to your purpose in Psal. 127. he tells you Except the Lord build your houses they labour in vain that build them If God be not the Master-builder the great Undertaker of the Work you do but aedificare in ruinam build up your ruines to farther ruines And then too unless he keep the City when 't is built the watchman waketh but in vain May he build your houses for you to be habitations of peace and preserve your City make it beautiful for situation and the joy of the whole Land may God be well known in her Palaces for a Refuge may he love her Gates and may the most High establish her and raise up his own Tabernacle in the midst of her may he make it the City of God and the Mountain of his Holiness God does that I may with reverence speak it by the very inclinations of his own nature peculiarly affect man and then further he that said It is not good for man to be alone he has a more then ordinary care and regard for societies of men Well govern'd Cities and well order'd States are the special objects of Almighty Gods singular providence And as he has this care for our good in community so it must be our care to keep up his honour in publick since which is our next 2. The setting up Gods honour amongst us in publick is the only means of procuring and ascertaining his favour The condition of his covenant with all Nations as well as his own people is I will be their God and they shall be my People when we cease to be his people we must not hope that he will continue to be our God All just governments are influenced and supported by him but if we abuse those influences and neglect those supports 't is just for him in displeasure to withdraw the light of his countenance and the saving strength of his right hand and to leave us in the dark to the weakness of our own counsels and undertakings He will honour them that honour him 't was a pitiful request of Saul to desire to be honour'd before the people when he himself had dishonour'd God before them When Governours are like God and act all to his glory as he himself does then blessings are showr'd down upon them and from them to the whole community This was Christ's own case Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows Psalm 45. 7. 'T is not the Crown and Scepter the Purple and the Mace that distinguish the Magistrate from a common man but the oil of gladness the divine benediction upon his doing righteous things Then all his Garments smell of Myrrhe Aloes and Cassia out of his ivory palaces when the fragrancy of publick example commands at once the veneration and imitation of all that are about them whereas upon wicked Nations that forget God and such families as call not upon his name he pours out his severest indignation This the very Poet could observe to his Countrymen the Romans Dîs te minorem quòd geris imperas Says he that they ow'd their success to their piety and were made commanders of the world for their obedience to their Gods Nor is it strange that God should even in false Religions bless people with outward prosperity and temporal success for that honour they did him under wrong names and mis-apprehensions since at bottom of all their vain conceits and idolatrous practises there lay metus numinis the awe and reverence of a supreme infinite power wherein the notion of Religion in general consists And he goes on and tells them that all their miscarriages and all the calamities that had of late befaln that City and State were to be imputed to their neglect of Religion How much more happy should we be that have the truth of Religion amongst us if we would but be true to it our selves And if a pretended zeal for God's honour has in our remembrance made Vsurpation thrive and heap'd Palms and Laurels upon an unrighteous Cause what advantage would real devotion do to the establishing of a just Government And on the other hand how much more miserable and improsperous must we expect to be then any wicked Heathens or backsliding pretenders if we having such advantages and such reasons both of advancing God's honour amongst us fail in our duty and do not as we ought to do for our brethren and companions sake with one common consent and mutual agreement praise God for his mercies and fear him for his judgments which he hath shewn in the midst of us That 's the last thing of this head 3. That our agreement in God's service is the only way of keeping-up his publick honour amongst us When Cities and Societies here below look like the Sedes beatorum the blessed company of Saints and Angels above wherewith the Heavenly Throne is inviron'd all serving God the same way in perfect harmony of worship This is doing that the Apostle bids us having our conversation in Heaven by bringing Heaven down to us and being all of one mind as we shall be there For brethren thus to dwell together in the unity of profession and practice is as the Psalmist compares it like the consecrating oyl upon Aaron 's head that ran down to the skirts of his garment that is all over from the head to the foot the meanest person of the Nation equally sharing with the highest in the advantages of the Priesthood and one common service This is that dew of Sion the Church where God commanded the blessing the blessing of peace and plenty A Church as ours now is without this unanimity is but like the Ship where Ionas was toss'd and tumbled with winds of doctrine and waves of faction till at the upshot of all when they all apply themselves to their several gods in their several ways of Worship the Ionas the only true Religion amongst them is to be flung over-board God is a God of order and peace and accounts himself highly dishonoured by our confusions 'T was Baal that delighted to be served with loud crys and furious slashings It was the Devil with his forked foot first brought in Heresie and Schism that by multiplying Religions he might make the world believe there was no such thing and if there were that people might not trouble themselves about a thing where it would be so difficult not to mistake in the choice Thus when this enemy of God and man saw that the crucifying Christ would not be sufficient for the disgracing of Religion he fell presently even in the Apostles times to divide him for the puzzling of it It has been observed that Travellers that have been abroad and seen Religion in its various dresses and forms in the several Countries where they have been and in what different manners they serve God are apt at last to turn Scepticks arrive at a quiet indifference and think it a
1. Because God is as much provoked by the one as by the other 2. Because such sins do more exceedingly divide and unty the bonds of Love and Amity then other Civil differences do and so loosen the hearts of men from one another The Instances wherein He would have the Magistrate exsert his power are these Page 32 33. To encourage Orthodox Ministers and the Schools of Learning To take care that all who own Christian Religion amongst us be required to attend upon the Ministry To endeavour to reconcile dissenting brethren that we may unite against the Common Adversary To secure Fundamental Doctrines and for that purpose to take care for Catechising c. I thought fit to give thee this Intimation that if thou think'st my answers not full enough to those Objections which the streights of time would not give leave for in the Pulpit thou may'st know whither to have recourse as I said for thy better satisfaction I shall conclude with the same profession as that Reverend Author does Page 34. that I have not pressed this Doctrine of the Peace of the Church to the straightning or grieving of any who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity Only I wish that they who made the earliest departure from the English Church in these late times would as He does for many of them reflect upon themselves and apply that of Hazael whether they could some years since have been perswaded to believe that they should have lived to see such a trail of opinions and mischiefs break in upon Church and State upon the advantage of their perhaps at first not ill-meaning discontents And let thee and me and every honest English-man pray for the Peace of our Jerusalem in His Paraphrase Page 8. That God would protect his Ordinances and maintain his Truth that he would prosper Fundamental Laws the beauty and stability of Religious Government c. that the Tabernacle and the Tribunals Religion and Policy may jointly flourish they being the foundations of publick happiness and which usually stand and fall together PSAL. CXXII Vers. 8. For my Brethren and Companions sakes I will now say Peace be within thee THE Occasion upon which this sacred Ode was penn'd a Reverend Person in his Annotations tells us he believes was Davids return to Ierusalem to the Publick Service of God again at the Temple after Absalon's defeat Calvin is of opinion that David made it at the time when the Ark was setled upon Mount Sion and the building of the Temple designed for the uniform Exercise of the National Religion Upon either account it will very well suit with our Meridian The whole Psalm is an Elogy or Panegyrick