most notorious sect and grand dividers of the Church and condemners of the justified shall know one day that Ambition was not true Religion and that the name of unity and universality and Antiquity were unmeet instruments to be used to the destruction of Unity and contradiction of Universality and Antiquity and that God hath set apart himself the man that is Godly though the Accuser of the Brethren would cast such out Psal 4. 3. And who shall condemn when it is Christ that justifieth Rom. 8. 33. You may see now that Godliness is not any meer external act or worship External worship there must be and that with all decencie and reverent behaviour but it is hypocrisie if there be nothing but the Corps without the Internal Godliness which is the life and soul Bodily exercise is here by the Apostle distinct from Godliness 4. You may now see that Godliness is not the meer forbearance of the outward acts or practice of any sin For else a sleep or a prison might make a man Godly by restraining him from the acts of sin He is ungodly that had rather live in the sin which through some restraint he doth forbear If you would do it you have done it in Gods account 5. You may see also that whatsoever Religiousness Obedience or Endeavours subject Christ to the flesh and world and make him give place to them and come behind do not deserve the name of Godliness You are not Godly how far soever else you goe if God and your Salvation take not place before all the honours profits and pleasures of the world As he is not God that hath any Greater Wiser or Better then himself so that is not Godliness which giveth the precedency practically to any thing but God that pretendeth never so highly to Honour him and yet more esteemeth their own Honour with the world or that professeth Love and Obedience to him and yet Loveth and obeyeth a Lust before him and sets more by Love and Obedience to themselves then by their own or other mens Love or Obedience to God All these are the cheating counterfeits of Godliness 6. And if none of these be Godliness much less doth it consist in any sin in superstition Idolatry or in cruelty blood and persecution through a carnal zeal in a bringing all others by violence to our proud impious wills in murmuring sedition rebellion or resisting lawful Powers under pretence of propagating religion Godliness consisteth not in Jesuitical contrivances and undermining others and equivocations and pious frands in disturbing Kingdoms killing Kings blowing up Parliaments absolving subjects from allegiance and giving away the Dominions of Temporal Lords if they will not obey the Pope in exterminating their Hereticks as is Decreed to be done in the Approved General Council at the Laterane under Innocent 3. Can. 3. nor doth it consist in murdering thirty thousand or fourty thousand treacherously in a few weeks as in France or much above twice as many in Ireland nor in butchering Christians by hundreds or thousands as they did long agoe by the Waldenses and Albigenses and Bohemians Nor in racking and tormenting them by Inquisition nor in frying them in the flames of fagots as in Queen Marics days and frequently elsewhere This is the Religion of the father of malice that thirsts for blood and not of the Merciful Prince of Peace Godliness is not the running to arms and pulling down Governments to set up the proud self-conceited actors under pretence of setting up Christ and preparing for his Kingdom snatching in their dream at Crowns and Kingdoms and finding when they awake that they have catcht agallows When the Fryers had spawned the turbulent people among us in England that thought they must do any thing and overturn the Governments of the world to make Christ the fifth Monarch and bring him from heaven to Reign visibly on earth before he is willing to come I must confess lâ—oft thought that their cunning was much more wonderful to keep these people from being undeceived then at first to deceive them To keep them in despight of all our discoveries and warnings in such furious blindness as to goe on and do their fathers work and rage against these that told them their original and whither they were going The poor seduced people never read such Books as Fryar Campanella's de Regno Dei sacerdotio Christi c. wherein he brings up all the Prophetical Texts in Isaiah Daniel c. which these men use and laboureth to shew what a golden Age is coming in which divisions shall cease and unity become the strength and beauty of the world and this by the Universal reign of Christ and what a happy people the Saints will be and how they shall then judge and rule the world and O the comfort the time is near and just such words he useth for his fifth most glorious universal Monarchy as others now do But when all comes to all the mysterie unveiled is but this that Christ must reign by the Pope his Deputy and that all Princes and Nations must submit