accounted for the Prayers of our Church according to the great Rule prescribed in the Text Let thy Words be few Let us now according to the same consider also the way of Praying so much used and applauded by such as have renounced the Communion and Liturgy of our Church and it is but reason that they should bring us something better in the room of what they have so disdainfully cast off But on the contrary are not all their Prayers exactly after the Heathenish and Pharisaical Copy always notable for those two Things Length and Tautology Two whole Hours for one Prayer at a Fast used to be reckoned but a moderate Dose and that for the most part fraught with such irreverent blasphemous Expressions that to repeat them would profane the place I am speaking in and indeed they seldom carried on the work of such a Day as their Phrase was but they left the Church in need of a new Consecration Add to this the Incoherence and Confusion the endless Repetitions and the unsufferable Nonsense that never failed to hold out even with their utmost Prolixity so that in all their long Fasts from first to last from seven in the Morning to seven in the Evening which was their measure the Pulpit was always the emptiest Thing in the Church And I never knew such a Fast kept by them but their Hearers had Cause to begin a Thanksgiving as soon as they had done And the truth is when I consider the Matter of their Prayers so full of Ramble and Inconsequence and in every respect so very like the language of a Dream and compare it with their Carriage of themselves in Prayer with their Eyes for the most part shut and their Arms stretched out in Yawning posture a Man that should hear any of them pray might by a very pardonable Error be induced to think that he was all the time hearing one talking in his sleep besides the strange Vertue which their Prayers had to procure sleep in others too So that he who should be present at all their long Cant would shew a greater Ability in Watching than ever they could pretend to in Praying if he could forbear sleeping having so strong a Provocation to it and so fair an Excuse for it In a word such were their Prayers both for Matter and Expression that could any one truly and exactly write them out it would be the shrewdest and most effectual way of Writing against them that could possibly be thought of I should not have thus troubled either you or my self by raking into the Dirt and Dunghill of these men's Devotions upon the account of any thing either done or said by them in the late times of Confusion for as they have the King 's so I wish them God's pardon also for both whom I am sure they have offended much more than they have both Kings put together But that which has provoked me thus to rip up and expose to you their nauseous and ridiculous way of addressing to God even upon the most solemn Occasions is that intolerably rude and unprovoked Insolence and Scurrility with which they are every day reproaching and scoffing at our Liturgy and the Users of it and thereby alienating the Minds of the People from it to such a degree that many Thousands are drawn by
such a certain Habitude or Relation to one Another To which Relation whatsoever is done agreeably is Morally and Essentially Good and whatsoever is done otherwise is at the same rate Morally Evil. And this I shall exemplifie in those Two grand comprehensive Moral Duties which Man is for ever obliged to His Duty towards God and his Duty towards his Neighbour And first for his Duty towards God which is To love and obey him with all his Heart and all his Soul It is certain that for a rational intelligent Creature to conform himself to the Will of God in all things carries in it a moral Rectitude or Goodness and to disobey or oppose his Will in any thing imports a moral Obliquity before God ever deals forth any particular Law or Command to such a Creature There being a general Obligation upon Man to obey all God's Laws whensoever they shall be declared before any particular Instance of Law comes actually to be declared But now whence is this Why from that Essential sutableness which Obedience has to the Relation which is between a Rational Creature and his Creator Nothing in Nature being more irrational and irregular and consequently more immoral than for an Intelligent Being to oppose or disobey that Soveraign Supreme Will which gave him that Being and has withall the sole and absolute disposal of him in all his concerns So that there needs no positive Law or Sanction of God to stamp an Obliquity upon such a disobedience Since it cleaves to it Essentially and by way of Natural result from it upon the account of that utter unsutableness which Disobedience has to the Relation which Man naturally and necessarily stands in towards his Maker And then in the next place for his Duty to his Neighbour The whole of which is comprized in that great Rule of doing as a Man would be done by We may truly affirm that the Morality of this Rule does not Originally derive it self from those words of our Saviour Matth. 