least Honour upon nor contribute the least Advantage to All that I can add is That as it was my Fortune to serve this Noble Seat of Learning for many years as Her Publick though Unworthy Orator so upon that and innumerable other Accounts I ought for ever to be and to acknowledge my self Her most Faithfull Obedient and Devoted Servant Robert South Westminster Abbey Novemb. 17. 1693. THE Contents of the Sermons SERMON I. PRov. X. 9. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely Page 1 SERMON II. JOhn XV. 15. Henceforth I call you not Servants for the Servant knows not what his Lord doth But I have called you Friends for all things that I have heard of my father have I made known unto you p. 59 SERMON III IV. Eccles. V. 2. Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy words be few p. 111 SERMON V VI. Rom. I. 32. Who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of Death not onely doe the same but have pleasure in them that doe them p. 223 SERMON VII Rom. I. 20. latter Part. So that they are without excuse p. 323 SERMON VIII Matth. XXII 12. And he saith unto him Friend how camest thou in hither not having a Wedding-garment p. 373 SERMON IX Isa. V. 20. Wo unto them that call Evil good and Good evil c. p. 427 SERMON X. 1. Sam. XXV 32 33. And David said to Abigail Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who sent thee this Day to meet me And blessed be thy Advice and blessed be thou who hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging my self with my own Hand p. 485 SERMON XI XII 1 John III. 21. Beloved if our Heart condemn us not then we have Confidence toward God p. 531 Some of the Chief Errours of the Press are thus to be Corrected PAge 9. line 15. for right aiming read the right aiming P. 116. l. 2. After the word therefore a Break. P. 153. line the last for Inventions read Invention P. 157. l. 6. for Designs read Design P. 183. l. 9. for receives read receive P. 267. l. 20 for outrageously read outragiously P. 283. l. 19. for of a Presumption read of Presumption P. 284. line after World dele the Semicolon P. 342. l. 18. for those read these P. 348. l. 20. for Artist read Artists P. 349. l. 18. for came read come P. 350. l. 4. for Vice read Vices P. 414. l. 11. for the Table read their Table P. 493. l. 9. for objects read object P. 508. l. 5. for preferrible read preferible P. 613. l. 21. for second next read second and next THE Practice of Religion Enforced by REASON IN A SERMON PREACHED Upon PROV X. 9. AT Westminster-Abbey 1667. PROV X. 9. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely AS it were easy to Evince both from Reason and Experience that there is a strange restless Activity in the Soul of Man continually disposing it to Operate and Exert its Faculties so the Phrase of Scripture still expresses the Life of Man by Walking that is it represents an Active Principle in an Active Posture And because the Nature of Man carries him thus out to Action it is no wonder if the same Nature equally renders him sollicitous about the â—â—ue and Event of his Actions For every one by reflecting upon the Way and Method of his own Workings will find that he is still determined in them by a respect to the Consequence of what he does always proceeding upon this Argumentation If I do such a thing such an Advantage will follow from it and therefore I will do it And if I do this such a Mischief will ensue thereupon and therefore I will forbear Every one I say is Concluded by this Practical discourse and for a man to bring his Actions to the Event proposed and designed by him is to walk surely But since the Event of an Action usually follows the Nature or Quality of it and the Quality follows the Rule directing it it concerns a Man by all means in the framing of his Actions not to be deceived in the Rule which He proposes for the measure of them which without great and exact Caution he may be these Two ways 1. By laying false and deceitfull Principles 2. In case he lays right Principles yet by mistaking in the Consequences which he draws from them An Error in either of which is equally dangerous for if a Man is to draw a Line it is all one whether he does it by a crooked Rule or by a straight One misapplied He who fixes upon false Principles treads upon Infirm ground and so sinks and He who fails in his Deductions from right Principles stumbles upon Firm ground and so falls the disaster is not of the same Kind but of the same Mischief in both It must be confessed that it is sometimes very hard to judge of the Truth or Goodness of Principles considered barely in themselves and abstracted from their Consequences But certainly he acts upon the surest and most Prudential grounds in the World who whether the Principles which he acts upon prove true or false yet secures an happy Issue to his Actions Now He who guides his Actions by the Rules of Piety and Religion lays these Two Principles as the great Ground of all that He does 1. That there is an Infinite Eternal All-wise Mind governing the Affairs of the World and taking such an Account of the Actions of men as according to the Quality of them to punish or reward them 2 ly That there is an Estate of Happiness or Misery after this Life allotted to Every man according to the Quality of his Actions here These I say are the Principles which every Religious man proposes to Himself And the Deduction which He makes from them is This That it is his Grand Interest and Concern so to act and behave Himself in This World as to secure Himself from an Estate of Misery in the Other And thus to act is in the Phrase of Scripture to walk uprightly and it is my business to prove That He who acts in the strength of this Conclusion drawn from the Two fore-mentioned Principles walks surely or secures an happy Event to his Actions against all Contingencies whatsoever And to demonstrate this I shall Consider the said Principles under a Threefold Supposition 1. As Certainly True 2 ly As Probable And 3 ly As False And if the Pious man brings his Actions to an happy End which soever of these Suppositions his Principles fall under then certainly there is none who walks so surely and upon such Irrefragable grounds of Prudence as He who is Religious 1. First of all therefore we will take these Principles as we may very well doe under the Hypothesis of Certainly true Where though the method of the Ratiocination which I have cast the present
much of Annual Refrigeriums Respites or Intervals of Punishment to the Damned as particularly on the Great Festivals of the Resurrection Ascension Pentecost and the like In which as these good Men are more to be commended for their Kindness and Compassion than to be followed in their Opinion which may be much better Argued by Wishes than Demonstrations so admitting that it were true yet what a pitifull slender Comfort would this amount to Much like the Iews abating the Punishment of Malefactors from forty stripes to forty save one A great Indulgence indeded even as great as the difference between Forty and Thirty-nine and yet much less considerable would that Indulgence be of a few Holy-days in the measures of Eternity of some Hours Ease compared with Infinite Ages of Torment Supposing therefore that few Sinners relieve themselves with such groundless trifling Considerations as these yet may they not however fasten a Rational Hope upon the Boundless Mercy of God that this may induce him to spare his poor Creature though by Sin become obnoxious to His Wrath To this I answer That the Divine Mercy is indeed large and far surpassing all Created measures yet nevertheless it has its proper time and after this Life it is the time of Justice and to hope for the Favours of Mercy then is to expect an Harvest in the Dead of Winter God has cast all his Works into a certain inviolable Order according to which there is a Time to Pardon and a Time to Punish and the Time of One is not the Time of the Other When Corn once felt the Sickle it has no more Benefit from the Sun-shine But 2 ly If the Conscience be too apprehensive as for the most part it is to venture the Final issue of Things upon a Fond perswasion that the Great Judge of the World will relent and not execute the Sentence pronounced by him As if he had threatned Men with Hell rather