Will is you should do and with all your endeavour apply your selves to follow the same First you must have an assured Faith in God and give your selves wholy unto him Love him in Prosperity and Adversity and dread to offend him evermore Then for his Sake Love all Men Friends and Foes because they be his Creation and Image and Redeemed as you are Cast in your Minds how you may do good unto all Men unto your Powers and hurt no Man Obey all your Superiours and Governours Serve your Masters Faithfully and Diligently as well in their absence as in their presence not for dread of Punishment only but for Conscience Sake knowing that you are bound so to do by Gods Commandments Disobey not your Fathers and Mothers but honour them help them and please them to your Power Oppress not Kill not Beat not neither Slander nor Hate any Man but Love all Men speak well of all Men help and Succour every Man as you may yea even your Enemies that hate you that speak Evil of you and that do hurt you Take no Mans Goods nor Covet your Neighbours Goods wrongfully but content your selves with that which ye get truly and also bestow your own Goods Charitably as Need and Case requireth Fly all Idolatry Witchcraft and Perjury Commit no Adultery Fornication or other Unchastness in Will nor Deed And Travelling continually during this Life thus in keeping the Commandments of God wherein standeth the Right Trade and Pathway unto Heaven you shall not fail as Christ hath promised to come to that Blessed and Everlasting Life where you shall Live in Glory and Joy with God for ever 'T is as impossible as any thing can be that they who do these things and continue in them to the end of their Lives should miss of Eternal Glory and Happiness To say that such a Faith such Obedience such a Life as our Church propounds and Teacheth persisted in till they pass out of this World cannot through the Merits of Christ Save Men is to Damn the Blessed Apostles and all the Primitive Saints and Martyrs who if they went to Heaven at all went thither by believing and Living according to the Scriptures and call upon us to follow their Faith their pure or unspotted Lives considering the end of their Conversation the Glories in which they shine in the Blessed mansions above This is the Rock upon which we of the Church of England Build our hopes of a Crown of Glory this is a Guide that cannot deceive but will lead us safely to the Blessed place we aspire after they that walk by this Rule the Rule of the Holy Scripture are in a sure way to Salvation and if they persevere cannot miss of it But if we remove our Thoughts now to the Church of Rome it will be Evident that there is at most but a Possibility of Salvation in the Communion of it because of its disagreement with and repugnancy to the Holy Scriptures So far is this Church from doing them the Right and the Honour as to confess that they comprehend all things necessary to Salvation that it affirms the contrary that they do it not without the help of Traditions which they of that Communion receive and Honour with an equal Devotion and Reverence So saith the Council of Trent expresly Sacrosancta oecumenica generalis Tridentina Synodus in spiritu sancto Session the 4th page 19 Legitimè congregata c. This Holy Oecumenical and general Council of Trent being Lawfully called together in the Holy Ghost having this ever before their Eyes that all Errours being destroyed or taken away the very purity of the Gospel might be preserved in the Church which being promised before by the Prophets in the Holy Scriptures our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God with his own Mouth first publish'd and afterwards Commanded it to be Preach'd to every Creature by his Apostles as the Fountain of all saving Truth and Discipline or Instruction of manners and knowing this Discipline and Truth to be contained in the written Books and in Traditions not written which being received by the Apostles from Christs own Mouth or by the Apostles themselves the Holy Ghost prompting them to it as it were handed down are come to us This Council following the Examples of the Orthodox Fathers doth with equal Devotion and Reverence receive and honour all the Books of the Old and New Testament because the same God is the Authour of them both and the Traditions themselves belonging both to Faith and Manners as deliver'd by Christ by word of mouth or dictated by the Holy Spirit and kept by continual Succession in the Catholick Church So that their Rule of Faith consists of two distinct parts the Scriptures and Traditions the word of God written and the word of God not written but transmitted by word of Mouth from Age to Age from Generation to Genertion Now though it be certain that the word of God be equally true and equally obligatory to all Persons whether it be written or not written which way soever it be propounded or convey'd to them yet how shall it appear or be proved that what they call the Unwritten word of God is really so not a wicked cheat imposture They say it is his word we say it is not the Primitive Church saith nothing at all of it but asserts and maintains the sufficiency or fullness of the Scriptures or written word of God that is that it contains all things necessary to be believed and done to the obtaining Eternal Life and Happiness as is fully proved by many Protestant Writers And when the Ancient and Orthodox Fathers speak of Traditions and call upon any to observe and obey them they either mean by those Traditions the Doctrine of Christ deliver'd to the Christian Church in the Writings of the Apostles or the Ordinances made either by the Apostles themselves or the Bishops that succeeded them in their Apostolical Office for the decent and orderly performance of Gods Worship The first is indeed the Word of God but then it is his written word the other are not the word of God at all but humane Constitutions and no farther Obligatory than they are agreeable to the General Rules the Scriptures give for Conducting the Circumstances of Religion the Church having Power as Ours truly affirms to Decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority Article the 20. in Controversies of Faith though it be not Lawful for the Church to Ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods word written This is all the Ancient Fathers mean by Traditions when they speak of or require the Observation of them but they make no such Distinction as this of the written and unwritten word of God neither do they say that the first is imperfect or doth not sufficiently instruct Mankind to Salvation unless it be supply'd with the other This is a Blasphemy which the Apostate Church only is guilty of but was never heard of in the
go about to satisfie Men that will never be satisfied A time may come and I hope it is approaching when such a Declaration will not only be believ'd but receiv'd with the joyful Acclamations and grateful Acknowledgments of both Houses and if it be thy Blessed will Oh God let such a time a time so much desired by all good Men come and that quickly But for my part I do not think it civil or decent for those that are unacquainted with the greatest affairs of State to take upon them to prescribe to his Royal Highness or to tell him when or in what manner he should declare himself because this would Savour of Rudeness and Presumption and therefore they must leave it to his own Prudence and the Wise Determinations of those Great and Honourable Personages that understand and conduct the weighty concerns of the Government it being for Them to know the times and seasons of so important an Action and not for Men of privacy and low degree Stay a while then and consider what you are doing be not too confident Oh ye Excluders make not so much hast nor such a stir to shut the door upon a Prince that you are not sure is gone from you believe it possible for you to Err or be Mistaken in your Opinions of him you see he hath no Reason to be a Papist and the Arguments for it are insufficient do not prove it therefore be not too confident he is so SECT IV. So far I have consider'd the first Question Whether his Royal Highness be a Papist The next and great Enquiry is Whether if he be so that Forfeits his Right That it doth not I assert and am now to prove In order to which I affirm That it is possible for a Good Conscientious and well meaning Man one that desires to go the Right way to Heaven to turn Papist Errour may look so like Truth and Superstition be so adorn'd with the paint and fair colours of true Piety that Men of good understanding and great integrity may be deceived and deluded by it Thus the excellent Chillingworth a Pious and Learned Man was seduced to the Romish Church though by the Grace of God he saw his errour return'd to our Church and lived and died in the Holy and Apostolical Faith which it professeth and not long after his return to it mindful of that sacred precept of our Lord to St. Peter when thou art converted strengthen by Brethren writ his excellent Book St. Luke 22. 32. in which he fully and unanswerably proves that which is the Subject or Title of it That the Religion of Protestants is a safe way to Salvation a Book highly meriting the perusal of all that either need or desire satisfaction in that Great and most weighty point In the Preface to it he tells his Readers the Motives that perswaded him to turn Papist which though they were as he truly calls them and to which he there gives full and satisfactory answers silly Sophisms and false Suppositions yet they so abused that good Man as to Proselyte him to the Church of Rome And why may not others as Pious Prudent and Conscientious as he be deceiv'd and misled into Popery by these or such fallacious Arguments or Reasons 'T is very well known that the Jesuits and Missionaries of the Roman Church are Persons Learned and Subtile trained up by the most expert Masters and not suffer'd to go abroad till they are thoroughly skil'd and instructed in the controversies between them and us and furnish'd with all manner of Arts and Abilities to seduce and deceive People And cannot Persons so prepared and fitted for it make gross errours and the foulest practices look fair and plausible varnish them over so with Apologies or Excuses extenuate their guilt pare off the Absurdities adhereing to them with Distinctions and set them out to such advantage that an honest Man shall not only think them Innocent things such as have no harm nor venome in them but be very much enamour'd of or taken with them They that read their Books must acknowledg if they will speak the truth that nothing is wanting in them that either Wit or Zeal can invent to defend or put a fair gloss upon the errours of their Church though what they plead in Justification of them be false or deceitful Argumentations poor idle Sophisms meer Paint Varnish no better than Gilding a Rotten Post or Cloathing Errour in the dress and vestments of Truth yet they seem so plausible look so fair and inviting that a Good Conscientious and well meaning Man as I said before may be so abus'd and deluded by them as to become a Proselyte to the Roman Church And being so is he not a Christian A Papist I suppose cannot truly be deny'd to be a Christian because the Church of which he is a Member is a Christian Church though lapsed into great Errours and Impieties a Christian Church it must needs be because it makes Profession of the Faith and Religion of Christ ascribes enough to him to secure to it self the Glorious