Veneris 6. Novembris, 1691. Ordered,  
THAT the Thanks of this House be given to Mr. Fleetwood, for his Sermon preached before this House Yesterday, and that he be desired to Print the same: And that Mr. Montague and Mr. Hobby do acquaint him therewith.  
Paul Jodrell, Cler. Dom. Com.   

A SERMON Preached before the HONOURABLE House of Commons, AT St. MARGARET WESTMINSTER, on Thursday, the 5th of November, 1691.  
BY WILLIAM FLEETWOOD, Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties.  
LONDON, Printed for Tho. Bassett, and Tho. Dring; at the George, and at the Harrow in Fleetstreet. 1691.   

A SERMON UPON  S. John, Ch. xuj. part of the 2d and 3d Verses. 
Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth God service; and these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor Me.  
THIS day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears; For either we are met to no purpose, or (which is worse) to a very bad one, to mock and play with God; or we are met to Celebrate with Praise and Thanksgiving the Deliverance of our Church and Nation, from one of the most Execrable Attempts, that ever was inspired into the Heart of Man by our great Enemy the Devil, or brought to light by the good Providence of God; an Attempt of such unusual Cruelty and Horror, that nothing but the distance of Time, and a cold Indifference for things past and gone, could let us think thereon without such Indignation and such Fury, as were not fit for Christian Hearts to harbour; an Attempt, that nothing but the English Mercy could have forgiven: No Laws, no Nation but our own, but would have pursued the Authors and Abettors of such Cursed Principles, with such severe Vengeance, as would have fully and effectually secured themselves from any Second Fears, or Second Dangers from that side; an Attempt, of which I shall say but a very poor and low thing, when I shall have said, No Age, No History, no Country in the World can parallel it. If I would raise this Attempt as high as Justice will permit me, and aggravate the thing according to the Truth, I must say, it was such an Attempt, as the Jesuits themselves are ashamed of, and begin, though somewhat faintly, to extenuate and deny; and then I neither can, nor need to say more: For if those men, whom God, for the Sins of Mankind, hath permitted to compass the World, to overturn Kingdoms, to disturb the Peace and Society of Men, to destroy Morality, to corrupt and stifle Christianity; to settle wickedness by Principles, and establish Sin by a Law; if such I say, once come to extenuate or deny an Attempt, inspired by men of their own Order (and one of them at least Beatified) and to have been acted by their own Disciples, there must needs be so much Hell and Horror in the composition of the fact, that no good Man can well express it or conceive it: and yet, to come to my Text, It was done by men, that thought they thereby did God service.  
Our Lord being about to leave this World, and to go unto the Father, thought good to prepare his Disciples for that sad parting, by telling them beforehand what he himself must shortly undergo, by the Rage and Fury of the wicked Priests and Governors, with the Necessity and Benefits of those Sufferings; and afterwards what they themselves must look for, if they would take up his Cross, and be his Disciples. Remember the word that I have said unto you, the Servant is not greater than his Lord, if they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute You: and afterwards sums up the whole, in these words, they shall put you out of the Synagogue, that is, they shall excommunicate you; yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think he doth God service, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith S. Chrysostom on the place, a mighty religious matter, and a thing that will please God: An Expiatory Offering as the Original may import, and a Sacrifice that will atone for Sins: And these things they will do unto you, because they have not known the Father nor me. So that we see our Saviour assigns the Jewish ignorance of God and of himself, to be the Cause and Reason of all the Evils and Barbarities himself and his Disciples were to meet withal: These things will they do unto you, because they know not the Father, nor Me.  
To know, or not to know, the Father, and Christ, is taken in a great many different Senses in the Holy Scriptures, too many, and of too little use, at present, to recount: Those only that are pertinent to the design in hand, and our Saviour's words, must be such Senses and Acceptations, as would influence the Jews, to the Cruelties and Persecutions foretell in this place. The Jews could not be said, not to know God, in such a sense as to deny his Being; for never People knew him better, never was God so present to a Nation, as to theirs; The Lord thy God hath chosen thee (saith Moses in Deut. 7. 6.) to be a special people to himself, above all people that are upon the face of the Earth, there was such frequent and familiar commerce betwixt God and them, by Voices, Visions, by Angels and inspired Prophets, and by other ways, that 'twould be the improperest way of speaking in the World, to say of the Jews, they knew not God, with respect to his Essence, or their acknowledging a Deity: Nor could it be said, with any colour of Truth, in our Saviour's time, that the Jews knew not God, in the sense it is often used in Scripture, to reproach the World with forsaking the only True God, and serving other Gods: for the Jews were never freer from Idolatry, than in our Saviour's days; nay, and had been for many years before; and that good humour has continued since for almost Seventeen Hundred Years; and amidst all their great Impieties, their wide and wonderful Dispersions, and their deplorable Calamities, they have still retained the Worship of One and the True God, with greater Simplicity, than abundance of the Christian World for many Ages, to its great shame. Not to know God, therefore in this place, must in all reason signify, not so to know him, as to conceive right Notions of him, or form a Judgement, suitable to the excellent extensive Goodness of the Divine Nature; and not to know the Father, is, not to attend to, or comprehend sufficiently the Dispensation and Oeconomy of God the Father, in saving them and all Mankind, by sending his Son Christ Jesus into the World; and not to know the Son, is, not to receive and believe on him that was thus sent, for their deliverance. These Heads I shall insist on in the first place; and in the second, try to show, how such Barbarities and cruel Usages as are here foretell may proceed from the aforesaid Heads; and lastly, apply myself to the business of the Day.  