Description of the Metropolis of Iudea the City of Ierusalem and that not only nor so much upon the Civil account that there are set Thrones of Iudgment the Thrones of the House of David Vers. 5. That 't was the Imperial City where the King kept Court whence Laws were issued and Authority derived for the Government of the rest of the people There sate the Sanhedrin the great Council of the Nation and there the supream Courts of Judicature which received Appeals from all inferior Districts But also and much more upon the Ecclesiastical account this City being the Residence of the great King the Lord himself who had set his Name there and chose the Temple for his dwelling-place Whither the tribes go up the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel or more exactly to the Original according to the testimony for Israel to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. This City then was the appointed place of Gods publick and solemn Worship whither all the people of that Country were thrice a year at the three great Festivals obliged to come up to present themselves before the Lord in the Temple according to the testimony of Israel i e. by a perpetual Statute and standing Ordinance to that people the Laws of God being usually in Scripture-language styled Testimonies Now that there was by this Testimony or Statute for the Tribes coming up to Ierusalem designed a strict Uniformity in that peoples Exercise of their Religion is of it self clear in the very History for the Tribes did not every one bring up a several Form of Worship along with them but all as one man made a solemn appearance together at the Temple in one joynt acknowledgment and regular Service And Mr. Calvin tells us as much that God appointed one Temple and one Altar on purpose for the whole Nations use nè populus in varias superstitiones difflueret that the people might not by being left to their own liberty in the Worship of God run loose into a world of wild opinions and practices about matters of Religion And that further by Ierusalem whose Peace we are here to pray for is to be understood the Church as it is the appointed place of Gods publick Worship appears by the very context of the Psalm it self which begins and ends with this Notion vers 1. I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord and then in order to this 't is said vers 2. Our feet shall stand within thy gates O Ierusalem that being the ready way to the Temple and in the last verse again he concludes Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good i.e. the good of Ierusalem in its Ecclesiastical State as the House of God the Temple the place of solemn Assembly belonged to it And thus Calvin expounds that of the third verse Ierusalem is built as a City that is compact together or as the common Translation has it As a City that is at unity in it self not for the uniformity of the building but says he propter civium consensum for the unanimity and mutual agreement of its Citizens in the Worship of God and in the Exercise of Religion And that the people should all thus joyn their affectionate good wishes and most earnest endeavours for the Peace of Ierusalem thus considered to seek the prosperity and to promote the welfare of the Church in a fair compliance with publick Order and in a quiet regular Exercise of the National Religion the Psalmist here in the close of the Psalm bring no less than three Arguments 1. From every mans personal concern in the Churches safety Pray for the peace of Ierusalem they shall prosper or they shall be quiet and at ease that love thee i.e. God will bless such persons with a quiet and a happy life that love the Church and wish her well and pay a regular obedience to her Orders and Government And this upon a meer Natural Principle of self-love implanted in every mans breast and of that charity which we use to say begins at home the parts being all safe in the preservation of the whole every private mans Cabin secure while the Ship of Government steers right whereas those that by wilful disobedience contrive publick
immediately united in the Churches welfare which we are in that manner to preserve and promote for both their sakes as not to exclude either And thus much for the coherence and explication which I have the longer insisted upon to gain your full assent to these two things 1. That by Ierusalem here is meant the Church And 2. That by her peace is to be understood our agreement in religion since without this agreement there is no probability no likelihood of her enjoying peace I shall now crave leave to gather up all I have to say into one proposition and such a proposition as the words do naturally without any force put upon them afford us And 't is this in the words of the Text That we ought for our Brethren and Companions sakes to wish and endeavour the Churches peace Which in a brief Paraphrase speaks thus That 't is the duty of every Man amongst us whether Magistrate or other as he is the Governour or Member of a Society upon a meer civil account our affection to our Native Countrey and the good of community in our several places and stations heartily to wish and vigorously to endeavour the peace and prosperity of the Church in the uniform exercise of Religion and God's publick worship And this Proposition I shall make good by three Arguments taken 1. From the ground of a Peoples happiness Divine favour and protection and that favour not to be procur'd but by keeping up God's publick honour amongst us and that honour no way to be secur'd but by our unanimous agreement in his publick worship 2. From that influence which Religion is apt to have upon the minds of Men both in awing them and uniting them which aw and union both without the uniformity of worship if People be left to their own liberty to worship God publickly how they please will infallibly utterly be lost and when Religion shall once be brought into a publick contempt and made the ground of an universal quarrel when the candlestick is once removing out of the Church 't is easie to foresee what danger the State will then be in and what will in a short time become of such a People 3. From the particular constitution of our Laws and Government wherein the concerns of State are so intimately and closely link'd with the Peace and prosperity of the Church that they must needs stand or fall together First then for the first Argument that the Peace of the Church that is our agreement in the service of God is the only way of keeping up God's publick honour amongst us and consequently of after-taiming to us the favour and blessing of God which is the main and only ground of National prosperity and happiness the great concern of all our Brethren and Companions Wherein I have three things to make out 1. That the Divine favour is the main and only prop of a Peoples happiness 2. That the setting up Gods honour in publick amongst us is the only means of procuring and ascertaining his favour And 3. That our agreement in the service of God is the only way of keeping up his publick honour I say first That the favour of God is the grand support and alone foundation of any peoples prosperity and happy estate This is the Palladium of the Government ancile imperii the buckler of State when as the Psalmist expresses it God encompasseth us with his favour as with a shield whereupon it is that by vertue of this divine influence upon his Vice-gerents the Magistrates they themselves are also term'd the shields of the earth A learned Frenchman tells us that the Eastern people were wont at the building of any City according to the positions of Heaven at that time by rules of Astrology and other Magical observations to make Artificial Sculptures upon Brass which they call'd Talismans and to consecrate them to the auspicious beginnings and fortunate success of that City which they fancied as long as those Hieroglyphicks were preserv'd would never miscarry by fire of water war or plague And of this nature and design he takes Laban's Teraphim to have been which his daughter Rachel stole away and those of Micah which the boisterous Danites plunder'd him of as the pledges of good fortune to those Families who were therefore both much concern'd in the loss of them To the same purpose the Grecians and others indeed who not had their Tutelar Gods as the guardians of each City so that the first thing enemies did that came to besiege a Town was to call away their God either by inchantments inticing him or by extraordinary respects out-bidding the Inhabitants and proffering the Deity better terms if he would come over to their side insomuch that the Tyrians when Alexander's Army beleaguer'd them upon such an apprehension of Apollo's leaving them tyed him fast with a Golden Chain to Hercules his Altar that he might not stir And 't was a great part of policy among these Heathens to conceal these their strengths and keep them close as the arcana imperii that in time of danger they might be sure of them From these and the like superstitious usages this serious truth at least may be learnt that very Infidels and Strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel had from the instincts of Nature that sense of a Deity and an over-ruling Power that they trusted not to the situation and strength of their Cities to the number or valour and wealth of the Inhabitants for the defence of them but wholly imputed their safety to divine protection And this much more to be acknowledged by us to whom God has made himself so well known in his Word with whom he has entred into Covenant whom he has admitted unto so endearing nearnesses to himself Our Royal Author is every where full of these acknowledgments in this his Book of Publick Devotions calling God a Sun and a Shield his strong Rock and Tower of Defence and mighty Deliverer ascribing all his deliverances and preservations to the light of his countenance and the saving strength of his right hand Particularly in Psal. 144. where he does ex professo handle this Argument he says 't is he that gives Victory unto Kings and then having recited the several instances of a peoples outward prosperity That our sons grow up as young plants and our daughters as the polished corners of the Temple that our garners be full and plenteous with all manner of store that our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets that our oxen be strong to labour and in good plight that there be no invasion upon us no leading into captivity and no complaining in our streets he closes this account with an acclamation wherin he resolves the sum of all into divine favour as the ground and original of all these blessings and advantages Happy are the people that are in such a case happy I say are the people which have the Lord for their God But yet more closely
Exercise of Religion Then the Church shews like an army with banners For the Church triumphant no body doubts but 't is so but this is spoken of the Church militant it should be so a well ordered and disciplined body of men Without discipline and good order and uniformity of Exercise it may be a tumult a mutiny a crowd or throng of men but not an Army or if an Army 't is but a broken routed one and needs rally and recruit And such an Army must I call our Church with her broken Ranks when so many flye daily from her Banners and repair to other Standards when some are so hardy to make themselves Commission-officers and appoint Rendez-vous and make Musters in private corners indeed in publick Assemblies to the defiance of the Church and Civil Authority at once Truth is Our divisions have made Religion a ridiculous thing whilst every Party priding it self in the glare of its own spiritual knowledge looks upon the rest with contempt The Sects wonder at us that we stick where we do and not come up after them we as much wonder at their unkindness in leaving us and their confidence in going so far And the wonder goes round for they all admire and pity one anothers ignorance All of them see a great light in the way they walk in and conclude they are got into Goshen when all the rest of the world as they fancy are still sitting in Egyptian darkness Thus we censure one another and when we have hoodwinkt our selves with our own form think our selves the only seeing people and all else that are not as we are blind-fold to the merriment of by-standers but withal to some peril lest from these giddy reflections we make upon one another they conclude we have no light at all amongst us in the English Church but that we are now in Egypt more then ever we were What pastime and advantage our divisions give Atheists and Papists I shewed before I am now speaking of us amongst our selves Nor do these differences only stir the spleen but the choler too and fill all Parties as with spiritual disdain of one anothers ways so with zealous passion too against one anothers persons The Sectaries are scandalized at Church-musick and look upon our decent Rites and Ceremonies as trumpery and reckon our Solemnities of Worship contemptible things The Orthodox on the other hand are justly offended at their slovenly familiarities with sacred things and indeed with God himself So that 't is clear by dividing from one another Religion has lost all its awe amongst us every sort of it being lookt on as mean and despicable by all those that are of any other sort Nor must the National Religion think to find better treatment then the rest but rather worse as lying under this peculiar disadvantage that those who adhere to that though never so conscientiously lay themselves open to a general censure of all dissenters that they in that they side with the Government are pleasers of men and time-servers Besides this is that they all in strict judgment account to be to them Antichrist that which holds back and hinders that no one of them can get up in to absolute power And certainly they must be so good-natur'd as to pity the Governour himself if his conscience be not of their model I and should he be but half so severe in the maintenance of his way as they are zealous in theirs perhaps hate him too at least have but little kindness for him who as they fancy keeps Christ out of his Throne Thus we see if Religion be not tyed up to rules if it grow lawless it will quickly become awless too loose all its respects and not be able to assist the Government in the protection of our brethren and companions whose concerns lie bound up in the Churches peace Nor Secondly Will Religion avail in its second property which is to Vnite unless God's worship amongst us be uniformly exercised Religio à religando Religion has its name from binding up men not only in themselves binding up their spirits so as to restrain them from publick disorders but as to one another too binding their hearts together in mutual offices of love and kindness And thus when we can walk together as brethren and companions to the house of God and there take sweet counsel together this is a kindly Vnion when all the members of the civil society are guided and governed by the same spirit of the mystical body and hold the faith in unity of spirit in the bond of peace and in righteousness of life This is the true cement which conjoins neighbours and friends closer then any legal priviledges and obligations can do Without this you build your City with untemper'd mortar nor will it well bear the weather when the flouds shall beat unless it be thus compacted together and be at unity in it self And how can it rationally be expected that Religion should bind us together if it self be left loose and tyed to no rules and orders I confess the Vnity of the Catholick Church may consist without the uniformity of particular Churches among themselves and thus notwithstanding some differences they have in ordering their own affairs prudently to their best convenience and accommodating themselves to the necessities of time and place still holding to the Analogy of Faith and sound Doctrine and the rule of God's Word I say notwithstanding these differences in externals we do own the communion of Saints as an Article of our Faith But to say that every particular person or party in the same Church has by vertue of his Christianity a liberty to disobey the publick orders of that Church whereof he is a member and to serve God as shall notwithstanding those orders seem good to that party or person for as the party breaks it will come to persons at last to take liberty in this notion is to make it but another name for confusion Wherefore what they say is not true being applyed to fellow-members of the same particular Church that according to our Christian liberty and that latitude God has left things in if the Church would leave them so too and not bind where he has not bound this would prove the best expedient of peace and unity for the way would be wide enough for every one to walk in we should not need justle one another but though we used not all one form in our serving of God we might be all of one mind as to our civil concerns at least It were well if dissents in judgment could be so managed as not to beget distances of affection but this is a thing rather to be wished then hoped for For whilest every party thinks it self obliged in conscience to advance it self even to the prejudice and ruine of the rest Conscience being a principle of that violence that right or wrong it acts like nature ad extremum virium to the utmost of its strength
