we think that God will preserve our Religion and maintain it against those that seek to destroy it if we make no other use of it but only to fill us with vain confidences of his love and favour while we continue in our impurities If we have any love to it any value for it let it have its due effect upon us by purging us from those things which disparage it That we may be vessels of honour sanctified and meet for the Masters use and prepared unto every good work 2 Tim. II. 21. And in what work can they that have authority better imploy themselves than in setting themselves to chastise evil doers to reform all abuses in the places where they live to discover all workers of iniquity and to pursue them when they are discovered with a just indignation and bring them to condign punishment They are very useless if they neglect this and have little love to their Master and his Religion which had such power over mens hearts heretofore that even after they had left their first love and declined in their affection to Christianity they had so much zeal remaining as not to be able to bear them which were evil It is our Saviours Character of the Church of Ephesus Rev. II. 2 4. among whose works though short of what they did at first v. 5. he reckons this for one and commends them for trying them which said they were Apostles and were not and for finding them to be liars III. Which will lead me to the last thing I am to press upon you and that is to be zealous for the defence of our Religion Godly zeal I suppose you all know is nothing else but the affection of love to God raised to the pitch of fervency which will not let us endure any hurt or contempt should be offer'd to that which he loves if we can remedy it Now what doth he love more than true Religion which the purer it is the dearer without all doubt it is to him that hates all iniquity And where I beseech you can you find any Religion which in this regard may be compared with that which is by Law here established Which deserves therefore all the zeal you can express for its preservation and at this time calls for all the zeal that it deserves For it is lost in all likelihood without every mans zeal in his place to save it We are undone if we have not a heat activity and courage proportionable to theirs that seek to destroy it And is it not a shame that false Religion should make men more busie and active more bold and undaunted than true Religion doth those who have so long professed it and been instructed in the worth and excellency of it Or do we expect to have it preserved without so much ado Are we such Fools as to imagine that if we defend our selves weakly faintly and timorously when they assault us not only resolutely but boldly and furiously we shall get the Victory No the Magistrates must do all that is in their power to execute his Majesties Command for the finding out and expelling those that oppose it And they that are not Magistrates must give them their assistance and quicken those that are Call upon all your Acquaintance who have any power or interest to be honest and upright to preserve their integrity and not be tempted by any thing in this world to betray their Religion And tell them it is not enough to be upright but they must be diligent and zealous because now is the time for every man to shew himself and to do all that lawfully he may for the honour and safety of his Religion There are no other bounds that I know of which we are to set to our zeal for our Religion but only this that we do nothing contrary to it Whatsoever it allows it now requires that we may not lose it We must not suffer our zeal to be damped by politick considerations respect to our private interest and desire to please Men but waving all these take care only that others be not wronged by it while we suffer perhaps very much in our own concerns For he knows nothing of the nature of holy zeal who doth not feel it transport him to act beyond himself and to make him quite forget his own private concerns which he thinks of no further than as they are included in the publique good There can be no other meaning of that which the Apostles apply to our Saviour The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up Joh. II. 17. than this that he regarded not his own particular interest nor minded what he was likely to suffer but all thoughts of it were swallowed up in his zeal to serve God Who will not be served indeed by our private passions and evil affections but doth expect that we should not consult with the wisdom of this World which is for suffering nothing but avoiding all that may hurt and prejudice us though God may be thereby very much honoured And therefore his wisdom of which we ought to take counsel bids us forget the damage we may suffer and lay aside all thoughts of our selves so we may but promote his glory When we have any hope of that we must hearken to no other advice but that of the Apostle Rom. XII 11. Not slothful in business but fervent in spirit serving the Lord. We would be glad perhaps to follow the other reading of the last part of that Verse serving the time but not in the right sense serving the time by serving the Lord faithfully in our several stations This he expects from us this our Religion and all good men expect from us that at this time when the Zealots of the Romish Church are so outragiously set to destroy us we should pluck up our spirits as the phrase is and imitate or rather excel them not in that cut-throat zeal God forbid which made the Jewish Nation as it doth them so infamous but in a just indignation against such barbarous persons and practises and in a zealous resolution always burning in our breasts to defend our Religion the best we can against their attempts I am bold to speak in this manner without any undue transport because I find God himself expressing his zealous affection for the defence of his Church in far higher terms than these Zach. VIII 2. Thus saith the Lord of hosts I was jealous for Zion with great jealousie and I was jealous for her with great fury Do not you then listen to any motion which may be made to you I will not say to leave your Religion but to be remiss and not so zealous for it Think what a dishonour it will be to you and how it will endanger it if when so many bend their tongues like their bow for lies you should not be valiant for the truth Which was the charge that Jeremy ch IX 3. brought against Jerusalem but I hope will never be your