to fright them from Sin than with an Intent to punish them for it I say if the Conscience cannot find any Satisfaction or Support from such Reasonings as these yet may it not at least relieve it self with the Purposes of a future Repentance notwithstanding its present actual Violations of the Law I answer That this certainly is a Confidence of all others the most ungrounded and irrational For upon what Ground can a man promise Himself a Future Repentance who cannot promise Himself a Futurity Whose Life depends upon His Breath and is so restrained to the present that it cannot secure to it self the Reversion of the very next Minute Have not many died with the guilt of Impenitence and the designs of Repentance together If a man dies to day by the prevalence of some ill humours will it avail Him that he intended to have bled and purged to morrow But how dares sinfull Dust and Ashes invade the Prerogative of Providence and Carve out to Himself the Seasons and Issues of Life and Death which the Father keeps wholly within his own Power How does that man who thinks he sins securely under the shelter of some Remote purposes of Amendment know but that the Decree above may be already passed against Him and his Allowance of Mercy spent so that the Bow in the Clouds is now drawn and the Arrow levelled at his Head and not many Days like to pass but perhaps an Apoplex or an Impostome or some suddain Disaster may stop his Breath and reap him down as a Sinner ripe for Destruction I conclude therefore That upon Supposition of the Certain Truth of the Principles of Religion He who walks not uprightly has neither from the Presumption of God's Mercy Reversing the Decree of his Iustice nor from his own Purposes of a Future Repentance any sure ground to set his Foot upon but in this whole Course Acts as directly in Contradiction to Nature as he does in defiance of Grace In a word He is besotted and has lost his Reason and what then can there be for Religion to take hold of Him by Come we now to the 2 d. Supposition under which we shew That the Principles of Religion laid down by us might be Considered and that is as onely Probable Where we must observe That Probability does not properly make any Alteration either in the Truth or Falsity of Things but onely Imports a different Degree of their Clearness or Appearance to the Understanding So that that is to be accounted Probable which has more and better Arguments producible for it than can be brought against it and surely such a thing at least is Religion For certain it is that Religion is Universal I mean the first Rudiments and General Notions of Religion called Natural Religion and consisting in the acknowledgment of a Deity and of the common Principles of Morality and a future Estate of Souls after Death in which also we have all that some Reformers and Refiners amongst us would reduce Christianity it self to This Notion of Religion I say has diffused it self in some degree or other greater or less as far as human Nature extends So that there is no Nation in the World though plunged into never such gross and absurd Idolatry but has some awfull Sence of a Deity and a perswasion of a State of Retribution to Men after this Life But now if there are really no such Things but all is a meer Lye and a Fable contrived only to chain up the Liberty of Man's Nature from a freer Enjoyment of those things which otherwise it would have as full a right to Enjoy as to Breath I demand whence this perswasion could thus come to be Universal For was it ever known in any other Instance that the whole World was brought to Conspire in the belief of a Lye Nay and of such a Lye as should lay upon Men such unpleasing Abridgments tying them up from a full Gratification of those Lusts and Appetites which they so impatiently desire to satisfie and consequently by all means to remove those Impediments that might any way obstruct their satisfaction Since therefore it cannot be made out upon any Principle of Reason how all the Nations in the World otherwise so distant in Situation Manners Interests and Inclinations should by Design or Combination meet in one perswasion and withall that Men who so mortally hate to be deceived and imposed upon should yet suffer themselves to be deceived by such a perswasion as is false and not onely false but also cross and contrary to their strongest Desires so that if it were false they would set the utmost force of their Reason on work to discover that Falsity and thereby disenthrall themselves And further since there is nothing false but what may be proved to be so And yet Lastly since all the Power and Industry of Man's mind has not been hitherto able to prove a Falsity in the Principles of Religion it Irrefragably follows and that I suppose without gathering any more into the Conclusion than
has been made good in the Premises that Religion is at least a very high Probability And this is that which I here contend for That it is not necessary to the obliging Men to believe Religion to be true that this Truth be made out to their Reason by Arguments demonstratively certain but that it is sufficient to render their Unbelief unexcusable even upon the account of bare Reason if so be the Truth of Religion carry in it a much greater Probability than any of those Ratiocinations that pretend the Contrary And this I prove in the strength of these two Considerations 1 st That no man in matters of this Life requires an Assurance either of the Good which He designs or of the Evil which He avoids from Arguments demonstratively certain but judges Himself to have sufficient ground to act upon from a probable perswasion of the Event of things No man who first Trafficks into a Foreign Countrey has any Scientifick Evidence that there is such a Countrey but by Report which can produce no more than a moral Certainty that is a very high probability and such as there can be no Reason to except against He who has a probable Belief that He shall meet with Thieves in such a Road thinks himself to have Reason enough to decline it albeit he is sure to sustain some less though yet considerable Inconvenience by his so doing But perhaps it may be replied and it is all that can be replied That a greater Assurance and Evidence is required of the Things and Concerns of the other World than of the Interests of this To which I Answer That Assurance and Evidence Terms by the way Extremely different the first respecting properly the Ground of our Assenting to a Thing and the other the Clearness of the Thing or Object assented to have no place at all here as being contrary to our present Supposition according to which we are now treating of the Practical Principles of Religion onely as Probable and falling under a Probable Perswasion And for this I affirm That where the Case is about the Hazarding an Eternal or a Temporal Concern there a less degree of Probability ought to engage our Caution against the loss of the Former than is necessary to engage it about preventing the loss of the Latter Forasmuch as where Things are least to be put to the venture as the Eternal Interests of the other World ought to be there every even the least Probability or likelihood of Danger should be provided against but where the loss can be but Temporal every small Probability of it need not put us so Anxiously to prevent it since though it should happen the loss might be repaired again or if not could not however destroy us by reaching us in our greatest and highest Concern which no Temporal Thing whatsoever is or can be And this directly introduces the 2 d. Consideration or Argument viz. That bare Reason discoursing upon a Principle of Self-preservation which surely is the Fundamental Principle which Nature proceeds by will oblige a man Voluntarily and by Choice to undergo any less Evil to secure Himself but from the Probability of an Evil incomparably greater and that also such an one as if that Probability passes into a certain Event admits of no Reparation by any After-remedy that can be applied to it Now that Religion teaching a future Estate of Souls is a Probability and that its Contrary cannot with Equal Probability be proved we have already Evinced This therefore being supposed we will suppose yet further That for a man to Abridge