of Rebellious Servants he that has not the Wedding Garment must be cast out the Branch that brings not forth Fruit will be cut off But those that truly believe in his Name walk in his Light and are taught by his Grace to renounce the Lusts of the Eye the Lusts of the Flesh and Pride of Life the Unjust Profits Pleasures and Pomps of this World and chuse to follow him in his own Holy Way of Regeneration the same is his Brother his Sister and his Mother And whatever Losses they may sustain for his Names sake they have the Promise of an Hundred fold here and the Inheritance of Everlasting Life And I do fervently beseech Almighty God the Giver of all Saving Faith mercifully to Vouchsafe more and more to beget a Serious Enquiry in us What that Eaith is which we have who is the Author of it and what Fruits it hath brought forth that we may not prophane the Name of God by a Vain Profession of it nor abuse our selves unto Eternal Perdition But that we may endeavour by God's Assistance to approve our selves such Believers as sincerely fear God love Righteousness and hate every Eyil Way as becomes the Redeemed of God by the pretious Blood of his Son Since therefore we are not our own but the Lord's who hath bought us with that Great Price let us glorifie him in our Bodies in our Souls and in our Spirits which are his Then shall we be Children of Abraham indeed Heirs of the Promises partakers of that Resurrection and Life that Immortality and Glory which God the Righteous Judge will one Day plentifully distribute to them that abide in this pretious Faith unto the End This naturally brings me to my Third Head and an Unhappiness we have long labour'd under to wit A Debasing of the true Value of MORALITY under pretence of Higher Things mistaking the very End of Christ's Coming By MORALITY I understand Vertuous Living Purity of Manners that Justice Temperance Truth Charity and Blamelesness in Conversation which may well Denominate the Man that lives that Life a MAN JUST in short one that does unto all men as he would have all Men do unto him this is the Moral Man It is Notorious how small an Estimate Two sorts of people have put upon him the Prophane and the Professors the Publican and the Pharisee The First despise him as too Squeamish Nice and Formal they deride his Regularity and make a Jest of his Preciseness And thinking No Man can be good because they are Nought and that all must needs fall by those Temptations they will not resist they construe Sobriety to be a Trick to decoy Mankind and put a Cheat upon the World If they hear any one say Such a Man is a Sober and Just Person They have learned by themselves to call him Knave that he has a Design upon some body by being Just in little things to Cheat in things of more Moment This Man is very Unfashionable among Men of Immoral Principles for his very Looks and Life carry a Reproof with them upon Vitious Men who as if Virtue were their Common Enemy are in Combination against the Lovers and Entertainers of her Because such true Virtuosâ— will neither do the Ill things they would have them nor flatter them in the Ills they do and therefore where Ill Men have the Power Good Men are sure to be made the Common Enemy But the Reproaches that Men of Morality receive at the Hands of Lewd Men are more their Honour than their Suffering But that which is most of all Anxious is that Morality is denyed to be Christianity that Virtue has any Claim to Grace and that those who glory to be called Christians can be so Partial and Cruel as to renounce a meer Just Man their Society and send him preaching among the Heathen for Damnation And pray what 's the Matter Why though this Person be a sober Liver yet he is but a General Believer his Faith is at large 'T is true he believes in God but I hear little of his Faith in Christ Very well Does he not therefore believe in Christ or must he therefore be without the Pale of Salvation Is it possible that a Man can truly believe in God and be damned But as he that believes in Christ believes in God so he that believes in God believes in Christ For he that believes on him that raised up Jesus from the Dead his Faith shall be imputed to him for Righteousness And says Christ himself He that believeth my Word and believeth on him that sent me hath Everlasting Life Has he that believes in God no Interest in this Expression But more particular is that place of the Apostle to the Hebrews viz. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Diligent Rewarder of them that seek him Now. if those who so belieâ—e can come to God the Moral Man's Condition is not Dangerous even in the strictest sense of the Word not only such as have a General Faith of Christianity and never adhered to any particular Party a Sense we shall anon consider but even those who never heard the History of Christ nor had a distinct Knowledge of him as we profess him For it seems a most-unreasonable thing that Faith in God and keeping his Commandments should be no Part of the Christian Religion but if a Part it be as upon serious Reflection who dare deny it then those before and since Christ's time who never had the External Law nor History yet have done the things contained in the Law their Consciences not Accusing nor Hearts Condemning but excusing them before God are in some degree concern'd in the Character of a true Christian For Christ himself preach'd and kept his Father's Commandments he came to fulfil and not to destroy the Law and that not only in his own Person but that the Righteousness of the Law might be also fulfilled in us Let us but soberly consider What Christ is and we shall the better know whether Moral Men are to be reckoned Christians What is Christ but Meekness Justice Mercy Patience Charity and Virtue in Perfection can we then deny a Meek Man to be a Christian a Just a Merciful a Patient a Charitable and a Virtuous Man to be like Christ By me Kings reign and Princes decree Justice saith Wisdom yea the Wisdom that is from above see Prov. 8. 15. so may I say here By Christ men are Meek Just Merciful Patient Charitable and Virtuous And Christians ought to be distinguished by their likeness to Christ and not their Notions of Christ by his Holy Qualifications rather than their own Lofty Professions and Invented Formalities What shall we say then of that Extravagancy which those Men are guilty of who upon hearing a sober Man commended that is not of any great Visible Profession will take upon them to cast him off with this Sentence Tush he is
