disturbance of one another where a supreme definitive sentence is not kept up And as we usually thus search into his Councels for the Reason of his Laws so set we up models of equity of our own for measuring his Justice Insomuch as upon every extraordinary and remarkable event how peremptory are we to assign this or this for a cause each one judging his own apprehensions of right and wrong as the onely necessary patterns for Gods proceedings and intentions herein Which whilest they shall differ so much one from another and can be but one true if any be must they not charge God foolishly For example amongst us that have now felt in so high measure his deserved hand those that are of the Romish opinion say This late revolt is in Justice for our Kings deserting his Obedience to that See and our particular Schisms the punishment of our grand Schism from them and the more particular pressure thereof lighting on the Nobility and Gentry are the punishments of their ingrossing the Churches Patrimony which like the coal from the Altar hath almost consumed their nests These looking upon this kingdom as the head and pillar of Protestantism say That as Reformation of Religion was first set up by our Princes out of State designs of alteration of Government and of being independent on the power of Rome so are they now but justly punished with the same pretensions by their own Subjects who in their risings they presume have as great Authority to interpret Scripture against their Civil Governors now as formerly against their spiritual head And they farther say That as to gain strength and general assistance from the Laity was the onely reason we first made the Scriptures vulgar and common that under the obliegingness of so high a favor whereby their abilities seemed to be flattered to an equal pitch with the Clergy they might be gained to that side that therefore our present requital from popular wresting these Scriptures again to publik disturbance amongst our selves is but just also Others that are from them in opinion most contrary so are their reasons also They tell you that Popery and Superstion were here too much and too long countenanced and abetted they tell you that the Clergy were yet too high and powerful and their maintenance too great and unbecoming that things have thus happened because the true sense of Scriptures and thorough Reformation from Rome were too little regarded Others that it may be regard neither of those extreams but look on things as polititians will tell you That the assistance of the Scots formerly against their Queen the assistance of the Dutch and Rocheller against their Kings were the just causes of insurrection now and they will tell you also that the beheading of the Queen of Scots was ominous to the like fatal blow Believing it a Vice against common prudence for Princes out of consideration of any mischief to one another to do that which should be destructive to all as well as it is a sin against Religion neglecting the rule of Do as thou wouldst be done unto By all which and many more instances which might be given of like nature being first bewitched with our Understandings and then idolizing our own justice to be the same with Gods we do cause Rebellion to creep on us as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness as Idolatry That is we will then onely begin to serve God and obey his Laws when we have first interpreted them to serve our own turns which is in effect never to obey them more Whereas that more remarkable token of Obedience that was to Abraham imputed for righteousness was in fact seeming as contradictory to justice and goodness so far as humane ability could reach as it was to the stream of his own particular affection For my own part I am not more in love with those four letters that spell King then with the rest of the Alphabet And could I see probable hope how that thirst of governing might be satisfied to general liking and agreement by that soveraignty which each subject should by this means have over the common vassal the King I should have rest contented with my share therein and have rather given encouragement to this so common a benefit where first all of us should have had our contents by being real governor of this one and then that one contented again with the titles formalities and shews of his Government also then have made my self subject to so much labour and censure But as in all works that are to be done there must be the worker the work and the instruments whereby he brings it to pass the which in order to the work must be at the workmans appointment and choice so in this work of Polity and Government the commanding are workers the commanded the work and the Law Magistracy Councellors c. are the instruments for effecting it Whether Prince or people shall be workmen I will not here say onely thus much is evident that Laws Magistrates c. must be at the choice and dispose of such as rule and also above the ruled as holding necessarily a middle term to unite and agree them in the work it self If as considering how things are now practised and the many opinions to the contrary I shall be by any hastily condemned of ungrounded novelty for that not contenting my self in the modest and equal way of commending Monarchy above other Governments I have quite cast Aristocraty and Democraty out of the right number and reckoned of them but as Anarchies I shall entreat them to consider that I onely undertake to look into Government and its forms as they stand authorized in Scripture or Reason and not as they stood in humane device or practise and therefore I hold my self no further blamable then failing hereof For unto my strictest enquiry there could not be found one Text amongst those we call Canonical countenancing and mentioning any other form not so much as one word of the power of People or Nobility Parliaments Senate c. which the restless wits of men have since devised as in derogation to the other Nay when God means to express himself by titles of power common to men it is either of King or Father which as the greater and lesser Monarchs have alone divine Authority to command over mens persons And I believe all knowing men will confess that as onely God expresly appointed this form so nature also at least at first in her golden age and whilst she was at the best insomuch as for some thousands of yeers it is by all concluded there was no one sort of people otherwise governed then by Kings And therefore by that same rule of strangeness and wonder where with others may behold my Positions in condemning I may behold theirs in approving them even that a sort of men there should be that pretending their utmost and onely subjection to Gods word should yet contemn the power of Kings
p. 12. CHAP. VI. Of Honor p. 16. CHAP. VII Of the Laws of God leading to Government p. 24. CHAP. VIII Of the Master of the Family p. 28. CHAP. IX Of Soveraignty and its Original and of Monarchy or Kingly power p. 41. BOOK II. CHAP. I. OF Anarchy p. 79. CHAP. II. Of Faction and its original and usual supports p. 98. CHAP. III. Of Rebellion and its most notable causes and pretences p. 104. CHAP. IV. Of Liberty p. 114. CHAP. V. Of Tyranny p. 122. CHAP. VI. Of Slavery p. 126. CHAP. VII Of Property p. 130. CHAP. VIII Of Law Justice Equity c. p. 139. CHAP. IX Of Publike good Common good or Common-weal p. 158. CHAP. X. Of Paction and Commerce p. 161. CHAP. XI Of Magistrate Councellors c. p. 177. CHAP. XII Of the Right of Dominion p. 186. BOOK III. CHAP. I Of Religion in its true ground p. 213. CHAP. II. Of Religion as commonly received p. 116. CHAP. III. Of the Church Catholike and of the Fundamentals of Religion p. 222. CHAP. IV. Of each particular Church and its power p. 226. CHAP. V. Of the forms of Church Government and of the jurisdiction claimed by Church-men p. 233. CHAP. VI. Of the head of the Church and the Scriptures interpretation p. 249. CHAP. VII Of Love and Obedience and of our state of Innocence thereby p. 261. CHAP. VIII Of the Coincidence of Christian Graces p. 277. CHAP. IX Of Charity as it stands in Nature p. 299. CHAP. X. Of Patience Long-suffering Humility Meekness c. p. 310. CHAP. XI Of Idolatry and Superstition and of the power of each Church her head in the establishment of Ceremonies and divine worship p. 328. CHAP. XII Of Antichrist p. 349. CHAP. XIII Of the mystical delivery of some divine Truths and the reason thereof p. 388. CHAP. XIV Of Athiesm p. 403. BOOK IV. OF the causes of like and dislike of content and discontent and whether it be possible to frame a Government it self pleasing and durable without force and constraint p. 419. BOOK I. CHAP. I. Of Deity FRom the observation of the dependance of one thing upon another as of its Original and Cause we must come at last to fix on such a cause as is to all things Supreme and Independent For to proceed infinitely we cannot but shall lose our selves as in a circle whose ends will be as hardly brought to meet in our conceit as it is to imagine the most remote cause and most remote effect to joyn by immediate touch Observe we again That no Operation or Effect could ever have been produced in regular and orderly