from their own writings and practices and others there are that do in effect loosen the bands of all Society by excusing that duty Servants owe to their Masters Children to their Parents Wives to their Husbands under a pretence of seeking God justifie disobedience by the Corban of Religion and for any command of their Superiors they like not have a ready answer that they are to obey God rather than man whereas on the contrary there is no one thing that the English Church does in her Doctrine more positively affirm or in her Offices more zealously express then obedience to Governors and her duty to her Soveraign To draw to an end in this Argument some there are that fear not to charge the Church it self with Sacriledge and truly I must grant that Church-men may be guilty by imbezilling and mis-imploying Church-revenue which sure enough was mainly design'd for Pious Uses but may not a man that faithfully serves the Publick in his place have some regard to himself too in fair provisions for his own Family The Apostle tells us that he that does not is worse then an Infidel To shut up all and to drive this nail to the head I do freely acknowledge that the Church never flourish'd more under Pagan Governments then when it was in the poorest condition for it's temporals when it lay under Pressures and Afflictions and had the Heathen-State its Enemy But shall any Christian Magistrate now design the Perscution and Ruine of the Church therefore This were to Argue with the Apostate Iulian to strip Bishops and Priests of their lively-hood and to turn them out of all they have that they may be poor in imitation of their master's Example and in obdedience to his command may learn to contemn the World But thanked be God we live not now under Heathen Emperours and Pagan Governours though if we did it were our duty to pray for them and to thank God for then too and to obey them in all lawful commands and where we can not safely obey chearfully suffer for a good Conscience Neither is nor ought the Church to be so now as it was in the Primitive times before it was setled under Christian Magistrates though then too there was fair liberal allowance and there 's no Minister we have but would be contented to Preach at the Primitive rates were our Auditors as free and open-handed as they were then In the close of all these sacred Morsels though they may seem sweet yet leave gravel behind them and this I dare boldly say that the decay of the Church and the disrepute of Religion amongst any people is a certain token and an infallible character of that People's approaching Ruine Sic profanatis sacris Peritura Troja perdidit primùm Deos. So that from the complication of Church and State and the extreme hazard each of them runs in the other's perils we stand obliged upon a meer Civil account for our Brethren and Companion sakes to wish the Churches prosperity and welfare in our mutual Agreement among our selves Before I make an end I think it necessary to take notice of an Objection or two which may seem to overthrow the purpose and design of this whole Discourse For though it hath already been clear'd out of the Context that by Ierusalem here must be meant the Church and that the Churches Peace which for his Brethren and Companions sakes David resolves to wish and endeavour did consist in that People's uniform Worship of God as appears further by that Churches sad experience when Ieroboam drew off the Ten Tribes from their Allegiance and which is reckon'd his great sin which he made the Children of Israel to sin had by setting up new forms of Worship made their return as well to the Thrones of David at Ierusalem as to the Temple impossible and by a subtle contrivance of an establish'd Schism to render his Rebellion perpetually successful divided them from their brethren in Religion and made the breach irreconcileable then by degrees the poor Samaritans fell off into all kinds of Superstitions and Idolatries the Statutes of Omri and Ahab and I know not what else gallymawfreys of Religion and all this grounded on the fair pretence of that Precise Sect the Karaei who would admit of nothing in the Worship of God but what they found expresly commanded in the Law of Moses I say though thus it stood with the Iewish Church I foresee an Objection may be made that our case is much different from theirs for first Theirs was but a Typical Ceremonial Service which in the Gospel state has no place since our Worship now must be in Spirit and in Truth and then again for these very Types and Ceremonies they had a Divine Command and were by strict precept oblig'd to that uniform attendance upon the Temple whereas such a precept or command now we have none to tye us up in like manner to any one form of Worship To the first part of the Objection that that was a Typical Service in the Iewish Church but that the Holy Iesus has to the Christian Church brought Grace and Truth which do not tye us up to such severe observances in external things but have instated us into a Liberty wherein we are commanded to stand fast and therefore we are not to part with it upon any terms I answer that though the Ceremonies of that Religion be abolished yet the substance of it remains still in the Christian Church for the shadow and the truth were to answer one another and those Types and representations are therefore now to be made out answerably by us in real performances so that the Vniformity of Worship is as agreeable and perhaps more necessary now to the Substance as 't was then to the Shadow and the obligation proportionably the same upon us as upon them For though God did by the death of his Son rent the vail of the Temple and break down the Partition-wall and so has brought us Gentiles into the Fellowship of the Church it was that we should in the same orderly manner serve him in substance as they did in Germony and in suitable methods accomplish their Types with the Truth of our services They brought their Calves and their Lambs to the Priest and had them by his hand offered in the Temple Christian Religion has for their Priests and Levites distinct orders likewise of Bishops Priests and Deacons and instead of a Temple Churches where the People by the Ministration of the Priesthood are to offer up their Prayers and their Praises which are our morning and evening Sacrifices And thus for their Temple their Sacrifices their Sabbaths their Priesthood and almost all considerable Instances of their Worship there is a perpetual uniform Analegy throughout betwixt them and us Only their Worship was perform'd in the shadow of the Law ours in the light of the Gospel and if this light proves to us darkness how great will our darkness be For alas that
upon the Lords day it self which he was about as Martin Bucer reports of him to have changed from Sunday to Thursday for the convenience of that people in their marketings Again hereupon it is from this liberty whereby the Churches may each order its own affairs in Christian Policy that the Reformed Churches themselves though agreeing as to the main in doctrinals yet in other things differ so much among themselves and yet with that fair regard nevertheless that as all the Reformed Churches abroad do highly magnifie the constitution of the Church of England and approve her Methods as being the main Rampart and Bulwark against the Romish Tyranny So on the other hand the English Church is very far from condemning them for accommodating themselves to the necessity of their conditions but embraces them all with a hearty friendship And herein I say if I mistake not lies the very ratio formalis the nature and extent of Christian liberty so much talkt of that the several Churches indeed may in externals and circumstantials square themselves to the necessity of times and places and order their affairs accordingly But to say that every particular person or party in the same Church has by vertue of his Christianity a liberty to disobey the publick Orders of that Church whereof he is a Member and to serve God as shall notwithstanding those Orders seem good to that party or person for as the Party breaks it will come to Persons at last to take Liberty as I said before in this notion is to make it but another name for confusion Wherefore since Churches are now constituted and 't is clear they are no more to be under the peoples Government then the Civil States are but that the ordering of both belongs to the Christian Magistrate as the Guardian of both Tables I say since 't is so it necessarily follows that for any man to affirm that what the Magistrate upon grave deliberation requires of us in Gods publick Service is an intolerable imposition upon conscience and that things indifferent and in their own nature lawful to be done being once commanded and recommended by lawful Authority become eo nomine upon that very account unlawful is a most absurd defiance and not to be endured For these are such Theses as although some have been bold to publish them and are still confident enough to act according to them yet have no footing either in the Word of God or in right Reason upon which two Societies are founded and the right of Government stands as being destructive at once not only to the Peace of the Church but to the purposes of the Civil Power too That I may make all clear I shall to omit that of Korah the Son of Levi who might possibly otherwise be lookt upon as a godly and able man as having a great opinion amongst the people and an interest in many of the Princes and for ought as we read was guilty of no other fault but Non-conformity and murmuring against Aaron Numb 16. 