secure Empire a safe House valiant Armies a faithful Senate a good People a peaceable World quaecunque Hominis Caesaris Vota sunt and whatsoever Caesar either as a Man or Emperour can wish 'T is manifest then that these Primitive Christians never thought it their Duty to assassinate Princes tho' Pagan or Heretical for the Cause of Religion or to excite their Subjects to Rebellion for the Interest of the Gospel They did not illuminate Mens Understandings with Fire and Faggots nor convince or silence Gainsayers by the uncontroulable Arguments of Apostolical Dragooners As their Battels were Spiritual so neither were their Weapons Carnal 'T was the peculiar Honour of their Profession that it grew victorious by Sufferings and triumph'd in Persecutions That Tears were its Jewels and its Chains its chiefest Ornaments That whereas all other Religions in the World did by a multitude of Sacrifices as it were train up and inure Mens Minds to Blood and Destruction it was always like its great Author upon the Passive not by Swords and Daggers by Fire and Faggots by Plots and Caballs but by enduring all things by bearing all things recommending it self to the World Now then is the Church of Rome this meek and gentle spouse of Christ which is therefore comely as the Curtains of Solomon because black through the Heat of Persecutions Is she I say that Church whose Foundations are laid on the Blood not of her Enemies but dearest Friends However Bellarmine might pride himself in his Notes of the true Church yet surely her red and bloody Garments speak her to be either that Beast in the Apocalypse that kills all those that will not receive his Mark in their Foreheads nor worship his Image or that great Babylon the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth which St. John saw drunken with the Blood of the Saints and with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jesus O my Soul then come not thou into her secret and unto her Assemblies mine Honour be not thou united 2. We cannot better express our Joy and Gratitude to God for the transcendant Mercy of this Day than by letting it remind us of his infinite Goodness in calling us from the Tents of these wicked Men who by teaching and maintaining such pernicious Doctrines do not only as you have already seen carry Men on to the most heinous Immoralities but also as a natural Consequence from such Premises wholly and entirely pervert the Simplicity of the Gospel of Christ To some unthinking Persons perhaps this may seem a bold Charge yet I need not be long in the Proof of it For not to tell you that these Men have set up such a number of Intercessors that as the Prophet Jeremy speaks according to the number of their Cities so are their Gods tho' the * 1 Tim. 2.5 Apostle for his Argument is levell'd against the Heathens who never so much as heard of a Mediator of Redemption and therefore did only acknowledge those of Intercession expresly declares that there is but One. Not I say to remind you that tho' our Saviour in his Farewell-speech most passionately bequeaths to us mutual Love and Kindness and the more to endear this Duty to us adds withal that this should be so evident a Mark of our Profession that hereby should all Men know that we are indeed his Disciples yet †Vid. Concil Lateran 4 Can. 3. de Haeret. These Men teach that if we will be Christians indeed we must rifle and plunder one another kill and stab our Brethren butcher our Benefactors blow up Parliaments and destroy Heretical Kings and States for this is not only lawful but also laudable excellent heroick and meritorious Lastly nor to say that they forbid their Priests to Marry and condemn that Sacred Institution in such Persons as impious and damnable tho' ‖ Heb. 13.4 St. Paul assures us that 't is equally honourable in all sorts of Men nay * 1 Tim. 4.1 3. reckons the Prohibition of it amongst the Doctrines of Devils and the Primitive Church never thought the worse of her Bishops for it What else speak their taking the Cup from the Laity tho' according to the positive command of Christ that they should all Drink of it the Primitive Church as they themselves confess allow'd it them and rather than not worship an Idol or Image their abolishing as much as they can the Commandment that forbids it What mean their Indulgences their Fairs and Sales of Masses and frequent Prayers for the dead by all which they have inverted the Assertion of our blessed Saviour rendring it almost impossible for a Poor Man to be Sav'd or for a Rich Man to be Damn'd Why have they interdicted the Use of the Scriptures to the People when the †2 Tim. 3.15 Apostle assures us that they are so far from doing them harm as they pretend that they are able to make them wise to Salvation and the ‖ Psal 1.1 2. Psalmist in an Ecstasie pronounceth the Blessedness of that Man unspeakably great whose Delight is in the law of the Lord and who therefore with unwearied Study meditates continually therein both Day and Night Nay when * Joh. 5.39 and Mat. 22.29 Christ himself expresly Commands them to read them diligently and attributes the pernicious Errors of the Sadducees to their Ignorance of them Are these things indeed with their other repudiated Doctrines built upon the Foundations of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the Head-corner-stone Alas If you look