THis Chapter of the Text is the Account of a Trial, Ver. 1. wherein the Judge is Felix; the Plaintiffs are the Jews, and their High Priests; and Ter­tullus, of Council for them; the Defendant is St. Paul; the Crimes laid to his charge are Sedition, Schism, and Here­sie, which, if true, rendred him undeserving of life, and liberty, who yet by his very enemies was judged to have done nothing worthy of Death, or of Bonds. Acts xxiii. 29. He easily wipes off these aspersions by the evidence of his [Page 2]peaceable behaviour in the Synagogue, and in the City; All his guilt was honouring the Father in honouring the Son, which was the old Reli­gion of the Patriarchs, and Prophets, though by the modern Jews condemned of Novelty, Ver. 14. con­text. and Heresie: And asserting the Resurrecti­on, which was an Article of the Jewish as well as Christian Creed; which Resurrection because it was to be both of the Just and the Unjust, Ver. 15. to 21. all his design and endeavour was to make that safe, which was already sure; that if by any means he might attain the resurrection to ever­lasting life, Dan. xii. 2. and not to shame and everlasting con­tempt; and in pursuance of that end, he did exercise himself to have a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward Men.

I shall not suspect your knowledge of the History of this our Apostles life, so as to un­dertake the proof of the truth of the Assertion in his person, Phil. iii. 17. but rather urge you to walk as you have him for an example, and that in the sin­cerity, universality, constancy, and industry of an inoffensive obedience.

First, The sincerity of that obedience consists in having a Conscience void of offence, which Conscience is the knowledge we have of our selves, common with others, God, [Page 3]and his holy Angels: Or a concluding Sci­ence in a practical Syllogism, whereof Scri­pture makes the Major Proposition: Who­soever obeys, or obeys not, shall be accordingly saved or damned. To which Conscience assumes, by excusing, or accusing, that I so do, or do not obey; and having thus witnessed at the Bar, it takes the Tribunal, and (suitably to its own Verdict) acquits or condemns, I, and ex­ecutes too, as being in its own Court, Infor­mer, Judge, and Executioner. And Con­science, as it is well instructed, concludes rightly; or as misinstructed, concludes false­ly; or as doubtful, concludes not at all; or if probable, concludes on probable reasons. Now the good, and erroneous Conscience both bind; that simply, and this suppositive­ly, till better informed. The robbing of Baal Berith was Sacriledge with them who were perswaded he was a God. Judg. ix. 4. But the Conscience here in the Text is a true counter­part of the Divine Law which is its rule, a Zeal according to knowledge, and so to know the will of God, as to do it.

A Conscience void of offence, or scandal, that loves not to give, or take it. As when we [Page 4]neither lay Galtraps in the way of others, to obstruct them in their Christian fight, or race; nor stumble at those that are laid in our way by others. When evil exam­ple or instruction is followed, that is a true scandal effectually given. When what is good, or indifferent, is misinterpreted, or avoided, when by just Authority command­ed, that is a false offence effectually taken. Offences may be sometimes given where they are not taken, Mat. iv. as in Satan's several temptings of our Saviour; and they may be taken where they are not given: Thus Christ was a stone of offence, set for the falling of many in Israel.

Now to have a Conscience void of offence, is to have a right knowledge of our rule of duty, and of our suitable compliance with it. And that,