7. 12. What soever ye would that Men should doe unto you doe ye even so unto them No nor yet from Moses or the Prophets but it is as old as Adam and bears date with humane Nature it self as springing from that Primitive Relation of Equality which all men as fellow Creatures and fellow Subjects to the same supreme Lord bear to one another in respect of that common Right which every man has equally to his Life and to the proper Comforts of Life and consequently to all things naturally necessary to the support of both Now whatsoever one man has a Right to keep or possess no other man can have a Right to take from him So that no man has a Right to expect that from or to do that to another which that other has not an equal Right to expect from and to doe to him Which Parity of Right as to all things purely Natural being undoubtedly the Result of Nature it self can any thing be inferred from thence more conformable to Reason and consequently of a greater moral Rectitude then that such an Equality of Right should also cause an Equality of Behaviour between Man and Man as to all those mutual Offices and Intercourses in which Life and the Happiness of Life are concerned Nothing certainly can shine out and shew it self by the meer Light of Reason as an higher and more unquestionable piece of Morality than this nor as a more confessed Deviation from Morality than the contrary Practice From all which discourse I think we may without presumption conclude that the Rationes Boni Mali the Nature of Good and Evil as to the principal Instances of both spring from that Essential Habitude or Relation which the Nature of one thing bears to another by vertue of that Order which they stand placed in here in the World by the very Law and Condition of their Creation and for that reason doe and must precede all positive Laws Sanctions or Institutions whatsoever Good and Evil are in Morality as the East and West are in the Frame of the World founded in and divided by that fixt and unalterable Situation which they have respectively in the whole Body of the Universe Or as the Right Hand is discriminated from the Left by a natural necessary and neverto-be-confounded Distinction And thus I have done with the First Thing proposed and given you such an account of the Nature of Good and Evil as the measure of the present Exercise and Occasion would allow Pass we now to the 2 d Which is to shew That the way by which Good and Evil generally operate upon the Mind of Man is by those Words or Names by which they are notified and conveyed to the Mind Words are the Signs and Symbols of Things and as in Accompts Ciphers and Figures pass for real Summs so in the course of humane Affairs Words and Names pass for Things themselves For Things or Objects cannot enter into the Mind as they subsist in themselves and by their own natural bulk pass into the Apprehension but they are taken in by their Idea's their Notions or Resemblances which imprinting themselves after a spiritual immaterial manner in the Imagination and from thence under a further Refinement passing into the Intellect are by that expressed by certain Words or Names found out and invented by the Mind for the Communication of its Conceptions or Thoughts to others So that as Conceptions are the Images or Resemblances of Things to the Mind within it self In like manner are Words or Names the Marks Tokens or Resemblances of those Conceptions to the Minds of them whom we converse with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the known Maxim laid down by the Philosopher as the first and most fundamental Rule of all discourse This therefore is certain That in humane Life or Conversation Words stand for Things the common business of the World not being capable of being managed otherwise For by these Men come to know one another's Minds By these they Covenant and Confederate By these they Buy and Sell they Deal and Traffick In short Words are the great Instruments both of Practice and Design which for the most part move wholly in the strength of them For as much as it is the Nature of Man both to Will and to doe according to the perswasion he has of the Good and Evil of those Things that come before him and to take up his Perswasions according to the Representations made to him of those Qualities by their respective Names or Appellations This is the true and natural Account of this matter and it is all that I shall remark upon this second Head I proceed now to the 3 d. Which is to shew the mischief which directly naturally and unavoidably follows from the Misapplication and Confusion of those Names And in order to this I shall premise these Two Considerations 1. That the generality of Mankind is wholly and absolutely governed by Words and Names Without nay for the