Title and Denomination of Christian for the Council of Trent in the Explication of the Article of Justification gives this account of it Hujus Justificationis causae sunt c. Session 6. cap. 7. page 35. The Causes of this Justification are these The Final Cause is the Glory of God and of Christ and Eternal Life The Efficient Cause is the Merciful God who freely washeth aod sanctifieth signing and anoynting with the Holy Spirit of promise who is the the earnest of our Inheritance The Meritorious cause is the most beloved and only begotten Son of God who when we were Enemies for his great Love wherewith he Loved us did by his most holy passion upon the Cross Merit Justification and give Satisfaction to God his Father for us By which it is Evident that the Church of Rome holds That the Merits of Christ are the moving or procuring Cause of our Justification so absolutely necessary to it that as that Council speaks a little after Nemo possit esse justus nisi cui page 36. merita Passionis Domini nostri Jesu Christi Communicantur no Man can be Just or Righteous but He to whom the Merits of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ are Communicated Now they that acknowledg or own this Great and Fundamental Truth that we are justified by the Merits of Christ and consequently that he is our only Saviour and do adore him as the Christ or Son of God which they cannot be deny'd to do though that Acknowledgment this Worship of theirs be mixt and accompany'd with many and those very dangerous Errours must be acknowledg'd to be a Christian Church And if the collective Body be such the particular Members must be so too I suppose then it will be easily granted me by the greatest Zealots against Popery it being but a reasonable concession and such as I shall not
take for a favour to have yeilded to me That a Papist is a Christian though an Erring one and then all the dispute between the Excluders and me in the great Case before us comes to this Whether an Erring Christian doth by being so Forfeit his Birth-right To say he doth is an hard saying and such as can never be Justified or Defended for a Christian as all other Men may do may Err either in Judgment or Practice or Both. Errour in Judgment if it rests there can forfeit no Mans Right because it is injurious to none but the Erring Person himself and cannot be known to any but the great Searcher of Hearts and therefore no humane Laws can Punish it If any Errour then forfeits a Mans Right it must be Errour in Practice because this is both open or manifest and may be mischievous or hurtful to others but every Errour in practice every Sin that is cannot forfeit a Common or Ordinary Right much less so Great Transcendent and Extraordinary a Right as this to a Crown To say it can or doth is a sure way to deter all Men from being Christians for who will be so if by doing any Evil Action he forfeits all his Happiness in Heaven and all his Injoyments and Expectations upon Earth That indeed is recoverable by Repentance but it is uncertain whether any Repentance can restore a Man to these being once forfeited and as such alienated or taken from him because 't is doubtful whether he that hath them in possession will ever restore them to the first Owner And therefore no Man that considers the Frailty of his nature the great and manifold Temptations to which he is exposed and the necessity and usefulness of that Estate or Property to his comfortable subsistence in this World which he hath either acquir'd by his Labour and Industry or descends to him by Inheritance will ever be a Christian if by being so every Sin he commits doth forfeit that Estate or Property So Injurious to the most Holy and Excellent Religion of Christ and that which tends to the utter Ruin and Destruction of it is that Originally Popish and since by Adoption Presbyterian Principle That all Dominion is founded in Grace that no private Person hath any Right to his Estate or Property nor any Prince or Monarch to bear Rule or Authority over others any longer than he is an Holy and Gracious Person and in the favour of God Upon this Principle the Pope proceeds when he Excommunicates and Deposeth Princes that profess the Reformed Religion that Profession in his Opinion makes them Hereticks and their Persisting in it declares them Obstinate or such as will not be Reformed which are he thinks two great Sins to deny that which he calls the Faith and to continue stubbornly in that denial by which in his Judgment they forfeit their Royal Dignity which being lapsed to him the Supreme Minister of Christ upon Earth is absolutely at his disposal so that he may give it to whom he pleaseth Upon this Principle also the prosperous Rebells in the late times seiz'd the Government and the Revenues of it plunder'd sequester'd deprived the Loyal party of their Estates call'd them Malignants say'd they were great Sinners Persons either void of or fallen from all Grace and being so their Estates were forfeited which they being the Saints and People of God might justly take possession of and convert to their own use So glad are men Knavishly inclin'd of any Religious pretence or colour for their Rapines and Injustice but I shall endeavour to strip them of this covering that it may never more be a Cloak for their Avarice and Oppressions That this is a false as well as wicked and mischievous Principle may be proved divers Subsect 1 ways For first if now under the Christian Religion Dominion be founded in Grace it must be so founded by the Decree and Declaration of Christ himself contained in the new Testament but that gives us no notice nor information at all of any such decree or appointment of his therefore there is there can be no such thing Search all the four Gospels and all the Sacred Writings of the Apostles and there will be nothing found in them to countenance or favour so wild a Principle 'T is true indeed our Lord hath intermix'd some few Temporal promises with his great and noble offers of Eternal rewards and injoyments that our obedience to his excellent Laws might be excited and encouraged with the expectation both of present and future advantages such is that when charging his Disciples not to be too thoughtful or solicitous for the things of the Earth he said seek ye first the Kingdom of God St. Math. 6. 33. and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you never afflict nor trouble your selves about these mean and despicable things let it be your constant study and endeavour to obey my Laws and to lead the pure and vertuous lives they injoyn you and then you may be confident you shall want nothing either necessary or convenient for you in this World he that cloaths the Lillies in such brave and splendid Vestments and feeds the young Ravens that cry unto him will take care of and extend his Royal Bounty to you his devout Worshippers and faithful Servants And to this great promise I suppose the Apostle refers when he saith That Godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the Life that now is as well as of that which is to come but by this promise no man hath any new Right to any Temporal possessions which he had not before but it only assures him of Gods Blessing that he will by his gracious providence and bounty supply him with all things necessary for his present support which may be done by prospering his labour and diligence in an honest Calling or by exciting others to extend their Bounty and Charity to him but Christ doth not say obey my Laws live up exactly to the Rules of my Religion and I will inrich you with the Wealth and Estates of those men that either oppose my Doctrine or if they profess do not observe or act according to it assure your selves that notwithstanding all I have done to convert them many will not believe in me nor all of them that do obey me and the want of Faith in the one and of Obedience exact and intire Obedience in the other will forfeit all their temporal properties and possessions which I bequeath as my Royal Donative to you and to my Saints for ever Such a Declaration as this would have made it clear that Dominion is founded in Grace but he hath said nothing that in the least measure looks like any such thing unless that promise to the meek may seem to some to have an aspect that way Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth The meek are opposed to those that are angry and passionate and they are the mild
World let us make our devout Addresses to Heaven as constant as we apprehend our dangers either are or may be Let the Houses of God the sacred Places set a part for Prayer or Invocation of his name be more frequented and resorted to Let us go into his Sanctuary and fall low upon our Knees before his footstool lifting up unto him holy hands without wrath and doubting And let our own Houses be Temples or Houses of Prayer in which at morning and evening and at noon day let us be sure to pray and that instantly for the safety of the King and the Royal Family and the preservation of our Excellent Religion as it is now by Law Establish'd that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty Let us be so wise as to consecrate large portions of our time to and be frequent in Prayer esteem it an high and eminent expression of Love and Loyalty to your Prince and of Zeal for our Religion to commend them often to the care and protection of the Almighty No Man can have such a multitude or hurry of Affairs but that as Religion obliges him he may spare some time every day to be spent in devotion and it will be no interruption to them if he often present that short but most comprehensive petition of our Liturgy to Heaven Oh Lord save the King But if any think that as the surly and stubborn Devil in the Gospel could not be cast so Popery cannot be kept out by Prayer alone add Fasting to it and see what they will do united for these two together have ever been accounted of great efficacy to remove the Miseries that People lay under and to avert the Dangers and Calamities they feared When that dreadful doom was by Jonah denounc'd against it Yet forty days and Niniveth shall be destroy'd the King Proclaimed a Fast and the People observed it heartily bewail'd their Sins cry'd mightily to God for Mercy And he saw their works and repented of the Evil that he said he would do unto them and he did it not And if we take this course humble and afflict our Souls with Fasting Lament or be heartily Sorry for our Sins our Prayers will be very effectual and successful such prevalent Orators in the Court of Heaven that none of them will return empty but bring down the choicest Blessings with them Holy vows too do not only express the earnestness of our desires but enforce or add Efficacy to our Prayers when Jacob was to take his Journy to Padan Aram he made a vow unto Gen. 28. 