Secondly, In the universality of our obedi­ence, as first it respects God, who cannot properly be said to be offended by us, since grief is no more in him, Isa. xxvii. 4. than fury is; but only by way of Analogy, or resemblance, when we do what in us lies to provoke him, by breach of the Letter, and contempt of the penalty of his Laws, affronting his [Page 5]Omniscience, his Holiness, and his Justice, by saying the God of Jacob sees not, or sees not to regard: And offence toward him is avoided, by firm belief of his Attributes, and a propor­tionable standing in aw of them, so as not to sin against them. Considering, 1 John iii. 20. that if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Heb. iv. 13. All things are naked and open before him, as the Sacrifice was, when flay'd, and chin'd down, and all its inwards exposed to view. If Conscience is a Thou­sand Witnesses, God is more than a Thou­sand Consciences, whom we must ever set before us, which was the mean he pre­scribed Abraham to express sincerity, Gen. xvii. 1. and to attain perfection. Not that our eye-service brings God before us, but finds and owns him there, because every where; and every where such a searcher of the heart, and a discerner and Judge of its thoughts, and intents, that with him a lustful look is Adultery, a ma­licious will is Murder, and a covetous de­sire Theft. He judgeth not as man judgeth. With us the mind makes not guilty, without the Act, nor the Act without the mind: But with him the conceptions of Lust are sin, as well as the productions, as the Child is the [Page 6]same in the Womb and at the Breast. It is then no advantage to us to have none consci­ous of our Evil Acts without us, while we have a Conscience within us; or to have no Conscience within us, while we have a God above us. We may dig deep to hide our Coun­sel from him, but he will bring forth the thing that is hid to light. So that when we are sate from the Justice of men, we are not secure from the Justice of God. He that made the eye shall not he see? He that teacheth man know­ledge, shall not he punish? We may escape the Sea and the Viper, yet we have a Nemesis, an avenger within and without us; if not, we have one above us; He that is higher than the highest regards, even the most high, from whom there lies no appeal. 1 Sam. ii. 23. If one man sin against another, the Judge shall judge him, but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall plead for him? Trespasses may be compromised, but not Transgressions, Job ix. 33. for there is no man to lay his hand upon the Offender and the Offended, un­less he who is God-man, the only Mediator, undertake it; who yet will be no Umpire in our obstinate and wilful quarrels, but for those alone who endeavour to keep Consci­ences void of offence toward him, by serving [Page 7]him as without hypocrisie, so secondly with­out partiality too, respecting all his Precepts, not thinking our selves sound, if we are so in any part, where the Leprosie brake out in the forehead, it rendred the whole man unclean. No duty is little where an Infinite God com­mands; nor any sin small for which an Im­mortal Christ did die, and Eternal flames are kindled. Though no one good Act can save us, yet any one evil Act may damn us. We may die of one wound as well as of Caesars two and thirty. Nor will our good works compound for our bad, our Zeal for our Rebellion, or our Loyalty for our Drun­kenness. There is such a firm League be­tween all the Precepts, that the enemies to the one are enemies to the other. The whole Ten words being but one Law. He hath other Gods besides the Lord, who makes his belly his God, by Gluttony, or by Concupiscence which is Idolatry; he hath not kept a day to the Lord, but to his Lust, who by long Prayers and a Fast hath kill'd and taken possession; hath first made the Widow, and then undone her, by devouring her House or her Vineyard. And he hath taken the name of God in vain, who hath born false witness against his Neighbour. A [Page 8]good Conscience desires in all things to live honestly. And our duty is then currant, when neither allay'd, nor clipp'd. Its intrinsick value consists in a sincere, the extrinsick in a uniform obedience. And this is a Conscience void of offence toward God. And it must be so in the demonstration of it.