11. Indeed Dathan and Abiram Lay-men Sons of Reuben went further against Moses himself in vers 13 14. though these State-Rebâ—ls too as well as that disobedient Levite had the luck upon the very morrow after that dreadful execution upon them to be esteemed at vers 41. by all the Congregation the people of the Lord. Though this look too much like our case yet I say to pass it by because that was a severe example I shall give you two milder instances the one in the Jewish Church long before the building of the Temple that of Micah the other of a famous Christian Church planted by S. Paul that of the Corinthians The Story of Micah is that he made an Ephod and Teraphim and consecrated one of his Sons to be his Priest Iudg. 17. 5 upon which the remark is in the next verse that in those days there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes Nor was the matter mended when he got a young Levite to be his Father and his Priest for in the very beginning of the next Chapter 't is again said In those days there was no King in Israel so that 't is clear that this is taxed as a scandal of those loose ungoverned times when there was no King that any man should set up for himself a private Form of Worship to which it should seem the people of the neighbour-houses resorted Chap. 18. vers 22. This practice then of Micah's was a fault without doubt which had there been a King in Israel a lawful Authority in being to have taken order about such things would not have been suffered That of the Corinthians is yet more plausible and yet not faultless neither they kept to their publick Ministers yet because they prefer'd one to another and some liked better of Pauls performance others of Apollo's in the same common work he taxes them of carnality i. e. of Schism 1 Cor. 3. 3. for so he gives the reason For saith he whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions or factions are not ye carnal why what factions or divisions are these he speaks of he tells you vers 4. For while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo are ye not carnal and yet Paul and Apollo were excellent Persons both of them not only Orthodox sound men but men of eminent abilities both and extraordinary graces But Paul and Apollo were but Ministers as he tells us in the next verse that employed those gifts and exercised those graces for the Churches good as the Lord giveth to every one If this be envying and strife and division or faction what would Paul have said of us how carnal are we who do not gad after the Pauls and Apollos I wish they were for their own and their Hearers sakes all such whom people now-a-days so eagerly follow but quite Kim-kam leave the regular Assemblies of Orthodox men and run a wildring after every Will-in-the-wisp that comes in our way and have such persons in admiration as are many of them neither Orthodox nor able and further some of us take up dangerous Principles at any rate and exercise Religions of our own making in such a manner as must needs in the end might such things prevail amongst us prove destructive to Christianity it self And thus I have answered that Objection at large taking in thâ— ground of the main Controversie as far as I could which is in debatâ— at this day among us There is another too which I must not leâ— go without its Answer and I shall be brief That these reasons 〈◊〉 mine for Vniformity will serve indifferently for all Religions of alâ— Countries as well as ours and that Mahumetans and Papists are by this Doctrine no less obliged then we to keep up their ways oâ— Worship amongst the people for the honour of God the reputation of Religion and the safety of the Government since
disturbances manifestly hazard their own prosperity in the general Confusion and at long run do themselves no less mischief than they designed the Church drowning for company in the miscarriage of the Vessel 2. For that which ought to be every honest mans next consideration for the good of 〈◊〉 Community for a Heathen could say Non nobis solùm nati sumus c. we are not born only for our selves but our Country our kindred our friends our brethren and companions challenge a great share in us so that if a man cast up his obligations aright he ought not so much to live to himself as to the Publick and this much more upon the score of Christianity where Self-denial is the main Principle and Charity the grand Duty And this Argument is represented in the Text. For my brethren and companions sakes for my Friends and Country-men for my Neighbours and Relations I will say Peace be within thee or as in the reading Psalms I will wish thee prosperity And this is upon a Civil account the Peace and prosperity of the Church being likely to procure the settlement of good order and the establishment of peace in the Civil State whereas quarrels about Religion seldom or never end there till they have involved the Government and Policy of a Nation into dangerous consequents 3. From that which though set last ought to be considered and resolved on in the first place by all pious men that have any sense of Gods Honour any zeal to his Name and Service any love or kindness to his House and Ordinances from the Worship and Respect due to God from his people Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good And this upon a Spiritual or Religious account to love the Church for the Churches sake and to do it all the good we can for the honour of God as well as for the benefit of our brethren and companions that so we may under our King live quiet and peaceble lives in all godliness and honesty as our Church has taught us to pray Being to speak before this Honourable Assembly with whom the Care and Government of our Ierusalem this once famous City is intrusted I have made choice of the second of these Arguments which shews how Civil Society is concerned in a quiet Exercise of the National Religion wherein the Psalmist makes it his resolution and recommends it to us all to pray for the Churches peace and to wish her prosperity for our brethren and companions sake in the behalf of our Friends and Country-men as we wish well to our King and Country and stand well affected to the Government and the Laws as we hope to see the Nation thrive Trade flourish the City rebuilt and all our friends and acquaintance in a prosperous condition the peace of the Church and the peoples agreement in the Service of God being the only probable means of securing and ascertaining our Civil Interests and Publick tranquillity For my brethren and companions sakes I will now say Peace be within thee I will wish thee prosperity In the words we have two things fall under our Consideration 1. A Duty recommended to us in Davids Example and Resolution which is to wish the Churches peace 2. A strong Motive to inforce this Duty for our brethren and companions sakes out of that love and affection we bear to the Publick and to our native Country The Resolution of Duty exprest in the latter Clause of the Verse I will now say Peace be within thee where though our English render it as the common form of Salutation used amongst that people when they met or parted with one another as our Saviour ordered his Disciples when he sent them forth Luke 10. 5. Into whatsoever house they entred first to say Peace be to this house and thus our Church has in her Offices for the Visitation of the sick after our Saviours Example ordered that the Priest entring into the sick persons house shall say Peace be to this house and to all that dwell in it and certainly when ever we address our selves to Gods House the House of Prayer 't is very comely and most meet that we should all of us salute her in this Form Peace be within thee Yet this I take to be too narrow a sense for the Form of Salutation was somewhat different from this and it should have been said if that had been all intended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peace be to thee not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peace be in thee Therefore the rest of the Interpreters take it in a wider sense by a plainer construction I will speak peace say they in thee and thus it may be the Magistrates part to speak peace with Authority to command it and to see it kept Say others I will speak peace for thee in thy behalf and that belongs to the Minister to preach up the peace of the Church even with that earnestness as to quarrel for it though with Ieremy he become a man of contentions in a perverse and froward generation while he does so and when he speaks of peace others make themselves ready for battel The Septuagint and Vulgar read it thus I will speak peace of thee or concerning thee i.e. to speak kindly of it and to wish it well and thus it will concern all the People the generality every man in the Nation And I am afraid there is but too much need that both Magistrate and Minister and People and all should all of us bestir our selves and contribute our utmost endeavours for the Churches peace and welfare if we will but do what we ought to do and that out of Interest as well as Duty for our own and our Countries sake for that 's The Motive and Reason with which this Duty is back'd indeed faced and put forward with in the beginning of the verse for my brethren and companions sakes whose good will they nill they be they the Churches friends or foes is to be sought in the preservation of the Church for as the Churches peace depends upon the union and agreement of these brethren and companions so on the other hand in her peace and prosperity is comprehended the happiness and nearest concerns of us all By Brethren is meant Kindred and Relations the charitates naturales in a strict sense but according to the larger acception of the word in the Hebrew language all our Country-men from one end of the Nation to the other all that live under the same Laws and Government especially those that are of the same houshold of faith and profess the same Gospel of Peace By Companions or Friends are to be understood those of a stricter and closer Alliance with whom we have contracted nearer and dearer familiarities above all those that agree with us in the same Orthodox Judgment and walk regularly and lovingly with us according to the same Rules and Institutions of Gods publick Worship whose concerns are more