manner unless the direction thereof had first or last proceeded from a voluntary Agent So that when we find the Superiour Bodies Elements and other Creatures void of sense and will by their constant endeavours either pointing to any end at all or such other ends as have respect and benefit beyond themselves they must be concluded but as Passive Agents in both cases and the latter respect especially weighed will at last bring us to pitch upon one Agent or Authour of such universal power and concern in all things as to be the true Creator and Director of them all One I say for should each Element by it self or should the will of more then one be the Guider of Productions and Effects would it not follow that this Procession of chance or different aim and will must necessarily set Nature sometimes at a stand for want of sufficient power and direction what course to follow or as it were by a kinde of Civil War make her endeavours so distracted and weak that nothing but dissolution and confusion could follow From all which we may conclude both a Deity and the unity thereof and that as a free Agent no operation could have proceeded from him without an end whereby as by an immutable Law the effects and endeavours of other Creatures stand directed and limited unto certain ends and bounds which otherwise would not proceed at all or else do it infinitely or destructively to one another And upon the same reason of having the vertues and endeavours of natural Agents and Elements thus stinted and directed it will follow that as there must be such original Elements as might have fitness to answer thesâ— Laws and Rules of Providence so this pre-existent matter could not be equally eternal with Deity but must be at first created by the same hand it is now guided for should they not or should there have been no creation at all but a perpetual pre-existence of Elements before they had by the Rules of Providence their vertues and abilities harmoniously directed they must by their irregular courses have been the destruction of one another As therefore in the first case to skip and balk the more immediate and instrumental causes of things and fasten them as immediate upon God the Supreme after the usual way of the ignorant were so to confound and jumble Causes and Effects that there should not in nature be any certain Production at all because if the Supreme Cause should be an immediate cause to the most remote effect then in order backward that remotest effect must be a cause to that which was his immediate cause before and so on or else what was the immediate effect to the Supreme before will now by its removal therefrom and coming to be as immediate cause to the most remote effect want a cause for its own Production so in this latter case the like would befal if through want of good and true observation of the dependance and reason of effects and causes till we come to the Supreme Cause or Reason we should fasten the Productions of Elements or first matter on Chance for if they be constant and uniform how shall Chance own or lay claim to them Again to make them Co-eternal with Deity is to deny his Eternity or their dependance on him who must precede the Chaos in time as that again must precede the Endowment and Regulation of the qualities of the Elements themselves in time also For so fire was before heat as the cause is before the effect which had it been Eternal and the qualites of burning thereto annexed without limit which must have been had it been from it self only what would have become of the race all things else in this general conflagration which now keeping its degrees and being confined within such and such subjects and bounds by a Superiour Power is a great and necessary help to their Production That and all things else readily obeying the Law of their Maker from whom as from a most wise Omnipotent and Bountiful Creator nothing but works and operations suitable are to be expected CHAP. II. Of Providence and its Rules in general AS therefore the perfection of this Worlds Maker doth sufficiently argue the perfection of the work so doth the perfection of the work as justly plead for continuance Continue it could not by any other Power then
that they may as having power therein from God both refuse his commands and also subject him to the obedience of their own Authorities and Offices they should doe well to consider that God can have but one supreme Magistrate namely the King and that all others can have power but as sent of him They should consider that God hath made him Keeper of both Tables so as to preside over us in all things as well of Religious as Civill cognisance In which respects we can no more divide him in his entire Trust and delegation in these things then we can divide the author of these Trusts in his sole Power therein also Now it might be demanded of these men That since these Magistrates and intrusted Officers had their places from the Prince onely and since without Commission and power from him they could not have had Power in any thing outwardly to be exercised more then other ordinary Subjects how should it therefore come to pass that by vertue of a Deputation to serve and be subordinately assisting unto him they can claim right and power to be unsubjected and in any thing above him But we shall here somewhat examine the usuall ground of this stubbornness which is by distinguishing at their pleasures Religious and Civil duties one from another and then making men obliged to obedience in the first sort to Gods precepts onely with this farther supposition that themselves or such are they fancy are to be obeyed as his Magistrates therein And they then stint the Princes power to be onely exercised in what they refuse and shall call Civil matters of which distinction of duties we shall speak more fully anon In the mean time because the conceit of Magistrates distinct and unsubordinate power hath arisen from belief of this distinction of duties we are to consider in brief that being now Christians we cannot at our private pleasures renounce and take off that general relation and say that in such and such particulars we act as natural men in such as civil men and in such onely as Christians but since now all unrighteousness is sin and a sin against God too even to the degree of an idle word so hath God united the high trust and oversight of all these things to this his onely supreme Magistrate And this in so neer a tye of obedience as where he is not divided in himself that is to say differenced from us in Religion but is a Christian as well as we there we cannot more divide from his Authority in our Christian obedience then we can in our Civil without dividing Christ that gave him this Office and separating him likewise from his right of Kingship over us and so affirm that we are to obey Kings as Gods deputies in the State but not as Christs in the Church For albeit in some Assemblies of Christian Subjects where persons in holy Orders do more particularly appear and preside as being an Assembly by the Prince constituted for more neer examination and stating what in the Scripture is more particularly contayned or what is more expresly tending to Gods Worship and Service Princes may be thought thereupon secluded yet since they are still Christians Subjects as others and have as we said their whole Assembly and their particular powers therein authorized from the same head that other Assemblies have we may conclude that each Kingdom is as well such a Church as such a Kingdom And as Christ is head of the Church and King of Kings too so is each King under him head of both also and while he continues a Christian Magistrate he must be always so obeyed and acknowledged And although where the Prince or Supreme Magistrate is no Christian as in the infancie of Christianity it fared the saying is useful of giving to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods and of obeying God rather then man because in that case the Magistrate not undertaking to be Gods or Christs Vicegerent at all so as to promote their honor and worship but it may be the contrary it were strange to give him the power of the Church which he will not own but rather refuseth Therefore he refusing to act as a Christian Magistrate in matters of Divine Precept we must have recourse to Gods command our selves or to such representation as any Assembly of the Church at that time can have But where the supreme Magistrate is a Christian there as in all his relations he is supreme to the rest of his Subjects so is he in all his commands to be obeyed as a Christian Magistrate For if that rule of giving to Caesar c. be taken litterally and expresly so as to exclude Kings as Kings from being Gods Ministers and Magistrates in Church matters it must again exclude God from medling in secular affairs or matters of the Commonwealth doing thereby not so much wrong to Kings as to God himself For since without a Magistrate nothing can be done in the Law-makers absence all Laws of Religion must then remain arbitrary and useless and God would by consequent be as well thrust out of religious power as directly hereby excluded out of the Civil So that when that