narrowly into them you will discern their Nature to be aliene and extraneous some of them being borrowed purely from the Heathens others from the Post of the Primitive Church the Gnosticks and most of them as they themselves acknowledge from Oral Tradition there being not one Word to countenance them in all the Scriptures But is not this to invert the Religion of Christ and entirely to overthrow the fundamental and substantial Principles of our Profession Is not this with the Pharisees to make the Word of God of none effect by humane Traditions or rather to preach another Gospel than what we have receiv'd from Christ and his Apostles the which tho' an Angel from Heaven should do the †Gal. 1.8 9. Holy Ghost has long since pronounc'd him accurs'd How they are like to escape this Imputation at God's Tribunal they would do well to consider I wish it could never be laid to their charge To return then to ourselves What infinite Reason have we to bless God who has graciously purg'd out this old Leaven from amongst us and made us a new Lump unto himself Who by the glorious Instruments of our Reformation has brought us out of the darkness of Errour and Innovation into the true and genuine Light of the Gospel and for those Leeks and Garlick our Souls so much abhorr'd feeds us with heavenly Manna to the full Certainly if Heaps of Mercies both Spiritual and Temporal If the
delegate Employment in some great Mutation of States and many Probabilities have been observ'd by wise Personages says the Excellent Bishop ††Great Exemplar pag. 100. Taylor perswading that the Grandeur of the Roman Empire was in the Degrees of Increment and Decrement permitted to the Power and Managing of the Devil that the Greatness of that Government being in all Appearance full of Advantage to Satan's Kingdom and employ'd for the Disimprovement of the weak Beginnings and improbable Increase of Christianity might give Lustre and Demonstration to it that it came from God since the great Permissions of Power made to the Devil and acted with all Art and Malice in Defiance of the Religion could produce no other effect upon it but that it made it grow greater and the Greatness was made more miraculous since the Devil when his Chain was off fain would but could not suppress it But perhaps it may be here objected That tho' we must confess that before the Mysterious Incarnation of the Son of God the Devil had such vast Dominions in the World that he seem'd actually to have possess'd what God promis'd to his Son even the Heathen for his Inheritance and the uttermost Parts of the Earth for his Possession yet since the Triumphant Ascension of our Blessed Saviour we cannot suppose without Contradiction to Sacred Writ that he now retains any at all since both * Joh. 12.31 Christ himself assures us that he hath cast him out and St. †Pet. 2.4 Peter expresly declares that they are cast down to Hell and deliver'd into Chains of Darkness to be reserv'd unto Judgment To this we answer Those bright Sons of the Morning which grew vertiginous through the Sublimity of Happiness and are most deservedly charg'd with Folly for leaving their own Habitations are indeed bound over to Eternal Pains and lie at present in a dark miserable and wretched Condition Where-ever they be they carry Hell in their Breasts and read in their Consciences the large Characters of Divine Vengeance consigning them over to Everlasting Woe and Misery But Yet we must needs acknowledge that 't is abundantly evident both from * Mat. 8.20 Mat 5.7 Luk. 8.31 Scripture and Reason That their present Punishment how dolorous and bitter soever will be much heightned and increas'd after the Great Day of Accounts so that tho' I will not deny but that as the School-men and other Divines of Latter â—iâ—es would have it many of these infernal Bands may be so closely committed to Prison that they are never permitted to make Excursions into the Earth yet on the other side we may dare to affirm that the All-wise God does often suffer great Troops and vast Multitudes of them to come abroad into this World either for the Trial of the Good or for the Punishment of the Bad or to be to us what the Remnant of the cursed Nations was to the sinful Israelites even Pricks in our Eyes and Thorns in our Sides And if we impartially consider neither this Text of St. Peter nor the parallel one of St. Jude do any thing evacuate or enervate this Assertion For if they must needs be understood to prove such an actual condemning of the Devil to Chains at present that he shall not come forth till hal'd to Judgment if I say the Sence of the Words must needs be this we cannot allow them by any means to be true For even when these Epistles where written which is suppos'd to have been a little before the Destruction of the Jews his Dominions were large and his Empire extensive He did not only work powerfully in the Children of Disobedience who were taken Captive by him at his Will but had also began to Lord it over God's own Heritage He was daily sowing Tares among the Wheat and endeavouring to choak the good Seed and to render it fruitless Like an hungry Lion he roar'd after the Prey and began to glut his Jaws with the Blood of the slain and upon this account the Apostle in my Text warns the Christians to watch and to be always upon their Guard against so potent and vigilant