Secondly, Towards men, towards every man: Toward (1.) Superiours; and they are first in the Second Table, and God him­self hath said they are Gods, whether the Gods of our Houses, Parents; or of our Coun­try, the Magistrate. And he commands us to do them homage by honour and Tribute; and he forbids us to plead Conscience for disobedience, when commanded to obey for Conscience sake. Which Conscience, if truly tender, will be so to every appearance of evil, to Sedition, Schism, and Sacriledge, as well as to Blasphemy, an Oath, or an Idol. Now Rebellion is commonly an Inceptor in the Family; where we are ill taught to bear the yoak in our youth, our elder years are empty of respect to the Doctrine of the Pulpit, and the Laws of the Throne; and then with the Fathers of our flesh we are gradually taught to despise those of our Faith, and of our Country [Page 9]too. But while we wound the honour of all, like Swords, we are insensible of the mischiefs we do. Exod. iv. 16. In Primitive Judaism Moses was a God to Aaron, and Aaron was a mouth to Moses, to plead for him who pro­tected him: In Primitive Christianity, when the Emperours were Heathens, the Christi­an Legions would not be worse, by becom­ing Rebels; but with their Swords by their sides, received those of their Executioners into their bowels, as an effect not of their Cowardize, but of their Valour; he dares do any thing, but sin, for his Religion, who dares die for it. Luke xxii. 38. In Christ's Retinue two Swords, when sheathed, were enough, and one, when drawn in his defence, was too much. His Gospel must not, like the Alchoran, Mat. xxvi. 52. be propagated by Armies: Nor his Kingdom, like that of Romulus, be founded in the bloud of any but our elder Brother, that is, his own. He asserted the right of Caesar by Precept, and Practice, employs his Divinity to attest his Loyalty, Mat. xvii. 37. and out of the mouth of a Fish sends the Tribute silver to him to whom it was superscribed, and that for himself and Pe­ter, who did not angle for his own profit, laid no claim to the Roman-penny: We ill [Page 10]requite the goodness of God in giving us Kings as Nursing Fathers, when we undermine the Thrones we are by many obligations bound to support. Nor matters it much whether we do it by Achitophels head, or Absaloms hand, by Shimei's tongue, or Sheba's trum­pet. If the Jew was enjoyned to pray for that Land where he was Captive, Jer. xxix. 7. since in the peace thereof he was to have peace: How much more are we bound to seek the peace of the Land of our Nativity, since they only can prosper that love it? We should not then be like foolish Passengers in a Ship, who rip up the Planks of the Vessel, wherein they are embarked, to build their own Cabins. Sure I am, Christ never furnished us with the Doctrine of speaking evil of Dignities, nor true Christi­anity with the use. St. Paul retracts the rash expression of Whited Wall, Acts xxiii. 3, &c. used to a Judge, though an unjust one, and that with re­morse, and calls it his sin, though his sin of Ignorance: While our hearts never smite us for the wounds we give the Royal Robe, by the ill language we speak, or hear, when the reputations of our Superiours are evapora­rated in the smoak of a Coffee-house, and all our Allegiance lies drown'd, and for­gotten [Page 11]in Rheum, and Lethe; we must have a toleration for ill opinions, and ill manners too: And our Laws, like those of Moses to the Jews, and Solon to the Athenians, must be adapted to the hardness of our hearts; Mat. xix. 8. while a War, a Plague, and a Fire have ruin'd ma­ny, but reformed none: Nay, Isa. 1.5. our revoltings have increased with God's smitings; like the high attainers of our Age, we are above all Ordinances only by being against them: Of which Ordinances the powers that be are one. Our Remedy lies in the strengthening the hands of our Superiours, by subjection to them, and love to one another, that since God hath given us Judges, as at the first, 26. and Counsellours as at the beginning, it may appear that with our Government we have a re­stauration of our Loyalty too. And this we shall do, if we keep our Consciences and our Conversations void of offence toward our Su­periours. And