Ignorance their thoughts still ran upon a Kingdom like unto the Kingdoms of the World notwithstanding they had so long and so often heard our Saviour to the contrary Our Saviour therefore shortly takes them up Non est vestrum your Question is nothing to the purpose the Kingdom that I have spoken of is another manner of Kingdom then you conceive Sixteen hundred Years et quod excurrit hath the Gospel been preached unto the World and is this stain spunged out yet I doubt it Whence arise those novel and late Disputes do notis Ecclesiae of the notes and visibility of the Church Is it not from hence they of Rome take the World and the Church to be like Mercury and Sosia in Plautus his Comedies so like one another that one of them must wear a Toy in his Cap that so the Spectators may distinguish them whence comes it that they stand so much upon State and Ceremony in the Church Is it not from hence that they think the Church must come in lâ—ke Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Luke speaks with a great deal of Pomp and Train and Shew and Vanity and that the Service of God doth necessarily require this noise and tumult of outward State and Ceremony Whence comes it that we are at our Wits ends when we see Persecution and Sword and Fire to rage against the true Professors of the Gospel Is it not because as these brings Ruin and Desolation upon the Kingdoms of the World so we suppose they work no other effect in the Kingdom of Christ all these Conceits and many more of the like Nature spring out of no other Fountain then that old inveterate Error which is so hardly wiped out of our Hearts That the State of the Church and Kingdom of Christ doth hold some proportion some likeness with the state and managing of temporal Kingdoms Wherefore to pluck out of our Hearts opinionem tam insitam tam vetustam a Conceit so antient so deeply rooted in us our Saviour spake most excellently most pertinently and most fully when he tells us that his Church that his Kingdom is not of this World In which Word of his there is contained the true art of discovering and knowing the true Nature and Essence of the Church For as they which make Statues cut and pare away all Suporfluities of the matter upon which they work so our Saviour to shw us the true proportion and feature of the Church prunes away the World and all superfluous Excrescenties and sends her to be seen as he did our first Parents in Paradise stark naked As those Elders in the Aprocryphl Story of Susanna when they would see her Beauty commanded to take off her Mask So he that longs to see the Beauty of the Church must pull off that Mask of the World and outward shew For as Juda in the Book of Genesis when Thamar sat Vail'd by the Way-side knew not his Daughter from an Where So whilst the Church the Daughter and Spouse of Christ sits vail'd with the World and Pomp and Shew it will be an hard matter to discern her from an Harlot But yet further to make the difference betwixt these Kingdoms the more plainly to appear and so better to fix in your Memories I will briefly touch some of these Heads in which they are most notoriously differenced The first Head wherein the Difference is seen are the Persons and Subjects of this Kingdom For as the Kingdom of Christ is not of this World so the Subjects of this Kingdom are Men of another World and not of this Every one of us bears a double Person and accordingly is the Subject of a double Kingdom The Holy Ghost by the Psalmist divides Heaven and Earth betwixt God and Man and tells us as for God He is in Heaven but the Earth has he given to the Children of Men So hath the same Spirit by the Apostle St. Paul divided every one of our Persons into Heaven and Earth into an outward and earthly Man and into an inward and heavenly Man This Earth that is this Body of Clay hath he given to the Sons of Men to the Princes under whose Government we live but Heaven that is the inward and spiritual Man hath he reserved unto himself They can restrain the outward Man and moderate our outward Actions by Edicts and Laws they can tye our Hands and our Tongues Illa se jactat in aula Aeolus Thus far they can go and when they are gone thus far they can go no farther But to rule the inward Man in our Hearts and Souls to set up an Imperial Throne in our Understandings and Wills this part of our Government belongs to God and to Christ These are the Subjects this the Government of his Kingdom Men may be Kings of Earth and Bodies but Christ alone is the King of Spirits and Souls Yet this inward Government hath influence upon our outward Actions For the Authority of Kings over our outward Man is not so absolute but that it suffers a great Restraint it must stretch no farther then the Prince of our inward Man pleases for if secular Princes stretch out the Skirts of their Authority to command ought by which our Souls are prejudiced the King of Souls hath in this case given us a greater Command That we rather