Himself in the full satisfaction of His Appetites and Inclinations is an Evil because a present Pain and Trouble But then it must likewise be granted that Nature must needs abhorr a State of Eternal Pain and Misery much more and that if a man does not undergo the former less Evil it is highly probable that such an Eternal estate of Misery will be his Portion And if so I would fain know whether that man takes a Rational Course to preserve Himself who Refuses the Endurance of these Lesser Troubles to secure Himself from a Condition infinitely and inconceivably more Miserable But since Probability in the Nature of it supposes that a Thing may or may not be so for any thing that yet appears or is certainly determined on either side we will here consider both sides of this Probability As 1 st That it is one way possible That there may be no such Thing as a future estate of happiness or misery for those who have lived well or ill here And then he who upon the strength of a Contrary belief abridged himself in the gratification of his Appetites sustains only this Evil viz. That he did not please his Senses and unbounded Desires so much as otherwise he might and would have done had he not lived under the Captivity and Check of such a Belief This is the Utmost which he suffers But whether this be a Real Evil or no whatsoever Vulgar minds may commonly think it shall be discoursed of afterwards 2. But then again on the other side 't is Probable that there will be such a future estate and then how miserably is the voluptuous sensual Unbeliever left in the Lurch For there can be no Retreat for him then no mending of his Choice in the other World no After-game to be played in Hell It fares with Men in reference to their future Estate and the Condition upon which they must pass to it much as it does with a Merchant having a Vessel richly fraught at Sea in a Storm the Storm grows higher and higher and threatens the utter loss of the Ship But there is one and but one Certain way to save it which is by throwing its Rich Lading over-board Yet still for all this the man knows not but possibly the Storm may cease and so all be preserved However in the mean time there is little or no Probability that it will doe 〈…〉 in case it should not he is then 〈◊〉 that he must lay his Life as well a◠his Rich Commodities in the Cruel Deep Now in this Case would this man think we act rationally should he upon the slender Possibility of Escaping otherwise neglect the sure infallible Preservation of his Life by casting away his Rich Goods No certainly it would be so far from it that should the Storm by a strange hap cease immediately after he had thus thrown away his Riches yet the Throwing them away was infinitely more Rational and Eligible than the Retaining or Keeping them could have been For a man while He lives here in the World to doubt whether there be any Hell or no and thereupon to Live so as if absolutely there were none but when he dies to find himself Confuted in the Flames This surely must be the height of Woe and Disappointment and a bitter Conviction of an irrational Venture and an absurd Choice In doubtfull Cases Reason still determines for the
That since a Set-form of Prayer leaves the Soul wholly free to imploy its Affections and Devotions in which the Spirit of Prayer does most properly consist it follows that the Spirit of Prayer is thereby in a singular manner helped promoted and enlarged And since on the other hand the Extempore-way withdraws and takes off the Soul from imploying its Affections and engages it chiefly if not wholly about the use of its Invention it as plainly follows that the Spirit of Prayer is by this means unavoidably cramp'd and hindred and to use their own word stinted Which was the Proposition that I undertook to prove But there are two Things I confess that are extreamly hindred and stinted by a Set-form of Prayer and equally furthered and enlarged by the Extempore-way which without all doubt is the true Cause why the former is so much decried and the latter so much extolled by the Men whom we are now pleading with The first of which is Pride and Ostentation the other Faction and Sedition 1. And first for Pride I do not in the least question but the chief Designs of such as use the Extempore-way is to amuse the unthinking Rabble with an Admiration of their Gifts their whole Devotion proceeding from no other principle but only a Love to hear themselves talk And I believe it would put Lucifer himself hard to it to out-vye the Pride of one of those fellows pouring out his Extempore-stuff amongst his ignorant whining factious Followers listning to and applauding his copious Flow and Cant with the ridiculous Accents of their impertinent Groans And the truth is Extempore-prayer even when best and most dextrously performed is nothing else but a business of Invention and Wit such as it is and requires no more to it but a teeming Imagination a bold Front and a ready Expression and deserves much the same Commendation were it not in a matter too serious to be suddain upon which is due to Extempore Verses only with this difference That there is necessary to these latter a competent measure of Wit and Learning whereas the former may be done with very little Wit and no Learning at all And now can any sober person think it reasonable that the publick Devotions of a whole Congregation should be under the Conduct and at the Mercy of a pert empty conceited Holder-forth whose chief if not sole intent is to Vaunt his spiritual Clack and as I may so speak to pray Prizes whereas Prayer is a Duty that recommends it self to the Acceptance of Almighty God by no other Qualification so much as by the profoundest Humility and the lowest Esteem that a man can possibly have of himself Certainly the Extemporizing faculty is never more out of its Element than in the Pulpit Though even here it is much more excusable in a Sermon than in a Prayer For as much as in that a Man addresses himself but to Men Men like himself whom he may therefore make bold with as no doubt for so doing they will also make bold with him Besides the peculiar advantage attending all such suddain Conceptions that as they are quickly Born so they quickly Die It being seldom known where the Speaker has so very fluent an Invention but the Hearer also has the Gift of as fluent a Memory 2 ly The other thing that has been hitherto so little befriended by a Set-form of Prayer and so very much by the Extempore-way is Faction and Sedition It has been always found an Excellent way of girding at the Government in Scripture-phrase And we all know the Common Dialect in which the great Masters of this Art used to pray for the King and which may justly pass for only a cleanlier and more refined kind of Libelling him in the Lord. As that God would turn his Heart and open his Eyes As if he were a Pagan yet to be converted to Christianity with many other sly virulent and malicious Insinuations which we may every day hear of from those Mints of Treason and Rebellion their Conventicles and for which and a great deal less some Princes and Governments would make them not only eat their Words but the Tongue that spoke them too In fine let all their Extempore Harangues be considered and duly weighed and you shall find a Spirit of Pride Faction and Sedition predominant in them all The only Spirit which those Impostors do really and indeed pray by I have been so much the longer and the earnester against this intoxicating bewitching Cheat of Extempore-prayer being fully satisfied in my Conscience that it has been all along the Devil's Master-piece and prime Engine to overthrow our Church by For I look upon this as a most unanswerable Truth That whatsoever renders the publick Worship of God contemptible amongst us must in the same degree weaken and discredit our whole Religion And I hope I have also proved it to be a Truth altogether as clear That this Extempore-way naturally brings all the Contempt upon the Worship of God that both the Folly and Faction of Men can possibly expose it to And therefore as a thing neither subservient to the true Purposes of Religion nor grounded upon Principles of Reason nor lastly sutable to the Practice of Antiquity ought by all means to be exploded and cast out of every sober and well-ordered Church or that will be sure to throw the Church it self out of Doors And thus I have at length finished what I had to say of the first Ingredient of a Pious and Reverential Prayer which was Premeditation of Thought prescribed to us in these words Let not thy mouth be rash nor thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God Which excellent Words and most wise Advice of Solomon whosoever can reconcile to the Expediency Decency or Usefulness of Extempore-prayer I shall acknowledge him a Man of greater Ability and Parts of Mind than Solomon Himself The other Ingredient of a Reverential and duly qualified Prayer is a pertinent Brevity of Expression mentioned and recommended in that part of the Text Therefore let thy Words be few But this I cannot dispatch now and therefore shall not enter upon at this time Now to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God be rendred and ascribed as is most due all Praise Might Majesty and Dominion both now and for evermore Amen A DISCOURSE AGAINST Long and Extempore-Prayers In Behalf of the LITURGY OF THE Church of ENGLAND Upon the same Text. ECCLES V. 2. Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy words be few I Formerly began a Discourse upon these Words and observed in them these three Things 1. That whosoever appears in the House of God and particularly in the way of Prayer ought to reckon himself in a more especial manner placed in the sight and presence of God And 2 ly
safer side Especially if the Case be not onely Doubtfull but also highly Concerning and the Venture be of a Soul and an Eternity He who sat at a Table richly and deliciously furnished but with a Sword hanging over his Head by one single Thread or Hair surely had enough to check his Appetite even against all the Ragings of Hunger and Temptations of Sensuality The onely Argument that could any way encourage his Appetite was That possibly the Sword might not fall but when his Reason should encounter it with another Question What if it should fall And moreover that pitifull Stay by which it hung should oppose the likelihood that it would to a meer possibility that it might not what could the man enjoy or tast of his rich Banquet with all this doubt and horror working in his Mind Though a Man's condition should be really in it self never so safe yet an apprehension and surmise that it is not safe is enough to make a quick and a tender Reason sufficiently miserable Let the most Acute and Learned Unbeliever demonstrate that there is no Hell And if he can he Sins so much the more rationally otherwise if he cannot the Case remains doubtfull at least But he who Sins obstinately does not act as if it were so much as doubtfull for if it were Certain and Evident to Sense he could do no more but for a man to found a confident Practice upon a disputable Principle is brutishly to out-run his Reason and to build ten times wider than his Foundation In a word I look upon this one short Consideration were there no more as a sufficient Ground for any Rational Man to take up his Religion upon and which I defy the subtlest Atheist in the World solidly to answer or confute Namely That it is good to be sure And so I proceed to the Third and Last Supposition Under which the Principles of Religion may for Argument sake be considered and that is as False which surely must reach the utmost Thoughts of any Atheist whatsoever Nevertheless even upon this account also I doubt not but to Evince That he who walks uprightly walks much more surely than the wicked and profane Liver and that with reference to the most Valued Temporal Enjoyments such as are Reputation Quietness Health and the like which are the greatest which this Life affords or is desireable for And 1 st For Reputation or Credit Is any one had in greater Esteem than the Just Person who has given the World an Assurance by the constant tenour of his Practice That he makes a Conscience of his ways That he scorns to doe an unworthy or a base Thing to lye to defraud to undermine another's Interest by any sinister and inferiour Arts And is there any thing which reflects a greater Lustre upon a Man's Person than a severe Temperance and a Restraint of Himself from vitious and unlawfull Pleasures Does any thing shine so bright as Vertue and that even in the Eyes of those who are void of it For hardly shall you find any one so bad but he desires the Credit of being Thought what his Vice will not let him be so great a Pleasure and Convenience is it to live with Honour and a fair Acceptance amongst those whom we converse with And a Being without it is not Life but rather the Skeleton or Caput mortuum of Life like Time without Day or Day it self without the shining of the Sun to enliven it On the other side Is there any thing that more embitters all the Enjoyments of this Life than Shame and Reproach Yet this is generally the Lot and Portion of the Impious and Irreligious and of some of them more especially For how Infamous in the first place is the false fraudulent and unconscionable Person and how quickly is his Character known For hardly ever did any man of no Conscience continue a man of any Credit long Likewise how Odious as well as Infamous is such an One Especially if he be arrived at that Consummate and Robust degree of Falshood as to play in and out and shew Tricks with Oaths the sacredest Bonds which the Conscience of Man can be bound with how is such an One shunn'd and dreaded like a walking Pest What Volleys of Scoffs Curses and Satyrs are discharged at Him So that let never so much Honour be placed upon Him it cleaves not to Him but forthwith ceases to be Honour by being so placed No Preferment can sweeten Him but the higher he stands the farther and wider he stinks In like manner for the Drinker and debauched Person Is any thing more the object of Scorn and Contempt than such an One His Company is justly look'd upon as a disgrace and no Body can own a Friendship for him without being an Enemy to himself A Drunkard is as it were Out-law'd from all worthy and creditable Converse Men abhorr loath and despise him and would even spit at him as they meet him were it not for fear that a stomach so charged should something more than spit at them But not to go over all the several Kinds of Vice and Wickedness should we set aside the Consideration of the Glories of a better World and allow this Life for the Onely Place and Scene of Man's happiness yet surely Cato will be always more Honourable than Clodius and Cicero than Catiline Fidelity Justice and Temperance will always draw their own Reward after them or rather carry it with them in those marks of Honour which they fix upon the Persons who practise and pursue them It is said of David in 1 Chron. 29. 28. That he died full of Days Riches and Honour and there was no need of an Heaven to render him in all respects a much happier man than Saul But in the 2 d. Place The Vertuous and Religious Person walks upon surer Grounds than the Vicious and Irreligious in respect of the Ease Peace and Quietness which he enjoys in this World and which certainly make no small part of Human felicity For Anxiety and Labour are great Ingredients of that Curse which Sin has intail'd upon Fal'n man Care and Toil came into the World with Sin and remain ever since inseparable from it both as to its Punishment and Effect The service of Sin is perfect slavery and he who will pay Obedience to the Commands of it shall find it an Unreasonable Task-master and an Unmeasurable Exactor And to represent the Case in some Particulars The Ambitious Person must rise early and sit up late and pursue his Design with a constant indefatigable Attendance he must be infinitely patient and servile and obnoxious to all the cross Humours of those whom he expects to rise by he must endure and digest all sorts of Affronts Adore the Foot that Kicks him and Kiss the Hand that strikes him While in the mean time the Humble and Contented Man is vertuous at a much easier rate His Vertue bids him sleep and take his rest while the