or the Precept of obeying God rather then man is to be taken of direct use and force it must be when Subjects stand subjected as aforesaid or else as we said in the case of new express command from God or Christ himself received who as the higher power must then be obeyed as in that particular case wherein this sentence was spoken may appear For Christ having himself particularly and expresly said to his Apostles Go teach all Nations for them to have obeyed Magistrates forbidding them to teach any more in his Name had been expresly to have obeyed man rather then God and to have put them in danger of Woe if they preach not Even as on the other side to hearken to such Precepts as come to be invented and pressed by private men contrary to the sense of Gods publike Minister and without express revelation therein from God which he is evidently to prove is as done against Gods command to obey man rather then God also And this not onely whether the doers be private persons or else subordinate Magistrates For all power being in the King and they deriving theirs as sent of him as they cannot claim obedience from others but by Authority from him so they must as private persons in respect of him give obedience to him by whose power under God they had this their jurisdiction CHAP. XII Of the Right of Dominion HAving hitherto spoken of the duty of subjection and particularly to Kings it will farther be necessary to say something in designation of the persons that so the stubborn may be without excuse and the Consciencious have direction and satisfaction as far as may be what to follow We must now again therefore consider that as mans obligation of Praise
we are not to believe him But in the other things not so neccessary as we find them more darkly delivered and not fully cleared by God himself so have they their appointed Gods and interpreters here amongst us unto whom we are to be obedient as to those that watch for our souls In the first case that is in the fundamentals of our faith it behoves us to be explicite and epress for in that sence He that is not for Christ is against him whereas in the other we are to serve Christ by our implicite obedience to his Church the pillar and ground of truth and in that sence it is that he that is not against him is for him But if he do not observe these and other inducements to moderation and charity he will be very subject to persecute Christ in his members while he is about to serve and vindicate him in his truth He will be subject by his zealous prosecution under the form of godliness to lose the power thereof and even to destroy charity the end of the law through his misguided devotion to keep the law For pretend men what they will of the equity and justice of their cause whilst they are in private prosecution of one another for religion it can never be half so certain that herein they maintain that truth and doctrine which was by Christ delivered to be believed as that they transgress that precept of brotherly love commanded to be practised For the truth of their opinon is seen but to themselves onely else they migâ—t think others that endeavour to serve Christ as well as they would not as in order to their owne salvation hereafter or their present riddance from their persecution here stand so firmly to their own contrary principles Will they say that their adversaries might know this truth as well as themselves did not prejudice possess them they hereby become both uncharitable censurers and judgers and if they should impartially search their owne hearts they might hereof also condemn themselves at least may as justly suspect the rest of their owne faction as any of the other And having so far laid the ground-work of direction for those that desire to follow those things that make for peace we will next speak of the Church and of our condition of innocence in her obedience CHAP. III. Of the Church Catholick and of the Fundamentals of Religion THe end of all religion being to praise and glorifie God befoâ—e men and the praising him before men inferring such a manner of doing it as in humane judgement is most honourable and then again that which is most honourable being that which through custome and general acknowledgement is held most beneficial to man himself it still brings Gods glory to be the Alpha and Omega of all we do and the good of our Neighbour the steady and only sure means thereunto For to us men that cannot intuitively behold his face and live and so out of rapture of his express excellence glorifie him with immediate Halelujahs our approach to him must be by his back-parts his Image in our brother and our praise of him here if at all must be by such light and works before men that moveing them as men here They may thereupon glorifie God which is in Heaven At first there was no distinction of such as were to honour God before men from others whom we might thereupon call by the separate name of a Church but whilst mankind was thin the Church was as large as mankind it self But that encreasing the Nation of the Jewes were particularly chosen from the rest to have his name more eminently put and worshipped and amongst and unto them for the preservation of his more immediate service and honour he appoints a particular law to be written and observed Whereupon that sign of Circumcision that served for a mark to distinguish them from others as being the pledge of their promised obedience took on it the name of Covenant to wit the Covenant of works Not that God was not still worthily the only true object of the praises of all mankind but inasmuch as his former precepts and our natural ability had been so forgotten and insufficient that Idolatry and oppression had now in a manner wholly supplanted his worship and mutual charity except in that single family of Abraham it seemed necessary that as well an increase of direction should be given for increase of his service as an appropriation thereof to some select people for its better intention and security for the future By this means the race of Abraham come at once to receive the reward of their Father constancy in Gods service in regard of many promised blessings by them received and also by having the Oracles of God committed unto them they come to be a means for Gods honour to be more encreased even by being here as by a select Church or company of men more eminently served For from hence he might through the observation of the whole world have his name more hallowed and have greater glory given and directed to him then before Not that the common Salvation of man was lessened by this more express care of his owne glory but rather encreased For as the Jewes had open advantage by encrease of light so other Nations had the same light of reason continued to them as before with this advantage that if they were diligent there with to examine those precepts delivered to the Jewes they could not but discover as we formerly noted in the Decalogue great benefit by using them themselves And since we find no other reward or punishment then temporal annexed to legal obedience or default for works as works cannot deserve higher and since those vailes of Rites and Ceremonies were so thick that it was neer as hard for the Jewes expresly to discern Christ by faith through them as for the rest of the world to difference him by the light of reason I cannot but charitably presume that the great preserver of men might finde a way for the saving mâ—ny of them worshiping the same God though not under that notion of the God of Abraham For as the having of Circumcision did not save all that had it so neither the want of it did of it self destroy but as those which were without the law of Moses were a law unto themselves by the law of reason so it follows that at this law of reason proceeding from the same God was unequally broken or kept mens punishments or rewards no doubt succeeded Nor shall I ever make my self believe that Sardinapilus and Scipio should be alike in their future reckonings for punishment being not to be supposed equally culpable in the breach of charity the end of the law although they might equally miss heaven as being equally incredulous Yet as we said untill the law was given whereby another way of direction for mens honouring of God and sociable abearance to one