Obey God then Men. 3dly A third great Cause of Persecution for Religion is this that men make too many things necessary to be believed to Salvation and Communion Persecution entred with Creed making for it so falls out that those who distinguish the Tree in the bulk cannot with the like ease discern every Branch or Leaf that grows upon it and to run out the necessary Articles of Faith to every good or true thing that the Wit of Man may deduce from the Text and so too as that I ought to have a distinct Idea or Apprehension of every one of them and must run them over in my mind as a Child would â—on a Lesson by Heart and that as the Creed of which I must not miss a tittle upon my Salvation this I think to be a Temptation upon men to fall into Dispute and Controversie and then we are taught by long Experience that he that has most Power will oppress his Opinion that is weaker whence comes Persecution this puts Unity Peace too much upon the Hazard Mary's Choice therefore was not of many things but the one thing necessary as Christ terms it the Lord of the true Divinity and pray what was this one needful thing but Christ Jesus himself and her Faith Love and Obedience in and to him here is no perplext Creed to subscribe no Systhime of Divinity to charge the Head with this One Needful thing was Mary's Choice Blessing may it be ours and I should hope a quick End to Controversies and consequently to Persecutions 4thly Another Cause of Persecution is The Prejudice of Education and that
not my Soul be Avenged on such a Nation as this Truly 't is our very Case the same Impieties are daily found amongst us Certainly God is offended his Spirit grieved and Heaven is set against us For the Lord's sake Do your Duty in this present Conjuncture and mistake not your Measures Let every thing have its Due Weight and Place with you that is the Way to Succeed Ye are now Warmly concern'd in the Discovery and Prosecution of a Jesuitical Plot a Design it seems to Destroy the King and blow up your Religion and Wrest the Government out of your Hands in this doubtless ye do well and all Just Care to preserve the Peace of the Kingdom from such Mischievous Conspiracies is Most Commendable in you and deserves and draws all Due Acknowledgments from Honest and English Minds But I beseech you Let God have a share in your Concern Remember him as well as Your selves Ye confess this Great Discovery is only owing to his Goodness shall we be then more Zealous for our own Safety than for his Glory who when all is done must Save us or we are Lost Let us make him our Friend who is stronger than the Combinations of all our Enemies and guard our selves against that which can only bring their EVIL DEVICES to pass OUR SIN for that is their Strength and the Poyson of their Arrows let us Confess and Forsake it let us Humble our selves under the Mighty Hand of God that it may not Grind us to Powder And truly if our hearts were not harder than Adamants this Testimony he has given us of his Care over us notwithstanding all our repeated Provocations given him should break us into deep Contrition O! let his Long-suffering prevail upon us to Unfeigned Repentance then shall we stand Clear Men before God and if so he will quickly make our Enemies to fly before us If there be any Truth in Sacred Story any Credit to be given to Christian Religion or the Experience of Ages this that I say of God and Government is True it is our Duty yea our Interest the truest and easiest Way to Safety for God has decreed The Nation and Kingdom that will not serve him shall perish yea those Nations shall be utterly wasted Isa 60. 12. But Great is their Peace that Love this Law It shall go well with the Righteous but it shall go Ill with the Wicked upon them God hath threatned to Rain Snares Difficulties Perplexities they shall not know which way to turn I am not against the Use of Means Men have not Wisdom and Power for nothing but then let them use them in the Fear and Name of God Cursed is he that putteth his Strength in Man and his Confidence in the Arm of Flesh And in another place Wo to them that go down to Egypt for Help and stay on Horses and trust in Chariots because they are many and in Horsmen because they are very strong but they look not to the Holy One of Israel neither seek the Lord. 'T was his Reproof to the Nation that professed him That they should seek to the Stratagems and rely upon the Strength of Heathen Nations rather than upon Faith in him the Living God and the Reason he gives in the third verse is great viz. The Egyptians are Men and not God and their Horses Flesh and not Spirit when the Lord shall stretch out his Hand both he that helpeth shall fall and he that is holpen shall fall down and they all shall fail together If then the Hand of God be so much stronger than Man for the Lord's sake let us lay hold of it let that fight our Battels and decide the Controversie He that trusteth to the Lord shall never be confounded It was the saying of a Great King and a Great Conqueror By thee I have leaped over a Wall by thee I have run through a Troop c. who preserved the Israelites from Pharaoh's Fury threw down the Walls of Jericho when the Priests blew or sounded the Rams-horns with more of the like kind And we must not think that God is alter'd that Faith is weaken'd that no Wonders are reserved for the Latter and Christian Ages The Truth is that Faith generally speaking is lost and that holy Confidence now a days is esteem'd Presumption 't is become a Principle that such things are not to be expected so that we shut up or bar from our selves the True and most-Powerful Way of Deliverance Let us not betake our selves to the Common Arts and Stratagems of Nations Incredulous of the