an Adversary Though therefore the victorious Saviour of the World hath utterly divested these Evil Spirits of their Power and made his Conquests over them publickly discernible to all Men by throwing them out of their Temples gagging and silencing them in their Oracles and so dragging as it were Principalities and all the Powers of Darkness shackled and unarm'd at the Wheels of his triumphant Chariot Though I say since the towring Roman Eagle which for many Ages had spread its all-conquering Wings over the trembling World submitted her self and gave place to the humble Sign of the Cross the Sound of the Gospel is gone out into all Lands and its Words unto the Ends of the World so that the Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and almost all Nations do him Service yet Certain it is that the Devil is not yet totally banished out of this World For in the 23d Chap. of the Revelations and the 3d Ver. we have an account of a closer Imprisonment of Satan and so of his Regiments of Evil Spirits that shall be before the Worlds End than is yet for sthe present and 't is also manifest from the * Sozom. Hist l. 5. c. 19. p. 627. History of Primitive Times that after the Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ he was still permitted to be in the World For even in the Times of Julian the Apostate we find his Oracle yet standing and 't was the constant Custom of the Church in the first Ages to excommunicate or as S. Paul phraseth it to deliver enormous and incorrigible Sinners to Satan as to a Lictor or Executioner who was wont to sift and shake them terribly and by inflicting Diseases and Torments upon the Body forc'd them to fly for Refuge to the Arms of their offended Father Now therefore we must indeed acknowledge with the †Rev. 12.9 10 Inhabitants of Heaven that Salvation and Strength and the Kingdom of our God and the Power of his Christ is come unto us for the great Dragon is cast out that old Serpent call'd the Devil and Satan which deceiv'd the whole World He is cast out of his Strong-holds and his Angels can no longer exercise their Tyranny in the Earth But yet he still sitteth lurking in the thievish Corners of the World and privily in his lurking Dens does he plot against the Innocent his Eyes are wholly set against the Saints Though his Hands are tied and he is bound to his Good-behaviour yet as an Explorator or Searcher for faults he goes up and down to and fro in the Earth I know there are some who will be ready to object That this Relaxation of Evil-Spirits from their dark houses of Sorrow can by no means consist with the Wisdom of God For since his Justice condemn'd them to unspeakable and Eternal Torments
Glorified Spirits to behold admire and praise his excellent Greatness and when our enlarged Souls shall fly away to the same blissful Mansions and be admitted to the Comprehensions of an intuitive Beatitude they shall with equal Satisfaction contemplate his Divine Beauty and as skilfully tune their Harps to his Praises as they Let us therefore in the mean time lay our Hand upon our Mouth and with all due Prostration both of Body and Mind adore this great Mystery of Goodness this astonishing Miracle of the Divine Mercy and Condescention which though above the adequate Comprehension of our Reason is put beyond all possibility of Distrust being most amply confirm'd to us by the concurrent and infallible Testimony of God Angels and Men. At his Baptism and Transfiguration you know he was proclaim'd by a Voice from Heaven to be the Beloved Son of God in whom he was well pleas'd And again when he bringeth in his First-begotten into the World he commands that this Exinanition of himself this Obscuration of his Essential Glory under the Veil of Humane Flesh may not diminish one Ray from the Honour of his Divine Majesty but that all the Potentates in Heaven and Earth fall down and worship him Worship him †Psal 97.7 says he all ye Gods all ye Angels and Thrones in Heaven all ye Kings and Judges of the Earth The holy Angels with their usual Chearfulness obey'd the Royal Orders They humbly ador'd the holy Child Jesus and stood ready through all the Periods of his Life to Serve and Worship him St. Peter though he saw him not so clearly as these Blessed Spirits generously confess'd that he was Christ the Son of the Living God and he receiv'd this Confirmation from the Mouth of our Lord himself That Flesh and Blood had not reveal'd it unto him but his Father only which is in Heaven Nay to the everlasting Shame and Confusion of the unbelieving Sons of Men the Devils themselves have ever subscrib'd to this Article They knew and confess'd him here on Earth and still believe and tremble The over-aw'd and trembling ‖ Vid. Suidam in August Oracle plainly confess'd to the Roman Emperour at his Birth that though he appear'd under all the disadvantageous Circumstances of Humanity and Weakness He was the Soveraign Lord and King of the blest Beings above * Luke 8.28 which was afterwards confirm'd by a whole Legion of unclean Spirits when in the Man possess'd they joyntly lifted up their Voices to him with a Jesus thou Son of God Most High But to what purpose I say was all this or why all this Noise and Ostentation had he not been the Son of God in another and more excellent manner than were any of the Sons of Men who either liv'd with