observe this Monarchical administration so much owned by God as to declare the absence thereof as the fittest and surest token of his dereliction and punishment of a people that had been first false to himself and were now repudiated by him as may appear in that other Prophesie For the Children of Israel shall abide many dayes without a King and without a Prince without a Sacrifice and without an Image and without an Ephod and without Teraphim And by the last words we may observe by the way not onely a depravation in religion and Church order to follow this no King in Israel by making use of Teraphim in the Ephod instead of Urim as the man Michah did but this disorder should increase till that remaining Priesthood who by their consistorial parity were as the Teraphims in this Ephod should be taken away also For this use of Teraphim amongst Israelites was to bee looked upon but as a shift in Jeroboam who wanting that order of Aaron and his Sons made use of the meanest of the people but in the Christian Church and when Christ typified in David shall be their King then also shall those several Kings under him maintain and settle order amongst the Priesthood and in religion it self as David also did Now concerning that separate jurisdiction which some Church-men would claim under colour of dividing our duties into religious and civil it cannot I conceive but plainly appear that notwithstanding sacred pretence this division is but of humane invention being not to be found in the Scripture and as it is for the most part made of no other use but to make division and discord by abating our obedience to the Magistrate under colour of giving it to God so are men not at agreement in stating thereof For while some think that whatever the Magistrate commands it but of civil obedience and so lyable to temporal reward and punishment onely and again what is of Gods command that is expresly set down in Scripture is to be only obeyed out of conscience of divine authority and then leaving men to private judgement what precepts are thence deduceable or when the Magistrates commands be such they must consequently leave them no certain rule whereby either to preserve duty or unity As also those other sort do who distinguishing men in their several relations by them phancied say that in whatever we do as subjects and men linked in Society the same is of civil cognizance and duty but in whatever we act as Christians we are to be guided by precept from God alone In which doing also being neither able to bring from Scripture all things that concern Gods outward worship and finding many precepts of Ethical Political and Oeconomical nature and which do concern our duty and good even as men although we had not been Christians they must needs fall themselves and drive others by these doubtfull precepts from giving any right obedience at all instead of directing them therein For although as to some intents men may be usefully considered in these different relations yet when the same person is now both a man and a Christian such distinctions as should â—imply a possibility of personal devision again so as for the same Christian to act as a man in any thing without being a Christian must besides absurdity bring upon us the many inconveniences of rebellion and civil war And therefore although in our being Christian we lose not the reality of manhood more then in being rational creatures or men we lose the properties of sensitive Creatures yet inasmuch as being rational Creatures and so having a greater and surer light to direct our actions all that we do answerable to other meer sensitives is therefore now to be attributed to us in the capacity of men as of the nobler and higher relation Even so also it fareth with us after and while we are Christians namely that all those actions in which in execution and direction I mean so far as is humane we resemble other meer natural men onely yet these things being by us now acted under the inseparable relation of Christians are although not of express litteral divine precept yet if done in obedience to lawful authority a Christian duty or if acted against it a Christian fault And it will follow that what was in us as men before but moral vertue or vice is now righteousness or sin even to the degree of an idle word And so again considering us as subjects those things that are onely by the light of nature investigable as civil duties when they come to be enforced by a Superiour having his power and office from God have the obligations of religious actions as being part of our obedience to that God who said them to be in that respect Gods also and children of the most high Therefore when God sometimes commands what would concern us and be our benefit as men although we had not been Christians as indeed if we had reason enough all precepts for outward direction would appear such or when again many things appertaining to our religion it self and our outward worship therein are by the Churches authority enjoyned whether the same be found in Scripture or no they are both of them to be held as religious dutyes to us and we being not able while we are Christians to act in any other personal capacity must be obedient and subject as in and to the Lord that is till something be enjoyned to overthorw Christianity we as Christians must obey in all things and it is as sinful to disobey Supream authority in the payment of taxes as in the observation of the Sabboth For God not now giving particular precepts as unto the Iewes but leaving us herein to the direction of the higher power ordained for that purpose of him we are to be obedient to our Masters in the flesh as unto Christ and willingly to do them service as unto the Lord and not as men That is we are now always to obey him as Christs Minister and head of our particular Church and not left at liberty to obey as in a religious tye no farther then we please For the actions and precepts of each State Kingdom are upon their conversion to Christianity to be called and reputed the actings of such or such a Church and not of such or such a State the name and notion of Church including that of State even as in the particular members whereof it is compounded the notion of man is involved in that of Christian. So that now as the entire trust power of Vniversal headship of the Catholike Church is unto Christ resigned and he thereupon to be obeyed as under a religious tye in all causes whatsoever by all such as acknowledge themselves Christians although they seem of never so civil a nature even so his supream deputy in each Christian Church or Kingdome being entirely entrusted like him from whom his power is derived is
under the tye of religion also to be entirely obeyed by all that acknowledg his Christian jurisdiction we being no more duely able to divide the supremacy of the one then of the other And therfore the mistake and inconvenience of their opinion will plainly appear that would from a short and groundless distinction of the several objects and ends of our obedience deduce a several and distinct tye whereby the same person in the performance of this duty to lawful authority should stand diversly obliged As if because the good of men and humane Society were the next ayme of my forbearance to defraud or oppress c. it were therefore the last end and not rather Gods glory as heretofore shewed Whereupon since I as a Christian had light sufficient given me to discover how God is herein served by this my advancement of the good of my brother cannot thereupon but account my self as well serving God When I do any thing as a subject to the Prince out of general tye of conscience to Gods precept that commandeth obedience to the higher powers then it is or should have been if I had done it in obedience to the perticular precepts of thou shalt not steal or thou shalt not covet And had Cato or Scipio had the like advantage of instruction with us so as to have seen through to Gods glory and their owne salvation as the great and last end and reward of all our actions as they had been obliged in conscience so they would no doubt out of respect and love to God and their owne future good have performed all those Heroick acts which for want thereof could not have in them higher consideration then temporary benefits of themselves or country and so come to be imputed unto them as bare moral vertues and duties having in their conceipts neither direction nor intention higher But for farther clearing the understanding of these things we will instance in a particular most common amongst us namely our food What the vegetative appetite as necessary to growth and nourishment doth herein covet the same being in sensitive Creatures controlled and judged by their pallats and tasts is ascribed as an action done by such or such a sensitive And in the same food again the pallat being for choice and quantity as all other senses controlable by reason for what we do therein we are accountable as men onely and not as beasts And so lastly when in this particular of food a higher authority then our owne doth command we must be then reckoned in all we do therein but as in relation and subordinate to that last and highest authority For as Christ is above them all so is our relation as Christiaâ—s to include and involve that of men or subjects So that if I now follow too much my vegetative appetite or sensative taste and also transgress reason so as to be drunken and glutonise this being done by me that am a Christian is a sin endangering punishment hereafter and not singly a moral or civil vice as transgressing onely in regard to my health or the rule of society And so farther againe when abstinence from any or all sort of food is by lawful authority enjoyned whereby the use of what was indifferent to us in respect of any direct former Christian precept comes to be streigthened we are then tyed in conscience to the obedience thereof and that not onely when a Lent or Fast day shall be enjoyned for an explicite religious end but also when abstinence shall be publickly