Strength of the God of Israel who is the God of True Christians too O! that our Faith may be greater than our Arms no matter for the Strength of our Enemies if God be our Strength and truly 't is vain to acknowledge a Providence in Humane Things and not to confide in him and rely upon him that provides for us I was Young said David and now I am Old but I never saw the Righteous forsaken nor his Seed begging Bread It shall go well with the Righteous Therefore fear God put away the Evil that provokes him and trust not in Man but in the Living God and it shall yet go well with England What Noble Feats did the Ancients do by FAITH and shall Christians have less than Jews had Is not God the same yes he is Un-Changeable but Alas we are not the same that 's our Mischief Christ did not many Mighty Works in some places because they believed not in him if our Confidence be not in God our Hopes will prove Vain and our Success will fail us We shall but have MEN of our side not God Flesh and not Spirit and if we should be so Unhappy as to make this our Strength both the Helpers Helped will fall together But let Nineve teach us better things and may her Zealous King be the Example of ours and let all the people say Amen! The Sutableness of which Story to our present Occasion makes me chuse to End this First Part of my Address with it For Word came unto the King of Nineveh Yet Forty Dayes and Nineve shall be Overthrown And he Arose from his Throne and he laid his Robe from him and covered him with Sack-cloth and sate in Ashes And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineve by the Decree of the King and his Nobles saying Let neither Man nor Beast Herd nor Flock taste any thing let them not feed nor drink Water But let Man and Beast be covered with Sack-cloth and cry mightily unto God yea LET THEM TURN EVERY ONE FROM HIS EVIL WAY and from the Violence that is in their Hands Who can tell if God-will turn and repent and turn away from his Fierce Anger that we perish not And God saw their Works that they turn'd from their Evil Way and God repented from the Evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not O God thou that
workest Wonders in the Earth whose Power cannot be Control'd in whose Hands are the Souls of Men and the Spirits of all Flesh who canst turn them in a Moment Turn thou the Hearts of King and People unto thee and One unto another Do thou proclaim a FAST FROM SIN throughout these Sinful Kingdoms let Wickedness and Oppression find no place among us Turn away thy Fierce Wrath Wipe away our Reproach and Love us Freely O God for thy dear Son ' s sake THE SECOND PART OF THE Address to Protestants UPON THE Present Conjuncture HAving then finisht the First Part of my Address relating to the Immoralities of the Times and left it with the CIVIL MAGISTRATE as in Conscience I found my self Oblig'd to do whose Peculiar Charge it is and I Earnestly and Humbly desire and pray that it may be his Great Care Effectually to Rebuke them I shall betake my self to the Second Part of this Address that more immediately concerns us as Profest Christians and Protestants But before I begin I desire to premise and can with much Sincerity Declare that I intend not the Reproach of any Person or Party I am weary with seeing so much of it in the World for it gains nothing that is worth keeping but hardens to a Desperateness what 't is our Duty to endeavour to soften But if without Offence I may speak the Truth that which to the best of my Understanding tends to the Present Settlement and Future Felicity of my Poor Country I shall by God's Help deliver my self with that Modesty Plainness and Integrity that becomes a Real Christian and a True English-Man Those Capital Sins and Errors that relate to the ECCLESIASTICAL STATE or Church-Capacity of these Kingdoms and which are so Inconsistant with Christian Religion and purest Protestancy and that above all displease Almighty God are First Making Opinions Articles of Faith at least giving them the Reputation of Faith and making them the Bond of Christian Society Secondly Mistaking the Nature of True Faith and taking that for Faith which is not Gospel-Faith Thirdly Debasing the true Value of Morality under pretence of Higher Things mistaking the very End of Christ's Coming Fourthly Preferring Humane Authority above Reason and Truth Fifthly Propagating Faith by Force and Imposing Religion by Worldly Compulsion These I take to be those Church Evils that have too much infected even these Parts of the reputed Reformed World And though the Roman Church for the most part hath transcended all other Societies in these Errors and may in a sense be said to be the Mother of them She from whom they took Birth by whom they were brought forth and propagated in Christendom yet there hath not been that Integrity to the Nature of Christianity and First Reason of Reformation from Papacy in our own Country as had been and is our Duty to conserve First In that Opinions pass for Faith and are made Articles of Faith and enjoyn'd to be embrac'd as the Bond of Communion That this is so let us take the most impartial View we can and we shall find it to be true both of the National and many other Select Societies That I may be understood in the Signification of the word OPINIONS I explain it thus Opinions are all those Propositions or Conclusions made by Men Doctrines of Faith and Articles of Communion which either are not Expresly laid down in Scripture or not so evidently Deduceable from Scripture as to leave no Reason of Doubt in their Minds of the Truth of them who sincerely and reverently believe the Text or lastly such as have no New or Credible Revelation to avouch them That this is our Case let the several