and stoop and their Kingdoms must all become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ to be governed by his Deputy the Pope and the power falsly called spiritual being first well-settled the other Key or Sword also the temporal must for unity sake be put into the same hand The Heavens therefore should rejoyce and the earth be glad for the Lord thus cometh to judge the world The fifth Monarchy is at hand The Universal holy reign of Christ not by prophane Princes but by his Holiness the Pope and by the Saints the Fryars Jesuites Monks and Clergy that shall judge the world to whom ere long all knees shall bow But you will say We are so far from joyning with these Fryars that we hate the Pope much more then you do I answer You have received their frame of doctrine of the Universal fifth Monarchy that is at hand there is but one thing to do and you are theirs which is to convince you that Christ is not to come and reign here personally but by his Great Vicegerent And they that could bring you to believe things more improbable may more easily easily bring you to them from your unreasonable conceit Pardon this Digression I thought meet to tell you that Godliness lyeth not in breaking the Law of God nor in obeying Pride nor being the enemies of Government and order in the world nor in an impatient striving by right or wrong to break away from the yoak of suffering that God for our sin or for his cause shall lay upon us And now I have fully and distinctly told you What Godliness is and What it is not And now go thy way malicious soul and say if thou dare as the Devils informers frequently do that it is sedition or faction or schism or disobedience that we draw the people to under the name of Godliness Hold on if thou wilt a
Papists that the Pope may give away the Dominions of Temporal Lords that deny Transubstantiation or hold such like points which he calleth Heresie or that will not exterminate all that hold them out of their Dominions and that he may discharge their subjects and vassals from their Allegiance I only intreat him with his own eyes to read the Decrees of their approved general Council at the Laterane under Pope Innocent 3. and set him but believe his eye-sight And for their case and confutation let him also read King James his Answer to Perron's Oration Having thus interposed an Answer to their Objection that say Religion hath brought forth Rebellions which I confess that Religion which teacheth Rebellion hath done but the Christian Religion which condemneth it and engageth men against it as aforesaid doth not I now proceed to some other proofs that Godliness is the greatest security and establishment to Kingdoms and all Societies 12. Godliness above all things engageth men to be true to their Covenants to keep all their Oathes and Promises of Obedience to Kings and to other superiours and to be faithful and trusty in all their duties to one another So horrid is the sin of Perjury and Covenant-breaking that God hath condemned it not only in the holy Scriptures but also in the Law of Nature He will not bear with it in the Greatest Princes how then shall Perfidious subjects scape What fair excuses had Saul for his breaking the Vow and Covenant with the Gibeonites He might have said 1. They procured it from Joshua by a meer cheat And therefore no benefit belonged to them from their own sin and fraud 2. That Joshua not knowing who they were ignordutis non est consensus 3. That God had forbid to spare any of those Nations 4. That it was not Saul that made this Oath and Covenant but Joshua 5. That Saul did it in zeal for the people of Israel Yet for all this in Davids dayes there was a famine in the land for this sin of Saul which was not expiated till seven of his sons or posterity were hanged at the Gibeonites request And though David might well see that he might be censured as contriving all this himself for the extirpation of the sine of Saul yet would be not forbear the execution 2 Chron. 21. And when the people murmured at Joshua and the Heads of Israel for sparing them at first they are answered with the Obligation of the inviolable Oath Josh 9. So though Zedekiah was the King of Babylons Captive force could not excuse his perjury and Covenant-breaking but God severely condemned and avenged it So that every Subject that hath but bound himself in Allegiance to his Soveraign is under such an Obligation as to a true Believer is more dreadful to violate then it is to suffer death Yea God hath written such a Law against Perjury even in Nature it self that he must needs be afraid of it that is not a flat Atheist lest his appeal to God do bring the vengeance of God upon him And in this life the perjured ordinarily meet with that Divine revenge which is the fore-runner of eternal vengeance The perjured are unfit for humane Society hated by God and never more to be trusted by man till sound Repentance