him or that went before him had there not been something in it extraordinary that entitled him to so sublime and divine a Privilege Angels Kings and Prophets I confess are frequently call'd the Sons of God They have a larger Participation of his Power or a Communication of more special Grace than is indulg'd and granted to his other Children but yet their Honour and Dignity fall infinitely short of that of Jesus the Son of God For to which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this Day have I begotten thee Or who is he amongst all those exalted Sons of the Most High whom the Father advanc'd to sit at his own Right-hand till his Enemies are made his Footstool David you know was a King and yet he calls him Lord and John the Baptist though he was more than a Prophet was never by Angels Men or Devils acknowledg'd to be properly the Son of God no these are the high Prerogatives of our Lord Christ Jesus to him alone belong the most glorious and supereminent Titles of his own Son his only Son his only Begotten and the Heir of all things So that in all things I say he has the Preheminence But the Scriptures if possible speak plainer yet They not only instruct by natural and necessary Illations and Consequences but also to prevent all Cavils and Disputes are careful in many places to assert this Truth as clearly and as expresly as Words can speak * Joh. 20.28 29. St. Thomas believes and confesseth to him that he is his Lord and God and those who should afterwards inherit the same Faith are pronounced Blessed The Beloved †Joh. 1.1 Disciple is positive that the Word was God and in the Close of his first Epistle speaking of Jesus to shew against an Objection which he rightly foresaw would be afterwards urg'd against the Christians that they might safely worship him without any Fear or Danger of that Idolatry which the Heathens were guilty of in worshipping their Daemons This says he is not Deus factus a made God a God by Office not by Nature but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the True God The Learn'd * 1 Cor. 15.87 1 Tim. 3.16 Rom. 9.5 Apostle adds that this Second Man is the Lord from heaven and God manifested in the Flesh and again most blasphemously if not truly this being that particular Eulogy which is due only to Jehovah the one Supreme Eternal God of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God over all Blessed for Ever and Ever Nay not to mention the many Repetitions of this most glorious Doxology to him in other places of Scripture This is that good Confession our Lord himself made before his Judge He had all along to the Rage and Amazement of his Enemies held his peace shewing by his Silence that he despis'd all their Accusations as certain and apparent Calumnies But no sooner is urg'd to determine this Point but he opens his Mouth and decides the matter I adjure thee by the living God * Mat. 26.63 64. says the High-Priest that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the Son of God Jesus after their modest way of Affirmation saith unto him Thou hast said Or as St. Mark more positively Jesus said I am 'T is certain the High-Priest understood him not in that Vulgar Sense wherein Great and Righteous Persons Kings and Prophets are call'd the Sons of God but that he affirm'd himself to be so in the Literal Proper and Natural Signification of the words For otherwise he could not upon the account of this Confession have charg'd him with Blasphemy nor consequently the Council have voted him to be guilty of Death Thus too in the Fifth of St. John he tells the Jews plainly that God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own Father making himself thereby as they rightly concluded to be Equal with God And in another Conference with them in the Tenth of that Evangelist He not only owns himself to be the Christ and the Son of God in the most proper sence but adds farther that He and his Father are One One not in Will only but in Essence Glory Honour and Power I am sure the Jews understood him
ready to here and assist us But I answer 1. That this Opinion of Abraham and Israel's being in Limbo only and not in Heaven it self before the Resurrection of our Lord is groundless and unwarrantable Elias we are sure was translated into Heaven and we know likewise that Moses came down with him from that place to commune with our Lord upon the Mount But if these his Sons were thought worthy before the Resurrection of our Lord to be admitted into those blissful Mansions why Abraham the Father of the Faithful and the Peculiar Friend of God Why Isaac and Israel and the other Patriarchs and Prophets who were all Heirs of the same most holy Faith should be excluded I know not But supposing this Opinion was really as true as they would have it and that we could not deny what you see we have all the Reason in the World to deny but that the Saints before the Resurrection of our Lord lay only in Limbo but are now in Heaven yet that being there they have a particular entire and perfect Knowledge of all things that are done in Heaven and Earth and consequently of all the Circumstances Concerns Occurrences and Affairs of every Man's Life and so are become the Objects of our Devotion is I answer in the 2. Place a most unphilosophical false and impious Assertion that has no Foundation in Scripture Reason or Antiquity 