Secondly, Toward our Equals, and that in things Civil and Religious; in their concerns as Men, and as Christians. Not invading their property by fraud or violence. The truly Consciencious person shuns every dis­honest Act, not so much for the sake of his [Page 12]Reputation, as his Peace; Every black mote is to him, as to a tender eye, his grief, as well as his blemish. He dares not wound his Soul to save his Estate, or his Life; as knowing that God hates the profitable, as well as the pious fraud, and that light gains ill got make the Conscience more heavy than the Purse. When good plain Jacob saw the Money returned with the Corn in his Son's Sacks, Gen. xlii. 25, &c. he orders them to take double money with them in their second Journey, for per­adventure, says he, it was an oversight: He would not purchase his food too cheap, lest he should buy repentance too dear, and by such an act of Injustice turn his bread into gravel: Prov. xx. 17. And he is an Israelite indeed who is thus without guile, John i, 47. such a Nathanael who is come home to Christ, one of whose Laws it is, that whatsoever we would that men should do unto us, Mat. vii. 12. we should do so unto them. I know a Chri­stian must do more than this, but he is no Christian who doth less. Our Righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, Mat. v. 20. it must flow from a better Prin­ciple and spring of Grace; have a larger current in our Conversation with all men, not those of our own Sect only; and empty [Page 13]it self into a deeper Sea, God's Glory, not our own. Let us walk according to this rule in all simplicity and sincerity, and then let others call it Morality, and think they can be Saints without it; whilst Christ commands it, and Christians practise it, we will call it Christi­anity, a Conscience avoiding offence toward men in their Civil concerns. And let be so in (2.) their Sacred concerns too. Let us not misguide the ignorant and ductile by false fires, as Thieves draw Travellers into dark Woods with a design to rob them. Let us not suffer Sin to rest upon them, but rebuke them with a spirit of meekness, and instruct them with a spirit of wisdom, as men of feeding lips and healing tongues. Eph. iv. 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of our mouths, which is as offensive to chaste ears, as a stinking breath from rot­ten Lungs is to the Nostrils. Let us not judge the strong, nor despise the weak, but think can­didly of all, and act charitably towards all, and where we lawfully may, Phil. iv. 5. let our moderati­on be known unto all men: As tender and teeming Mothers forbear what their sto­machs would bear for their burthens sake. Temperance is not the want, but the re­straint of Appetite, the restraint of a lawful [Page 14]Lust: But Brotherly-kindness considers not on­ly what is lawful, Gal. v. 6. but what is expedient also. St. Acts xvi. 3. Paul, who very well knew that neither Cir­cumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, circumcised Timothy to comply with the Jews, but would not circumcise Titus, Gal. ii. 3. that he might gratifie the Gentiles. It is an unchri­stian use of our Christian liberty to offend the Magistrate in forbearing what we may do, or our Brother, in doing what we may for­bear. This, if ingenuously observed, would keep the peace in the great world without us, and in the little world within us too: For this is the justice of a good Conscience that gives to every one his due, and to every one in his order: First, Glory to God on high, and then on earth peace and good will toward men: For as we are not to displease God to please our Prince, nor to displease our Prince to please our Fellow-subjects; so neither are we to displease our fellow-subjects to please our selves. Where the way is one, we can fol­low both, Fear God, and the King: But where they part, we shew by our attendance, to which we retain. We cannot serve two Ma­sters, Dan. iii. his Servants we are whom we obey. This caused the three Children to chuse affliction rather [Page 15]than sin, and to deem a Furnace seven times heated cooler than Hell. But (God be thank­ed) this is not our case, and I hope will never be. We have no Statutes of Omri, Micah vi. 16. no manners of the house of Ahab to obey, but such a Government as, be the times never so bad, we may be as good as we will in them; and that safely too, we are not cal­led to praise God in the fire, Rom. xii. 1. or to offer up our bodies as any other than a living sacrifice to him: And are so far from suffering for righ­teousness sake, that we are not so much as buf­feted for our faults: But can break the Laws pretendedly with as good a Conscience as others can really keep them. But God, who prescribes the Order, prescribes the Union too; we must provide things honest in the sight of both God, and man. 2 Cor. viii. 21. For though Loyalty is no more founded in Grace than Dominion is, a Nero must be obeyed as well as a Constan­tine; Rom. xiii. 1, &c. and there may be as good Subjects in Turky, as in England, if not better; and an Aristides may be as just as St. Paul, yet he is no good Christian who is a Rebel, or a Cheat: Christ will not be righteousness to them who will have none of their own. His Kingdom consists not in Carnal Wisdom, or [Page 16]weapons, but in Love, Joy, and Peace; that peace which is both our duty, and our re­ward, and both in the Text. To have a Consci­ence void of offence toward God, and toward men.