make a change Which made Augustine determine that he that urgeth another to forswear himself is as much worse then a murtherer as killing the soul is worse then killing the Body Seeing then that Religion doubleth these sacred bonds and casteth Hell-fire into the face of the perjured and perfidious it must needs be a singular perserver of Kingdoms and all Societies which fall in pieces where these bonds are loosed and fall into the hands of God who is a consuming fire especially to perjured men 13. Moreover it is only Godliness that obeyeth with true Loyalty and carryeth on all works methodically for the common Good As he that will obey every Justice of Peace in all things that he commandeth without respect to the Laws or will of the Soveraign Power may be sooner a Traytor then truly obedient for every Justice or Lord may arm him against his Prince so he that will obey the Princes of the earth without respect to the Will or Interest of the Eternal God will be but a Traytor to God under pretence of obeying Princes that are but his Officers and Servants But the godly begin at God in their obedience and therefore they proceed methodically and obey men upon right grounds and in their proper places It is not the most absolute obedience to man that is the best He that should command men causelesly to fire his Countrey or to destroy the innocent or to ravish Virgins or mens Wives were not to be obeyed as Doeg obeyed Saul but God is first to be obeyed It is he that begins proceeds and ends with God that is sure to do no wrong nor be misled 14. Holiness possesseth men with a publike spirit and maketh the â—â—se â—â— others to be our own and teacheth us to do as we would be done by and giveth every man that hath it a compassion to others in their distress and an earnest desire after their welfare and a rejoycing in it when ungodly men are all for themselves Psalm 137. 1 Cor. 12. 25 26 27. 13. Acts 2. 44. Mat. 7. 12 Mark 12. 33. 15. Godliness engageth men in Doing good as the very business of their lives which is to be Rewarded with everlasting Happiness So that besides what is forced from men by Law they are to be still in the exercise of Charity and to be zealous of good works and to make it their study to do all the good they can And therefore they are certainly the profitablest members in any Society that are most truly Godly Luke 10. 29 30 c. Deut. 15. 9. Luke 6. 38. Gal. 6. 9 10. 16. Moreover Holiness teacheth men to forgive wrongs and to Love our enemies and to let go our right rather then to break Peace and revenge our wrongs and to forbear even going to Law contentiously and where our putting up injuries meerly to our selves may suffice for the avoiding of it Luke 6. 27 28 29. Mat. 6. 14 15. 1 Cor. 6. 7. And what contention can there be where these Rules are practised except when the interest of God or others is violated which is not in our power to remit If you say that These things are good if they were practised I answer 1. You confess then that Holiness is good For the Rule is Good whether it be practised or not 2. I answer that so much as any man is sanctisied he doth practise it And therefore if any man live not according to the Rule which he professeth to live by that is from the remnant of that sin within him which the wicked plead for and for want of more of that Godliness which you distaste Make him more holy and he will do all this 17. Holiness
certain experience of all true Christians in the world They all have tasted and found that excellencie in the holy ways and Ordinances of the Lord that they value them above all the world With David they esteem them above Gold and Silver Psal 119. 72. With Solomon they say that all the things that we can desire are not to be compared to them Prov. 3. 15. 8. 11. And with Job they value the word of God above their necessary food Job 23. 12. And with Paul they count all things Loss aud dung in comparison of the excellent knowledge of Christ Phil. 3. 7 8. They know that it is a thousand times better with them since God converted them to a holy life then it was before as well as you know that you are better in your health then you were in sickness Try whether you can make men that ever were among those where plague and war and famine raigned to believe that it was never a good world since this plague and war and famine ceased You may as soon make wise men believe this as make experienced godly men to believe that it is worse with them for their turning to the Lord and living holy heavenly lives You can never by all your doating and self-conceited prating make those believe whom God hath sanctified that they were in a better case before when they were the slaves of Satan and served sin were under the wrath and curse of God They feel that within them that will never suffer them to believe you The health of their recovered souls their experience of the Goodness of the ways of God the comforts they have had in the pardon of sin and the hopes of Glory do make them know that you talke distractedly when you tell them that they were better before or that the world is the worse for the grace of God 6. And we cannot believe you when you speak evil of a holy course because your words are against all Religion and common reason and much more destructive of the Christian faith If God be not to be Loved with all our hearts and served with our greatest care then he is not God or then there is no such thing as Religion to be regarded A God that is worse then the Creature is no God If we must not seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof Matth. 