and above the discourses of Man's Reason Secondly That the Number of those Sinners who by their Sins have been directly plunged into all the fore-mentioned Evils is incomparably greater than the Number of those who by the singular favour of Providence have escaped them And Thirdly and Lastly That notwithstanding all this Sin has yet in it self a natural Tendency to bring Men under all these Evils and if persisted in will infallibly end in them unless hindred by some unusual Accident or other which no man acting Rationally can steadily build upon It is not impossible but a man may practice a Sin secretly to his Dying-day but it is Ten thousand to One if the Practice be constant but that some time or other it will be discovered and then the Effect of Sin discovered must be Shame and Confusion to the Sinner It is possible also that a man may be an old Healthfull Epicure but I affirm also that it is next to a Miracle if he be so and the like is to be said of the several Instances of Sin hitherto produced by us In short nothing can step between them and Misery in this World but a very great strange and unusual Chance which none will presume of who walks surely And so I suppose That Religion cannot possibly be enforced even in the judgment of its best Friends and most professed Enemies by any further Arguments than what have been produced how much better soever the said Arguments may be managed by abler hands For I have shewn and proved That whether the Principles of it be Certain or but Probable nay though supposed absolutely False yet a man is sure of that happiness in the Practice which he cannot be in the Neglect of it And consequently that though he were really a Speculative Atheist which there is great reason to believe that none perfectly are yet if he would but proceed rationally that is if according to his own measures of Reason he would but Love himself he could not however be a Practical Atheist nor live without God in this World whether or no he expected to be rewardded by him in another And now to make some Application of the foregoing Discourse we may by an easy but sure Deduction conclude and gather from it these Two things First That that Profane Atheistical Epicurean Rabble whom the whole Nation so rings of and who have lived so much to the defiance of God the dishonour of Mankind and the disgrace of the Age which they are cast upon are not indeed what they are pleased to think and vote themselves the wisest Men in the World for in matters of Choice no man can be wise in any Course or Practice in which he is not safe too But can these high Assumers and Pretenders to Reason prove themselves so amidst all those Liberties and Latitudes of Practice which they take Can they make it out against the common Sence and Opinion of all Mankind that there is no such Thing as a future estate of misery for such as have lived ill here Or can they perswade themselves that their own particular Reason denying or doubting of it ought to be relyed upon as a surer Argument of Truth than the Universal united Reason of all the World besides affirming it Every Fool may believe and pronounce confidently but wise men will in matters of Discourse conclude firmly and in matters of Practice act surely And if these will do so too in the Case now before us they must prove it not only probable which yet they can never doe but also certain and past all doubt that there is no Hell nor place of Torment for the wicked or at least that they themselves notwithstanding all their villainous and licentious Practices are not to be reckoned of that Number and Character but that with a non obstante to all their Revels their Profaneness and scandalous Debaucheries of all sortes they continue virtuoso's still and are that in Truth which the world in Favour and Fashion or rather by an Antiphrasis is pleased to call them In the mean time it cannot but be matter of just Indignation to all knowing and good men to see a Company of Lewd Shallow-brain'd Huffs making Atheism and Contempt of Religion the sole Badge and Character of Wit Gallantry and true Discretion and then over their Pots and Pipes claiming and engrossing all these wholly to themselves magisterially censuring the Wisdom of all Antiquity scoffing at all Piety and as it were new modelling the whole World When yet such as have had opportunity to sound these Braggers throughly by having sometimes endured the Penance of their sottish Company have found them in Converse so Empty and Insipid in Discourse so Trifling and Contemptible that it is impossible but that they should give a Credit and an Honour to whatsoever and whomsoever they speak against They are indeed such as seem wholly incapable of entertaining any Design above the present gratification of their Palates and whose very Souls and Thoughts rise no higher than their Throats but yet withall of such a clamorous and provoking Impiety that they are enough to make the Nation like Sodom and Gomorrha in their Punishment as they have already made it too like them in their Sins Certain it is that Blasphemy and Irreligion have grown to that daring height here of late years that had men in any sober civilized Heathen Nation spoke or done half so much in Contempt of their false Gods and Religion as some in our Days and Nation wearing the name of Christians have spoke and done against God and Christ they would have been infallibly burnt at a Stake as monsters and publick Enemies of society The truth is the Persons here reflected upon are of such a peculiar stamp of Impiety that they seem to be a set of fellows got together and formed in to a kind of Diabolical society for the finding out new experiments in Vice and therefore they laugh at the dull unexperienced obsolete Sinners of former Times and scorning to keep themselves within the common beaten broad way to Hell by being vicious onely at the low rate of Example and Imitation they are for searching out other ways and latitudes and obliging Posterity with unheard of Inventions and Discoveries in Sin resolving herein to admit of no other measure of good and evil but the Judgment of Sensuality as those who prepare matters to their hands allow no other measure of the Philosophy and Truth of things but the sole Iudgment of sense And these forsooth are our great Sages and those who must pass for the only shrewd thinking and inquisitive men of the Age and such as by a long severe and profound Speculation of Nature have redeemed themselves from the Pedantry of being Conscientious and living vertuously and from such old fashion'd Principles and Creeds as tye up the minds of some narrow-spirited Uncomprehensive Zealots who know not the world nor understand that he onely is the truly wise man
sufficiency in God to do it for him And what can be more agreeable to all Principles both of Reason and Religion than that a Creature endued with Understanding and Will should acknowledge that Dependance upon his Maker by a free act of Choice which other Creatures have upon him only by Necessity of Nature But still there is one Objection more against our foregoing Assertion viz. That Prayer obtains the things prayed for only as a Condition and not by way of Importunity or Perswasion For is not Prayer said to prevail by frequency Luke 18. 