soundness and goodness of it as it is an unjustifiable zeal because not according to knowledge so it is never to be expected that it should be rewarded with Houses and Lands in this world or with Glory in the world to come Be perswaded therefore to enquire into the grounds of your Religion before you expose your self to such inconveniences and losses for it's sake Consult some able conscientious Divines of the Church of England about it and I am sure you are not altogether a stranger to some who are able and will be willing to give you all reasonable satisfaction It is a piece of natural justice to hear both Parties speak before we condemn either â—â—th our Law judge any one before it hear him and know what 〈◊〉 doth said Nicodemus a Ruler of the Jews But truely I thâ—â—â—hat the neglect of consulting the Writings of the Divines of the Church of England and the over-easie belief of whatever your Priests do buzz into your ears may justly expose most of your Religion to the censure of having too much partiality and too little justice But Pray Sir do but consider the wonderful charms of Empire and riches and to what horrid impieties they have sometimes hurried the greatest part of men And why may not most of those Doctrines which the Church of Rome is so zealous to maintain be no other for any thing you know yet then what do altogether flow from the mighty thirst after riches and Empire which many of the Popes of Rome have been eminently remarkable for I think I could name some that have had their sole rise and spring from thence but that I study all possible brevity But however let me mind you of consulting their Doctrines about Purgatory about Pardons and Indulgences and those of deposing as they call them Heretical Kings and Princes And I am perswaded you will find that the only root from whence they did at first spring was no other whatever is pretended then that forenamed The fire of Purgatory keeps the old Gentleman warm his Pardons and Indulgences fill his holinesse's Coffers The saying Masses for the dead brings in so many good rents that the Priests stand in no great need of help from the living This is the craft by which they get their wealth and therefore these Doctrines are the great Diana's amongst them The Church of Rome hath at all times ever since the Reformation been charged by the Divines of the Church of England with that damnable sin of Idolatry And if you could be perswaded impartially to peruse the late writings of the Learned and well-read Doctor Stillingfleet you would begin to suspect that they of that Church are not altogether free from it Their praying to Saints their Doctrines of merits their depriving the Laity of the Cup in the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper and many other such like things as I could name are clearly and directly contrary to the Holy Scriptures And this too you would be fully convinc'd of if you could once be perswaded to read them And to what purpose were they written and delivered to the World but that they might be read Do not therefore any longer suffer your Priests to take away that Key of knowledge from you who will not enter in themselves nor by their good will suffer others that are willing to enter You had need to have an extraordinary good opinion of those who keep you thus in the dark For my part should they deal thus with me I should very much doubt their honest intentions and at least conclude that they look'd upon me either as a Mad-man or a Fool. And some expressions that have fall'n from their Pens of late makes me apt to believe that they have scarce any better thoughts of most Lay men of your Religion And surely were it not that they do think so they would never have gone about to impose upon them such ridiculous fopperies and Pageant-like ceremonies so far from being grave and significant and such as may become Religion that I have oftentimes thought that as it was in Heathen Rome heretofore so it is in Rome Christian viz that your Priests have much ado to contain from smiling when they meet one another in the streets to think how easily they Gull and delude you Were it not that I am unwilling to transgress too much the bounds of an Epistle I could say a great deal more but nothing more then what 's true against the Romish Religion But in regard that it was your own doings to put me upon this work I hope you will the more readily pardon me if I do transgress Nevertheless there is but one thing more that I shall at present speak of And that is to ask you how you can possibly fauster or entertain any good thoughts of such a Religion as encourages and prompts men to Assassinations and murders and such like Hellish Artifices to propagate and uphold it That some of your Religion have been lately as well as formerly guilty of these things is so plainly apparent that nothing but an unmeasurable store of considence can deny it And for these things the Jesuits are noted throughout a great part of the Christian World for England hath not been the only Scene where they have acted these kind of Villanies The bloody Massacre in Ireland which is still fresh in the memories of many living that too in France and another at Piedmont and elsewhere hath sufficiently made them known in those parts And for these things they better deserve the name of Turks than Christians And that