Confessions of Faith published by almost every Party in England be perused and ye will find such Propositions translated into Doctrines of Faith and Articles of Communion as are First not only not Express'd in Scripture but perhaps not Deduceable from Scripture If one Party may be but believ'd against another this will want no Evidence to prove the Point And in the Next place such as are though not Exprest yet it may be Deduceable as to the Matter of them but either carried so high spun so fine or so disguised by Barbarous School-Terms that they are rather a Bone of Contention than a Bond of Concord to Religious Societies Yet this has been the Unhappiness even of this Kingdom after all the Light of Reformation which God hath graciously sent amongst us Men are to be received or rejected for denying or owning of such Propositions Wilt thou be an Episcopalian then Sign the Thirty-Nine Articles Renounce the Covenant and Conform to the Discipline and Jurisdiction of the Church Wilt thou be a Presbyterian Embrace and Keep the Covenant subscribe the Westminster-Confession and Directory and so on to the End of every Society that grounds Communion upon Conformity to such Propositions and Articles What a Stir have we had in England about the poor word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that says it signifies an Higher Office than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall have no part or fellowship with us On t'other hand they that will debase Episcopos to Presbyteros and turn Levellers of Episcopal Dignity shall be Excommunicated silenc'd punish't Is not this Fact can any deny it that love Truth more then a Party The Fire kindled by this Contention hath warm'd the Hands of Violence It had been well if Men had entertain'd Equal Zeal against Impiety and been but half asmuch Enemies to the Sin as they have been against one another If we look a little back we shall find that the Debate of Free-Will Unconditional Reprobation fill'd this Kingdom with Incharitableness and Division In the Arch-Episcopacy of Abbot reputed in himself a Good Man who ever held that Christ died so for all Men that all men might be saved if they would accept the Means and that none were absolutely decreed to Eternal Reprobation waa near akin to Heresie and Excommunicated as an Enemy to the Free Grace of God which it seems lay in being Narrow In the time of Arch-Bishop Land the Tide turns those that hold an Absolute Election and Reprobation without regard had to the Good or Evil Actions of Men and assert that Christ only died for the Elect and not for all must be discountenanc'd displac'd and pointed at as Men out of Fashion though at the same time Conscientious Sober and at worst Mistaken to be pittied rather than prosecuted and informed rather than confounded This Controversie begot the Synod of Dort he that reads the Epistles of that Judicious man J. Hails of Eaton upon the Matter and Conduct of the Assembly will find cause of being sad at Heart too many of them talked of Religion without the Spirit of it Men perhaps Learned in Books but few of the Sticklers gave any great Testimony of their Proficiency in that Science which is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated This Flame kindled
but keeping the Law of God Great Peace have they that love thy Law said David that had known the Trouble of Breaking it Therefore it is that Grace and Truth is come by Jesus Christ to help us to fulfill the Law not to Excuse our Disobedience of the Law And what before we were Unable this gives us Force to do So that Christianity is not an Indulgence of people under Weakness and Disobedience but the Compleating and Perfection of that Righteousness which without him was but Short and Imperfect through that Grace and Power that came by Jesus Christ Give me leave I beseech you for I have a Godly Jealousy upon me I fear lest the very End of Christs Coming is Mistaken And of how Dreadful a Consequence such a Mistake would be you cannot possibly be Ignorant that believe there is No Salvation in another Name Let us hear the Testimony of Scripture They are the Words of Christ himself I must peach the Kingdom of God for therefore am I sent Now what is this Kingdom of God but God's Government and where is this Kingdom and Government to be set up Christ also tells us Behold the Kingdom of God is within you So that the Reason of this being sent is to destroy the Kingdom and Government of the Devil the Strong Man that kept the House the Heart and to erect and establish the Kingdom and Government of God in the Soul Thy Kingdom come thy Will be done Would to God people would but consider what they Pray for For they are scandal'd at the thing they ask and both neglect and revile the Substance of their own Prayers Thy Kingdom come and thy Will be done but believe neither It was the Office God designed his Son to The Thief says Christ does not come but to kill to steal and to destroy That is To steal away the Heart from God and to kill and to destroy all Good Desires and Inclinations in the Soul for the Devil is this Thief and Destroyer But I am come says Christ that they might have Life and that they might have it more abundantly O Death 〈◊〉 will be thy Death as if he had said I will kill that which kill'd the Soul I will breath the Breath of Life into it again and by my Spirit and Grace I will beget Holy Motions and kindle Heavenly Desires in it after God after the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof This is the Newness of Life And I will not only restore that Life the Soul has lost but I will encrease it I will add to it that it may have Life more abundantly Indeed he was Anointed of God for this Purpose and is therefore called the