20. the Lord saying If God will be with me and keep me in the way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on so that I come again to my Fathers house in peace then shall the Lord be my God and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be Gods house and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee So may we say but then as he did we must be sure to perform our vow If the Lord will be with us and keep us from the Romish Superstition Cruelties and Oppressions then shall he be our God him will we Love Adore and Magnifie and his Laws shall be so dear to us that we will Reverence Obey or Live according to them all our days and we will express our grateful sence of so high a favour by setting apart liberal portions of our Estates to Pious and Charitable uses there shall be no want as of Churches to Worship him in so of Maintenance for his Priests the Impropriations which Popish Avarice and Sacriledg alienated shall by Protestant Piety and Charity be restored and plentiful provision made all over the Nation if it be not sufficiently done already for the relief of the Poor that our very Enemies seeing our good works may be converted to us For to endear the Providence of God over us and to strengthen or enforce our Prayers our care must be to obey our Religion to lead the most pure and Christian Lives that the admirable purity of our Doctrine may not lye hid in the Books and Monuments of our Church but display its beauties in our Lives and Actions This will be most Acceptable or Pleasing to God render us his Joy and Care Then he will keep us in Peace and Safety delight to do us Good suffer none to do us Harm or Violence but Destroy our Enemies and Plague them that hate us this is to commit our selves to him in well doing and will invite him to be very tender of and watchful over us A Nation of such Livers would be a fair though imperfect resemblance of Heaven both in their purity and safety If there had been but ten such just Men amongst the mighty crow'd of Sinners in Sodom God would have spared them all for their Sakes their Piety would have been a protection and security to that brutish Rabble that not only refused to imitate but hated and derided them for it They that destroy holy and good men do themselves the greatest harm and mischief not only because they shall be fearfully punish'd after this Life for the Cruel and Injurious usage they offer'd them have Judgment without mercy because they shew'd no mercy but also because when they who by their Prayers and Piety kept the heavy Wrath and Vengeance of God from falling on their guilty heads are removed they will descend upon them in the most dreadful manner and with the most destructive fury A good Life setting providence aside is of it self a great preservative as it keeps Men from running into needless dangers from doing injuries and thereby giving provocation to others Some bring misery and ruin upon themselves by the Slanders and Calumnies they are guilty of some by Frauds Rapines and Oppressions many by Violence and Murders multitudes by Treasons and Seditions others by Lust and Intemperance some undo themselves by one Sin and some by another besides the fearful and eternal Punishments they bring upon themselves after this life all which are avoyded by a Pious and Christian Conversation and if all men were truly holy and religious and would continue so they would be perfectly safe or free from danger for all the sufferings and dangers of the good proceed from them that either cast off all Religion and Fear of God or if they profess do not practise it but make it a Cloak of Maliciousness a Cover for all manner of Injustice Oppressions and Cruelties These as they always hate so they are continually plotting against the just and watch all opportunities to do them harm and injury but God is their helper and defender he knows the dangers that threaten and the malice of their Enemies against them and if he take them into his protection they do in vain conspire or attempt against them To say a Being so wise and powerful and merciful as God is that hath by
sure it must needs be sinful and unlawful for him to do it To Execute Thieves and Murderers and yet be Unjust and Cruel himself 'T is true if he be so his People may not must not revenge the wrongs nor resist the Violence he offers to them because the Apostle tells them what the dreadful Punishment of that resistance will be They that resist shall recieve to themselves Damnation And because God is the only Judg of Kings and he so Righteous a Judg that he will be sure to Punish them if they abuse their Power When David was unjustly pursued Injuriously dealt with by King Saul he did not study Revenge but abhor'd it saying God forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lords Anoynted 1 Sam. 26. 11. He remitted or left him to his proper Judg. David said furthermore As the Lord Liveth the Lord shall smite him or his Day shall come to Vers 10. Dye or he shall descend into Battel and Perish But as for me I have no Commission nor Authority to cut him off and therefore God Almighty keep me from committing so Audacious and Execrable a Crime or Wickedness But the Peoples having no Power from God to Revenge the wrongs done them by their Prince is no encouragement for him to do them because as they are contrary to his Duty and the abusing his Authority he is answerable and accountable to God for them and must expect from him a Punishment equal to them And that they may Faithfully perform this Duty consult and provide for the good and welfare of their People the Apostle requires that Supplications and Prayers and Intercessions be made for them for Kings and all that are in Authority that we may lead quiet and Peaceable Lives in all Godliness and Honesty This as it is the Princes Duty so his Honour and Glory when according to the Ancient Title of Kings he is a Common Father to his People hath a Paternal care of and Affection for them Loves them and is tender of their Lives and Properties is so far from Destroying the Innocent that he is unwilling to Condemn and Execute the Guilty and would not do it but that those cannot be safe unless these be cut off had rather save one Subject than Destroy a Thousand Enemies and thinks himself Rich enough if his Loyal Subjects be so and instead of Impoverishing them by needless Wars encourages Trade and Studies to keep them in Peace and Plenty 'T is as impossible for wise and good People not to Love such a Prince as it is for them to hate themselves or not to be concern'd for their own Interest They look upon him as their chief Patron and Benefactor upon Earth and the Sun it self is not dearer to them than he is They Love and hate as he doth they that are his Friends they account theirs and those that are his Enemies they abhor as if they were their own They have the highest esteem and Admiration for him in their Hearts which they express in their words and Actions In their words by filling all Places with his Praises and speaking nothing but Panegyricks and Encomiums of him In their Actions by treating him with the greatest reverence and respect receiving him in Triumph and with all possible expressions of Joy whereever he comes as if some Glorious Angel was descended from the Heavenly Regions and come to Bless them with his presence By obeying his Laws and observing all his Royal Injunctions doing every thing he Commands with a ready cheerful and willing Mind Such a Prince as he is admir'd and belov'd in his Life so he is truly Lamented at his Death and his Subjects pay their Tributary Tears at his Royal Sepulchre weep over him and say as Elisha did at the departure of Elijah my Father my Father the Chariot of Israel and Horsemen thereof And though he be gone to take possession of a better Kingdom and to receive a brighter Crown yet amongst all his Glorys above they cannot forget to Praise and Honour him upon Earth not only think but call him Blessed raise the fairest Monuments to his Memory inscribe his Royal Vertues and Glorious Actions in never Dying Records that his Fame and Renown descend to after Ages and all Generations may admire and call him Blessed So that the providing or taking care for the welfare of his People is a considerable part of the Princes happiness Let us enquire then if this be not also lost by the Dukes being a Papist if the Crown should descend to him If he come to be King and be of the Romish Religion he must set up that or not if he do it not he Frustrates their Expectation disobliges that Party and thereby incurs their Rage and Displeasure which must needs be very Fierce and Cruel because ever since Queen Mary left the World it hath been their study and endeavour to get a Catholick into the Throne This hath cost them so much Labour put them upon so many Conspiracies for this so many of their Zealots have been Executed found a worse Purgatory here than that they talk so much of after this Life And having gain'd their point as they thought got a King of their Religion for him to be content with Mass in his own Chappel and let his People openly profess and enjoy the Reformed Religion which they call Heresy and hate worse than they do the Devil What an unpardonable Injury Affront and Disappointment is this This is to rouse and irritate the Angry Lyons to deny the hungry Wolfes the Prey they have been so long hunting after his Holiness though he be Indulgent enough to other Sinners and sells them Pardons at as Cheap and Reasonable Rates as they can well desire hath no Mercy in store for such a Transgressor Sons will sooner pardon those that Kill their Fathers Fathers those that Murder their Innocent Children inraged Husbands them that Ravish their beloved Wives than he will forgive such a crime as this A crime that robs him of his so much admired Soveraignty of his dear and most desired Profit of his first Fruits Tenths Peter-pence Fees for Investing Bishops Indulgence Mony and all his other ways of getting Wealth by which as our Histories relate he drain'd a mighty Treasure out of this Kingdome and which if the Prince deny him his Reign will be short and his days few for if the Traiterous Priests and Jesuits that are about him do not Poyson or Stab him before their great Master hath declared him Unprofitable Consequently unworthy of the Royal Throne to be sure he having first for Fashion sake Admonished and Exhorted him to be Zealous of and mind the good of the Catholick Cause will proceed to Sentence Declare him Uncapable of faln from all Dominion and Rule then every one that Kills him thinks he doth God the most acceptable Service such as Merits from him the bigest reward and the brightest Crown provided inthe