all of that way are not as deeply concern'd as the other is owing more to a generous temper and a naturally mild and tender disposition or such like then to their Religion whose Principles I am sure if fully understood and followed would put them upon as great and if possible greater impieties But alas the misery of it is they do not yet know the misery of the iniquity of the Church of Rome for if they did as your Priests are well aware of they would certainly be affrighted at it's dismal sight and utterly renounce all Communion with it Such Principles as lead to cruelty and blood are undoubtedly the Positions of the Church of Rome but they are not to be discover'd but at some certain times when their cause is like to be promoted by them nor but to some persons whom they find to be the most savage and inhumane They pick a jury for the Tryal or rather for the acting of their cause out of the Butchers-roe But once again is that Religion think you true and Christian that encourages rebellion and treason and murder Alas God would have no men to speak or act wickedly for him Their Religion is vain and their damnation will be just who do such apparent evils under a pretence they may do good thereby Surely these very things will make every sober well-meaning Christian to abhorr and detest them Can that
to be made said a Reverend Prelate and Martyr of our Church but that the eye of the Prophet was so clear that he look'd quite through the Temple of Jerusalem which was but a Figure or Shadow of that which was to come and saw Christ his Church and Kingdom at the end of it So that this Psalm hath a great reach and it is of a very large extent it reaches not only to the Jew but also to the Christian not only to the Temple but also to the Church So that we now as well as they then may and must and ought to pray for the peace of our Jerusalem By Jerusalem here is indeed meant as well the State or body of the Kingdom as the body of the Church For after the Ark of God was placed there it became not only the house of Religion or the House of God verse the 1. But also the house of the State or Kingdom because there also is the Seat of Judgment verse the 5. And therefore it is our duty to pray for the peace of both not only for the peace of the Church but also for the peace of the Kingdom But how rare a thing is it to meet with any but what are ready and willing enough to consult the good of the State and the peace and safety of the Kingdom because the estates and lively hood both of them and theirs doth very much depend upon it But alas The thing which most men are most extreamly forgetful of is the peace of the Church they are but little concerned at the rents and breaches that are made in it never considering that if the Church be disquieted and disturbed the State or Kingdom can never be at peace The word here rendred pray is in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to ask and enquire after to labor and endeavor the good of any thing Some would have it read quaerite seek it and follow hard after it And then the sense of the exhortation will be much agreable with that of the holy Apostle St. Paul Rom. 14.19 Follow after or most zealously attend to those things that make for the peace of Jerusalem or the Church By the word peace is here meant all kind of blessings all manner of prosperity Pacis nomen generaliter accipitur pro loeto foelici statu sayes Molleâ—â—s in his exposition of this Psalm the word peace is generally taken for a joyful and most happy State because this is that which Crowns all other blessings and is above all others the most to be desired by us And now having thus lay'd open to you the meaning of these three terms here used in the Text and thereby shew'd you what is the import of praying for the peace of Jerusalem I shall lay down and prosecute this following observation which is altogether agreable with it viz. Obs That is a duty highly concerning and much incumbent upon all Christians to endeavor the safety and to pray for the peace of the Church I might here give you a large discourse of peace and of the several benefits of it I might shew you at large that peace is absolutely the greatest temporal blessing that any people or nation can possibly partake of It is a thing so good that without it nothing can be good with it says Solomon an handful of hearbs without it an house full of Sacrifices is not good Pro. 17.1 These things which I shall anon lightly touch at I might insist upon at large and thereby engage and perswade you all to this great and important duty of praying for the peace of Jerusalem or for the prosperity and safety of the Church But I question not but that I shall effectually engage you to it and convince you all of the great necessity of endeavoring the safety and of praying for the peace of the Church from these following reasons and considerations As 1st It will appear to be a duty highly concerning and much incumbent upon all Christians to endeavor the safety and to pray for the peace of the Church because of those many enemies which continually lay siege against it endeavoring to disturb it's peace and as much as in them lyes utterly to overthrow it In the 16 Chap. of St. Matthews Gospel and the 18. verse When our Saviour Christ upon St. Peters acknowledgment and confession of his being the true Messias