commanded without such end expressed at all or although the preservation of Cattel or the like be the known end thereof And this because the person commanding being the same and alwayes Gods Minister where our ability of performance is equall our sin of disobedience must be equal also and that without thought of dividing his jurisdiction and authority and so disobeying the Prince as as oft as we please by taking on us as Priests in a separat jurisdiction the sole interpretation of Gods law Whereupon as every Master of a family is Priest also so far as concerns his jurisdiction so the appellations of Princes and Priests are in many places of Scripture used as equipollent But as the King in regard of the multitude under him is to use Magistrates to help him in civil administrations so Priests also in matters of the Church and religion How far this their power is to extend and how and by what order of them to be managed will be a proper discourse when the Kings part in government and peace shall be treated of Therefore now to return by the name of Church we are not to conceive there can be any congregation of Christian subjects by order so distnct from others as to have immediat power from God over the fortunes or persons of their fellows without or against the Soveraigns leave For since the time manner place and other things essential to the constituting the meeting it self must as heretofore noted depend on the leave and direction of the governour in chief and their authority as an assembly can be but subordinate to that from whence they derived it it cannot in no wise be collected that their power should be independent They of the Romish Clergy that would clayme a divine right to succeed the Apostles in the exercise of external jurisdiction and power by vertue of an uninterrupted ordination from them at first derived after the same manner as those ancient Romans were superstitious to place the vestal virgins for keeping in of their holy fire in their temple and would have the Office and power of high Priest or Bishop in the Catholike or each particular Church depend on like uninterrupted succession to his predecessor under the Gospel no otherwise then the high Priestship did descend amongst the Jewes had no doubt an ayme by this peculiar way of puting one another into authority not only to set up themselves in Apostolical power but to exclude Kings or Masters of families from having any divine right at all since no such uninterrupted derivation of succession can be on their side brought But as they cannot find any text to warrant any claim hereby so they are to consider that as to the Iewes their particular Church was the same with the Catholike so in order to Gods care for direction and government of that particular onely Church he did appoint as well a distinct family and linage for their Kingship as he did for their Priesthood it being as unlawful to alter the line of David as that of Aaron But under the Gospel where like appointment was not made nor outward prosperity was not promised as to the Jewes it will be very severe to censure any particular Church as untrue and her Pastors unlawful upon the hazard of having some interruption in succession or for want of intention or the like whereby having had some ineffectual ordination administred all ordinations succeeding and jurisdiction grounded thereupon should come
Church shall have distinguished between holy and prophane I conceive that in all such things as are concluded of religious jurisdiction and cognisance the Church-members of the Clergy are by the Church her head to be therein imployed more eminently then any other subject especially if they do therein acknowledge themselves subordinate and subject unto him All which I have in this part set down to avoid such umbrage as might have been by some taken at the passed discourse And for farther avoidance of mistake about those persons or orders of the Clergy by me glaâ—ced at in any censure here or elsewhere I shall also now crave leave to say that as I profess my self a dutiful son of the same Mother so do I also highly respect and honour that Classical order of the Clergy which the Church of Engand owns as hers being men that have approved themselves the true sons of Zadock the type of Evangelical Priesthood and been as eminent for loyalty as learning But the disturbances of Christendome are to be imputed to those of the Romish party who in favour to their owne head are to subject with Abiather to miscary that arke wherewith they are entrusted and to make the power and cognisance of those sacred orders which should separate them from worldly imploment to serve as a plea and pretence thereunto as in order to spiritual cognisance and jurisdiction As also to that miscellaneous brood who as in hatred to their exteram entring their ordinations at a wrong dore or not entring them at all have as shamefully demeaned theselves in the Priesthood as they did ignorantly and shamefully decline the title it self and that honotr which is thereunto due and have by those strange fires of sedition and rebellion which they every where offer under shew of reformation and zeal approved themselves the true sons of Nadab and Abihu These are they that are deare declaiming against Prelacy on purpose to gain higher preferment whilst the name of Bishop is by them declined as an unlawful jurisdiction in in the Church they are grasping after the thing and striving to exercise EEpiscopacy and oversight over both Church and State under the claim of power from Christ himself received as his immediate Ministers thereby shewing that their slighting of orders is but because they would not be by them confined to Ecclesiastical superintendency onely CHAP. VI. Of the head of the Church and of the Scriptures interpretations FRom what hath been hitherto spoken of our Security whilst retaining the fundamentalls of our religion as men may gather courage to resist such superstitious fears as some would put into them on purpose to draw them to their owne sects so may they plainly see it their duty these foundations being laid that their directest obedience which they can as Christians in other things give unto that person Christ hath most eminently entrusted and by whom he is most lively represented is the strongest argument of performance of their duty and obedience to himself For he being as the chief Master builder to direct us in all things towards our actual edification upon these ground works of faith and charity laid in our hearts may seem to be Gods great accomptant for the sins of the people and to prefigured unto us under the scape goat in the law who as denoting the high and uncontroleable power of his office here was both to be free and unmolested in the wilderness of this life and also to bear on him all the iniquities and transgression of the people For although Christ himself typifyed under the slain goat do onely truly and meritoriously expiate and make attonement to God for all mens sins as breaches of Gods law insomuch as no man can hope for remission of any sort of them without repentance and forgiveness in his name made and obtained yet forasmuch as we are commanded to be obedient unto them both in matters of godliness and honesty there is no doubt but the same will acquit us of guilt in all things acted by their guidance and not contrary to the foundation of faith and love which is or should be in our hearts And therefore to this purpose as formerly noted we shall find good warrant given from him that said Do all things without murmurings and disputings that ye may be blameless and harmless the sons of God in the midst of a froward and perverse generation wherein ye shine as lights in the world Here is no distinction made of our duties here is no referment of us to Scripture but a general direction to universal and ready obedience which being done we shall be blameless and harmless for obeying however the thing wherein we do obey may prove harmful to others and to blameable in the Commanders And that the Apostle did hereby entend implicite and perfect obedience may farther appear by the foregoing occasion which lead him to this precept namely for avoiding of divisions and Standing fast in one Spirit with one mind unto the which implicite obedience and subjection to one head is the onely ready way And to the end they should fulfill his joy and be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde he admonisheth thâ—t nothing should be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better then themselves And then he tells the way to it First by inward charity and love Look not every man on his owne things but every man on the things of others afterward he points to outward subjection to make this love useful which he doth by the true example of humility and obedience our Saviour himself viz Let this minde be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took on him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men And being found in the fashion of a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross A death which was proper to such as were under the highest degree of subjection being the usual punishment for slaves And so having set forth the reward of this his humility and obedience to encourage us therein he then proceeds Wherefore my beloved as ye have always obeyed not as in my presence onely but now much more in my absence work out your owne salvation with fear and trembling Which words do plainly shew the means to salvation to be dependent on perfect obedience to Gods Minister for it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure That is as God is himself the worker of this inward love to make us willing so must he direct by his Minister our doing it outwardly to our Neighbours benefit under whom doing all things as aforesaid we shall be blameless as aforesaid also For his care