matter of no great concern what Religion they are of or whether they be of any at all But alas we have now in this Church that disadvantage without travelling for it Our people stay at home and see fashions and some as Travellers use to put on the habit and garb of each Country they go through have appeared in all shapes taken up all Opinions and Forms and done exercise in them all till at last they have taken the degree of Doctors in the Scorners Chair and have turned profest Atheists How do the Romanists triumph in our dissensions make Bonfires out of our flames and daily get ground of the Protestant Cause whilst we Protestants our selves do their work for them by unnatural quarrels destroying our common Mother the Church How do prophane persons make themselves merry at the miscarriages of the Church and harden themselves in their Atheistical Reasonings against God himself when they see so much ado made such zeal and heat shown on all sides about Forms of Worship and the Circumstances of Religion when the mean while the great Duties of Christianity wherein the life and power of Religion lyes are by most of us of all perswasions neglected and how can they chuse but think Religion it self a trifle if that be it that makes us so earnest about trifles and yet so regardless in those things which the worst of Atheists themselves confess are necessary for the preservation of men whether singly in their own persons or joyntly in Society such as are Iustice Temperance Charity and the like What can Neighbour-States and Churches abroad think of us that after God had so wonderfully restored us to the astonishment of the world we have so strangely and with no less astonishment to the dishonour of God and our own shame lost the Miracle and let it fall to the ground and given up the Cause in a manner to which God by his extraordinary Providences and his Anointed our late Soveraign the blessed Martyr by his unparallel'd sufferings gave such testimony And at last what can we our selves look for now that God will yet work more Miracles for our preservation who have by our divisions in his Worship and our Spiritual fornications not only forfeited his protection but procured his displeasure and at once both disobliged his mercy and provoked his Justice To me to speak what I apprehend freely it appears in the posture we now stand in a very shrewd symptom and a dangerous indication that God himself and Religion and all are now about to take their solemn leave of the Country together with the Churches peace And then what will become of our brethren and companions for whose sake we are to endeavour the Churches peace when God has once forsaken the Land And thus I have done with the first Argument The second is that the peace of the Church in the uniform Worship of God is a necessary expedient to make Religion the happy instrument of Government by securing that influence it has upon the minds of men in awing Subjects to obedience and uniting our brethren and companions in love without which obedience and love 't is impossible that any people should hold together and prosper since where discontents and divisions prevail a Society must needs of it self naturally tend to dissolution A House a City a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand is a State-Aphorism we have from the mouth of Truth it self So then whether 't were fear or love was the Principle which gathered mankind into Nations and Common-wealths and brought them to live in Community under the same Laws and Priviledges we find them both in Religion Whereupon 't is the remark of a Roman Historian that as Romulus founded the City by Arms so Numa setled it by Religion and then came Ancus and found leisure to adorn it with Temples and publick Buildings Thus Religion secured the acquists of the Sword on one hand and prepared the design for the Truel on the other And till Religion be in a better condition amongst you then for ought I see 't is now in I cannot not tell what you may think of your Building 'T is true it seems to me in our present divisions that much what like the Iews after their return we rebuild our City with a Sword in one hand and a Truel in the other but so as if that Sword were to be used against our selves not against an Enemy as theirs was I wish heartily that the peace of the Church may be so setled amongst us and the rubbish of our late ruines there removed that you may lay your Foundations upon fair even ground and raise the Superstructures with comfort and honour that when you have built up your Walls and your Palaces Peace may be within your walls and plenteousness within your palaces which would then most certainly be when as you are obliged to an Vniformity of building the City so the Citizens themselves would joyn all in an uniform Exercise of Religion whose first Character it is that 1. It aws the consciences of men and binds them up to their good behaviour in a strict attendance upon the duties of every one in his place and a careful obedience to the Law in common And thus Machiavil himself tutours his Prince that he will put on the shew at least of Religion to make his Government dreadful though he hold it dangerous to his interest to be bigotted into it and would have him take up no more of it then will serve his turn But if the mask and vizard the bare appearance of Religion be in the esteem of carnal worldly Policy so considerable a help to Government how serene and awful would it be in its genuine native countenance with what rays of Divinity would the truth and power of it cloath the Magistrate that the people would behold him as an Angel of God For since all Government derives its power from God the more of God it shews the more powerful it must needs be Wherefore if once Religion grow mean amongst a people no wonder if they grow familiar and sawcy with the Government and having got the reins of conscience upon their neck run away with their Rider and 't is well if not dismount him too When men are suffered to set their mouths wide open against Heaven to blaspheme God and deny him in a breath and to droll in Scripture-language and jeer at sacred things how can it be expected that earthly Majesty should preserve its reverence with the people but that God will suffer some to be as bold with their Governors as they have suffered others to be with him that by way of Reprisal he may recover his lost Honour and those that have slighted him may be meanly esteemed For as God subdues the people under their lawful Prince so it must be the Princes care to subdue the people to God by keeping up the aw and port of Religion And this is done in the uniform and unanimous
been inlightned since and changed their mind they must know too that that power which gives men in publick place leave to act may upon publick inconvenience suspend their acting and if then they do act 't is an unjustifiable disobedience Nor is it with them as it was with Saint Paul Wo be unto me if I preach not the Gospel he had another kind of Call but for these there 's a Wo belongs to them if they do 'T is otherwise too now the Church is setled under Christian Magistrates and govern'd by Christian Laws then at that time when it was to be planted under the Government of Heathen Emperours The Church now with all her subordinations and dependencies in all her jurisdictions and powers owns the King her Supreme She challenges nothing to her self but what the favour of her Prince and the Laws of the land have allow'd her Thus Bishops as to the execution of their Office are sent by the King as Supreme and act in their Courts by the Kings power as Civil Courts do the King deputing Arch-Bishops and Bishops to be Judges under him in causes Spiritual and in his name to govern the Ecclesiastical State as he makes Lord Keepers Chief Iustices and other Iudges of the Land For had the Church any power in it self in Civil affairs besides what the Laws give her I dare say there 's ne're a Bishop in England but would speedily redress those scandals and grievances possibly brought into their Courts by Lay-Officers which people so much clamour against But now what can they do they are ty'd up by Law All of us that are of the Clergy own the Civil Power pay the same obedience to the Laws as any of