7. and by Fervency or Earnestness in Iames 5. v. 16. and is not this a fair proof that God is importuned and perswaded into a Grant of our petitions To this I answer two Things 1. That wheresoever God is said to answer Prayers either for their Frequency or Fervency it is spoken of him only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the manner of Men and consequently ought to be understood only of the effect or issue of such Prayers in the success certainly attending them and not of the manner of their efficiency that it is by perswading or working upon the Passions As if we should say frequent fervent and importunate Prayers are as certainly followed with God's grant of the Thing prayed for as Men use to grant that which being overcome by excessive Importunity and Perswasion they cannot find in their hearts to deny 2 ly I answer further That frequency and fervency of Prayer prove effectual to procure of God the Things prayed for upon no other account but as they are Acts of Dependance upon God which Dependance we have already proved to be that Thing essentially included in Prayer for which God has been pleased to make Prayer the Condition upon which he determines to grant Men such things as they need and duly apply to him for So that still there is nothing of Perswasion in the case And thus having shewn and I hope fully and clearly how Prayer operates towards the obtaining of the Divine Blessings namely as a Condition appointed by God for that purpose and no otherwise And withall for what Reason it is singled out of all other Acts of a Rational Nature to be this Condition namely because it is the grand Instance of such a Nature's dependance upon God We shall now from the same principle inferr also Upon what account the highest Reverence of God is so indispensably required of us in Prayer and all sort of Irreverence so diametrically opposite to and destructive of the very Nature of it And it will appear to be upon this Tha◠in what degree any one lays aside his Reverence of God in the same he also quits his Dependance upon Him Forasmuch as in every Irreverent Act a Man treats God as if he had indeed no need of Him and behaves himself as if he stood upon his own bottom Absolute and Self-sufficient This is the natural Language the true Signification and Import of all Irreverence Now in all Addresses either to God or Man by Speech our Reverence to them must consist of and shew it self in these Two things First A carefull Regulation of our Thoughts that are to dictate and to govern our Words which is done by Premeditation And Secondly a due ordering of our Words that are to proceed from and to express our Thoughts which is done by pertinence and brevity of Expression David directing his Prayer to God joyns these two together as the two great integral parts of it in Psalm 19. 14. Let the Words of my Mouth and the Meditations of my Heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord. So that it seems his Prayer adequately and entirely consisted of those Two things Meditation and Expression as it were the Matter and Form of that noble Composure There being no mention at all of Distortion of Face sanctified Grimace solemn Wink or foaming at the Mouth and the like all which are Circumstances of Prayer of a later date and brought into request by those fantastick Zealots who had a way of praying as astonishing to the Eyes as to the Ears of those that heard them Well then the first Ingredient of a pious and reverential Prayer is a previous regulation of the Thoughts as the Text expresses it most emphatically Let not thy Heart be hasty to utter any thing before God that is in other words Let it not venture to throw out its crude extemporary suddain and mishapen Conceptions in the face of Infinite Perfection Let not thy Heart conceive and bring forth together This is monstrous and unnatural All Abortion is from Infirmity and Defect And time is required to form the Issue of the Mind as well as that of the Body The fitness or unfitness of the first Thoughts cannot be judged of but by reflexion of the second And be the Invention never so fruitfull yet in the Mind as in the Earth that which is cast into it must lie hid and covered for a while before it can be fit to shoot forth These are the Methods of Nature and it is seldom but the Acts of Religion conform to them He who is to pray would he seriously judge of the Work that is before him has more to consider of than either his Heart can hold or his Head well turn it self to Prayer is one of the greatest and the hardest Works that a man has to doe in this World and was ever any thing difficult or glorious atchieved by a suddain Cast of a Thought a flying Stricture of the Imagination Presence of Mind is indeed good but Hast is not so And therefore let this be concluded upon That in the Business of Prayer to pretend to Reverence when there is no Premeditation is both Impudence and Contradiction Now this Premeditation ought to respect these three Things 1. The Person whom we pray to 2. The Matter of our Prayers And 3 ly The Order and Disposition of them 1. And first for the Person whom we pray to The same is to imploy who must needs also non-plus and astonish thy Meditations and be made the Object of thy Thoughts who infinitely transcends them For all the knowing and reasoning Faculties of the Soul are utterly baffled and at a loss when they offer at any Idea of the great God Nevertheless since it is hard if not impossible to imprint an Awe upon the Affections without sutable Notions first formed in the Apprehensions We must in our Prayers endeavour at least to bring these as near to God as we can by considering such of his Divine perfections as have by their Effects in a great measure manifested themselves to our Senses and in a much greater to the Discourses of our Reason As first Consider with thy self how great and glorious a Being that must needs be that raised so vast and beautifull a Fabrick as this of the World out of Nothing with the breath of his Mouth and can and will with the same reduce it to Nothing again and
Circumference doe at length meet and unite in the smallest of things a Point and it is but a very little piece of Wood with which a true Artist will measure all the Timber in the World The Truth is there could be no such thing as Art or Science could not the Mind of Man gather the General Natures of Things out of the numberless heap of Particulars and then bind them up into such short Aphorisms or Propositions that so they may be made portable to the Memory and thereby become ready and at hand for the Judgment to apply and make use of as there shall be occasion In fine Brevity and Succinctness of Speech is that which in Philosophy or Speculation we call Maxim and First Principle in the Counsels and Resolves of Practical Wisdom and the deep Mysteries of Religion Oracle and lastly in matters of Wit and the finenesses of Imagination Epigram All of them severally and in their kinds the greatest and the noblest things that the Mind of Man can shew the force and dexterity of its Faculties in And now if this be the highest Excellency and perfection of Speech in all other things can we assign any true solid Reason why it should not be so likewise in Prayer Nay is there not rather the clearest Reason imaginable why it should be much more so Since most of the fore-mentioned things are but Addresses to an Humane Understanding which may need as many Words as may fill a Volume to make it understand the Truth of one Line Whereas Prayer is an Address to that Eternal Mind which as we have shewn before such as rationally Invocate pretend not to Inform. Nevertheless since the Nature of Man is such that while we are yet in the Body our Reverence and Worship of God must of Necessity proceed in some Analogy to the Reverence that we shew to the Grandees of this World we will here see what the judgment of all Wise men is concerning fewness of Words when we appear as Suppliants before our Earthly Superiors and we shall find that they generally allow it to import these three Things 1. Modesty 2. Discretion And 3 ly Height of Respect to the Person addressed to And first for Modesty Modesty is a kind of shame or bashfulness proceeding from the sense a Man has of his own defects compared with the Perfections of Him whom he comes before And that which is Modesty towards Men is Worship and Devotion towards God It is a Vertue that makes a Man unwilling to be seen and fearfull to be heard and yet for that very Cause never fails to make him both seen with Favour and heard with Attention It loves not many words nor indeed needs them For Modesty addressing to any one of a generous Worth and Honour is sure to have that man's Honour for its Advocate and his Generosity for its Intercessor And how then is it possible for such a Vertue to run out into Words Loquacity storms the Ear but Modesty takes the Heart that is Troublesome this Gentle but Irresistible Much Speaking is always the Effect of Confidence and Confidence still pre-supposes and springs from the Perswasion that a Man has of his own Worth both of them certainly very unfit Qualifications for a Petitioner 2 ly The second Thing that naturally shews it self in Paucity of Words is Discretion and particularly that prime and eminent part of it that consists in a Care of offending Which Solomon assures us That in much Speaking it is hardly possible for us to avoid in Prov. 10. 