First then, the Jews may properly be said, not to know God, as not conceiving aright of his extensive Goodness towards all the World. They were certainly a People of the most gross capacity, most sensual apprehension, fleshiest heart, and slowest understanding in the World; and God in compliance to this Stupid temper, dealt with them accordingly, wrought Miracles continually amongst them, and gave them almost every day some sensible token on other of his favourable presence; and if he slackened but his Arm never so little a while, he was fain to be at the expense of some new Miracle, or some great Judgement, even to convince them of his Goodness, or his Power again. The whole 78th Psalm, which is an Epitome of their History, may confirm the truth of what I have said. Now God by this material, as it were, and sensible familiar way of treating and conversing with them, came to be thought, in time, their Local God, their proper and peculiar Deity, and was called and accounted by themselves, as well as by the Nations round them, the God of the Jews, the God of Abraham, and Their God, in a hundred places, and Our God, in as many or more, not only in contradistinction to the Gods of the Heathen; or that he favoured them infinitely above all the Nations of the Earth, besides: For the first was very reasonable, and the second very true, but by way of exclusion to all the World besides, and as though he had no care of, or regard to any other part of Mankind, and only exercised his Vengeance on their Enemies, now and then, as he or they saw fit. Now this was a Narrow Notion of God's Providence, and far unworthy the Immense Benignity of the Divine Nature, which loves and governs all the World, though not, (we think) with equal, yet with great Care and Tenderness, and Wisdom; proportioning his favours, not to people's merits, but their necessities, and to his own metcies. Now though this Jewish Selfishness and Humour of appropriating God's Goodness to themselves, may seem of itself to be of little Consequence or Moment, yet I believe it will appear, that the fruits of it, were not only the being obstinate and proud themselves, but the scorning, and the hating all mankind besides: for so light and unballasted is the mind of man, that even a gust of favour from an Earthly Prince, drives him away and tosses him he knows not whither, and makes him proud and insupportable, and sets him on despising, and, it may be, trampling on the World about him: and though the reason be not the same, yet the effects are much alike in the case of God's favours: The Insolence of Spiritual pride is extravagant and insufferable, and an overweening conceit of being extremely high in God's love and favour, and one of his peculiar Saints and Creatures, is the most dangerous Rock a Soul can dash against; and has ofttimes proved more fatal, than some downright Vice, it is the Parent of intolerable Arrogance, stand by thyself, come not near to me for I am holier than thou, Is. lxv. 5. It is the Mother of Scorn and ill Nature God I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers or even as this publican, Luke xviii. 11. and the passage from this Spirit of Pride and Contempt, to that of Hatred and Violence is short and easy, the Line that divides them almost imperceptible.  
Again, God had prohibited their Commerce in a great degree, with any of the Nations round, which they obeying became, in some time, churlish, illnatured and untractable, (for nothing polishes and evens so the roughness of men's morose Tempers, as Traficking and Conversation) and not attending or observing, that the reason of God's prohibition was from the proneness of their Hearts to Idolatry, and falling so easily into the Worship of the People they Conversed withal, they thought it was only because those Gentiles were Profane, hated of God, and an Abomination in his sight, which though it were true of all their evil Practices, and sinful Customs, yet it was by no means true of their Persons; but of all things in the World ill Nature is the worst distinguisher, it will not separate sin from sinners, nor abstract the person from his faults; God had declared his hatred and abhorrence of a great many particular Crimes, and is Wise, and Just, and Merciful enough to love and pity an Offender, even whilst he hates and punishes the Offence: but impotent malicious Man, can do nothing of all this, yet thinks himself obliged to hate and persecute to death, those whose Offences God declares against: but sure the reason is as weak as the Malice is strong. For what if God should hate a Man, how does it follow I must hate him too, unless commanded? It is true God is the best example I can follow, but his Judgements are unfearchable and his ways past finding out, and he has always Reasons, but yet not always such as may justify my imitation. But as unreasonable, and undue a Consequence as this appears, yet 'tis a very easy and a very frequent slip; and all Men think they have a right, as well as the Jews, to say with David, Do not I hate them that rise up against thee, yea I hate them right sore, as though they were mine enemies. Which though it be reasonable and necessary to apply to the wickedness and evil practices of Men dishonouring and defaming God and his Worship, yet the Compliment would go too far, from Civility to God, to cruelty and hatred of our Neighbour. Farther, as God continually was pouring down his Benefits and Favours on the Jews whilst they continued firm and constant in his Service: so he pursued their light Apostasies, their Start and Revolts, with Punishments as close and constant: and the Nature of Man which is much more Querulous than Grateful, more sensible of one Evil than of an hundred Benefits, and always prone to conclude on the worse side, prompted the Jews to look on God, as on an angry and vindictive being, and one that seemed delighted in Justice, rather than Forgiving; and seeing he required Obedience with such exactness, and punished their Offences with such rigour, they easily imagined they must be as Zealous in his Service, and as Jealous of his Honour, as possibly they could, and consequently must revenge all such Affronts and Indignities done to his mighty Name and holy Majesty, with all severity; and though this may be good to a very great degree, yet there is danger it may pass into an ill extreme, and ignorant and impotent Man knows no Mean, but finding that to be in some measure his Duty, which is partly his natural inclination, he runs with all his might, and never thinks of stopping, and that's the Reason that a great deal of Zeal degenerates very easily into Anger and Cruelty; 'tis only adding Fuel to a little and a gentle Flame kindled before, such as is Zeal, and 'twill in time, a little time, become a spreading and consuming Fire.  