Regions above for his most faithful Servants So that a Popish King cannot be safe unless he sets up that Religion he must be a Zealous Assertor Promoter and Maintainer of it or else his own Party will depose and lay his Honour in the Dust down he must come unless a special Providence Guard him descend into his Grave by a violent and untimely Fate if he do not Imploy all his Power and skill to advance or set up that if he refuse to do this he Ruins and undoes himself for being of that Religion he must have some of its Priests to perform the Sacred Offices of it which gives them access to his Person and consequently Oppertunity to Dispatch him And therefore if his Royal Highness be a Papist and as such comes to the Crown by refusing to set up that Religion he will expose himself to the fiercest Rage of that party and Consequently to the greatest Danger though that rage of theirs will be most unreasonable because unprofitable to them all the rest of the Royal Family being known and professed Protestants so that no advantage can accrue to them by his Deposition or Death Besides 't is very probable that he may have no fear or Apprehension at all of it for if he be a Convert to that Church to be sure he hath a good Oppinion of it and thinks them honest Men or else he would never have joyn'd himself to them and being so Perswaded how can he apprehend any danger from them if he do not set up that Religion which he agrees with them in their Profession of He may think he doth the Romish Faith Honour enough by the open owning of it and sufficient Service as his Example is a great allurement to invite others to imbrace it and he may Consider that to set it up by force will produce such Cruelty and Oppressions let in so many Miseries that his Clemency and Goodness may oblige him to abhor the thoughts of doing it If it be said that every Man desires to Propagate and Advance his own Religion and therefore the Duke if he be King will have the same desire to Promote his I grant it but then I say every Man will not make use of unjust and cruel Methods for that purpose but endeavour to win Men to it by Arguments and Perswasions he will do the Religion he is of all the Right and Service he can without wronging others he will by fair and lawful ways gain all the Converts he can to it but he will not make Sacrifices of those that refuse it and no Man knows but this may be the Dukes Resolution if he come to be King and be a Papist To say he will think that God requires him to set it up and that he cannot be Saved unless he do it is to say that he will think God requires him to make three Kingdoms Miserable to commit many Oppressions Cruelties and Murders and that such Horrid things as these which God forbids and declares to be Damnable are necessary to his Salvation which are most Unreasonable for any man that is truly Religious to think If the Duke think the Roman to be the true Religion he will think God requires him to beleive and profess it and to Endeavour by all Lawful means to Convert his People to it but if those do not Prevail he must in reason think himself Obliged no farther because the using cruel and unlawful means to that Purpose is Apparently Destructive of that Salvation which he designs to obtain by Imbracing that Religion And being assured God will not be Displeased with him if he do not set it up because it cannot be done without doing those things against which his Wrath is revealed from Heaven he may either Apprehend no danger from the Professors of it or if he do despise it relying upon the Divine Protection which his Consulting the safety and welfare of the People is a great Endearment of For if he set up the Romish Religion the People must either become its Proselytes or not If they do they lose Heaven If they do not they are sure to be Miserable upon Earth For Men to profess known Errours and to Practise Gross and known Sins must needs be Damnable but all Protestants know and are Convinced in their Consciences that the Romish Church is guilty of many and great Errours Sins and Impietys Errours in Doctrine Impieties Hainous Impieties in Worship such are the Images they make of God and the Divine Honour or Worship they give unto them as also their Praying to Saints Adoring their Images and Reliques and the Elements in the Eucharist with divers other Abominations which they are Guilty of and therefore for them that are convinced of the Sinfulness of these things to turn to that Church must needs be to shut themselves out of the Kingdome of Heaven But if that be too great a good to be so parted with then to secure it they must resolve to undergo all the Miseries and Cruelties and Sad things which upon their refusing the Romish Religion will break in upon them for either they must fly from the Storm become voluntary Exiles leave their Native Country their dearest Friends and Enjoyments go seek their safety and some of them their Maintainance in other Nations which is a great and sad Calamity or else stay and be Executed as Hereticks at home And seeing these will be the Lamentable consequences of his setting up the Romish Religion I desire those that are so forward to believe he will do it to consider what advantages can accrue to his Royal Highness by such violent and Tragical actions can it be any Pleasure to him to hear the Groans of Dying Men or to see the Funeral Piles of them that are Sacrifiz'd for the Faith of Christ Blaze before him Or can it be for his safety to destroy many of his best and most Loyal Subjects and by the Terrour and Severity of their Sufferings to force others to turn Papists this is to drive them from a Loyal to a Trayterous Church and how can he expect they should be true to him whom he Compells to be Unfaithful to their God Is it for his Honour to Execute the Bloody and Inhumane Sentences of Rome upon his good Subjects to be the Popes Instrument to commit what Cruelties he pleaseth in these our Brittish Islands Is not Murder an Hainous Sin and will not Innocent Blood the Blood of those that will be Slain if Popery be set up for professing the true Faith and Holy Religion of Christ cry aloud to the Righteous God for Vengeance and Provoke him to punish him here with a short Reign with the Terrours of a guilty Conscience with one Plague and Judgment after another till he pass from Hence to the other World and instead of the Glorious Crown the Pope and his Priests flatterd him with the hopes of he find an Horrid and Intolerable Ruin Search all Histories Examine all the Annals of the
Primitive times Besides the Holy Scriptures or written word of God as I remarked before call upon us to search and study and meditate in them nay to believe and obey or Live according to them and Promise Eternal Happiness and Salvation to all that do these things but they make no mention of the word of God not written do not Command any to enquire or search after or trouble their Heads about any such thing as the Unwritten word of God 'T is true indeed St. Paul praises the Obedient Members of the Church of Corinth that kept 1 Cor. 11. 2. the Traditions or Ordinances which he deliver'd to them But these were no part of the word of God either written or not written but things in their own nature Indifferent That the Men should Pray in publick with their Heads uncover'd and the Women with their Heads cover'd Verses 4th and 5th He gives this charge also to Timothy hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of 2 Tim. 1. 13. me in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus Which form of sound words was either the Creed which the Apostles agreed upon as a summary of the Chief things that were to be believed and profess'd by all Christians or else the whole Doctrine of Christ containing all things to be done as well as believed to Salvation which if not then were before the Apostles left the World intirely written for the Instruction of all that should Imbrace the Christian Religion But doth not Christ tell his Apostles I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now By which saith the St. John 16. 12. Church of Rome it appears That Christ spoke many things that were not written and it is not credible that the Apostles would not deliver these by word of mouth to the Church To which a Reverend Bishop of ours gives this Satisfactory Answer that Christ doth not say Bishop Davenane de judice norma fidei page 18. Multa habeo quae non potestis in posterum scribere I have many things to say unto you which you cannot hereafter write but which you cannot now bear Postea autem Spiritu sancto illuminati portare ea potuerunt praedicare mundo ac demum scriptis toti Ecclesiae Commendare but afterwards being inlightned by the Holy Ghost they could both bear them themselves and Preach them to the World and at last in their writings Commend and Transmit them to the whole Church But let us grant saith he that these things were such as are not written yet who is so impudent and rash as to dare to specifie or assign what those things were This is such Transcendent Presumption that none but the Church of Rome dares venture on which takes the boldness to Father all her Dreams Fables and Errours upon God calling them his Traditional or Unwritten word As for those words of St. John which they insist so much upon There are also many other things which Jesus did the which if they should be Chap. 21. 25. written every one I suppose that even the World it self could not contain the Books that should be written These neither prove the necessity nor Authority of their Traditional or Unwritten word of God Fatemue enim multa esse quae fecit Jesus quae tamen ab Evangelistis scripta non fuerunt for we Page 18. confess saith that Learned Authour that there were many things which Jesus did that are not written by the Evangelists but these many things were not Doctrines necessary to Salvation but Miracles or sayings which we may be ignorant of without any detriment to Religion or Salvation so St. John himself tells us And many other Signs truly did Jesus in the Chap. 20. 30. 31. presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have Life through his Name Which utterly destroys the necessity of their Unwritten word of God for if what is written be enough to perswade Men to believe in Christ and that believing be sufficient to save or bring them to Eternal life that do it then no more can be necessary but St. John affirms both these therefore the Romish Traditional or Unwritten word of God is at best a needless or superfluous thing Besides it is and must be with all thinking Men a mighty Objection against this Unwritten word of God as they call it that the Church of Rome hath the sole Custody or keeping of it the Primitive Church after the Canon of the Scriptures was compleated says nothing at all of it for all the Fathers cry up and maintain the Perfection and Sufficiency of the written word of God and all the Reformed Churches adhere to this in Opposition to that Unwritten Word How then came Rome by it Is God so partial such a Respecter of Persons as to Communicate it to that Church and not to others Or is it a Cheat or Artifice of the nequam ingeniosi the witty or Crafty Deceivers to help at a dead lift This is the very Truth Many of their Doctrines and Practices they plainly perceiv'd did openly clash with and contradict the Holy Scriptures or written word of God and therefore there was no way to defend them to acquit their Church from Errour and Impiety but to cry up Tradition and make it of equal Authority with the Scriptures But this will not do it for doth God use to contradict himself There are that say he hath two Wills the one secret the other reveal'd and that the one is contrary to the other which is neither better nor worse than downright Blasphemy the Church of Rome with equal Blasphemy affirms that God hath two Laws or Words the one contained in the Scriptures the other transmitted by Oral Tradition and they plead this in Defence of those Doctrines which are contrary to that being beaten from the Scriptures and having no shelter or protection for their Errours there they Fly for refuge to Tradition as if that could bear them out or support their Cause and so they make the infinitely Wise and Righteous God contradict himself which he must needs do if he hath declared his will to Mankind two several ways that is by Scritpure and Oral Tradition and this affirms things which that deny's and gainsays They had rather if they could do it prove the points in controversy by the Scriptures as the most satisfactory and convincing proof but not being able to do that they are constrained either to confess their Errours or to pretend Tradition to vouch and countenance them That they will not do because it is against their Worldly Interest inconsistent with their Honour and Profit This they had better not do because the Cheat is so Evident that none but weak Persons will be gull'd and deluded by it for we know that must