one or many men had their distinct copies such a total losse could not have happened And although it may be well thought that the gift of tongues might have enabled such of the holy penmen as wanted natural learning to deliver themselves notwithstanding in Greek yet this cannot make it supposable that all of them the Epistles especially were so written originally because their address is not to the Grecians or Gentiles And that Epistle to the Hebrews and those of Saint Peter and Saint Iames c. must imply them to be written in that language which was best understood by those they were addressed unto and who were to be directed by him Else it were to suppose a miracle wrought to a wrong end even that which Saint Paul doth elswhere dislike namely the speaking in an unknown tongue by which he means no doubt a tongue unknown to the Auditors In which respect to speak or write in Greek to them that understood not the language renders the Writer a Barbarian to the Auditor as well as the Auditor one to him Upon which grounds I do believe against them that doubt that the Gospel of Saint Matthew was like the other Gospels written in Greeks and that because its general address did require it to be set forth in that language which was most generally understood but for some of the Epistles I cannot be so perswaded And if that first exercised gift of tongues be marked we shall finde those endewed therewith speaking to every Auditour in his owne language And although question be made whether those auditours of divers nations might not at the same time have been endewed with the miraculous gift of interpreting and understanding a strange tongue to avoyd a greater difficulty of supposing all of them speaking at once or any one speaking several tongues at once the which Saint Peters after-speaking alone may give countenance unto yet it will plainly appear that as that gift of tongues was then used to edification and to be understood even so afterwards no doubt the penmen of holy Scripture made use of the same upon the like useful occasions and none other And as for Authors quotation of Scripture texts in this language onely none beginning to write till these books had been by the Church all collected into one volume and so put into that one most intelligible language it proves no more their writing at first in the Greek then our Saviours and others quotations of the Greek translation of the Septuagint proves the old Testament to have been written in that language also Not that we would be understood by what hath bin spoken as forbidding the publike knowledg of the Scriptures for even the same reason that makes them chiefly to be trusted to the Church and its head namly to know the better how to govern all others under them will in that regard also make them useful to Fathers Masters and many of the Subjects themselves who by their offices and callings shall have things or persons under their power and government In both which respects if they come not occasionally to concern every one as he may have his Neighbors good or ill under his trust and power even in cases remitted by his Superiour yet will they concern every one in their general precepts to patience humility obedience c. which as the proper and necessary vertues of Subjects and which must constitute government are fit for the notice of all in general without exception of the Prince himself who as under the power of God almighty must submit in a far higher degree then his Subjects can to him The knowledge of which and other necessary duties fit to direct us in our charitable abearances whither in acting upon or suffering from one another may also afford sufficient reason why there should be many precepts of all sorts of duties and concerning all sorts of people promiscuously set down in the New Testament notwithstanding that Gods immediate rule was to be inward even for that our Saviour and his Apostles having charge and guidance of souls under them it was needful for their good deportment sake that they should leave to them and unto such as should succeed in the Christian Churches besides the fundamentals such farther precepts and directions â—s might keep them in a steady course of Charity and peace one towards another when they found their duties set forth by so good authority For want of due regard whereof and of that different respect which the Scriptures do carry in their instructions and for want of that necessary and truly Christian grace of humility instead of learning and practicing those more proper duties which concern us in our distinct callings and relations for which onely we stand accomptable before God we are through pride and partiality too often found to be studious and inquisitive after so much onely as doth concern others in theirs even such as are above us for whose faults we are not to answer that thereupon we may appear more fit to teach then be taught to govern then be governed And this is not onely practised in the more civil relation of Subjects or Servants against their Prince or Master but through this misused liberty a general usurpation is almost every where now made for interpreting Scripture against the sence and authority of the whole Church and of our more spiritual guides therein to whose charge they are most particularly entrusted from which preposterous proceeding what can be expected but what sad experience doth witness even Heresie Schisme disorder and civil broyles to the scandal of Christian religion it self But now when we finde the persons in authority to be expressed in the plural number as Those that have the guide over you those that must give an account for your souls c. or else our obedience directed to the Church in general we are to understand thereby the head of each Church to be chiefly meant In which respect as there were many distinct Churches and thereupon also many heads as before shewed so the Apostle might in his general admonitions to obedience put them in the plural number of those and them And as in this sence we are to understand that precept of tell it to the Church namely to the judiciary head thereof so also are we to interpret and apply the power of the keyes and of binding and loosing to be given to the Churches head and not the diffused body which can never in all its members meet nor can otherwise then by their head hear and determine And hereupon we shall finde this power to be expresly given to the Apostles in Saint John where Christ is saying to them As my Father sent me even so send I you thereby giving them authority over their particular Churches and trusts By which means as he had formerly answered that the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins So these sons of men also may without Blasphemy in
and duty besides But truely when we consider in the last of these how often the strict observation of the Sabbath hath been by Christ and his Apostles reproved and never once spoken for in the New-Testament it looking like a command appropriate to that Nation to be kept in remembrance of their deliverance out of Egypt being never kept till then and that it should yet remain a mark and cognizance of what these men are that so much pretend to follow him we cannot but wonder at their imprudent choice in not laying their formal devotion elsewhere then on that fatal badge But while they are thus drawing neer God with their lips and honoring him with their mouths in their works they deny him and make it manifest that it is Mammon they serve For all the while they are so clamorous for a day for God to rest on because it costs them nothing they will not allow him a house to rest in because that will yeild them something Our Saviour with that other man after Gods own heart could say the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up when as these mens zeal doth everywhere eat up the houses themselves Our Saviour drove the buyers and sellers and such as made Merchandice out of the Temple but these bring in such as are to make Marchandice of the Temple And while they are thus taking to themselves all the houses of God into possession and with sacrilegious hands robbing him and his Ministers of all those honorable Monuments of Devotion and Charity wherewith their more pious and holy Ancestors had made Christ and his Religion honorable in the eys of the world these men in relation those bags they carry and adore are with Judas crying out wherefore all this waste A Barn and a Cobler are in thir esteem