19. In the multitude of Words says He there wanteth not sin It requiring no ordinary Skill for a Man to make his Tongue run by Rule and at the same time to give it both its Lesson and its Liberty too For seldom or never is there much spoke but something or other had better been not spoke there being nothing that the Mind of Man is so apt to kindle and take distast at as at Words And therefore whensoever any one comes to preferr a Suit to another no doubt the fewer of them the better since where so very little is said it is sure to be either Candidly accepted or which is next Easily excused But at the same time to Petition and to Provoke too is certainly very preposterous 3 ly The third Thing that Brevity of Speech commends it self by in all Petitionary Addresses is a peculiar respect to the Person addressed to For whosoever Petitions his Superior in such a manner does by his very so doing confess him better able to understand than he himself can be to express his own Case He owns him as a Patron of a preventing Judgment and Goodness and upon that account able not only to Answer but also to Anticipate his Requests For according to the most Natural Interpretation of Things this is to ascribe to him a Sagacity so quick and piercing that it were Presumption to inform and a Benignit so great that it were needless to importune him And can there be a greater and more winning Deference to a Superior than to treat him under such a Character Or can any thing be imagin'd so naturally fit and efficacious both to enforce the Petition and to endear the Petitioner A short Petition to a Great Man is not only a Suit to him for his Favour but also a Panegyrick upon his Parts And thus I have given you the Three Commendatory Qualifications of Brevity of Speech in our Applications to the Great Ones of the World Concerning which as I shewed before That it was Impossible for us to form our Addresses even to God himself but with some Proportion and Resemblance to those that we make to our fellow Mortals in a Condition much above us so it is certain That whatsoever the general Judgment and Consent of Mankind allows to be Expressive and Declarative of our Honour to those must only with due allowance of the Difference of the Object as really and properly declare and signify that Honour and Adoration that is due from us to the Great God And consequently what we have said for Brevity of Speech with Respect to the former ought equally to conclude for it with Relation to him too But to argue more immediately and directly to the Point before us I shall now produce five Arguments enforcing Brevity and cashiering all Prolixity of Speech with peculiar Reference to our Addresses to God 1. And the first Argument shall be taken from this Consideration That there is no Reason alledgable for the Use of Length or Prolixity of Speech that is at all Applicable to Prayer For whosoever uses Multiplicity of Words or Length of Discourse must of necessity doe it for one of these three Purposes Either to inform or perswade or lastly to weary and overcome the person whom he directs his Discourse to But the very first foundation of what I had to say upon this Subject was laid by me in demonstrating That Prayer could not possibly prevail with God any
Injunction in God's Revealed Word For these Two are all the Ways by which God speaks to Men now-a-days I say shew me something from hence which countermands or condemns all or any of the fore-mentioned Ceremonies of our Church and then I will yield the Cause But if no such Reason no such Scripture can be brought to appear in their behalf against us but that with screwed Face and dolefull Whine they only ply you with senceless Harangues of Conscience against carnal Ordinances the Dead Letter and human Inventions on the one hand and loud Out-cries for a further Reformation on the other then rest you assured that they have a design upon your Pocket and that the word Conscience is used only as an Instrument to pick it and more particularly as it calls it a further Reformation signifies no more with reference to the Church than as if one man should come to another and say Sir I have already taken away your Cloak and doe fully intend if I can to take away your Coat also This is the true meaning of this word further Reformation and so long as you understand it in this sence you cannot be imposed upon by it Well but if these mighty Men at Chapter and Verse can produce you no Scripture to over-throw our Church-ceremonies I will undertake to produce Scripture enough to warrant them even all those places which absolutely enjoyn Obedience and Submission to Lawfull Governours in all not unlawfull Things particularly that in 1 Pet. 2. 13. and that in Heb. 13. 17. of which two places more again presently together with that other in 1 Cor. 14. last verse enjoyning Order and Decency in God's Worship and in all things relating to it And consequently till these Men can prove the fore-mentioned Things ordered by our Church to be either intrinsecally unlawfull or undecent I doe here affirm by the Authority of the foregoing Scriptures That the use of them as they stand established amongst us is necessary and that all Pretences or Pleas of Conscience to the contrary are nothing but Cant and Cheat Flam and Delusion In a word the Ceremonies of the Church of England are as necessary as the Injunctions of an undoubtedly lawfull Authority the Practice of the Primitive Church and the General Rules of Decency determined to Particulars of the greatest Decency can make them necessary And I would not for all the World be arraigned at the last and great Day for disturbing the Church and disobeying Government and have no better Plea for so doing than what those of the Separation were ever yet able to defend themselves by But some will here say perhaps If this be all that you require of us we both can and doe bring you Scripture against your Church-ceremonies even that which condemns all Will-worship Col. 2. 23. and such other like places To which I answer first That the Will-worship forbidden in that Scripture is so termed not from the Circumstance but from the Object of Religious Worship and we readily own That it is by no means in the Church's Power to appoint or chuse whom or what it will Worship But that does not inferr That it is not therefore in the Church's Power to appoint how and in what manner it will Worship the true Object of Religious Worship provided that in so doing it observes such Rules of Decency as are proper and conducing to that purpose So that this Scripture is wholly Irrelative to the case before us and as impertinently applied to it as any poor Text in the Revelation was ever applied to the grave and profound Whimsies of some Modern Interpreters But 2 dly to this Objection about Will-worship I answer yet further That the fore-mentioned Ceremonies of the Church of England are no Worship nor part of God's Worship at all nor were ever pretended so to be and if they are not so much as Worship I am sure they cannot be Will-worship But we own them only for Circumstances Modes and Solemn Usages by which God's Worship is orderly and decently performed I say we pretend them not to be parts of Divine Worship but for all that to be such things as the Divine Worship in some Instance or other cannot be without For that which neither does nor can give vital Heat may yet be necessary to preserve it And he who should strip himself of all that is no part of himself would quickly find or rather feel the Inconvenience of such a Practice and have cause to wish for a Body as void of sense as such an Argument Now the Consequence in both these cases is perfectly Parallel and if so you may rest satisfied That what is non-sense upon a Principle of Reason will never be sense upon a Principle of Religion But as touching the Necessity of the aforesaid Usages in the Church of England I shall lay down these four Propositions 1. That Circumstantials in the Worship of God as well as in all other humane Actions are so necessary to it that it cannot possibly be performed without them 2. That Decency in the Circumstantials of God's Worship is absolutely necessary 3. That the General Rule and Precept of Decency is not capable of being reduced to Practice but as it is exemplified in and determined to particular