of their Instruction and for Direction of their Conscience to such Casuists as their own Men say have Dishonour'd Christian Religion with their Abominable Lessons She feeds them with a dry Communion and bids them obey Jesus Christ and the Pope if they will be Saved She hath also her Bishops Priests Masses Monks Monasteries but such as have nothing almost common with those of the Primitive times save only their Names In brief with all possible Artifices she labours to keep her poor Laity Hoodwinckt in Ignorance for Blind Men are more Tractable and Obedient unto their Leaders She tells them it is Creed enough for them to believe only the Catholick Church that is to Resign up to her self their Understanding but if any of them be farther Curious to know more Especially if they will be Prying into that Dangerous Book the Bible she sends them into the Inquisition to be there better Catechised Thus she deals with her own But for all Us that are in her Opinion Hereticks if her power were answerable to the Malignity of her desires no Remedy we should all pass through the Inquisition into Hell To go from a safe Church as Ours is wherein there is a Certainty of Salvation to such a Dangerous Church as the Roman is wherein there is but a meer Possibility of it is a wilder and more unaccountable Errour or oversight than if a Man that was to Sail in a Rough Dangerous and Tempestuous Sea full of Rocks and Sands should refuse a stout and well built Ship that had Skilful Careful and Honest Pilates and chuse one that is Crasy and full of Leaks or Breaches to let in the angry and devouring Billows and is steered by such Pilates as are either Treacherous or Careless Ignorant or Knavish His Royal Highness then had no reason to change his Religion upon this account his Eternal Happiness and Salvation being certain and undoubted by his stay in our Church that is by believeing and living as it teaches and requires all its Members to believe and lead their lives But exceeding doubtful and hazardous no more than possible in the Romish Communion And being neither for his Interest in this nor his Happiness in the other World to turn Papist his Royall Highness could have no just Motive or Inducement to do it These Arguments as they prove the Duke ought not so they will Oblige all that consider them to question whether he hath changed his Religion for being a wise Prince how can he be Guilty of so Deplorable an Errour as to do that which is against his interest now and his Happiness for ever that will make him Inglorious whilst he lives and Miserable when he is Dead and gone But the Excluders will say this is to doubt whether the Sun Shines when he appears in Subsect 5. his highest or noon day Glory to question matter of Fact for did not his Royal Highness refuse the Oaths and Subscription against Popery and do not Colemans Letters speak of his Zeal for the Romish Church and Religion and if he be not a Papist why doth he not declare himself and satisfy the Nation that he is of the Establish'd Religion these things they say make it Evident to all that will not shut their Eyes that the Duke is a Papist As for the first his Refusing the Oaths and Subscription against Popery That is no evidence of his being a Papist because he might have reasons for that Refusall He might think it a dishonour to him being a Prince of the Blood and next Heir to the Crown to take the Oaths and make the Subscription which every Justice of the Peace and every Captain in the Militia and persons inferiour to these were by that Law Obliged to do Is there any thing that a brave generous Prince such as his Royal Highness is Is more tender of than his Honour And would it not have been a lessening and impairing of that a descending from his greatness a stooping much below himself to take those Oaths and Subscribe as every person that hath any Office Civil or Military is by that Law required to do Sure there is some difference to be put and some distinction to be made between a Prince and Men of lower degree between a Son of the late and a Brother the only Brother of this present King and other Subjects 'T is true indeed the Duke whilst the King lives is but a Subject but then he is the highest the greatest Subject next to the King both in Blood and Dignity and hath such a property and capacity as no other Subject hath and therefore what may be Honourable enough for other Subjects to do may look meanly in him and be in his own Apprehension if not in the Opinion of others a lessening his Esteem and impairing his Honour The Dukes Refusal too might proceed from a just dislike and aversion to the great Contriver and Promoter of that Law which requir'd the taking those Oaths and the making that Subscription a Man Popular Ambitious Busy and Designing and as since appears most Trayterous and Disloyal who had misbehaved himself towards his Royal Highness and without any Provocation was become his Enemy and openly profess'd or declared himself so to be the Duke I say might justly hate the Child for the Fathers sake refuse to observe a Law Contriv'd and Promoted by his open Enemy to comply with and do those things at the Motion of Such an One being both dishonourable in it self and that which would encourage the Man to more and greater rudeness and sauciness towards him and set his invention a work to frame new Impositions and lay greater Burthens upon him there being no end of some mens Projects and Impertinencies and if they be humour'd in one thing they will demand an hundred and grudg if they be not satisfied and if you do not let them lead you by the Nose as long and as far as they please your first complyance is Slighted or Contemn'd as a thing of no worth nor merit and therefore the best way to be freed from such Troublesome and Imposing persons is to withstand or give them a repulse at the first for if they find a Man resolute and not to be wrought upon they will be discouraged and in time give over their Impertinent and Saucy attempts Besides the Dukes taking the Oaths and Subscribing could not have acquitted him from the Suspition of Popery with them that were desirous he should be reputed that they might treat him as a Papist for so long as his Holiness pretends a power to grant Dispensations and is willing to exercise or put that power into practice which he will do as long as he hath any Zeal for the Catholick cause or any Concern for his own gain and profit so long they that love to brand others with the hatefull name of Papists will think or call them so notwithstanding all the Oaths they can take and the Subscriptions they can make
but that they suffer in their Posterity too those that descend from them not being permitted to enjoy their Estates but that they be Vagabonds and Miserable in the Earth thar others may see and fear and not dare to do so Wickedly as to Rebel or Conspire against their Prince There are in all Ages all Places of the World some desperate Villains that can be content to venture their own Lives if they can but Imbroyl Kingdoms and Assassinate or Murder Princes and therefore it is Just that not only Death but Forfeiture of Estates and all their Possessions be the Punishment of Traitors because this will many times Restrain those from such Detestable Practices which that cannot deter them from for they that are so mad as not to care for their own Lives will yet be tender of their Innocent Children take heed how they Ruin them Thefts then and Murders and Treasons are such Errours in Practice as Forfeit both the Lives and Properties of those that commit them because these Crimes are so pernicious that if they be not Punish'd with such Severity they will Ruine or Destroy any State or Society for no Man could enjoy his Life or Estate there would be no Peace nor Government but continual Oppressions Wars Murders Tumults Seditions which must needs Ruin or lay any Kingdom Waste And if these be all the Crimes that Forfeit Mens Rights and Properties his Royal Highness cannot have Forfeited his Right of Succession because he is so Innocent from all these that his greatest Enemies the Excluders themselves have not laid any of them to his Charge Supposing then the Duke to be a Papist that is an Erring Christian yet that making no Forfeiture of his Right To take it from him is to Oppress and Ruin an Innocent Prince and therefore the highest and most execrable Injustice To Rob a mean Person of his Right is Theft and Knavery to Deprive a Prince in Defiance of all the Laws of Heaven and Earth of God and Men of such a Treasure as a Crown of such an Inheritance as a Kingdom nay as three Kingdoms is so great an Injury or Oppression that I want words to express it To say the Bill of Exclusion is Cautionary or Preventive design'd to Disable a Popish Prince from doing the Mischiefs which as such he may do if he gets into the Throne instead of mending the matter makes it worse this being to Punish a Prince with great if not the highest Severity not for doing things meriting such a Punishment but for fear he should do them which is a new sort of Justice and such as was never before heard of in the Christian World and can be no where match'd unless it be amongst the Turks where the Custom is for the new Sultan to strangle his Brothers for fear if they were suffer'd to Live they should Conspire against and Attempt to take the Empire from him This sort of Justice if it was pursued to all the purposes to which it equally serves would make mad work in the World fill it full of Violence and Cruel Practices for by the same Reason they may deprive Honest Men of their Rights their Estates and Possessions not because they have already but because they may hereafter put them to Ill and Dangerous uses The old Justice is a dull and slow thing in Compare with this That stays till Men have Offended or Committed things worthy of Punishment and then it Strikes but This is so Quick and Expeditious that it Punishes before they have Transgress'd Draws out the Destroying Sword not only before a Man be Convicted but before he be Guilty than which way of Proceeding nothing can be more Impious and Unrighteous and consequently more to be Abhor'd Execrated Avoided by every one that pretends either to Common Honesty or Christian Piety For to say as the Men of the New Morals do That a bare Suspicion of Injury from another makes it Just or Lawful to disable the Person so suspected to do it is to expose the Lives and Estates of the most Innocent Persons to the Avarice and Cruelty of every Suspitious Villain that hath Power or Opportunity to invade them For the more Wicked any Man is the more Suspicious he must needs be That being the inseperable Companion of Guilt And if this Maxime be admited it will Animate him that receives it to the most Savage Practises Encourage him with Solomons Mad-man to cast Fire-Brands Arrows and Death to Murder this Rob that Man and Undo a third and to repeat such Outrages as often as he can and all this because he is such a Rogue as to Suspect without any Ground or Reason at all that the first will kill the second rifle the third ruin him Upon this Principle a Prince may seize the Estates and cut the Throats of all his Subjects whom he suspects to be Disaffected to him and the People Beggar and Butcher one another as often as they please And then 't is in vain to talk of Government or Laws or humane Society This being a perfect state of War to lay aside that Mercy and Justice which are both the Ornament and Happiness of Men and to put on the Fierceness and Barbarity of the most Savage Beasts 'T is not then injury Suspected but Acted the having Done wrong to another not his Fear or Apprehension that it will be done that makes a Man justly Punishable And I cannot more Effectually shame and Subsect the 3d. reprove this new Justice than by Comparing it with some of the Principles of the Christian Religion of which we all make Profession deliver'd to us by our Lord and his Apostles With that great Precept of Justice All things whatsoever ye would that Men should do St. Mat. 7. 12. unto you do ye even so to them This is so excellent and equal a Rule for us to act by in all our Intercourse and Dealings with others that it was admir'd and applauded by the very Heathens the Emperour Severus was so pleased with it that he had it often in his Mouth Reverenc'd the Christian Religion and the Glorious Author of it for the sake of this Precept Had our Lord said do all things that are Just he had given indeed a General Rule Comprehending all the Special Precepts of the Law of Nature but he had said nothing by which we Espiscopius in locum might have certainly known what in all Affairs and Transactions is Just but when he said All things whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you do ye even so to them he gave us such a Rule by which in every Case and Circumstance we may be sure what is Just for as we cannot doubt what we would have others do to us so neither can we doubt what we our selves ought to do to others Every Man in his Wits would receive no Injury or Wrong from others but Injoy his Life and Estate all his Rights and Properties without Dammage