and the son of the living God told him thou art Peter and upon this Rock i. e. upon this confession which thou whose name signifies a Rock or Stone hast made I will build my Church and withal made that promise that the Gates of Hell i.e. all the power and strength wisdom and policy authority and empire in the world no not the grave or Satan himself which proverbially are said to be irresistable should ever prevail against it or destroy it By this promise I say he does insinuate and inform us thus much that those open Gates and Gates of Hell gape not wider for any thing than for it Though the Ark of God was setled in Jerusalem and though the people as you have heard were so resolvedly constant in the performance of their devotions yet the holy Prophet knew that the Philistines those enemies of God and of his Church waited only for an opportunity of taking it again Captive And therefore upon this account or more especially for this reason pray says he for the peace of Jerusalem No sooner had the Apostles planted the Christian Church but the Gnosticks the followers of Simon Magus that first Priests of the Church presently sowed their Tares of discord and dissention in it and raised up the unbelieving Jews in every City and in every place where they might be suffered for to come to disquiet and disturb it And hence were all those pathetick exhortations laid down by the Apostles in their several Epistles to the several Churches of following the things that make for peace of having peace amongst themselves of keeping the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace and the like That they should by no means hearken to any of those Sowers of discord and sedition though they made never so fair a shew and specious pretence of piety and holiness Who came indeed according to our Saviour's prediction in Sheeps cloathing as the true Prophets of old used to do thereby pretending the greatest innocency and meekness that could be but inwardly they are ravenous Wolves they design nothing in the conclusion but devouring and rapacity Saint Paul at that visitation of his Brethren held at Miletum and recorded in the 20. Chap. of the Acts of the Apostles after he had told them of his going up to Jerusalem and of the bonds and afflictions which by the testimony of the holy Ghost in every City should attend him there he commits to them the care of his flock charges them to feed the Church of God which he had purchased with his own blood and to be the more
entertainment to the Saviour of the world to the Lord of Life and to the Prince of Glory Let us call for fire to come down from Heaven to consume them Are they Jews let them then starve says the one are they Samaritans Burn them says the other This is the fruit and sowre fruit indeed of dissention in Religion and this is the spirit the Diabolical spirit indeed it makes men commonly of And now ye your selves shall judge whether it 's possible for that State or Kingdom to continue long in peace and safety where there is great difference in Religion Certainly there can be but little peace since it renders men thus malicious and inveterate one against another If some of the Bells of Aaron be rung backwards and made to jangle it portends no less then a combustion in the Kingdom Turbata religio politiam turbat is another saying of the learned Lypsius a saying which I am confident the Papists make great reckoning of do but divide them in their opinions about Religion and then the Kingdom must needs fall into disorder and confusion If there be no peace in the Church there is but little to be hoped for in the State And therefore for this reason also it will highly concern us all to endeavor the safety and to pray for the peace of the Church because the peace and safety of the State or Kingdom doth very much depend upon it Again 3ly and ult It will appear to be a duty highly concerning and much incumbent upon c. because of the blessed and happy effects and fruits of it Had we but peace and unity and an amicable agreement amongst our selves we need not then so much fear all the cunningst plots of the Jesuits that are hatched in the conclave of Rome and acted by their Emissaries here who as our Saviour Christ says of the Scribes and Pharisees do compass Sea and Land to make a Proselite and afterwards make him seven fold more the Child of the Devil than he was before And as we need not then fear the Plots of the Jesuits had we but unity amongst our selves so should we most readily and willingly and without the least compulsion and constraint lay aside all private meetings and unlawful assemblies We should all go to the house of God as friends Psal 55.5 and meet as the Apostles did at the descent of the holy Ghost upon them Acts 2. with one accord in one place Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is says holy David Brethren to dwell together in unity Certainly were but the blessed effects of peace and the pleasant fruits of unity once tasted and throughly relished by us it would prove effectual to the provoking of all men to lay aside all those little picks and quarrels and indeed most unreasonable complaints which they make against our Church and to unite against that common enemy who so vigorously endeavors the ruin of it but knows withal that there is no speedier way whereby this can possibly be effected