guilt who have such a Religion to defend as will not let you be Cowards if you understand the difference between it and that which opposes it Consider it I beseech you beforehand that if any body should attacque you with Arguments to desert it you may be stedfast and unmoveable in nothing terrified by your adversaries when they tell you Popery will prevail notwithstanding all our endeavours to keep it out Resolve it shall never prevail over your souls whatsoever may become of your bodies But as you now pray solemnly God will not leave us so you will fortifie your selves impregnably against all perswasions to leave him by quitting your Religion Do not so much as stoop to hearken to any such seducement but considering as I said well beforehand what it is you must leave and for what if you forsake the Communion of this Church stand fast in one spirit with one mind in perfect unity striving together for the Faith of the Gospel So I may truly call our Religion here established from which if you should depart you leave the old way of serving God for new inventions For you forsake a Religion wherein God is purely worshipped for one that joins Saints and Angels with him You forsake a Church that prays to God alone through the intercession of Christ Jesus for one that prays to Saints in the very same form of words wherein they pray to him You leave the holy Scriptures to follow uncertain Traditions and part with your Bibles for Legends and fabulous Stories You go away from Prayers and Hymns you understand to a Service in an Unknown Tongue Instead of the whole Sacrament you must be content with half or rather with none at all For it is certain where the Blood of Christ is not imparted to you as shed or poured out of the Body as it is not in the Roman Church it is not communicated at all and the people have no fellowship with Christ in his death being deprived of his blood which was shed for the remission of sins Instead of sure and certain comfort you must rely in all holy Offices upon meer uncertainties for if the Priests intention be wanting of which none can be sure there is no Baptism no Communion no Orders no Priesthood no Church And consequently you leave the worshipping of Christ for a Worship which for any thing you can know may be meer Idolatry For in case there be no Transubstantiation but the Bread and Wine still remain after the Consecration they themselves have acknowledged it is Idolatry to worship them Now we are sure there is no Transubstantiation and it is impossible that they should be sure there is even according to their own principles because they can never be sure the Priest actually intends to do what Christ commanded and then nothing is done and therefore they can never be sure that they are not Idolaters If you join with those of Rome all the ancient Councils must signifie nothing with you in comparison with one late Conventicle which was no better than a Conspiracy of a few men against the Church of Christ You must quit a Church which teaches you to be subject to the King as Supreme for one that teaches you to be subject in the first place to the Pope Exchange a Church that requires of all its Members the strictest obedience to their Governour for one that at least suffers the most rebellious principles to pass for Christian Doctrine and the most bloody murders to pass for Christian if not meritorious actions You must leave a Church that bids you look about you and see that you be in the right for one that would put out your eyes and bids you blindly follow them A Church that in St. Paul's words requires you to prove all things for one that requires you to renounce your Reason nay common sense that you may believe the greatest absurdities If you leave the established Religion you forsake a Church whose Service is performed in a plain and grave a comely and decent manner for one that is burthened with more Ceremonies by far than are contained in all the Law of Moses You depart from a Church which only seeks the good of your souls and the glory of God in all its Ministrations for one that is apparently contrived for enriching the Priests and for the glory of the Pope You leave a Church which teaches you to live piously or else gives you no hopes of salvation for one that indulges men to live as they list and yet not utterly perish at the last A Church you abandon that is mild and gentle to those that are deceived for the sake of one that prosecutes all those who dissent from it with Fire and Faggot Massacres and unheard-of butcheries Nay you relinquish a Church that is very charitable in her Opinions and Censures for one that damns all those to the pit of Hell though never so blameless in their lives and stedfast believers of the three ancient Creeds if they be not of their Communion You leave a Religion which proclaims that Marriage is honourable in all and the Bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge for one that strictly forbids her Priests to marry but connives at their Fornication That is you leave a Religion in which you are taught to have the greatest regard to the Commands of Christ for one wherein you may more safely break many of his Precepts than one of the Laws of the Church To conclude you leave a Religion which is sincere and void of all deceit and fraud for one which cheats men with hallowed Trinkets such as Roses Beads Swords Agnus Dei and other waxen ware whereby they draw vast sums of money from the simple for meer toys and bables They that consider not the case may look upon all this as an invective which in truth is but a bare Narrative and no more than is necessary to be said our enemies themselves being Judges at such a time as this For they would look upon us I am confident as a company of despicable wretches if we should not dare on such an occasion to speak for our Religion Which teaches us after the example of St. Paul to be jealous over you with a godly jealousie fearing lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. XI 2 3. In which you ought to preserve your selves and not admit of the Romish mixtures whereby the simple Religion of Christ is adulterated if you have any regard either to your Souls or your Bodies or your estates which are all in danger Be zealous therefore in your Religion and for your Religion Show that you mean not to leave it for that is in effect to leave your reason that you may be rob'd of your faith nor to leave off your most vigorous endeavours to preserve it And truly we have the greatest cause to