Restorer of Paths the Repairer of Breaches and the Builder up of Waste Places that is he is ordained of God for the Recovery of Man from his Fallen and Disobedient State This is the Reason of his Name Thou shalt call his Name Jesus said the Angel for he shall save his People from their Sins Not from Wrath only but from Sin which is the Cause of Wrath. That is Of Bad Men he will make them really good Men and of Sinful and Unholy he will make them Holy and Righteous Men who truly believe in him This is the Burden of John's Testimony There is one says he that cometh after me is mightier than I he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with Fire whose Fan is in his hand he will THROUGHLY PURGE his Floor And seeing Jesus coming to him said Behold the Lamb of God which TAKETH AWAY the SIN of the World I know the Use that too many make of these Scriptures as if they were an Hebraism borrow'd from the Old Sacrifices which may be said To take away Sin by taking away the Guilt and not that the Natures of Men are restored and perfected And indeed this is that Sense which I dread above all others because it perverts the End of Christs Coming and lodges Men in a Security pernitious to their own Souls For though it is most true that Remission of Sins was and is preached in his Name and Blood and that Sin in a Sense may be said to be Taken away when the Guilt of the Sins is removed by Remission yet this is only of Siâ—s past that upon Repentance are forgiven But this is not the Whole Full and Evangelical Sense as Christ's own words do plainly import For says he the Son of Man is come to save that which was Lost And upon another Occasion he expresseth himself to the same purpose and almost in the same words For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was Lost Now who is this that is Lost but Man and in what Sense can Man be said to be Lost but by Sin and Disobedience that which cast him out of the Presence and Garden of God and put him in a Condition of Eternal Misery If Christ then came to Save Lost Man he must be understood to Save him from that which puts him into a Lost Condition that is Sin for The Wages of Sin is Death and the Servant of Sin is a Son of Perdition Christ has determin'd this Point beyond all Exception in his Discourse with the Jews John 8. 31 32 33 34. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed vn him if ye continue in my Word then are ye my Disciples indeed and ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you Free What Freedom was this Certainly from Sin sutable to that passage in his Prayer Sanctify them through thy Truth thy Word is Truth But some Jews present proud of their Priviledges apprehended not the Liberty Christ spoke of and therefore answer'd him thus We are Abraham's Seed and were never in Bondage to any Man how sayest thou Ye shall be made Free Jesus answered them Verily verily I say unto you whosoever committeth Sin is the Servant of Sin In which place it is very remarkable that Men are only to be distinguish'd by their Works that no Claims Priviledges Successions or Dissents are available but He that commits Sin is the Servant of Sin So that Christ's Free Man is he that is Freed from Sin this is his Follower and Disciple And as Christ oppos'd the Works of the Jews who unjustly sought to kill him to their Pretensions they made to Abraham's Seed so must we oppose the Actions of Ill Men to their better Professions we must faithfully tell them He that commits Sin is the Servant of Sin From which Servitude Christ came to Save his people and is therefore called The SAVIOUR and the REDEEMER This Doctrine is closely followed by the Apostle Paul in his sixth Chapter to the Romans Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised up from the Dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in Newness of Life
by the Dead they might be deserted of those that to say we cannot be safe without them If any thing Sober and Judicious be propos'd for allaying Asperities accomodating Differences and securing to Prince and People a just and legal Union of Interest as our Government requires we must presently be told of 41. and 42. as if there were a sort of Necromancy in the numbers or that the naming of those Figures long since made Cyphers by an Act of Oblivion hath power enough to lay the active and generous Spirits of our times but they will find themselves mistaken in their black Art and that things as well as times are chang'd the Mask is off and he that runs may read Men in their Pleas and Endeavours for Truth Justice and Sincere Religion will not be over born or stagger'd by such stale and trifling Reflections rarely used of late but to palliate wretched Designs or dilcredit good ones with men of weak Judgments though perhaps of loyal Principles I beseech you let us not be unskilful in these Tricks that we may not be mistaken or abused by them I cannot tell a â—ime in which the Minds of all sorts of Protestants have been so powerfully and unanimously engag'd to endeavour a good Understanding between the King and People And as I am sure it was never more needed so let me say no Age hath put a richer Price into the Hands of Men or yielded a fairer Occasion to fix an happy and lasting Union upon in order to which let me prevail with you that we may study to improve this great Principle as the necessary means to it viz. That God's Providence and our own Constitution have made the Interest of Prince and People ONE and that their Peace and Greatness lie in a most industrous and impartial Prosecution of it Those that teach other Doctrine as that the Prince hath an Interest apart from the Good and Safety of the People are the sole men that get by it and therefore