6. 33. as Christ hath commanded then it is in vain to seek it at all If there be no Heaven or Hell let us lay by all Religion But if there be that man that thinks it not worth his greatest care and diligence to be saved doth forseit the reputation of his reason with his soul Will you believe that man that saith he believeth that there is an Everlasting Glory to be sought and made sure of in this life of our pilgrimage and warfare and yet thinks it not worth our seeking for above all and worthy all our cost and labour He speaks a gross and blockish contradiction A Heaven no better then Earth is no Heaven A Heaven that is not worthy the labour of a holy life is no Heaven And a God that is not worthy of all that we can do is no God Either plainly say that you are Pagans and worse and believe not any life but this Or else live as Christians if you will be called Christians say not that you believe there is a Hell if you think a Holy life too dear to scape it 7. Yea this is not all but your words do tend to Brutishness it self Pagans did believe for the most part a life after this And Julian that Apostate Infidel himself doth prescribe to all his Idols Priests a very strict and Religious life according to the Religion which he owned and professeth that all care and temperance and piety should be used to please God and obtain the happiness to come And shall men called Christians take the very Infidels for Puritanes and be worse then Heathens If we have not another life to look after then what are we but beasts that perish If you think that you die like beasts call your selves beasts and never more own the name of men If you are not beasts but men that have you souls to save or lose to be happy or miserable for ever And is it not worth all our care labour to look after them 8. Another reason why I will never believe you that the world was better when there was less preaching and Religion is because you speak against the very end and nature of preaching and Religion For the word of God is written and preached to this very end to make men better And is that the way to undoe the world to perswade them to amend O Impudent malignant tongues What doth the word of God speak against but sin Doth it anywhere speak against any thing that is Good or doth it anywhere command you any thing that is bad Let the bitterest enemy of God upon earth say so and prove it if he can I here in defiance of the Devil and all his instruments and servants challenge them in their bitterest malice to say the worst they can of the Gospel or of true Religion and prove that ever it encouraged men to sin or that ever any was a loser by it O wonderful Must the God of heaven indite such Laws against all evil condemning it and threatning damnation for it and yet will these wretches have the faces to say that it is long of the Scripture or of Religion that the world is Evil What! Will preaching against your wickedness make you wicked If it do be it known to the faces of you that it is you and not preaching that shall be one day found to be the cause and be condemned for it Must Princes and Parliaments make Laws to hang thieves and murderers and when they have done will you say it is long of them and their Laws that men are robbed and murdered Why this is not yet so impudently unjust as you deal with God For they threaten but hanging and he threatneth everlasting damnation against sin and executeth it on all the unconverted as sure as he threatneth it And would you have him yet do more to testifie his dislike of sin Tell me thou that blasphemest the holy commands of thy Creator Wouldst thou have him do more then everlastingly to damn unconverted sinners to prove that he is no friend or cause of sin what should he do more Is there a greater plague then Hell to threaten Or wouldst thou have him do more to shew how much he loveth Goodness then to command it and perswade men daily to it and to promise Everlasting Glory for their Reward Is there any greater Reward to be promised I tell thee blasphemer to the Justifying of my Lord that all the world hath never done the thousandth part against mens faults as God hath done Never were there stricter Laws against them then his Laws And never