places and persons good enough for the service of that great God before men whom in a hypocritical zeal they so much pretend to reverence and respect And while we are solemnly serving our Father in houses of Prayer dedicated to his Worship they are serving their Father and their God their belly in places of like dedication a Dining-room or a Kitchin on a Table for an Altar and with a Cook for a Priest and yet all this while that they are thus without God in the world and denying Christ before men they would be apprehended as the onely heirs of Heaven and so inwardly and heartily addicted to their service above others that it cannot at all break forth into action of Love or Obedience As though holiness and righteousness were contemplative graces onely or that any one could be a true and worthy member of Christs Church who endeavored not his praise before men but were by their disobedient and unsociable lives a scandal to that Religion which hath the highest Reason and morality in its practice of any in the world How is that old pharisaical Tradition of washing of hands pots cups c. imitated by the select tones and phrases of our modern Pharisees whereby as by a sort of canting language they take liberty with their predecessors at once to commend themselves and condemn others as if in this kinde of devotion because they devised it all Religion were to be put By this light and rule of distinction do our Pharisees like those of old spie the moats in their brothers eys And as those of old could boast they were not as other men so these be they that separate themselves now rashly judging all that are not of their crew to be worldlings ungodly malignant reprobate and what not And that themselves are not thus carnally minded they do most evidently declare by fact for after by their devout pretensions they have seated themselves in that earthly dominion and power they did seem to despise they will thrust out these their ungodly and worldly brethren out of their legal estates and possessions as being but usurpers in that right of the creature which is peculiar unto themselves Which Antichristian fatal badge of separation and going out from us me thinks they should have prudently declined also not onely because they finde it so often reproved in their predecessors by our Savior but also by the Prophets admonishing them to ask for the old paths where is the good way and to walk therein as the sure course to to finde rest for their souls But since they have refused to walk therein or to hearken to the watchmen by God set over them and are thereupon run into a mutual course of stumbling and perishing by following their new and private speculations I see not why any conscientious man should be scandalized with their obloquy since it is but equal or short of what their predecessors gave our Savior himself For as this on the one hand will prove us Disciples of Christ so on the other hand will it prove them Disciples of the Pharisees Yes the true successors and imitators of those hypocrites of old are all these whom we daily finde extolling themselves above others by models and rules of distinction of their own framing For as of old those that were rebellious against Christ and his Gospel are by the Evangelical Prophet set down saying to others Stand by thy self come not neer me for I am holier then thou even so now how do our late Pharisees vilifie and abandon under the like notions of Publicans and sinners all that are not by themselves cannonized for Saints and Holy For it is not now the being members of Christs body the Church alas that 's a common grace but being of their gang therein that can truely sanctifie No that glorious appellation of Saints in the New-Testament given to the houshold of Faith in honor of the Master thereof even to such as were sanctified through Faith in Christ and equivalent to that of believers all those being priviledged with this notion of Saint or son of God that at first believed on his name as the beginning of most of the Epistles do declare addressing them sometimes to the Church sometimes to the Saints must be no longer appropriate to Christs followers but to their own Not well considering that that Church Saint Paul is said to make havock of in one place himself calleth Saints in another confessing to have done it in opposition to the name of Jesus The which appellations Ananias also indifferently useth when he is setting forth S. Pauls persecution against the Church calling them in one verse the Saints and in the next such as called on Christs name for handsomness and variety of expression and not to make Gentile believers to be none or less Saints then Jews No but as amongst them formerly sanctity was appropriate to the Circumcision so amongst Christians because every one that nameth the name of Christ should depart from iniquity therefore it came to pass that a believer and a Saint came to signifie the same But let not us now take this ill for
of things actions persons c. as to Civil hope Conscience hath not his correlate as shame which is opposite to Honor unless the passion of Hope be taken in Honor and shame respect reward and punishment present or rather carry it with them Conscience that which is hereafter And thereupon one regards the Sentence and Judgemen of such as have present power the other the commands and power of such as shall judge for the future So that one sort of good Conscience may be want of memory or unaccusing but Honor must be active Absence of guilt contents the one but the other must be possessive And as Conscience is an affection upon affections as they relate to guilt and punishment hereafter so Honor governs affections as they have judgement of things c here and as the known Will of that God I fear can onely oblige me in the one so the Will of those men I esteem in the other And indeed all our affections are as instigated so Governed by hope and fear For under these two as under the desire of attaining good or avoiding bad in the general all things are included and all other affections in the choice of objects have respect towards them that is from observation to judge what expectations of good or harm that is pleasure of sense or honor or pain of sense or shame here or hereafter is like to proceed from them or their different managery and application But then as more go to Heaven by the way of Hell and we had rather have our commendable actions suppressed then the contrary much divulged so fear is stronger then hope for although pleasure be the object of the one and pain of the other yet because pleasure is never so perfect as pain nor can be so fixed and continuing nor again without fear of loss it must therefore belooked upon as the most general and steady guide of our actions Upon which ground we need not wonder at the commonness of superstition nor why as children are scared with Hobgoblins c. so some men little differing from them should be so obnoxious to the terrors and affrights of such as they credit In which case it may happen to these that are negatively superstitious as being scandalized at some Ceremonies which they understand not themselves but which their guides are pleased to blast as under the notion of humane inventions or the like as it doth with that way of affrightment of children also by telling them of Raw head and bloody bones for as to them that for the present understand not that all living things should be so these things are apprehended as really dangerous and terrible because terribly delivered even so under the odium of humane invention Popery or the like are we many times brought to be superstitiously flying those things that are in themselves good and are also by so much the better as being by Christian Authority approved as having the more ancient and Catholike President of the Christian Churches usage For doubtless they cannot be so weak as seriously to believe that those that do refuse communion with the Papists even for that very difference sake which is in many things between them should at the same time they account them erroneous in the service of God and in matters of Ceremonies also implicitely follow them in some other things and upon no other score but because they do so But by these and such like arts it is usual with seditious persons to steal away peoples hearts from their own Church guides and Rulers For upon the same reason that a second dis-affects so far as to spoil the whole harmony so one crossing and unexpected fear raceth that whole method of belief and perswasion we stood before possessed of as to the goodness of our Religion or of our practice therein And that fear is more pressing and prevalent then hope appears in that our hope to attain good can never want our fear of missing it nor can the possession of pleasure want the fear of deprivation We may also observe that deaf men do ever suspect things are spoken to their ill or prejudice even when they may as likely speak to their good The like jealousie is entertained when any whisper in our Company or speak to one another in a language we understand not Nay pleasure is but absence of pain especially that of sense and then we need not wonder why a positive