most part even against the knowledge Men have of Things The Multitude or Common Rout like a Drove of Sheep or an Herd of Oxen may be managed by any Noise or Cry which their Drivers shall accustom them to And he who will set up for a skilfull manager of the Rabble so long as they have but Ears to hear needs never enquire whether they have any understanding whereby to judge but with two or three popular empty Words such as Popery and Superstition Right of the Subject Liberty of Conscience Lord Iesus Christ well tuned and humour'd may whistle them backwards and forwards upwards and downwards till he is weary and get up upon their Backs when he is so As for the meaning of the Word it self that may shift for it self And as for the Sence and Reason of it that has little or nothing to doe here only let it sound full and round and chime right to the Humour which is at present a Gog just as a big long rattling Name is said to command even Adoration from a Spaniard and no doubt with this powerfull senseless Engine the Rabbledriver shall be able to carry all before him or to draw all after him as he pleases For a plausible insignificant Word in the mouth of an expert Demagogue is a dangerous and a dreadfull Weapon You know when Caesar's Army mutinied and grew troublesome no Argument from Interest or Reason could satisfie or appease them But as soon as he gave them the Appellation of Quirites the Tumult was immediately hush'd and all were quiet and content and took that one Word in good payment for all Such is the trivial slightness and levity of most minds And indeed take any Passion of the Soul of Man while it is predominant and a-float and just in the critical height of it nick it with some lucky or unlucky Word and you may as certainly over-rule it to your own purpose as a spark of Fire falling upon Gun-powder will infallibly blow it up The Truth is he who shall duly consider these matters will find that there is a certain bewitchery or fascination in Words which makes them operate with a force beyond what we can naturally give an account of For would not a man think ill Deeds and shrewd Turns should reach further and strike deeper than ill Words And yet many Instances might be given in which Men have much more easily pardoned ill Things done than ill Things said against them Such a peculiar rancour and venom doe they leave behind them in men's Minds and so much more poysonously and incurably does the Serpent bite with his Tongue than with his Teeth Nor are Men prevailed upon at this odd unaccountable rate by bare Words only through a defect of Knowledge but sometimes also doe they suffer themselves to be carried away with these Puffs of Wind even contrary to Knowledge and Experience it self For otherwise how could Men be brought to surrender up their Reason their Interest and their Credit to Flattery Gross fulsome abusive Flattery indeed more abusive and reproachfull upon a true estimate of Things and Persons than the rudest Scoffs and the sharpest Invectives Yet so it is that though Men know themselves utterly void of those Qualities and Perfections which the impudent Sycophant at the same time both ascribes to them and in his Sleeve laughs at them for believing nay though they know that the Flatterer himself knows the falsehood of his own Flatteries yet they swallow the fallacious Morsel love the Impostor and with both Arms hug the Abuse And that to such a degree that no Offices of Friendship no real Services shall be able to lie in the Balance against those luscious Falsehoods which Flattery shall feed the Mind of a Fool in Power with The sweetness of the one infinitely over-comes the substance of the other And therefore you shall seldom see that such an one cares to have Men of Worth Honesty and Veracity about him For such persons cannot fall down and worship Stocks and Stones though they are placed never so high above them But their Yea is Yea and their Nay Nay and they cannot admire a Fox for his Sincerity a Wolf for his Generosity nor an Ass for his Wit and Ingenuity And therefore can never be acceptable to those whose whole Credit Interest and Advantage lies in their not appearing to the World what they are really in themselves None are or can be welcome to such but those who Speak Paint and Wash for that is the Thing they love and no wonder since it is the Thing they need There is hardly any Rank Order or Degree of Men but more or less have been captivated and enslaved by Words It is a Weakness or rather a Fate which attends both high and low The Statesman who holds the Helm as well as the Peasant who holds the Plough So that if ever you find an Ignoramus in Place and Power and can have so little Conscience and so much Confidence as to tell him to his face that he has a Wit and an understanding above all the World besides and That what his own Reason cannot suggest to him neither can the United Reason of all Mankind put together I dare undertake that as fulsome a Dose as you give him he shall readily take it down and admit the Commendation though he cannot