find themselves oblig'd to study their mis-understanding because they only are disappointed and insecured by their Union Experience truly tells us that such Persons have another Interest than that which leads to a common Good and are often but too artificial in interesting Princes in the success of it but prudent and generous Princes have ever seen that it is neither safe nor just and that no Kingdom can be govern'd with true Glory and Success but there where the Interest of the Governour is one with that of the Governed and where there is the strictest Care to steer all Transactions of State by the Fundamentals or first and great Principles of their own Constitution especially since swerving from them hath alwayes made way for Confusion and Misery in Government Our own Stories are almost every where vext by this Neglect To Conclude and sum up the whole Discourse If you will both cure present and prevent future Grievances it will greatly behove us to take a most deliberate and unbyass'd View of the present state of Things with their proper Causes and Tendencies Let us confront our Ecclesiastical Matters with the plain Text and Letter of Holy Scripture this is PROTESTANT and let us compare our civil Transactions with the antient Laws and Statutes of the Realm this is ENGLISH And I do humbly and heartily beseech Al mighty God that he would so dispose the Hearts of Prince and People as that now Foundations may be laid for a Just and Lasting Tranquility to these Nations AN APPENDIX Of the CAUSES of PERSECUTION I Impute all Persecution for Religion to these Seven insuing Causes though properly speaking there is but one Original Cause of this Evil and that is the Devil as there is but one Original Cause of Good and that is God The first Cause of Persecution is this That the Authors and Users of it have little or no Religion at Heart they art not subject to the ground and first Cause of true Religion in their own Souls For it is the part of true Religion to humble the Mind break the Heart and soften the Affection To him O God! wilt thou have regard said one of Old who is of a broken Heart and a contrite Spirit and that trembles at thy word not one that breaks Pates and plunders Goods for Religion Blessed are they that Mourn said Christ they shall be comforted not those that sell Joseph and make Merry Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God those that are low in their own Eyes not such as devour and damn all but themselves Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth such as are gentile and ready to help and not Tyrannize over Neighbours Blessed are the Merciful for they shall obtain Mercy what then shall become of those that are Cruel under pretence of doing it for Gods sake Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God then Disturbers and Destroyers of their peaceable Neighbours shall not be called so Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled but not those that hunger and thirst after our Corn and Cattel Houses and Land for Conscience sake And Blessed are you says Christ when Men shall Revile and Persecute you c. then not those that Revile and Persecute others and those Sober and Harmless not one Blessing to this Conscience-hunting Doctrine and Practice that devour the Widow and Orphant for Religion Were men inwardly and truly Religious they would have that low Opinion of themselves that tender regard to mankind that awe of Almighty God that none of these froward Passions would have any sway with them But the mischief is unmortified Passions pretend to Religion a Proud Impatient Arrogant mind would promote it then which nothing of Man is more remote from it and mistaking the Nature of Christ's peaceable Religion which if the Apostle James say true is to visit the Fatherless and widow and keep our selves unspotted of the World They turn Widow and Fatherless out of House and Home and spot themselves with the Cruelty and Injustice of usurping their poor patremony the Bread of their Lives and Sustenance of their Natures such men as these are devoid of natural Affection their Religion has no Bowels or they are without Mercy in the Profession of it which is the quite contrary to true Religion that makes us love Enemies do good to them that hate us and kindly entreat those that despightfully use us and so much stronger in Souls truly Religious is the power of Love to Mankind then any Self-revenging Passion that from an humble and serious reflection upon the Mercies and Goodness of God to them they do not only suppress any rising of Heart against their Persecutors much more against peaceable Dissenters but with much softness charity commiserate their Ignorance and Fury offering to inform them and praying that they may be forgiven This is to be Religious and therefore
those that Persecute for Religion are Irreligious 2dly The next Cause of Persecution is the gross but general Mistake which People are under concerning the Nature of the Church Kingdom of Christ for the lamentable Worldliness of mens minds hath put them upon those Carnal Constructions which have made way for all the external Coertion and Violence used by bad and suffer'd by good Men on the score of Religion from the beginning And no wonder if ordinary Persons tumble upon this Construction when the Disciples of Jesus shew'd themselves so ill read in the Mysteries of his Kingdom that after all the Intimacy they had had with him they resrain'd not to ask When shall the Kingdom be restored to Israel They look't abroad had a Worldly Idea in their minds Jew like they waited for external Deliverance from the Power of the Romans rather then an Internal Salvation from the Dominion of Satan and interpreted that to Worldly loss and freedom