thing should affect more then a negative For pain being as before noted when the spirits are stopped in their wonted motions and it must still happen but they should be more or less so pleasure can neither be high nor lasting but at best mixed and be but by comparison of a less pain to a greater Upon knowledge and due consideration of the prevalence of this passion of fear towards the guidance of men as in a state of subjection it seemed good in the eye of divine wisdom to rank his service and all our returns of duty and obedience as under that notion Nay we may observe that he doth not onely set down the commendations of such as have been dutiful and obedient unto him under the oppression of such as feared him but also for the encrease of this return of duty and service towards himself he is wont to promise a new increase and implantation of fear into the hearts of those parties and people from whom he expects it as being the only steady grace that is effectual herein If we look unto Creatures below us we shall finde that onely such of them are disciplinable and to be made tame and cohabitable as can be brought to be made sensible and subject to our corrections and also kept in such a continual fear of us as not to resist or rise against us to our prejudice Whereas Lions Wolves Foxes and the like which cannot be constantly awed are called Salvage amongst which sort we come to reckon mankinde it self when it shall once arive at that degree of temerity as to be incorrigible and disrespective to Law and Government being then become indisciplinable and impolitical For as to be informidable is to be indomitable so to be indomitable is to be unsociable Because if it were not for this mutual fear every man would be daily affronted and injured by every man Nay the boys and youths as we passed the streets might be inclined even for sport sake to abuse us with dirt or stones or the like did not the terror of punishment to come from us or their Master keep them in aw In which case as it is to be considered that as they are most ready to offer these abuses to other boys or those of their own rank because less to be feared either for personal revenge or complaints so were it not for fear sake especially for that fear which must come from Authority no society could be maintained especially in cases of great import where revenge is ready to work more
and command us cannot fail of a constant power to govern guide us also and thereupon they depending not so wholly on sense but being usually above its controul are not in like danger of a defeat by a negative from thence For Logick must assertain us by the rule of all or none whereas the other needs but look like truth and by joyning with that which hath been so fully assented unto already stands always generally proved where it is not totally contradicted To prove that there is a God a Resurrection and future judgement and the like faith is enabled by absence of negatives from sense by degrees to silence doubtings and to contract a positive assurance In which case when that which from authority or report of others or conceit raised in my self is at first apprehended as a thing that may be it will afterwards through absense of dissent or denial shake off its first state of doubting and become as a certaine conclusion of that which most assuredly is when neither experience in my self nor sufficient aurhority elsewhere doth or can demonstratively contradict Demonstratively and highly demonstratively it must be also after such time that this opinion hath once fastened it self upon these prevailing affections Even as we find that children will be so far scared by formidable tales and the apprehensions of such objects things as they could never from sense have notice of as to avoid being in the dark lying alone or the like And although these conceits were first entertained from the ungrounded reports of such persons as are of much less credit with them for ability and learning then those that do contradict it yet can it not take off the prevalence of that which hath so steady a support within and hath not strong experiments to contradict it from without This steady and effectual way of prevalence it pleased the All-seeing providence to make use of in the propagation of the Gospel it self divine wisdom never overthrowing nature but by his grace steering and directing her For although at the first for the remove of pre-occupation and making an impression in the hearts and affections of men he did extraordinarily appeal to sense by miracle yet had the encrease of the Christian faith its ordinary and next dependance on this effectual way of preaching even as that had again on the efficacy of the holy Ghost Towards the furtherance whereof as well in the first receipt as growth afterwards it pleased God Almighty also to make that natural thirst to be always living and that imbred sense of Morality accompanied with that continual humor of each mans adjudication for his own merit and for the demerit of others to serve as steps and degrees whereby to enter as well as preside in the belief of mankind and that in a more high and steady degree of energy and effectual operation then could be done by any doctrine brought in and made dependant on such philosophical disputes as were then raised in the Grecian Schools For although it be not hard to prove both a Deity and the excellency of the Christian faith by such like disputations as S. Paul once used in the School of Tyranus which may also be sometimes necessary for conviction of such as are capable of impressions that way soonest yet considering that even the wise and best learned are swayed by natural affections as well as others it is not to be doubted but that the reliance on these two mastering passions of hope and fear would render the instructer to be most generally and steadily prevalent even by proposal and pressing upon them rewards and punishments of so great height as were above the degree of any former comprehension In which case of exaltation of and pressure upon these affections especially that of fear we shall be often drawn to seek or avoid benefits or dangers which are neither present nor can have other sensible assurance that they will be and in the mean time stand neglectful of those which sense it self demonstrates both to be and to be formidable For there is none that can have equal assurance of the reality of Purgatory or Hell fire as of that which is in his kitchin yet by reason of this so often and pressing presentations thereof to the fancy and so to the affections by fear he will through the instigation thereof have his will inclined to take notice of that which he believes is most to be feared and so consequently will prosecute or avoid all those courses which he is made believe will acquit him of the danger hereof These things well considered there will be good cause found even in reason also for that prevalency and spreading ability which attended the Professors of the Protestant Religion over those of the Church of Rome For those more nice and retired speculations of the Schoolmen could not with all their fine subtilties so accurately delivered in their Books and Disputations be reasonably presumed half so efficatious for conviction in those things where reason was but subservient as was those more familiar insinuations which the Protestant Preachers applied themselves unto in their sermons made suitable to the affections of their present Auditors For first there are more that hear Sermons then read Books and again the Preacher can better know and distinguish the temper and inclination of his Auditory then the writer can of those that shall read him And besides there is a great efficacy to be attributed to elocution and gracefulness of delivery And in the sub-divisions of Protestants again we find that side still most prevalent and encreasing that is most sedulous in this course of Preaching also and that also in the plainest manner For that language and exact method that would hecome a Sermon made at S. Maries would be unfit and ineffectual to be used in a Country Auditory In the first it is expected he should be exact in his observation of Order and Scholastick Rules and Expressions whereas he that makes a Sermon or writes a Book of a vulgar address it behoves him to be more copious and plain in his delivery even so far as he conceives his hearers or readers not fitted with pre-notion enough to conceive and understand him in a more compendious and exact method and in case he find them possessed with strong aversions and pre-occupations he is then to enlarge himself and to make use of repetition and inculcation of Doctrine whereby he may be able to convict at several times and by degrees such as could not or would not be won at once and on a sudden the which I hope may serve as an apology for my self in those itterations and ways of pressure I have used all along this present Treatise by which or by transferring and reflection on my self if I have become a fool for truths sake and for conviction of such as are puffed up against one another and against Christs Ministers too I am not wanting of good Authority and