Nation think such Scandalous Sinners that they will have no Civil Commerce much less any Religious Communion or Society with them Thus our Lord Commands us to Love our Enemies and these are the weighty Arguments with which he urgeth us to the doing of it Suppose then his Royal Highness be a Papist and as such an Enemy to us that profess the Reformed Religion though neither of these is Certain must we not as our Lord here commands us Love and Bless and do him Good and Pray for him yes certainly if we will be Christians obey the Command of our Lord imitate our Heavenly Father and obtain the blessed Portion and Inheritance which he hath provided for all his obedient Children Consider then you that would Exclude him is your Black Bill by which you would degrade him from his Honour deprive him of his Birth-right banish him his Native Country any token of your Love to him If this be your Kindness and Good-will how cruel and implacable is your Enmity or Hatred Christian love or charity as St. Paul tells you suffereth long and is 1 Corinth 13. kind disposeth and obligeth the Soul in which it is to suffer or bear injuries from others especially his superiours with patience and submission will not allow him to think any evil of or do any to them but endeavour to melt and overcome them by kindness and good offices by fair carriage humble deportment respectful behaviour towards them seeketh not his own safety by anothers danger and rather suffer himself than cause another to doe it unjustly is so far from giving any unjust offence to any man that he is slow to wrath and not easily provok'd himself or if he be so at any time he is very placable ready and willing to be reconcil'd But your Charity if it may be so called would make the Duke suffer and that most unjustly that you may not do it your selves would lay the most intolerable Burthen and Oppression upon him that you may bear nothing your selves and therefore is unkind and cruel seeketh your own safety by his ruin your own gain and benefit by his loss and injury is so highly provoked upon bare suspicions and fears as not only to think and imagine but to attempt and indeavour to do him the greatest evil or wrong that can be offer'd to him So that instead of loving you hate him instead of doing him good you do him all the evil you can and would do him more if you could whereby you wilfully transgress and contemn this Noble and Royal Law of Christ prove your selves not to be the Children of God to have none of his Mercy and Goodness in you because he gives the Sun and the Rain temporal Blessings and Injoyments to his Enemys but you if you could bring your purpose about would take from his Royal Highness whom you suppose to be your Enemy that temporal Right and Inheritance which undoubtedly belongs to him if he survive our present most Gracious Soveraign Thereby also you that are by profession the best of Christians rank your selves amongst the Publicans and Sinners for they love their Friends and hate their Enemies and so do you And if ye love them that love St. Luke 6. 32. you what thank have ye for Sinners also love those that love them Besides in this Law Christ commands us to Love those that are our Enemies do actually Hate and Curse Dispitefully use and Persecute us but the Duke hath done none of these things hath not yet declared himself your Enemy by doing any of you any Injury and it may be never will so that in Reason and Conscience you are obliged to Love Honour and Treat him as your Friend But instead of that you have most Uncharitably suspected him for your Enemy when he gave you no cause to think him so and upon that suspition behaved your selves so Unjustly and Unhandsomely towards him as is enough to make him your Enemy though he were not never intended so to be Is this just and equal Is this Christian practise first to suspect or suppose a Prince to be your Enemy and then offer him such Injuries and Indignities as are so far from being Expressions of that Love which Christ requires all that profess his Religion to bear to their Enemies that they are Demonstrations of the blackest Malice and most implacable Hatred You should have stay'd till his Royal Highness had declared himself your Enemy made it appear he Hated you by some Injurious or Unjust action and when he had done it you should not have suffered your selves to have been overcome with Evil but have endeavour'd to overcome that Evil with Good You should have remember'd what our Lord here requires of you and seeing you profess your selves his Servants and Disciples have done accordingly for this New Way of loving your Enemy by preferring a Bill of Exclusion against him that is by attempting to ruin him is such a Token or Expression of your Love such a Pledg of your Kindness to him that the Duke hath no reason to thank you for it and is I am sure none of that love which our Lord requires us to bear to our Enemies If this be your behaviour towards a suspected how would you treat a known and open Enemy To say your Project of Exclusion is an act of real Charity to the Duke as it would disable him from doing that injury to himself and others which as a Papist he would do if the Crown should descend to him besides that it is to Reproach him is also to talk Idly because Christ commands us to love our Enemies that is those that bear us ill-will and do us Ill Offices that hate us in their hearts and injure or wrong us in their actions but by attempting to Exclude the Duke instead of loving him as your Enemy which is to all men of common sense a strange way of loving an Enemy to take from him all power or ability so to be and yet this is all the Kindness you have for his Royal Highness that you would tye his hands put the chains and fetters of Law upon him and thereby instead of an Enemy make him your Friend whether he will or no. This Love if the Primitive Christians had been acquainted with it would have saved abundance of their Lives but alas t is New and of Yesterday and therefore was not known nor heard of in their Days The good Men Pray'd for their Enemies Implor'd the Divine Goodness to Convert and Forgive them patiently endured the Wrongs and Cruelties they offer'd them like their Dearest Lord and Master when they were Reviled they Reviled not again when they Suffer'd they Threatned not but Committed themselves to him that Judgeth Righteously or as St Paul describes their behaviour 1 Cor. 4. 12 13. towards their Enemies being Reviled we Bless being Persecuted we Suffer it being Defamed we Intreat Not a word in all this of a Bill of Exclusion to
us be at any time Removed and the Bloody Laws in Favour of the Romish Church Restored we must be content as the Ancient and Modern Martyrs have done before us to Suffer for the Truth not doubting but he that calls us to them will support us under our Sufferings not let us be tempted above what he will make us able to bear and Reward us abundantly for them in his Heavenly Kingdom And how can we Murmur or Repine to bear that Cross that will procure an Immortal Crown or think that a sad and cruel Death that will be our Conduct to a Blessed and Eternal Life Besides this may be a means to restore our Nation to its ancient Piety to recover it out of that deplorable Prophaness and Debauchery into which it is lapsed for the hypocrisy of the last Age hath produced open Atheism and Irreligion in this and the merciful God having try'd to reclaim us by other means and those very Sharp and Calamitous as War and Plague and Fire which effecting no cure or amendment upon the major part of the Nation it may be his pleasure before he utterly forsake or cast us off to see what the patience and sufferings of Martyrs will do towards our Reformation for this was the great instrument of converting the World from Heathenism to Christianity and therefore may be very effectual to reduce Christians by Profession from Heathen to Christian Practise to ingage them to live up to the excellent rules of their Religion for when lewd and vicious Persons see wise and good Men chuse rather to dye than to do wicked and unlawful things prefer their happiness in the other before all their enioyments in this World chearefully leave all that is dear to them upon Earth in hopes to reign with their Lord and Saviour in Heaven though they do at first like those fools the wise Man speaks of account their life Madness and their end to be without Honour yet when they come to consider better of it they will conclude there is great danger in Sin because such wise persons would not commit it to save so precious Jewels as their lives but chose rather to dye innocent than to live prophane and wicked be convinced there are great rewards provided for the Righteous after this Life because Men so intelligent would not but upon good grounds and the most rational evidence be perswaded to do so great and suffer so dreadful things in hope of obtaining them And when they see with what admirable courage invincible patience undaunted resolution perceive with what transports of joy they go to their Death kissing the stake and courting the flames prepared to consume their Bodies because they look for a blessed Resurrection and believe their souls will ascend by them like Elijah in his fiery Chariot to the Mansions of Glory This produces in them an high esteem and admiration of true Piety and Holiness because they effect such admirable things and from admireing them in these they proceed to love and practise them themselves that being holy in all manner of conversation as he that hath called them is holy they may be fit to Suffer for and to Reign with him in Heavenly bliss and happiness So that the sufferings of the just are Instruments to convert the Wicked and from the Piety they practised in their Life and the patience they shew'd at their Death they learn to lead a good and Christian Life the casting them into the Fire though contrary to the mind or intention of the barbarous Persecutors is a