you do and in First-fruits Tenths and Subsidies make as chargable acknowledgments as any of the populacy I know 't is said though what need of such a pompous costly Religion of a Church with so great an allowance of means This ample Revenue exhausts and weakens the State smaller stipends would serve turn very well But can any one with any shew of ingenuity fairly reason against the encouragements of Learning and the rewards of desert Let it be consider'd that several of this Order had they gone another way might with submission I speak it have sate in your Seats and been clad with your Purple After all our pains and time and strength and charges too spent in studies do not think that what the Law allows us we have by doing nothing for it These things are propos'd publickly as the Acquists of Industry and may be got and injoy'd as legally as any of your Estates And is it not fit do you think a National Church wherein the honour and reputation of Religion is to be kept up should be secur'd from poverty and that contempt which always accompanies meanness It were to be wish'd that as Kings are to be the Nursing Fathers of the Church so Princes and the Sons of Nobles would fit themselves for her dignities that they might bear up the honour of Religion with their personal attendence It has been so heretofore when the two great Offices were united in the same person Melchisedek King of Salem and Priest of the living God and they were kept pretty near in the persons of Moses and Aaron brethren and the Priest elder brother to the Prince And hence the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kohen whence we have King signifies indifferently Prince and Priest whereupon the Apostle Rom. 13. calls the King in Ecclesiastical terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Minister say we for both 't is Gods Liturgie-maker and Gods Deacon to shew too that a Christian Magistrate as such has power to order religious affairs in the Service of God This I say has been and 't were well if it could be so with us however must the Church alone be held up by a precarious dependence Is it not this that makes Religion a Prostitute to the humors of the people when men of mean spirits and parts shall out of fear comply for a paltry livelihood to preach things that may please and others of ambitious minds and voluble tongues to serve an interest shall lead the people to their own hurt But some will say what would you have men do that are not otherwise considered since there is that unequal distribution of Church-favours that some go away with all and others get little or nothing Judge in your own case whether this be a reasonable ground of quarrel Shall the inequality of Estates amongst you make the meaner Citizens quarrel the Government of the City because they have not all the wealth of Aldermen Shall I or any of my brethren and companions because we have not that place and esteem in the Church as we out of the pride of our own hearts may think we deserve go in a sullen arrogance and set up for our selves in a distinct interest from the Church and flye in the face of our Mother and put undutiful affronts upon her for not being so kind as we would have her No. Gen. 49. 6. O my soul come not thou into such mens secret unto their private assemblies mine honour be not thou united Let them for me be divided in Iacob and scattered in Israel that in their anger and self-will practise such things To go on I know it has been seriously discoursed and pâ—inted too that the largeness of the Church-revenue in any Nation impoverishes the State sets the people behind-hand and puts them out of a thriving condition and no less then demonstration offered that if it were retrenched Trade would flourish Manufactures and growths receive wonderful improvements and the people generally grow rich apace But to Answer that Author those Common-wealths he speaks of and ours are not alike in the constitution and nature of the Government and God forbid they ever should But it may be ones wonder why our people cannot now with much more case make those improvements since the Church keeps little in her own hands and for the most part lets easie penny-worths nor can it be any reason that the Church drains the peoples money since if the Church had not what she has some body else would in the Churches right nor would the people be much the better How our Neighbour-States order their Church affairs I suppose ought to be no precedent of Policy to us though they to keep up a National Religion by which those they admit into publick trust are brought to test and for the securing publick peace amidst the differences of Religion maintain a standing Army Further why our dissenters should not upon their own bottoms be comprehended within the legal settlement of the Church they themselves give a very just occasion for the very best Party amongst them have such Principles of Policy and Government as are utterly inconsistent and incompatible not only with any other Form but with Monarchy it self as hath been clearly evidenced
liberty they talk of and that light which so dazzles their eyes that they cannot see their way is quite mistaken by them That light was indeed design'd to lead them out of the shadow but not to lead them into the fire for of that nature all Schism and division is and that liberty as it releas'd them from the bondage of the Ceremonial Law so it doth not at all disoblige them from the Moral Law but rather engages them to it with faster ties of gratitude Now as I take it the Fifth Commandment which enjoyns obedience to the Magistrate was never lookt upon as a part of the Ceremonial Law but always accounted to have a Moral and a perpetual indispensible obligation in it And I must assure them that disobedience to a lawful Governour in things not simply in their own nature unlawful as most of them confess our Liturgy and Rites to be is a great sin and of dangerous consequence to their own Souls as well as to the Peace of the Church So that that answer they make the Magistrate in this case is not proper that they are not free to obey him for they are by all Laws both of God and Man Free nay more obliged and bound to obey Only let them I advise take heed of making that Liberty they pretend to a Cloak of Maliciousness Again as to what they say that the Iews had a peremptory command from God himself for their Vniformity but we can produce no such for ours I grant them nor am I so fond to say we have an express command set down in God's Word for every rite and usage our Church has thought fit for Decency and good Order to retain Nor is it at all necessary it should be so No neither had they for all theirs as appears by David's and Solomon's ordering the Quire of the Temple in the course of the Singers making forms of devotion and prescribing them for publick use and instituting several other things as occasion required in that service And the like may be said of Asa and Iosias their Reformations And this those godly and wise Governours thought they might with a safe Conscience do even in that service which God himself had appointed and that Church was never in a more flourishing condition then it was then And are they able now to produce any reason why we should not believe the Governours of our Church of whom we own the King as Supreme to have the same power now as they had then upon the like occasions and that the People stand equally obliged to accept the Proposals of publick Authority in things of the same nature that concern the Worship of God Especially since Christ at his promulgation of the Gospel in his own person took care only for the weightier things and left those of lesser alloy which tend only to the convenience and beauty of the Church not to the Essence of Religion to the care and prudence of the Apostles and so from them to others their Successors Governours of the Church to order the Affairs of each Church as would be most expedient for the necessities of each Church in its Plantation And some of these Apostles sure if I understand any thing have left not only commands but Examples behind them too which reach our case For what means that which is said of the Primitive Christians that they continued together and were all of one mind They were not sure met some in one place and some in another in different forms to exercise their Religion one part kneeling another standing a third sitting at the breaking of the bread Let not such unhandsom thoughts enter into our hearts What means the Apostle when he chides some that sunk and withdrew from the Publick Assemblies as the manner of some was but that he would have them keep close to an uniform Worship and not separate and set up for themselves in new fangle ways of their own Indeed what mean those many vehement perswasions to like-mindedness and brotherly love which we meet with every where in the Apostles writings but agreement in Religion Since that love can be no way so well exprest as in such an agreement and upon tryal 't will be found impossible it should be maintained and preserved amongst us otherwise In a word if that general