1. It has no Foundation in Scripture Now to pray after any other manner than what Christ himself hath taught us is not only Ignorance but Sin says * De Orat. Domin pag. 139. Ed. Oxon. St. Cyprian But what one place is there I ask in all his Scriptures that demands this of us which of all his Apostles Evangelists or Prophets doth allow that any of the Saints departed should be invok'd by us Bannes a Learned Dominican ingenuously confesseth that he knows not of any His Words are as express and full as can be Orationes ad Sanctos faciendas nequè etià m expressè nequè involute Scripturae docent i. e. that 't is our Duty to Pray to the Saints the Scriptures do neither explicitely nor implicitely inform us And those of his own Profession have never yet been able to shew that he is in an Errour 2. This Assertion has no Foundation in Reason For if the Saints in Heaven have a particular entire and perfect Knowledge of all things that are done in Heaven and Earth and consequently of all the Circumstances Concerns Occurrences and Affairs of every Man's Life and so are become the Objects of our Devotion then this Knowledge of theirs is owing either 1. To their own Ubiquitary Presence by vertue of which they see and hear all our Words and Actions as some of our Adversaries affirm Or 2. As others with the like Boldness To their Perspicacity and Clear-sightedness whereby they are able to discern our very Thoughts and Intentions Or 3. To the constant and faithful Relations of daily-ascending Saints and Angels as a Third more modestly Or 4. As most To the Vision of the Divine Essence which they call Speculum Trinitatis But all these ways are ridiculous and absurd and some of them impious For 1. The Saints in Heaven have not a particular entire and perfect Knowledge of all things that are done in Heaven and Earth and consequently of all the Circumstances Concerns Occurrences and Affairs of every Man's Life and so are become the Objects of our Devotion because they are every where present and so see and hear all our Words and Actions Heaven indeed is God's Throne and the Earth is his Foot-stool The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him but he fills all Places both in Heaven and Earth and the imaginary Space too beyond the Limits of Both he is a God near at hand to us all to those that abide in the Continent and that remain in the broad Sea and also that live afar off in the Ends of all the Earth In a word tho' he cannot be circumscrib'd or included in any Place yet by his Immensity he is so every where present as not to be excluded out of any so that we may all of us at one and the same time pour out our Prayers before him with full Assurance of being heard But now 't is quite otherwise with all Created Beings Creation necessarily implies Limitation so that 't is as great a Contradiction to say That the Essence or Virtue of a Created Being can be Boundless or Infinite as that a Self-Existent Independent Being can be Finite Every Abstracted Spirit therefore since Created tho' rais'd to the utmost degree of its Perfection is but Finite and consequently as that great Patriarch of the Roman Schools * Sum. Part. prim Quaest 52. Art 2. Aquinas himself confesseth non se extendit ad omnia sed ad aliquid unum determinatum tho' it may as it pleaseth be sometimes in a greater sometimes in a lesser place yet it is so far from being able to extend it self to all places that 't is always necessarily and unavoidably but in one Non est ubique nec in pluribus locis sed in uno loco tantùm as he speaks again in the same Paragraph Great then only is the Lord and greatly to be praised because there is no End of his Greatness 2. The Saints in Heaven have not a particular entire and perfect Knowledge of all things that are done in Heaven and Earth and consequently of all the Circumstances Concerns Occurrences and Affairs of every Man's Life and so are become the Objects of our Devotion from their Perspicacity or Clear-sightedness whereby they are able to discern our very Thought and Intentions This is plain from the Argument immediately foregoing For since according to the Laws of Creation the Saints are all limited and circumscrib'd in their Essences and Perfections it must necessarily be granted that they are likewise limited and circumscrib'd in their Science or Knowledge it being impossible for any Being but such as is Immense and fills all Places to know the different Concerns of all the several Beings residing and acting in those different Places God then alone since it appears that he only is Omnipresent must be acknowledg'd to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Searcher of the Hearts In him indeed do our Souls and Bodies live move and have their Beings He understands our Constitution knows whereof we are made the Composition as I may so say of our very Essences and therefore discerns all the Motions and Operations of our Souls In short 'T is his Prerogative alone to be about our Paths and about our Beds in our Hearts and in our Spirits and consequently to spy out all our Ways Whence it likewise appears in the 3. Place That the Saints in Heaven have not a particular entire and perfect Knowledge of all things that are done in Heaven and Earth and consequently of all the Circumstances Concerns Occurrences and Affairs of every Man's Life and