be thus zealous both in our prayers and in our endeavours to fortifie our selves and one another to rouse up our courage to maintain what God hath so long by many wonderful providences maintained and preserved because he doth not seem to have a mind to leave us if we will not basely desert him and his cause For mark I beseech you what incouragement he gives us to hope that notwithstanding our vile requitals of all his loving-kindness we may be delivered if we will at last take such a pious course as I have described First of all he hath graciously heard the Prayers of his faithful people who have often besought him that he would bring to naught all the evils which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us He hath strangely when we lookt not for it detected their secret Counsels and thereby delivered our Soveraign whom God long preserve from the detestable design which was against his life This was the Lords doing alone and it ought to be marvellous in our eyes and excite us to do all we can for our own preservation seeing he hath done so much already For unless the Lord had been our help our souls had quickly dwelt in silence Ps XCIV 17. Another incouragement is the happy agreement hitherto between the two houses of Parliament who both are industrious to make further discoveries of those ungodly devices which are in part come to light and to provide the best means they can think of for our safety His Majesties gracious Declaration also that he is ready to joyn with them in all the wayes and means that may establish a firm security of the Protestant Religion as our own hearts can wish is a further encouragement But the greatest of all is that God hath done all hitherto for us himself for his own Names sake notwithstanding our high provocations There hath been little of man seen in all this business or in any of our former deliverances which have been a succession of Miraculous works for the preservation of this Church and Kingdom We cannot say that it was the prudence the diligence the watchfulness of our Councellors which brought to light the deeds of darkness but Gods infinite mercy alone who toucht the heart of one man to reveal those secrets which for the present hath dasht their designs in pieces As confident as they were they are faln short of their aim and the prey is snatcht as it were out of their very teeth They opened their mouth against us they hissed and gnasht their teeth but have not as yet been able to say we have swallowed them up certainly this is the day that we looked for we have found it we have seen it Lam. 2.16 No Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth Which we may very well look upon as a token for good saying with David Psal XLI 11. By this I know that thou favourest me because my enemy doth not triumph over me When they were in so fair a way to it then to be disappointed of their triumph is a manifest sign I think that God hath a kindness for us And may incourage us to say when we see them rave and hear them still brag that the day shall be their own Talk no more so exceeding proudly let not arrogance come forth out of your mouth for the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed He will keep the feet of his Saints and the wicked shall be silent in darkness for by strength shall no man prevail 1 Sam. II. 3 9. Did we thus religiously depend upon him and trust in him I am very confident he would still defeat our enemies and not suffer them howsoever they may boast to triumph over us even for this very reason because they are so insolent and barbarous That 's a new thing to be considered for our encouragement The savage cruelty and bloodiness of their designs against those among whom they live peaceably and who have been kind as well as gentle to them is an argument that God abhors them as much as we can do and that he will confound them if we do not provoke him to abhor us and cast us off for our ingratitude and gross negligence in that Religion which hath been so often most wondrously preserved We may make the same complaint to God that David did and thereby move him to pity us that they are not only our enemies wrongfully but have rendred us evil for good and hatred for our good will which is the character of the worst natures in the world It would have been easie for us were we so disposed as we find them to be to have destroyed them all long ago Our Numbers and strength being so vastly greater that nothing could have restrained us from it but only this that our Religion is better Which may make us hope God will be farther merciful to us and not let them prevail who are emboldned by nothing else to attempt to destroy us but by this alone that we are taught to be so kind to them as not to destroy them If David made this an argument why God should defend him from those that rose up against him because they were gathered together not for my transgression nor for my sin O Lord as he speaks Psal LIX 3. We may much more urge the same motive with a little alteration of his words saying Deliver us from the workers of iniquity save us from bloody men For lo they lie in wait for us the mighty are gathered together against us not for our transgression nor for our sin O Lord but quite contrary because our fear of thee forbids us to destroy them They run and prepare themselves without our fault awake to help us and behold the danger wherein we are Thou therefore O Lord God of hosts the God of Israel awake to visit them be not merciful to any wicked transgressor Consume them in wrath consume them that they may not be and let them know that God not they ruleth here and unto the ends of the Earth And it is a singular comfort surely to know and stedfastly believe that as the Psalmist saith elsewhere Psal XCIX 1. according to the old translation The Lord is King be the people never so unpatient he sitteth between the Cherubims i. e. governs the world be the earth never so unquiet Upon him therefore let us depend and commend our selves piously to his protection and we need not fear all the power on earth that they can raise against us As for their interest in heaven we are sure it is very small For if the Lord had not been on our side when they rose up against us then they had swallowed us up quick when they were so wrathfully displeased at us They depended it's like very much upon their supposed interest in the Saints whom they ply hard with their prayers and it is probable besought their help