believe the Thing Blanditiae etiam cùm excluduntur placent says Seneca Tell him that no History or Antiquity can match his Policies and his Conduct and presently the Sot because he knows neither History nor Antiquity shall begin to measure himself by himself which is the only sure way for him not to fall short and so immediately amongst his outward Admirers and his inward Despisers Vouched also by a Teste Me-ipso he steps forth an exact Politician and by a wonderfull and new way of Arguing proves himself no fool because forsooth the Sycophant who tells him so is an Egregious Knave But to give you yet a grosser Instance of the force of Words and of the extreme Vanity of man's Nature in being influenced by them hardly shall you meet with any person Man or Woman so aged or ill-favoured but if you will venture to commend them for their Comeliness nay and for their Youth too though Time out of mind is wrote upon every line of their face yet they shall take it very well at your hands and begin to think with themselves that certainly they have some Perfections which the generality of the World are not so happy as to be aware of But now are not these think we strange Self-delusions and yet attested by common Experience almost every day But whence in the mean time can all this proceed but from that besotting Intoxication which this Verbal Magick as I may so call it brings upon the Mind of Man For can any thing in Nature have a more certain deep and undeniable Effect than Folly has upon man's Mind and Age upon his Body And
Injunction in God's Revealed Word For these Two are all the Ways by which God speaks to Men now-a-days I say shew me something from hence which countermands or condemns all or any of the fore-mentioned Ceremonies of our Church and then I will yield the Cause But if no such Reason no such Scripture can be brought to appear in their behalf against us but that with screwed Face and dolefull Whine they only ply you with senceless Harangues of Conscience against carnal Ordinances the Dead Letter and human Inventions on the one hand and loud Out-cries for a further Reformation on the other then rest you assured that they have a design upon your Pocket and that the word Conscience is used only as an Instrument to pick it and more particularly as it calls it a further Reformation signifies no more with reference to the Church than as if one man should come to another and say Sir I have already taken away your Cloak and doe fully intend if I can to take away your Coat also This is the true meaning of this word further Reformation and so long as you understand it in this sence you cannot be imposed upon by it Well but if these mighty Men at Chapter and Verse can produce you no Scripture to over-throw our Church-ceremonies I will undertake to produce Scripture enough to warrant them even all those places which absolutely enjoyn Obedience and Submission to Lawfull Governours in all not unlawfull Things particularly that in 1 Pet. 2. 13. and that in Heb. 13. 17. of which two places more again presently together with that other in 1 Cor. 14. last verse enjoyning Order and Decency in God's Worship and in all things relating to it And consequently till these Men can prove the fore-mentioned Things ordered by our Church to be either intrinsecally unlawfull or undecent I doe here affirm by the Authority of the foregoing Scriptures That the use of them as they stand established amongst us is necessary and that all Pretences or Pleas of Conscience to the contrary are nothing but Cant and Cheat Flam and Delusion In a word the Ceremonies of the Church of England are as necessary as the Injunctions of an undoubtedly lawfull Authority the Practice of the Primitive Church and the General Rules of Decency determined to Particulars of the greatest Decency can make them necessary And I would not for all the World be arraigned at the last and great Day for disturbing the Church and disobeying Government and have no better Plea for so doing than what those of the Separation were ever yet able to defend themselves by But some will here say perhaps If this be all that you require of us we both can and doe bring you Scripture against your Church-ceremonies even that which condemns all Will-worship Col. 2. 