then by fomenting those little differences that are amongst us and by blowing up those little sparks into a flame which we alas of our selves are too too apt to kindle As the concurrence of multitude of Heresies and mutability in Religion as a late Learned and judicious writer observes was a means to bring in Antichrist so the present differences and animosities amongst our selves fomented by the Factors of Rome will have no small tendency to bring back the infallible Chair For people as he very well goes on to prove it will accept of a quiet harbor though upon hard conditions rather then be afflicted with continual tossings in Stormy Seas 'T is natural to man to covet any quiet Land rather then to dwell with the terror of a continual Earth-Quake How mightily that party hath encreased upon us of late years I think I need not because the former and the very late endeavors of the higher powers to suppress them do sufficiently tell us And from whence the encrease of that party doth undoubtedly proceed I have according to the judgment of all our late writers now shew'd you And if God Almighty should again suffer that common enemy to enter in at the breaches we have made amongst our selves as a just and deserved punishment upon us for it then to use the words of the Learned Doctor Stillingfleet should we begin to wish that we had soon known the difference between the reasonable commands of our own Church and the intollerable Tyranny of a forreign and usurped power between the soft and gentle hands of a mother and the iron sinews of an Executioner betwixt the utmost rigor of our Laws and the least and mildest of an inquisition None can ever be sufficiently sensible of the blessed effects of the peace of the Church as those that are deprived of it Peace indeed is better known by want than use and is thought most worthy the having by them who have it not Let but your fancy therefore lead you for a while from the consideration of your own present peace into some Kingdom rouling in Blood and into some Church infested with Persecution Ask them who are divided by the Sword which are rosting at the flames torturing upon the Rack such as the Apostle St. Paul speaks of in the 11. Chap. of his Epistle to the Hebrews As are forced to wander about in Sheep-skins and goat-skins to hide themselves in Dens and Caves of the Earth being destitute afflicted and tormented Ask such as those I say what a blessed and happy a State it is to live in the Fellowship and Communion of such a Church as ours is wherein the word of God is truly and sincerely not rashly and unpremeditately Preached the Sacraments rightly and duly and not irreverently given and received where there is nothing enjoyned or commanded but what is altogether agreeable with the prescribed rule and canon of holy Scripture If you should ask them this question I am perswaded that they would be ready to return you an answer in those words of holy David Psalm 144.15 Happy are the People that are in such a case or else in those words of our Saviour Christ Luke 19.42 That you did but know in this your day the things that do belong unto your peace before it be too late before they are hid from your eyes And thus you see the several reasons why it doth so highly concern us all to endeavor the safety and to pray for the peace of the Church 1. because of those many enemies which lay seige against it endeavoring to disturb it's peace and utterly to overthrow it 2ly because the peace and safety of the State and Kingdom doth very much depend upon it And lastly because of the blessed effects and happy fruits of peace Let us now see what uses may be made of this point Use 1. First then Is it so that it is a duty of so great concernment to us all to endeavor the
much incumbent upon all Christians to endeavor the safety and to pray for the peace of the Church And therefore let us all in the conclusion be perswaded in our several places and stations to use the utmost of our endeavors thereunto If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning says holy David and if I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth Psalm 137.5.6 verses Let us not forget her many enemies especially those Edomites be they Papists or others that cry out down with her down with her even to the ground And as for such as these let us pray unto God that he would abate their pride asswage their malice and confound all their devices And as for others who may possibly mean well but are most miserably misled and deluded let us pray unto God that it would please him to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived And let us not forget to pray for our Governors too let us pray unto God that it would please him to bless and keep the Magistrates giving them grace to execute justice and to maintain truth And by so doing we may the better expect and hope for the preservation of our religion and for the prosperity and safety and peace of our Jerusalem even so long till we shall all come to the enjoyment of the heavenly Jerusalem and to associate with an innumerable company of Angels till we shall come to the general assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the judg of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect Which that we all of us may God of his infinite mercy grant for the merits sake of his