which did relate to the loss and Redemption of the Soul but Jesus taught them better things yet so as not to deny or flatly discourage and rebuke them that though true might have been more then they could have borâ— therefore he winds off with them upon the Time and the Season of the thing knowing that the Time was at hand that they should be better taught and satisfied of the nature of his Kingdom unto which he referred them When the Spirit of Truth comes it shall lead you into all Truth c. That the Kingdom of Christ is not of this World has been before observed and the Reason is so great that all men of common Sense must allow it upon Christ's Principle for says he then would my Servants fight for me truly implying that because the Kingdoms of this World are evidently set up and maintained by Worldly Force and that he will have no Worldly Force used in the Business of his Kingdom therefore it is not of this World Consequently those that attempt to set up his Kingdom by Worldly Force or make that their Pretence to use it are none of his Servants they are truly but Men of this World such as seek an Earthly and not an Heavenly Kingdom themselves and not Christ Jesus Where by the way let me observe That though the Jews to engage Pilate the more easily to their side impeach't Christ of being an Eâ—â—e my to Casar they were Enemies and He a Friend to Caesar for he came to reform the Lives of Men to make them better Subjects to obey Caesar not for Fear but for Conscience sake so would Caesar's Provinec have been easie and safe But the Jews would have had him Caesar's Enemy one that should have forcibly rescued them from Caesar's Power they waited for a Captain General to begin the Revolt and with an high Hand to over bear and captive Caesar as he had done them and 't is more than probable that his Appearance being to another End they therefore rejected him their Heart being set upon this But to return Christ told his Disciples that he had chosen them out of the World how not to converse or live bodily in it no such matter but he had chosen or singled them from the Nature Spirit Glory Policy and Pomp of this World How Persons so qualified can make a Worldly Church or Kingdom unless they desert Christ's Doctrine is past my Skill to tell So that the Capacity that Christians stand in to Christ is Spiritual and not Worldly or Carnal and therefore not Carnal or Worldly but Spiritual Methods and Weapons only are to be used to inform or reclaim such as are Ignorant or DisobediÌ„ent And if we will give Antient Story credit we shall find that Worldly Weapons were never employed by the Christian Church till the became Worldly and so ceast to be truly Christian But why should I say the Church the most abused word in the World her Leaders have taught her to eâ—â— and that of believing as the Church believes is so far from being true in point of Faith as well as Reason that the Church her self his ever believed as the Clergy that is the Priests believed since that sort of Men have practised Distinction from and Superiority upon the Laity He that will peruse the Ecclesiastical Story delivered us by Eusebius Pamphili Secrates Scholasticns Evagrius Ruffinus Sozomen c. will find but too many and sad Instances of the Truth of this In short Peoples apprehending the Church and Kingdom of Christ to be Visible and Worldly like other Societies and Government have thought it not only to be Lawful but Necessary to use the Arts and Force of this World to support that Church and Kingdom especially since this Interest of Religion hath been embodied with that of the Civil Magistrate for from that time he hath been made Custos utriusque tabulae and such as offend though about Church Matters have been reputed Transgressors against the State and consequently the State interested in punishing the Offence Whereas had Christians remain'd in their primitive Simplicity and Purity in the Self-denying Patient and Suffering Doctrine of Christ Christianity had stood in Holy Living not in Worldly Regiment and its Compulsion would have been Love its Arms Reason and Truth and its utmost Rigour even to obstinate Enemies or Apostates but Renouncing of their Communion and that not till much Forbearance had been used to them To sum up all The Kingdoms of this World stand in outward Bodily and Civil Matters and here the Laws and Power of Men reich and are effectual But the Kingdom and Church of Christ that is chosen out of the World stands not in Bodily Exercise which the Apostle says profits little nor in Times nor Places but in Faith and that Worship which Christ tells us is in Spirit and in Truth to this no Worldly Compulsion can bring or force men 't is only the Power of that King of Righteousness whose Kingdom is in the Minds and Souls of the Just and he rules by the Law of his own free Spirit which like the Wind Bloweth where it listeth And as without this Spirit of Regeneration no man can be made a Member of Christs Church or Kingdom so neither is it in the Power of Man to command or give it and consequently all Worldly force employ'd to make men Members of Christs Church and Kingdom is unnatural and ineffectual I could be very large upon this point for 't is very fruitful and so much the cause of Persecution that if there were never another to be assign'd this were enough for upon due consideration it must needs meet with every mans Judgment and Experience I will here add the sense of memorable Hales of Eaton upon this subject When our Saviour in the Acts after his Resurrection was Discoursing to his Disciples concerning the Kingdom of God they presently brake forth into this Question Wilt thou now restore the Kingdom unto Israel Certainly this Question betrays their