means to inlighten others and they that came to see the blessed Martyr Dye go away confirmd or setled in the Faith nay resolv'd to dye for it Thus the Blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church bringing forth by the blessing of God a plentiful Harvest of new Converts and therefore as it is a most wicked so it is a most imprudent attempt to endeavour to destroy the true Religion by Persecuting and putting the most eminent professors of it to Death because their Sufferings invite and allure others to it and drive none but Hypocrites and weak or foolish People from it 'T is your Wisdom then as well as duty to suffer Innocently rather than to decline it sinfully to bear the Cross your selves rather than lay it so unjustly upon his Royal Highness because our Lord pronounceth that blessed and promiseth a great Reward to them that do it but this hath a curse denounc'd against it will bring the most fearful punishment upon them that are guilty of it by that you will shew your selves Christians this will prove you Persecutors for they that oppress and wrong others upon what colour or pretence soever they do it are any thing rather than Christians instead of being number'd amongst the Righteous shall have their Portion amongst the Cruel and Unjust be the objects of his wrath displeasure Who ordaineth his Arrows against the Persecutors Ps 7 14 Compare it Lastly with that Assertion of St. Paul that no Evil must be done that good may come and both the Sinfulness and Danger of Rom 3 8 your Project of Exclusion will be very Evident for of them that do Evil that good may come the Apostle saith Their Damnation is Just They shall without Repentance be Punish'd Eternally for it and it is Just they be so Punish'd By Evil the Apostle means Moral Evil the Evil of Sin any thing that is absolutely or in its own Nature Sinful and Wicked no such Evil as this may ever be done for the attaining any good whatsoever if it be the Apostle tells them that do it what they are to expect from God as their Recompence even Just Damnation We know not any greater good saith that excellent Casuist Bishop Sanderson than the Sermon 2d pa 30 Glory of God we scarce know a lesser Sin if any Sin may be accounted little than an Harmless Officious lye yet may not this be done no not for that will you speak Wickedly for God and talk Deceitfully Job 13 7 for him If not for the Glory of God then certainly not for any Inferiour end not for the saving of a Life not for the Conversion of a Soul not for the Peace of a Church and if even that were possible too not for the Redemption of a World no Intention of any end can warrant the choice of Sinful means to compass it But your attempt to Exclude his Royal Highness from Succeeding his present Majesty is the committing great and manifest Oppression and Injustice the Robbing an Innocent person of his Right the Doing that to him which you would not have Done to your selves and therefore absolutely or in its own Nature Sinful Wicked and Unlawful and it is intended for a good end to preserve the King and the Establish'd Religion from the Impious Attempts of the Church of Rome to Destroy both So that you do Evil a great Evil an Evil Aggravated as I said
constant custom hath been to invocate or call upon God and in all their dangers and necessities to make addresses to him in hopes to be heard protected and supply'd by his Infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness for if this had not been their hope or expectation they would never have done the other for to what purpose should men supplicate such a Being as hath no kindness for and refuses to help them takes no notice of makes no return to the petitions that are put up to him 'T is true indeed most Nations of the World have been so ignorant as to present their Prayers to a wrong Object to invocate false and imaginary Deuties that could neither hear nor help them but they thought them to be wise and powerful and the dispensors of all manner of blessings otherwise they would never have gone to their Temples nor approach'd their Altars nor lifted up their hands and hearts and voices to them But we thanks be to God understand better than to be guilty of such gross and impious Errours we direct our Prayers to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is pleased to be called as by one of his most eminent titles of honour a God hearing Prayer and commands us to make our devout addresses to him nay invites us to do it with great and gracious promises It shall come to pass that before they call I Esa 65. 24. will answer and whilst they are yet speaking I will hear So propense is the Divine Goodness to help all Pious People that it will not stay to be asked but prevents them many times with great and eminent blessings and therefore much more will he do it when they humbly beg such favours of him as their present exigences require Are they in trouble or danger Call upon me saith this most merciful Being in the time of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me And lest any man should think his condition not capable of help suppose his dangers or wants too great to be averted or reliev'd by his Prayers our Lord hath given us that most large and comprehensive promise verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my name he will give it you St. Jo. 16. 23. Not every thing indefinitely but whatsoever good thing holy and good men rightly ask of him for a good End he assures us God will give it if the persons praying be pious and holy the things pray'd for just and lawful the end for which they are desired good if they be asked in Faith with submission to his holy will and pleasure with a pious importunity and dependance upon him then the Prayer is within our Saviours promise and of great efficacy with God so St. James affirms The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man Chap. 5. 16. Phil. 4. 6. availeth much is of such mighty Power with God that St. Paul commands us to be careful of nothing not to vex or disquiet trouble or torment our selves with dreadful apprehensions of the dangers that threaten and incompass us not to say how shall we escape what shall we do to decline the rage and cruelty of our Enemies but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with thanks-giving let our requests be made known unto God do but recommend your selves to God in holy and frequent Prayer with thankful acknowledgments of his former Mercies and you need trouble your selves no farther but leave the event to him who will either give you deliverance here or that which is better and more desirable eternal happiness and Salvation hereafter The more and greater our dangers are the more frequent and fervent our Prayers and Devotions ought to be for when all other helps and means have failed these have procured the most eminent blessings and deliverances the Church in all Ages hath experienced the benefit and advantage of them for the Prayers of holy men have saved Cities and Kingdoms from Ruin obtain'd Victories done Miracles shut and opened Heaven By the Prayer of Moses the Amalekites the most malicious Enemies of the People of Israel were vanquish'd by the Prayer of Asa the Ethiopians their most numerous Enemies were discomfited And by the Prayer of Isaiah and Hezekiah the vast Army of Sennacherib was destroy'd by an Angel the Seige of Jerusalem raised and he return'd into his own Land where he fell by the Swords of his own Sons And if the devout Prayers of holy men have been so advantageous and successful in former Ages how come they to have lost their power and efficacy now or to be of such small credit with Christians that they dare not trust to them and other lawful means but seek to secure themselves by those that are sinful and unrighteous May not we expect the same help and benefit by them which they have afforded others in their dangers and distresses yes certainly And therefore let it be our care as it is both our wisdom and duty to make use of these to put up Supplications Prayers and Intercessions First for the King that God will give him along Life a secure happy Reign save or deliver him from all his Enemies hide him from the gathering together of the froward and from the Insurrection of the wicked doers discover and defeat all the Councels and Conspiracies of Traytors that they may fall into the Pit which at any time they dig and be taken in the Snare which they are so Impious as to lay for him For his Royal Highness that God will preserve him from the hands of Violence from the cruel bloudy Zeal of Fanatick Spirits that he will be graciously pleased if he be a Papist to inlighten him with the knowledg of the Truth to convert him to this Pure and Holy Church that he may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus For our Religion humbly beseeching the great and glorious Author of it that he will be pleased to preserve and continue it to us and our posterity for ever that though our sinful and unsuitable lives deserve so sad and fearful a Judgment yet that he will be merciful to us not suffer his Truth to fail amongst nor his Gospel to be taken from us And that he will be pleased to keep us from dishonouring our Religion by using any unjust or unlawful means for the Defence and Preservation of it lest whilst we appear Zealous in such a way for the true we run into such errours extravagancies as will give the World just cause to think that we have really no Religion at all If these things were piously and frequently recommended to the Divine Goodness both in publick and private by all that in this Nation profess the Reformed Religion we should soon see the Blessed effects of and obtain a Gracious answer to such Prayers And therefore before we trouble our selves about any more let us try this most excellent Expedient which hath in all Ages done such wonders in the