Thirdly, That which speaks the constancy of duty, is that it must be always the same in all conditions, places, and times. We are to be chaste with Joseph, in the Palace, as well as the Prison; within the Curtains of our bed, as those of the Tabernacle. To be sober among the Vines, and temperate at a loaded Table; to pray for the King as heartily in our Closets, as in his Chappel; and no more to curse him in our Bed-chamber, than we would in his own. To be true to every trust of the dead, as of the living; and not, as too ma­ny among us, who are so unlike to God, and so like the Devil, that they are most certain­ly false to all that put confidence in them: Whereas an inoffensive Conscience sets God and man before its eyes, and is the same to those that may be absent, as toward him that cannot; and that in all Conditions, when he hides his face as when he shines on our Taber­nacle. Its Piety is not strong only when we are weak, and then languishing when we recover: Is not puffed up by prosperity, nor [Page 17]cast down by adversity, as Boats that rise with the Floud, and sink with the Ebb. Its mouth is not full of murmuring whe uempty of bread, Phil. iv. 11. but in all estates hath learned to be content. Can tend on the Ark when its Manna is gone, and nothing left but the Rod, and the Law, when banished, as well as when it gratifies the flesh-hook: Can be devout at Mesech and Kedar, as in the goings, and so­lemn Procession of the Sanctuary. Good Barzillai was as faithful a Subject to David, when hunted on the Mountains, as when he went to be Crown'd at Hebron. A good Conscience neither flatters the rich, nor oppresseth the poor; takes not the opportunity of a Friend's distress to insult, or to betray; to stand aloof from the sore, or only to pour Vinegar into it by sharp upbraidings, or uncharitable conclu­sions; but where it cannot be a Shield to pre­vent a wound, is ever ready with Balm to heal it; not trampling on a Prostrate, whe­ther Friend, or Enemy, but is equally prompt to do good, and to forgive evil. James i. 27. Pure and unde­filed Religion, (the Religion of a Conscience so qualified too) visits the Fatherless and the Widow, with a visit like that of Christ, Luke i. 68. visits to redeem, and as the same Christ too, keeps it [Page 18]self unspotted of the world. It throws no dirt, (and 'tis hard to do it with clean hands) nor doth any thrown at it stick on it, but is soon wiped off by undisturbed Innocence. And this, all this is,

Fourthly, and lastly, The whole employ of a good Conscience, as wherein it doth exercise it self, (as the word signifies) prepares for the Combat, bends all its wit and force to it; is

First, Diligent to the utmost of its power, striving to excell others, and our selves. That those things be in us and abound. If it be possible, and as much as in us lies to have peace with God and man, with all men. And this is more than a meer bending our tongues and wits to holi­ness, and righteousness; not a speaking great things, but living them.. And though God sometimes takes the will for the deed, it is there only where there is no ability to perform: 2 Cor. viii. 12. Thus Love may fulfil the whole Law in a hearty disposition to all obedience where the Act is not feazible. Davids desire to keep Gods Commandments, Psal. cxix. 4, 5. goes for the deed; 'twas exercise when he did but strive in Prayer after that perfection, which is not here attainable: Yet a meer present wishing we might do [Page 19]God's will can no more secure us from Hell, than a future wishing we had done it can de­liver us out of it. It is not a setting our faces toward Zion that will bring us thither, when like Weathercocks, the next wind of a Tem­ptation, alters our aspect, and we are still where we were. Mat. xxv. 15, &c. Two Talents improved to four have in Heaven a proportionable re­ward, with the five that were made ten: But the lazy Well-willers Talent that rusted in the Napkin had that rust as a swift witness against him, before that God who expects his own with usury. We have the knowledge of his Com­mandments, and they are not grievous. The Dictates of his Spirit, the Assistances of our own Consciences, the Examples of his Son and Servants, the Encouragement of all his Promises, which makes our service as profi­table as it is reasonable: And if herewith we faithfully do what we can, he will merciful­ly accept of what we do. And herein we must be, as diligent, so,

Secondly, Prudent too, to strive lawfully, as well as earnestly; to have light with our heat; and that light is, in the essentials of Religion, the Word of God, and we are not to vary from the Pattern in the Mount. [Page 20]To the Law and to the Testimony, Isa. viii. 20. if they speak not according to this, it is because there is no truth in them. They oblige our Faith in all the Ar­ticles of our several Creeds, 2 Tim. i. 13. those forms of sound words founded in Scripture. Our obe­dience in worshipping God by Prayer, and Praise, by hearing, and receiving his Sacra­ments, revering his Name, avoiding Poly­theism, Atheism, Idolatry, Blasphemy, ho­nouring our Superiours, not invading the Life, Chastity, Estate, or Reputation of our Neighbour: Which Laws are a Moral and perpetual rule to all our Intentions, Expres­sions, and Actions, and with these neither men nor our own Consciences can dispense: And our trial at the last day will be not meerly by our Consciences, but as they have been guided by that Word. Since Consci­ence, like Fame, may be as tenacious of a lie as of a truth, may condemn where God acquits, or acquit where God condemns. He must touch the Needle to make it point right, which else will vary (as we know Conscience hath done) to all the Points in the Compass. We rightly set our Watches by the Dial, when we are assured the Dial is well set by the Sun.