Son Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the holy spirit be all honor and glory and praise now and for ever Amen FINIS A Letter Written to a Young Gentleman a Roman Catholick in Warwick-shire SIR THE extraordinary kindness I have for you as a Friend and the care I have for your Soul as a Christian together with your late importunity for a few Lines from me in reference to your Religion hath forced me to put Pen to Paper in the performance of a Task which otherwise I should hardly have been perswaded to I am conscious enough of my own inabilities and I was Three or Four days in suspence whether I should comply with your desire or no. And the greatest Remora was the little good that I could promise to my self from such an undertaking and that upon a double account First in regard I knew you to be Educated in the Romish Religion from your very Cradle and so must needs have suck't in such prejudices against the Protestants as were not to be rooted out but by a person of greater skill and strength then my self And Secondly in regard of what I have already intimated viz. my great inability for it But when I began to consider and recollect what great things God Almighty who turns the Hearts of the Children of Men as he pleases hath sometimes wrought by weak Instruments I presently resolved upon the work and then to leave the issue and success to him who worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Your former carelesness and your earnest importunity of late for some satisfaction as to the Principles of your Religion brings to my mind what I have oftentimes been told of some Sea-men and Marriners such as according to the Royal Prophets expression go down to the Sea in Ships and do their business in great Waters who though at other times they have been careless and prophane enough even so far as to bid defiance to the Heavens and to the Powers above yet when the Stormy Winds and Tempests have rose upon them and have threatned them with an inevitable Ship-wrack and Destruction have then been all on a sudden roused and awak'd and have fall'n upon their knees in Prayer to that God in whom before they hardly seemed to believe You know I presume the old Maxim Similitudo non currâ—t quatuor pedibus And therefore though it will not be accommodated to you in all respects yet thus I think it may I have often heard you highly applauding the Church of Rome and so highly extolling the goodness of the Romish Religion as to seem utterly to dislike that of the Protestants and to give but little regard to any thing that could or might be said in vindication of the truth and purity of it This indeed was mostly while the season was serene and calm enough towards those of that Religion and the Penal statutes that have heretofore been made against them but rarely put in execution But since the discovery of a late damnable and bloody Plot of some at least if not of most of the Papists in England against a person of a mild and Gracious Prince even to the taking away his life and by that means to extirpate the Protestant Religion hath alarm'd the higher Powers and given them sufficient reason to inflict the utmost rigor and severity of the Laws upon the whole crew This may perchance have contributed something towards the rouzing and awakening you too to make some scrutiny and search into the goodness of that Religion of the Protestants that hath prompted them to so much mildness and gentleness towards you and into the Principles of that Religion of the Papists which puts her votaries both Priests and Laicks upon such ungrateful bloody and unjustifiable practises By what hath already passed upon this account against those of your Religion we may nearly guess what will be further done And surely you have but little reason to think but that those who shall refuse the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy when tender'd to them shall have the utmost severity of the Laws inflicted upon them And what those Laws are I think you have no need of any information Really Sir I hate an Hypocrite in Religion with all my heart such 〈…〉 as I remember Mr. Gale calls them that are for that Religion that makes most for their interest be it what it will And I would never go about to perswade any one to renounce and forsake a good Religion and thereby to hazard his soul which is more worth than a thousand worlds to save an estate And the great Author of our Christian Religion hath told us that whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after him he cannot be his Disciple But all that I would perswade you to is seriously to enquire whether that Religion you now profess be a good Religion or no. And let me tell you this that such a zeal as puts a man upon the loss of an estate for the sake of that Religion into which he was drawn when he scarce knew the difference betwixt good and evil and hath been ever since kept in the dark and not permitted to search into the