so many and great expressions of his Goodness proved himself a Father and a Friend to or Lover of mankind takes no notice or care of them is to say the falsest and most unreasonable of all things because it is either to deny Wisdom Power and Goodness or to make them Superfluous or of no use at all And if he protect or take care of any 't is most reasonable to suppose the just and pious persons are those he extends that favour to because they do in some measure resemble him and are the only Persons he delights in for The Eyes of the Lord saith the Prophet are over the Righteous and his Ears are open to their Prayers that is he loves and favours them highly hears them graciously and therefore guards or defends them carefully This is so certain that it is a very hard if not impossible thing to find any Nation or People professing his Truth and obeying his Laws whilst they continue in that profession and obedience so forsaken by God as to be given up to the will of their Enemies to be Ruin'd that is and destroy'd by them Their Zeal for his Glory their Reverence for his Laws their Piety and Holiness must decline and degenerate before he will cast them off particular persons though of great Innocence and Vertues may and do frequently suffer in this World but then their Crowns are brighter and their Reward greater for it in that which is to come but as for Societies of pious and good People if they be not rewarded upon Earth they cannot be rewarded at all their present Peace Safety and Prosperity being all the recompence they can receive from God as a Nation And it is a truth attested by the observation and experience of all the World that Judgments seldom if ever come Calamity and Ruin rarely fall upon a People till their great and general contempt of his Laws provokes the Almighty to inflict them Let it be our earnest care and endeavour therefore to become a righteous Nation and an holy People make it appear that we truly love our Religion by leading the pure and blameless Lives it requires of us then we shall be as safe and happy as we can possibly be in this World for the tender Providence of God will watch over and preserve our King and Us either make our Enemies to be at Peace with or deprive them of all Power to hurt us then the Truth shall flourish in this our Earth and our excellent Religion take such deep root in the Nation that no power nor policy either of Devils or Men shall be able to hurt or destroy it These as they are innocent so they are sure preservatives which every Man may and ought to make use of And besides these we have excellent Laws which are a mighty safe-guard and defence both to the King and the Establish'd Religion so that we want nothing for our security having the gracious Providence of God to guard and protect us if we commend our selves to it by devout Prayer and holy Living and such Laws to be a preservative to us that it is a vain thing to attempt either to mend or multiply them because if these cannot secure us none can All that can be done more is to remove the Subsect 7. Scandals or whatever may give his Royal Highness supposing him to be a Papist any cause to be offended at our Church for though it be not just to blame that for the Errours and Misdemeanours of them that either are or pretend to be of it because it gives no countenance nor encouragement to them yet seeing our adversaries take every occasion to asperse it 't is both prudent and necessary to take out of the way whatever may have any colour or appearance of a just objection against it create in him an ill Opinion either of Us or the Religion we profess These may be reduced to Three Heads The lamentable Schisms or Divisions that are amongst us The open Prophaneness and Wickedness into which the Nation is lapsed The great Injustice and Indignities that have been offer'd to the Duke himself First The lamentable Schisms or Divisions amongst us there being no where more sharp and bitter contentions more implacable feuds and quarrels such numerous and peevish Sects as amongst us that profess the most Pure and Primitive Christianity for by the just judgment of God our Adversaries say ever since we departed from the Catholick Church so they call the Roman like the Dove that went out of the Ark we can find no rest for the Soles of our Feet cannot agree amongst our selves nor follow that Peace without which and holiness the Apostle affirms no Man shall see the Lord but divide and subdivide separate or run from one another and are become a very Babel or Confusion This they object against and think a mighty reproach to us nay take it for a sure Prognostick of the approaching fall and ruin of our Church because our Lord affirms that an House or Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand which they use as an Artifice to draw People from us To this I answer that it is true indeed our Schisms or Divisions are great and deplorable that we are broken into Sects and Factions are a distracted and divided Nation But then the Question is how we came to be so and what the causes are from which they spring That the guilt of them doth not ly upon our Church is certain because it gives no just provocation to any to Separate from the Communion of it it teaches no False nor Erroneous Doctrines makes no new Articles of Faith nor any other Conditions of Salvation but those propounded and requir'd as such in Scripture It sets up no forbidden Way of Worship presumes not to inlarge the Essentials of it or to make any thing a part of Gods Worship which he hath not injoyn'd as such 'T is true indeed our Church determins the modes and circumstances of it because all Churches do it and they are not determin'd in Scripture and are so necessary to be determin'd that unless it be done the Essentials or Moral part of Gods Worship cannot be perform'd and because the leaving them Arbitrary would produce endless disorders and confusions But then these Ceremonies are not culpable as to their number unlawful in themselves as contrary to the word of God sinful in their use as being made means of grace or having any holiness ascribed to them or so highly esteemed as to be thought necessary to recommend or render the worship it self acceptable or pleasing to God nor made of perpetual obligation but are declared to be mutable Constitutions or such as may be changed or varyed as occasion serves nay quite abolish'd or taken away upon just causes by the same Authority that Instituted or Ordained them The Government also of our Church by the Right Reverend Bishops is that which is Commended in Scripture was Instituted by Christ Setled by his Apostles
the Alcoran is fitter for such vile people than the Gospel because that allows them to be as vicious as they please but this consists of whatsoever things are true and honest and just and pure and lovely and of good report of all those excellent vertues that can raise and advance our nature make us holy just and merciful as our Heavenly Father is and both requires and with the most perswasive Arguments presseth us to the practise of them which if we refuse to do as we cast contempt and reproach upon our Religion so we provoke God to take it from us unless we prevent so sad and deplorable a loss by our unfeigned Repentance as our Lord admonish'd the Angel of the Church of Ephesus Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent Revel 2. 5. and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy Candlestick out of his place take my Gospel from thee except thou repent Let it be the care then of all that are in Authority to suppress the great and crying Sins to Exclude the bold and reigning wickedness out of the Nation and there will be no fear but God will be With us and continue his Gospel or the true Religion amongst us Secondly this will be an excellent Expedient to secure our Religion as it will discourage our Enemies from attempting the Subversion and Destruction of it when they see us lead the pure and blameless lives it requires of us behold our good Conversation in Christ they will be ashamed to call us Hereticks being an holy People a Pious and Righteous Nation they will fear that what Balaam said of Israel will be verifi'd in us surely there is no Inchantment against Jacob neither is there any divination against Numb 23. 23. Israel 'T is in vain they will say for us to Plot or Enterprize against them their Piety makes them dear to God and their Innocence is their protection we may ruin our selves but we cannot hurt them so long as they adhere to God he will not forsake them not suffer them to be cast down nor let any harm happen to them the Arrows we shoot at them will wound our selves and we shall fall into the Destruction we intended for them Nay when they see us add to our pure Faith a Vertuous and Christian Life they will be tempted to admire and think our Church a Lovely Image or Resemblance of Heaven in which Righteousness Reigns and from which Wickedness is Banish'd or Excluded and that admiration will be a powerful inducement to invite or draw them to us urge them to leave their Idols and joyn in the pure Worship we present unto God perswade them to turn from darkness to light from their Sinful and Disconsolate Superstition to our Holy Religion which fills our Souls with Joy and Comfort now and leads them to Eternal Bliss and Pleasures But if we continue in our present Impieties they will scorn us and our Religion for them despise us as humoursome and perverse People that hold the truth in unrighteousness the purity of our Doctrine being cover'd with the filth and rubbish of our Vices will be sullyed and look dim not appear at all lovely or inviting to them they will think they have reason to hate us because our wicked Lives have made us hated of God and will be confident either of his approbation of or connivance at their designs and attempts against us believe God is not for us and therefore that they may safely and successfully be against us They will call us Hypocrites for finding fault with their way of Worship whilst our wilful Sins defile our own With what face they will ask can you charge us with giving too much Honour to the Saints when you account their Lives to be Folly deny them that which all the Christian World confesses to be due to them even the Honour of Imitation refuse to follow their good Examples and have very few Reliques or remains of their Piety amongst you How dare you blame us for the multitude of our Ceremonies when you have turn'd all Religion into a Ceremony or meer Complement saying Lord Lord but do not the will of God If it be unlawful for us to assert the merit how abominable is it in you to deny the necessity of good works as it is evident you do by refusing to perform them If our Church be guilty of some Errours your People are defiled with many Impieties and need another Reformation why then are you such Hypocrites as to take notice of the mote in our eye and not to cast the beam out of your own Thus will they upbraid and reproach us and having so much to object encourage themselves in mischief against us and therefore as it ought to be the great and earnest care of private Persons to reform what is amiss in their Lives so of all that are in Authority both to be Examples of Piety to the People and by Executing the Laws upon them to be a terrour to the evil doers that our Religion may neither be dishonour'd nor endanger'd by the Impieties of the Professors of it that God may not be provoked to take it from us our Enemies encouraged to attempt against it nor any be offended or tempted to run from it because we disgrace it by our unsuitable lives but that every thing be removed that may stain the beauty obscure the glory of it render men fugitives from rather than Converts to it The other great Scandal which I desire may be removed is the high Injustice and Indignities that have been offer'd to the Duke himself 't is certain that he hath had the hardest measure and the greatest injury tender'd him and therefore in Justice ought to have some proprotionable reparation made him which that it may be effected 't is my request to the People that they will make a better choice whensoever the King pleases to call a Parliament Let it be your care my beloved Countrymen to Elect Loyal and Honest Men Men that fear God and hate Iniquity or unjust dealing that dare depend upon God in the use of fair and Innocent means for the security of our Religion and every thing else that is dear to them and will not do a base or unworthy thing to save them You see what irreparable injury and horrid mischief the Fanatick Faction those great admirers of the Bill of Exclusion would have done you took away the breath of your Nostrils the Anoynted of the Lord by a most barbarous and execrable Assasination they had Plotted and if the merciful God had not prevented them would have kil'd your King a King under whose wise and just Government you live in Piety Peace and Plenty injoy all the Blessings you can desire or Heaven can give you in this World a Prince that loves you and consults your welfare and is always Solicitious or thoughtful to secure your quiet and happiness His Royal Brother too