In things Civil, the rule is right Reason; we [Page 21]expect not a Law out of Scripture for every minute action of Life. We try a Circle not by a Square, but by a Compass. The Law of the Land, where it speaks, is the com­mon Conscience which ought to guide us in all things that are not apparently opposite to the Divine Law. The Church is a Vineyard, and is in the State, as in it's Fence, without which it would not be long a Vineyard. Hos. i. 9. Israel was Loammi, that is, not a People, when without the true God, a teaching Priest, and Law, when the Pillars are dissolved the People melt. 2 Chron. xv. 3. By un­dermining our Superiours we Sap our own foundations; and while we pluck flowers from the Crown to weave Garlands for our selves, the success is to see both droop, and wi­ther together. Did we rightly understand things, we should acknowledge it our liber­ty to be subject, the very worst of Govern­ments being better than none. Law is the Mound of Property, and without that enclo­sure, every man would turn all his Lusts, like Beasts without stint, into the Common. Now the Law is but a dead letter, it's life is it's execution, and it's best execution is in our active obedience. It is not indifferent to the Law, or the Lawgiver, whether we do [Page 22]or suffer; as it is in By-laws of Corporations whether we fine or serve. Justice would be all Sword, if it did not only consist in the mulcting or punishing our Persons, or our Purses. It is from our corruptions that Pe­nal Statutes are inflicted as well as enacted. Would we be a Law to our selves, we should not need so many from our Superiours. It is then as imprudent as it is ungrateful, like Sons of Belial, to shake off that easie yoak, that protects where it restrains, and by keep­ing us in order, keeps us in safety too. Let the Law of the Land subdue that of our Lusts; Let us study to be quiet, and to do our own busi­ness. And leaving the Steerage of the Vessel to those that sit at the Helm, let us keep our own Cabins, and there strengthen, and en­courage our Pilots by our Devotion, and by our Subjection.

In things indifferent let us walk by the rule of Charity, but of Charity first to the Church our Mother, and as we owe to her our better birth, so let us pay her our better Honour. Her love first descended on us, be­fore ours could ascend to her, and now we are able, let ours ascend to her, before it spread to the Brethren; 'tis the Method and [Page 23]order of Grace as well as of Nature. In pursuance of which, let us not dispute her Wisdom, or her Authority in confining our practice in what makes for Decency, or Order, whereof she is certainly a more competent Judge than her Children: In God's name, let us search the Scriptures for every circum­stance of Worship, but then let us not con­clude, we find not this thing commanded there, therefore we dare not do it; but rather, we find not this thing there forbid, therefore we may do it; Rom. iv. 15. for where there is no Law there is no transgression: If we doubt, the Com­mand of Authority supersedes the doubt. But while we peremptorily avoid what is in­different, we meet that Judaism we pretend to run from; and are too superstitious whilst we would not be at all so. Nay, we lose that liberty whereof we are so tender, as by­assed to one side, and that against the Powers that are set over us, we are easily drawn away by those who have no right to guide us, but are restiff and head-strong to those that have a right to our obedience; like de­bauched Gallants, who value their Curtizan above their Chirurgion, and will give more to get a Disease than to have it cured. Where [Page 24]the Word is silent, we have our Liberty, but let us not use it for any occasion of the slesh. 1 Pet. ii. 16.

The Primitive Christians when confined to a few things made necessary by the Precept, and not so in themselves, such as abstinence from things strangled, Acts xv. 31. and from bloud, are said to rejoice for the Consolation. And so did our An­cestors when reform'd from that Worship which was become all husk, and shell, and rind; yet thought not themselves obliged to strip off all the Leaves from Christ's Vine, as if they injured those Grapes which they overshadowed; whose moderation let us imitate, following after the things which make for peace. And nothing makes more for it than our hearing the Instructions of our Civil Father, Prov. i. 8. and not forsaking the Law of the Church our Mother.