23. and such other like places To which I answer first That the Will-worship forbidden in that Scripture is so termed not from the Circumstance but from the Object of Religious Worship and we readily own That it is by no means in the Church's Power to appoint or chuse whom or what it will Worship But that does not inferr That it is not therefore in the Church's Power to appoint how and in what manner it will Worship the true Object of Religious Worship provided that in so doing it observes such Rules of Decency as are proper and conducing to that purpose So that this Scripture is wholly Irrelative to the case before us and as impertinently applied to it as any poor Text in the Revelation was ever applied to the grave and profound Whimsies of some Modern Interpreters But 2 dly to this Objection about Will-worship I answer yet further That the fore-mentioned Ceremonies of the Church of England are no Worship nor part of God's Worship at all nor were ever pretended so to be and if they are not so much as Worship I am sure they cannot be Will-worship But we own them only for Circumstances Modes and Solemn Usages by which God's Worship is orderly and decently performed I say we pretend them not to be parts of Divine Worship but for all that to be such things as the Divine Worship in some Instance or other cannot be without For that which neither does nor can give vital Heat may yet be necessary to preserve it And he who should strip himself of all that is no part of himself would quickly find or rather feel the Inconvenience of such a Practice and have cause to wish for a Body as void of sense as such an Argument Now the Consequence in both these cases is perfectly Parallel and if so you may rest satisfied That what is non-sense upon a Principle of Reason will never be sense upon a Principle of Religion But as touching the Necessity of the aforesaid Usages in the Church of England I shall lay down these four Propositions 1. That Circumstantials in the Worship of God as well as in all other humane Actions are so necessary to it that it cannot possibly be performed without them 2. That Decency in the Circumstantials of God's Worship is absolutely necessary 3. That the General Rule and Precept of Decency is not capable of being reduced to Practice but as it is exemplified in and determined to particular Instances And 4 ly and Lastly That there is more of the General Nature of Decency in those particular Usages and Ceremonies which the Church of England has pitched upon than is or can be shewn in any other whatsoever These things I affirm and when you have put them all together let any one give me a solid and sufficient Reason for the giving up those few Ceremonies of our Church if he can All the Reason that I could ever yet hear alleaged by the chief Factors for a General Intromission of all Sorts Sects and Perswasions into our Communion is That those who separate from us are stiff and obstinate and will not submit to the Rules and Orders of our Church and that therefore they ought to be taken away Which is a goodly Reason indeed and every way worthy of the Wisdom and Integrity of those who alleage it And to shew that it is so let it be but transferred from the Ecclesiastical to the Civil Government from Church to State and let all Laws be abrogated which any great or sturdy Multitude of Men have no mind to submit to That is in other words let Laws be made to obey and not to be obeyed and upon these terms I doubt not but you will find that Kingdom or rather that Common-wealth finely governed in a short time And thus I have shewn the Absurdity Folly and Impertinence of alleaging the Obligation of Conscience where there is no Law or Command of God mediate or immediate to found that Obligation upon And yet as bad as this is it were well if the bare Absurdity of these Pretences were the worst thing which we had to charge them with But it is not so For our second
next Inference from the foregoing Principle of the Vicegerency of Conscience under God will shew us also the daring Impudence and down-right Impiety of many of those fulsome Pleas of Conscience which the World has been too often and too scandalously abused by For a man to sin against his Conscience is doubtless a great Wickedness But to make God himself a Party in the Sin is a much greater For this is to plead God's Authority against God's very Law which doubles the Sin and adds Blasphemy to Rebellion And yet such things we have seen done amongst us An horrid unnatural Civil War raised and carried on the purest and most primitively Reformed Church in the World laid in the Dust and one of the best and most innocent Princes that ever sat upon a Throne by a barbarous unheard-of Violence hurried to his Grave in a bloudy Sheet and not so much as suffered to rest there to this day and all this by Men acting under the most solemn Pretences of Conscience that Hypocrisie perhaps ever yet presumed to out-face the World with And are not the Principles of those Wretches still owned and their Persons Sainted by a Race of Men of the same stamp risen up in their stead the sworn mortal Enemies of our Church And yet for whose sake some Projectors amongst us have been turning every Stone to transform mangle and degrade its noble Constitution to the homely mechanick Model of those Republican imperfect Churches abroad Which instead of being any Rule or Pattern to us ought in all Reason to receive one from us Nay and so short-sighted are some in their Politicks as not to discern all this while that it is not the Service but the Revenue of our Church which is struck at and not any Passages of our Liturgy but the Property