Rule the Apostle doth authoritatively set down have not in it the force and purport of a Command I am to seek what a Command is Let every thing be done decently and in order And how in the same Church every one might have liberty of his own Methods to serve God by and yet the Decorum of Religion and the good Order of the Church be nevertheless kept up I must confess I am still further to seek for my understanding In a word let them talk of Christian liberty as they please that cannot reasonably by pretended to justifie publick disorders in any Christian State This may be rational to suppose that the several Churches according to the nature of their several constitutions in several Countries were left to a liberty upon prudential reasons to order their own affairs to their own convenience in things indifferent whether in matters of Government or Worship or Discipline keeping still to the Analogy of faith and sound doctrine and to the Rule of Gods Word And hereupon it was that the English Church when it threw off the tyrannous yoke of Popery as it did with prudent Zeal and by publick Authority reform the abuses and corruptions of Doctrine and abolish all superstitious and idle Ceremonies so of them what were found not contrary to Scripture-rule and agreeable to primitive practice it thought fit to retain for decency and good order in her Liturgie and Publick Service And though some were even then discontented that no more was done and called for a farther Reformation yet this was but according to the British Proverb which tells us that the Saissons so they call us never know when a thing is well but will be mending still till they mar all as our late times plainly shew when under pretence of reforming Religion we had put our selves into the ready way of losing it quite and had scarce the face of a Church left amongst us Upon this ground Calvin himself as judicious Mr. Hooker tells us erected his Model at Geneva applying himself to the exigents of that time and those people he had to do with though others since besides his first intention have with violent zeal endeavoured to impose that Form upon other Churches also as matter of Conscience which was designed by him meerly out of prudence and convenience And no question but Calvin might look upon Government though he had for his own part as much Authority as ever Bishop of Geneva had and Presbytery it self is little else then a multiplied Episcopacy setting up in every Parish a Diocesan I say he might probably look upon Church-government as an indifferent thing as well as he did
we ought not in stark Charity to suppose but that they who profess the worst of Religions do in their conscience and according to their Principles take it to be the best in the world I hope there 's no one in this Assembly will make so uncharitable a reflection upon my Discourse as to imagine that has been the drift of it to countenance the bloody practices and cruel persecutions used either in the Popes Dominions or the Grand Signor's Territories Far be it from me to plead the cause either of the one or of the other Yet I do in my Conscience think that some of those the most violent Princes of either Religion that have been the most zealous Persecuters were in their Conscience perswaded that they were in the right You 'l say that 's fair for me to grant Our Saviour says the same they shall kill you and think they do God good service by so doing and yet I say Positively and I would have it taken notice of because it may concern some who may think themselves far enough from being in the same form with Turks and Papists I do Positively say that this their acting according to their Conscience will by no means excuse them For my proof I have both the great Apostles Rule and his Example too His Rule is set down Gal. 4. 18. It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing The case he brings it upon is not so clear I suppose upon the account of some false Teachers which endeavour'd to alienate them from that Doctrine which he had taught them and to withdraw them from the Church for their own advantage and this with a great shew of zeal in the fore-going verse They zealously affect you says he but not well yea they would exclude you or in another reading they would exclude us that you might affect them I wish our People would beware of such who with a great deal of zealous affection carry on their own designs But whatever the particular case was the Rule will hold in general 'T is good to be zealous if a man's cause be good and if the man be convinc'd his cause is so Otherwise Zeal without knowledge or in a wrong cause is a ridiculous and mischievous thing and is upon this score reckoned amongst the works of the flesh And thus is it with those Idolatrous People who the more zealous they are the more they have to answer I confess 't is a sad thing for any man to have an erring guide to follow I mean an erroneous Conscience For which way soever he take either with or against Conscience he is concluded to an unavoidable necessity of sinning and I must acknowledge too that 't is safest to sin on Conscience side and yet the mistake of Conscience will not be a sufficient plea for unjustifiable actions And thus it was with Paul who in the time of his Pharisaism was a zealous Persecutor and thought he did well but after his Conversion for that very thing condemns himself as the worst of sinners and yet was no less zealous for the Religion he turn'd to Now does his Zeal whilst he was a Pharisee which was his great sin make his Christian Zeal e're a whit the less commendable No sure No more does Nero's or Dioclesian's Persecutions of the Saints blemish any Christian Magistrates severity in defending the Faith against Hereticks or the Order of the Church against Alexander's killing of a Friend in his drink could be no Argument against his putting a Traytor to death by sober advice nor could the execution of a Traytor excuse the murder of a Friend To retort it upon the Objectors if they are so zealously affected that rather then their conceits shall not carry they will venture the pulling down Church and State about their ears let any one judge is not the Magistrate whom God hath intrusted with the care of his Church obliged to be as Zealous for the preservation of Church and State in the vigorous defence of Truth and Peace To make a familiar instance an honest man in possession shews a just courage in maintaining his right and is commended for it whilst the injurious invader let his courage be what it will is apprehended and deservedly punish'd by Law unless he grow too strong for the Law and then that 's a sad case I have done with the Arguments wherein I could not but think it my duty as to plead the Churches Peace so to vindicate her against Objections which are usually made and now shall only desire that as you have hitherto attended me with an obliging patience so you will extend that patience a little farther whilst I make an earnest and affectionate Address to you in a short Application with which I shall close all Let me then press it upon you Right Honourable and Worshipful the Magistrates and Patriots of this great City and you worthy Citizens of what rank and degree soever which hear me this day and I could wish my voice could reach from one end of the City to the other that you will all of you put on Publick Spirits and lay to heart the concerns of your Brethren and Companions and every man in his place exsert his Authority and Interest contribute his Prayers and endeavours for the Prosperity of the English Church and the composure of our unnatural irreligious differences in Religion Your City is the Metropolis of the Nation the Royal Seat of the Government and the great Staple of Trade which spreads its universal influence into all parts of the Land and your Example gives law to all the rest of the people 'T is your Iustice which holds the ballance in all National dealings 't is your mode of Religon here that is follow'd every where yonr fashions of serving God that are taken up and retayl'd into the Countrey The union of this City would unite us all O do not be wanting to so Pious so Necessary so Charitable a Work If you have any regard to God's Honour amongst us if any care of Religion if any love to your Native Countrey and the Government you live under if any kindness to your own Persons and Families to your Wives and little ones to your Friends and Relations if you have any hopes left after all those heavy Iudgments that have gone over you of enjoying Peace and Liberty and Plenty in your new dwellings if all these dear concerns do as I know they needs must lye near your hearts act then in the name of God for his sake and your own in a full and vigorous sense of these things and study the Churches Peace which is to secure them all to you by your unanimous Agreement in God's Worship and Service Your publick Iustice and Regulation of Trade and Reformation of Abuses in Civil Affairs and the prudent and vigilant administration of the Government of the City are things make you worthily spoken of but if this be all if there be not a