And here, were the Orator as good as the Cause, I should hope, with as much success as willingness, to plead for the Church of England, whose Doctrine and Discipline are a perfect Comment on this Text, a giving to God and Caesar their due; receiving as a rule of faith all the Articles of the Three Creeds, preserving to God his Worship entire, with­out the rivallings of Saints, or Angels, or [Page 25] the likeness of any thing above or below. Not invading or depressing the Offices of Christ by Lording it over his Heritage, or derogating from his Satisfaction, or Intercession, by owning any other Purgatory but that of his sufferings in this world, to secure us from those of the world to come. And therefore teaching us that no man can by Masses, Oblations, Pilgri­mages, or works of Supererogation redeem his Brother, or pay to God a ransom for him. Psal. xlix. 7. And that the all-sufficient merits of Christ need not be Imp'd by ours, or those of men subject to like passions with our selves. And therefore we look on Heaven not as wages, but as gift, yet are careful to maintain good works, Rom. vi. 23. as ne­cessary to salvation, which is that Penny that is paid to none but those that labour: But when we have sow'd in righteousness, Hos. x. 12. we hope to reap in mercy. We own but one Mediator be­tween God and us; Nor can we think our bet­ter Moses needs any Aaron or Hur to support his hands, in that Mount above, whilst he in­tercedes for his Church that is militant here below. And therefore as we adore not what is left of the Saints here, so we sue not to what is ascended of them on high. Nor dare we give that worship to a dead Barnabas and [Page 26] Paul, Acts xiv. 11. which they refused when living. How can we call on them in whom we have not believed? We dare not vacate the Prophetical Office of Christ, by teaching for Doctrines the Command­ments of men. We own such Traditions, as can prove their Pedigree to be truly ancient, not repugnant to Scripture, and to consist with Decency and Order. And that every National Church hath power to determine practice in things indifferent, and to bind to obedience for Conscience sake, Conscience of that duty that is owing to the fifth Commandment; But we follow not cunningly devised fables, while we have a more sure word of Prophe­sie. We receive the Sacraments in their due number, and order, and by the Font we pass to the Altar, for so we can call it, as its shew-bread is a Commemorative Sacrifice, tendered not to God for us, but by him to us; and as at it we offer up our selves to him once offered up for us in the Christian Sacrifices of a broken heart, a thankful tongue, a charitable hand, and an holy life.

We have a Liturgy in a known tongue, that so we may pray with the understanding, and know to what we say Amen. And if we pray not with the spirit too (I mean not that of the [Page 27] gift of Tongues, but) of prayer and supplication, both Gods, and our own, it is our own fault that most excellent expressions are not at­tended with suitable affections. If our Com­mon Prayer be a dead Letter, our hearts make it so; for no Cloaths will warm the dead: And without the pouring out of the heart, the pouring out of words, extempore, or premeditated, is but the sacrifice of fools, and that whether a Pharisee lengthen, or Beads number it. And as we have the same ap­petite for our daily bread, we can in the same words beg it of him, who gives it, and hath given us a form wherein to ask it.