of our Lands which these Reformers would have altered For I am sure no other Alteration will satisfie Dissenting Consciences no nor this neither very long without an utter Abolition of all that looks like Order or Government in the Church And this we may be sure of if we doe but consider both the inveterate Malice of the Romish Party which sets these silly unthinking Tools a-work and withall that monstrous Principle or Maxim which those who divide from us at least most of them roundly profess avow and govern their Consciences by Namely That in all matters that concern Religion or the Church though a Thing or Action be never so indifferent or lawfull in it self yet if it be commanded or enjoyned by the Government either Civil or Ecclesiastical it becomes ipso facto by being so commanded utterly unlawfull and such as they can by no means with good Conscience comply with Which one detestable Tenet or Proposition carrying in it the very Quintessence and vital Spirit of all Non-conformity absolutely casheirs and cuts off all Church Government at one stroke and is withall such an insolent audacious Defiance of Almighty God under the Mask of Conscience as perhaps none in former Ages who so much as wore the Name of Christians ever arrived to or made profession of For to resume the Scriptures afore-quoted by us and particularly that in 1 Pet. 2. 13. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man says the Spirit of God speaking by that Apostle But say these Men If the Ordinance of Man enjoyns you the Practice of any thing with reference to Religion or the Church though never so lawfull in it self you cannot with a good Conscience submit to the Ordinance of Man in that case That is in other words God says they must submit and they say they must not Again in the fore-mentioned Heb. 13. 17. The Apostle bids them and in them all Christians whatsoever to obey those who have the Rule over them speaking there of Church-Rulers for he tells them That they were such as watched for their Souls But says the Separatist If those who have the Rule over you should command you any thing about Church Affairs you cannot you ought not in Conscience to obey them For as much as according to that grand Principle of theirs newly specified by us Every such Command makes Obedience to a thing otherwise lawfull to become unlawfull and consequently upon the same Principle Rulers must not cannot be obeyed Unless we could imagine that there may be such a thing as Obedience on the one side when there must be no such thing as a Command on the other which would make pleasant sence of it indeed and fit for none but a Dissenting Reason as well as Conscience to assert For though these Men have given the World too many terrible Proofs by their own example That there may be Commands and no Obedience yet I believe it will put their little Logick hard to it to prove That there can be any Obedience where there is no Command And therefore it unanswerably follows That the Abetters of the fore-mentioned Principle plead Conscience in a direct and bare-faced contradiction to God's express Command And now I beseech you consider with your selves for it is no slight matter that I am treating of I say consider what you ought to judge of those insolent unaccountable Boasts of Conscience which like so many Fire-balls or Mouth-Granadoes as I may so term them are every day thrown at our Church The Apostle bids us prove all Things And will you then take Conscience at every turn upon its own word upon the forlorn Credit of every bold Impostor who pleads it Will you sell your Reason your Church and your Religion and both of them the best in the World for a Name and that a wrested abused mis-applied Name Knaves when they design some more than ordinary Villainy never fail to make use of this Plea and it is because they always find fools ready to believe it But you will say then What course must be taken to fence against this imposture Why truly the best that I know of I have told you before namely That whensoever you hear any of these fly sanctified Sycophants with turned up Eye and shrug of Shoulder pleading Conscience for or against any Thing or Practice you would forthwith ask them What Word of God they have to bottom that Iudgment of their Conscience upon For-as-much as Conscience being God's Vicegerent was never Commissioned by him to govern us in its own Name but must still have some Divine Word or Law to support and warrant it And therefore call for such a word and that either from Scripture or from manifest Universal Reason and insist upon it so as not to be put off without it And if they can produce you no such thing from either of them as they never can then rest assured that they are errant Cheats and Hypocrites and that for all their big Words the Conscience of such Men is so far from being able to give them any true Confidence towards God that it cannot so much as give them Confidence towards a wise and good Man no