Instances And 4 ly and Lastly That there is more of the General Nature of Decency in those particular Usages and Ceremonies which the Church of England has pitched upon than is or can be shewn in any other whatsoever These things I affirm and when you have put them all together let any one give me a solid and sufficient Reason for the giving up those few Ceremonies of our Church if he can All the Reason that I could ever yet hear alleaged by the chief Factors for a General Intromission of all Sorts Sects and Perswasions into our Communion is That those who separate from us are stiff and obstinate and will not submit to the Rules and Orders of our Church and that therefore they ought to be taken away Which is a goodly Reason indeed and every way worthy of the Wisdom and Integrity of those who alleage it And to shew that it is so let it be but transferred from the Ecclesiastical to the Civil Government from Church to State and let all Laws be abrogated which any great or sturdy Multitude of Men have no mind to submit to That is in other words let Laws be made to obey and not to be obeyed and upon these terms I doubt not but you will find that Kingdom or rather that Common-wealth finely governed in a short time And thus I have shewn the Absurdity Folly and Impertinence of alleaging the Obligation of Conscience where there is no Law or Command of God mediate or immediate to found that Obligation upon And yet as bad as this is it were well if the bare Absurdity of these Pretences were the worst thing which we had to charge them with But it is not so For our second
next Inference from the foregoing Principle of the Vicegerency of Conscience under God will shew us also the daring Impudence and down-right Impiety of many of those fulsome Pleas of Conscience which the World has been too often and too scandalously abused by For a man to sin against his Conscience is doubtless a great Wickedness But to make God himself a Party in the Sin is a much greater For this is to plead God's Authority against God's very Law which doubles the Sin and adds Blasphemy to Rebellion And yet such things we have seen done amongst us An horrid unnatural Civil War raised and carried on the purest and most primitively Reformed Church in the World laid in the Dust and one of the best and most innocent Princes that ever sat upon a Throne by a barbarous unheard-of Violence hurried to his Grave in a bloudy Sheet and not so much as suffered to rest there to this day and all this by Men acting under the most solemn Pretences of Conscience that Hypocrisie perhaps ever yet presumed to out-face the World with And are not the Principles of those Wretches still owned and their Persons Sainted by a Race of Men of the same stamp risen up in their stead the sworn mortal Enemies of our Church And yet for whose sake some Projectors amongst us have been turning every Stone to transform mangle and degrade its noble Constitution to the homely mechanick Model of those Republican imperfect Churches abroad Which instead of being any Rule or Pattern to us ought in all Reason to receive one from us Nay and so short-sighted are some in their Politicks as not to discern all this while that it is not the Service but the Revenue of our Church which is struck at and not any Passages of our Liturgy but the Property of our Lands which these Reformers would have altered For I am sure no other Alteration will satisfie Dissenting Consciences no nor this neither very long without an utter Abolition of all that looks like Order or Government in the Church And this we may be sure of if we doe but consider both the inveterate Malice of the Romish Party which sets these silly unthinking Tools a-work and withall that monstrous Principle or Maxim which those who divide from us at least most of them roundly profess avow and govern their Consciences by Namely That in all matters that concern Religion or the Church though a Thing or Action be never so indifferent or lawfull in it self yet if it be commanded or enjoyned by the Government either Civil or Ecclesiastical it becomes ipso facto by being so commanded utterly unlawfull and such as they can by no means with good Conscience comply with Which one detestable Tenet or Proposition carrying in it the very Quintessence and vital Spirit of all Non-conformity absolutely casheirs and cuts off all Church Government at one stroke and is withall such an insolent audacious Defiance of Almighty God under the Mask of Conscience as perhaps none in former Ages who so much as wore the Name of Christians ever arrived to or made profession of For to resume the Scriptures afore-quoted by us and particularly that in 1 Pet. 2. 13. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man says the Spirit of God speaking by that Apostle But say these Men If the Ordinance of Man enjoyns you the Practice of any thing with reference to Religion or the Church though never so lawfull in it self you cannot with a good Conscience submit to the Ordinance of Man in that case That is in other words God says they must submit and they say they must not Again in the fore-mentioned Heb. 13. 17. The Apostle bids them and in them all Christians whatsoever to obey those who have the Rule over them speaking there of Church-Rulers for he tells them That they were such as watched for their Souls But says the Separatist If those who have the Rule over you should command you any thing about Church Affairs you cannot you ought not in Conscience to obey them For as much as according to that grand Principle of theirs newly specified by us Every such Command makes Obedience to a thing otherwise lawfull to become unlawfull and consequently upon the same Principle Rulers must not cannot be obeyed Unless we could imagine that there may be such a thing as Obedience on the one side when there must be no such thing as a Command on the other which would make pleasant sence of it indeed and fit for none but a Dissenting Reason as well as Conscience to assert For though these Men have given the World too many terrible Proofs by their own example That there may be Commands and no Obedience yet I believe it will put their little Logick hard to it to prove That there can be any Obedience where there is no Command And therefore it unanswerably follows That the Abetters of the fore-mentioned Principle plead Conscience in a direct and bare-faced contradiction to God's express Command And now I beseech you consider with your selves for it is no slight matter that I am treating of I say consider what you ought to judge of those insolent unaccountable Boasts of Conscience which like so many Fire-balls or Mouth-Granadoes as I may so term them are every day thrown at our Church The Apostle bids us prove all Things And will you then take Conscience at every turn upon its own word upon the forlorn Credit of every bold Impostor who pleads it Will you sell your Reason your Church and your Religion and both of them the best in the World for a Name and that a wrested abused mis-applied Name Knaves when they design some more than ordinary Villainy never fail to make use of this Plea and it is because they always find fools ready to believe it But you will say then What course must be taken to fence against this imposture Why truly the best that I know of I have told you before namely That whensoever you hear any of these fly sanctified Sycophants with turned up Eye and shrug of Shoulder pleading Conscience for or against any Thing or Practice you would forthwith ask them What Word of God they have to bottom that Iudgment of their Conscience upon For-as-much as Conscience being God's Vicegerent was never Commissioned by him to govern us in its own Name but must still have some Divine Word or Law to support and warrant it And therefore call for such a word and that either from Scripture or from manifest Universal Reason and insist upon it so as not to be put off without it And if they can produce you no such thing from either of them as they never can then rest assured that they are errant Cheats and Hypocrites and that for all their big Words the Conscience of such Men is so far from being able to give them any true Confidence towards God that it cannot so much as give them Confidence towards a wise and good Man no