And as our Church is conscienciously care­ful to avoid all offence toward God, so is she no less toward men. And although ground be­tween the two Milstones of the Papist, cen­suring her as Schismatical, and the Schisma­tick condemning her as Papistical, yet dis­claims the disloyal principles, and practices of both the Conclave and the Classes. Not affecting the title of cursed Cham, as he who will be called a servant of servants, Gen. ix. 29. yet like servants on horse-back bring Princes to his foot, and exalts himself above all that are called Gods. Eccl x. 7. And if any pretending Protestants among us [Page 28]have done otherwise, they went out from us be­cause they were not of us. We are taught not to hew out Reformation by the Sword, whose mouth is an ill Advocate for the truth. It is usually drawn in the quarrel of a Cur­tizan, but not of a chaste Wife. If any thing be amiss, we expect the amendment from those Powers that did at first orderly and authori­tatively reform us, whose Supremacy in all Causes Civil and Ecclesiastical we humbly recognize, as exclusive of all Foreign Juris­diction, without giving them what they claim not, the Administration of Gods Word and Sacraments. And as our Church as a tender Mother denies not pardon to her Children even for wilful sins, committed after Ba­ptism; so like a prudent Mother, she heals not their hurts slightly, by the palliate cures of easie Confession, and hasty Absolutions, on meer Attrition, or pecuniary Commutati­ons, or slight corporal Penances. She ap­proves of no sorrow but that godly one that worketh repentance never to be repented of: 2 Cor. vii. 10. Such tears as quench the fire of Lust, and such a Reformation as withdraws the fuel. We are so taught by her the tremendous myste­ries of Predestination, and Election, as to [Page 29]steer evenly between the two equally dan­gerous rocks of Presumption and Despair. She imposeth not on her Ministers, or others, the hard yoak of Celibacy or single life, but teacheth them, and by them, Heb. xiii. 4. that Marriage is honourable among all, and the bed undefiled is true Chastity. That Continency is not, as Faith, Hope, Charity, Repentance, and Fear, common to all Christians, but pecu­liar to some, and is a gift that may be denied to them that ask it in Prayer, since where it is not, God hath by Matrimony provided a re­medy. Nor doth she bind any to Poverty, and a Mendicant state, Prov. xxx. 8. which wise Agur did deprecate; as if that could be a blessing un­der the Gospel, which was a curse under the Law, to serve in the want of all things. Deu. xxviii. 48. She obligeth not by any Vows, Num. xxx. 7. but what are free, deliberate in things possible, and lawful, and with consent of Superiours. She de­prives us not of half our Legacy in the New Testament of our dying Saviour, by enter­taining us at a dry Communion, and deny­ing us the Cup of blessing. Nor doth she rob us of all our reason, and the better half of our senses by the incredible Doctrine of Transubstantiation, that pregnant Mother [Page 30]of Errors, that would perswade us that is flesh, which we see, taste, and feel is a Wafer. That there are but the accidents of Bread, shape, and colour, and accidents without a subject; 1 Cor. xi. 26. whereas it is truly called bread as before, so after the Consecration. That with the same mouth we can make, and eat our God. First, change his glorious body into the likeness of our sinful ones, and then cast him out into the viler draught. That every loaf and bit shall be the whole man, and at the same time in so many several places: But it is not flesh and bloud, Mat. v. 6. but righteousness that we hunger and thirst after, and have the blessing of satisfaction in. Yet we receive that Sacra­ment, not as a meer badge of our Profession but as a sign and seal of God's mercy to us, and of his grace thereby working in us, which grace depends not upon the worthy or unworthy qualifications of him that admi­nisters, but of them who receive that Sacra­ment. Which while we celebrate in remem­brance of an absent Christ, we yet own a real presence of him who is every where: While we pray that we may so eat and drink, that our bodies may be cleansed by his body, and our souls washed by his most precious bloud. And the [Page 31]whole office performed with as much respect as is required, or was practised by the Primi­tive Church, though we proceed not to a preserving, enshrining, procession with, and adoration of the Host, or any other elevation, but that of the lifting up of our hearts.

And so let us ever lift them up in thankful­ness to that God, who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, in a Church and under a Government old as Christianity it self, whose gray hairs are its Crown, Prov. xvi. 31. as found in a way of righteousness. It is called Heresie and Novelty, yet it is the good old way, wherein we worship the God of our Fathers; a righteous, though a dolorous way, as by which the King of Kings, and one of the best of Kings walked to their Cross: In this Profession died the true Defender of the Church in its ancient Faith, and fruitions; equally abhorring Sacriledge and Apostacy: Who by no Arts or force could be brought to subject her to parity or poverty, to gratifie those who would have her go as naked out of the world, as she came into it. He took care not to have his nest fired by a coal snatched from God's Altar, earnestly praying that neither he, nor his might ever be accessa­ry to it. And (God be thanked) he hath been [Page 32]hitherto heard in what he desired. Thus he was the most Christian King, by a better title than that to France, as purchased, not by his Sub­jects blood, but by his own: He was con­tent to exchange a Crown of Gold for a Crown of Thorns, and for which he now wears a Crown of Glory. And may that Religion which such a Saviour founded in, and such a Sove­raign sealed with his bloud, be our Religion for ever.

Amen and Amen.