Religion be true and good which will not suffer you to be true and loyal to your King and to yield obedience in all lawful things to the higher Powers under whom God hath subjected us Can that Religion be true which will not suffer you to swear Allegiance to your Prince or if you do will afterwards dispense with you for the breach of such an Oath when the word of God itself which is more to be hearken'd to surely than the Pope hath commanded us to keep the Kings Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God Can that Religion be warrantable which would deprive Princes of their Power in the external Government of the Church when the word of God hath all along allowed and approv'd it as is plain throughout the whole Bible The Popes supremacy which I find you highly favor is an unjust usurpation and there is not the least intimation in the Scriptures for it unless you will admit of a Pasce oves feed my sheep or duo lumina fecit Deus God made two great lights the Sun to rule the day the Moon and the Starrs to govern the night as sufficient proofs of it And surely these texts will as little prove the Popes supremacy as that text Abraham begat Isaac would prove the unlawfulness of Non-residency But did I say that the Popes supremacy is an usurpation Why surely so it is and especially here in England where I could never yet understand any good title he had to it Whenever he had it it was got either by fraud or force and therefore he might very well expect to lose it when the right heir should claim his own The Pope that strong man armed kept it by meer force and strength for a while but at length came Henry the Eighth who being a Prince of courage and stronger than the Pope threw him out and the Kings of England his Successors have all reason to see to the keeping possession of that that is one of the most precious Jewels of the Crown To be brief Sir I would earnestly importune you to consult the Oaths of Allegiance and supremacy which will it 's presum'd e're long be tender'd to you And I verily believe that you can find nothing at all in either of them but what may very safely be taken by all good Christians And when you have taken them let me as earnestly importune you to keep them for however some may please themselves with the Popes dispensation and think that that will justifie and excuse them in the breach of those or either of those Oaths yet God himself hath told us that he will not hold them guiltless i.e. he will severely punish and revenge himself upon those who take his name in vain I have but one thing more to say which just now comes into my mind and that will relate to an expression which in my own hearing came lately from you You was saying not long since that if you should change your Religion yet you would hardly do it at this time because as you then said the world would think that you did it more out of fear then conscience The very expression my thought did portend some good and put me in some little hopes of a change But I beseech you Sir if you have any convictions wrought in you of the goodness of the purity and peaceableness of the Protestant Religion and of the quite contrary qualities of the Romish take heed of smothering stifeling such convictions though but for an hour for that may tend to the utter ruin of you both here and hereafter Let no man refuse to hear when God Almighty calls Never be afraid or asham'd to own and embrace that Religion which if you live but up to the Principles of it will render you a true Servant to God a loyal subject to your King and a faithful friend to your friend though his perswasion in Religion be never so differing And let me tell you this Sir that I could never yet perswade my self that a Roman Catholick quatenus Roman Catholick could ever be reckon'd as a good Christian a Loyal Subject or a true Friend And now Sir that you may be no longer a stranger to the Pious Devotions of that Church in whose Communion I as well as many others should be very glad and joyful to see you I have sent you herewith the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies according to the use of the Church of England desiring you seriously to peruse it and to accept of it as a gift and present from your Friend In which Book you will find the most Pious Pethy and well-composed Prayers which are made unto God who is the only hearer of Prayers and not to the Saints who are altogether ignorant of us which are made in the Name of Jesus Christ there being no other Name given unto Men whereby they can be Saved which in short are such Prayers that any one that knows but the English Tongue may readily understand and thereby know what it is he begs of God and that he doth not ask for a Stone when he intends Bread or for a Serpent when he intends a Fish which the ignorant People of the Church of Rome who say their Prayers in an unknown Tongue cannot be assured of Thus Sir I have answered your desire in giving you some short Memento's of the unsoundness of the Romish Religion And if you require farther proof of it I will then refer you to the Writings of some of our Famous and Learned Divines of the Church of England and to which there was never any Reply yet made that could deserve the name of an Answer And really Sir it is no little evidence of the weakness of their cause when they have no other Arguments to defend it with than Daggers and Pistols You see Sir that I have answered your request in bestowing a Sheet of Paper upon you with what intent and design you put me upon it you know best But if it was no worse then with what I Writ it I may then be confident of a favorable reception and candid interpretation of these few Lines from him who is Sir Your unfeigned Friend and Servant c. Decemb. 2. 1678.