I am very sensible that these productions and effects, may seem at first, too mighty for the causes assigned, but to one that well and throughly considers humane Nature, with all its Folly, Malice and Imperfection, I am afraid they will appear too adequate and just. A little Spring sends out a mighty Stream, and a small Seed grows up into a tall and shady Cedar. A mean, and at first, unheeded Principle, becomes in time the bottom and foundation of a marvellous Superstructure, and brings forth Fruits and Consequences not easily foreseen at first, nor easily prevented or avoided afterwards. Let any Man but call to mind, What a little matter it was at first, that biased him to incline to such a Cause or Party, and how that inclination, carried him to wishing well, and that to Affection, and Affection to Siding with it, and that to Zeal, and Zeal to the promoting and advancing it, and that to opposing all its hindrances, and Opposition to Vexation, and that to Ill Will, and Ill Will to Mischief, and that to Hatred, and thence to Violence and Outrage, and Cruelty, and Persecution. Let a Man, I say, but trace his own Heart at such a rate as this, and he will find a little inconsiderable Cause, sufficient to produce the most astonishing Effects. And of all Causes, none so fruitful and productive as those that border on Religion, and call in God into their Interests and Party: no mistakes so fatal and so desperate in their Consequences, as those that are built on misapplied Scripture, false Conceptions of God's Nature, with unworthy and dishonourable thoughts of any of his Attributes. For as I intimated before Man thinks himself naturally obliged (and is undoubtedly so, where he can with Reason) to imitate and draw as near to his God as possibly he may: and therefore will, as near as can be, conform his inward and his outward behaviour, to the Notions and Conceptions he has of God's Nature. Some Barbarous Gentiles of old, conceived God to be an angry Sanguinary Being, and the Consequence was, they were inhuman in their Manners, and Worshipped him with horrid Rites, and humane Sacrifices: and others Gentle and benign, because they thought their Deity was Merciful and Good. And therefore 'tis of mighty use and benefit in all respects, that Men should be taught to conceive nothing of God, but what is Just and Honourable, Merciful and Good. And he may very properly be said not to know God, that conceives any hard unworthy thing of him.  
Secondly, The Jews are said Not to know the Father, because they did, or rather would, not know and understand the Dispensation and Oeconomy of God the Father, designing to save the World by sending his Son Christ Jesus into it, they were so strongly persuaded that their Law was to last for ever, that they could not entertain so much as a thought of its Abolishment. The Passeover was to be kept a feast to the Lord throughout their generations. You shall observe this thing saith Moses, for an Ordinance to thee and to thy Sons for ever. Exod. xii. 13. 17. and 24. verses, and chap. nineteen. 9 and so for the offering of a sweet savour; One Ordinance shall be both for you of the Congregation, and also for the stranger that so journeth with you, an Ordinance for ever in your generations. Numb. xv. 15. The same of the heave Offering by an Ordinance for ever. Numb. xviii. 8. And so for the continuance of the Priesthood in the House of Levy. The Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for ever. Deut. xviii. v. And of the Temple, I have hallowed this house which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever, and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually saith God himself to Solomon. 1 Kings ix. 3. 2 Chron. vi. 6, 7. and 16. with abundance of other places, that they thought promised an eternity to their Constitution. And being of a gross Understanding, and taking all things literally, they could never be brought to think of parting with their Legal Dispensation. Their Fathers had received it from God himself who engraved their Tables with his own Hands, at first, and afterwards had Dictated to Moses, and delivered his Commands, and Executed his Decrees by the frequent Ministry of Angels, and this must needs enhance the price and value of the Law. Moreover, they had before their Eyes so many noble instances, so many great and extraordinary examples of Patriarches, and Prophets, Kings and valiant Heroes, that had been born and bred up in this Way, and pleased God, and were his Favourites, and the Sons of his Grace, by walking steadily therein, that 'twas not easy to imagine such a Law could now at last displease him so as to renounce and to abrogate it: and besides, themselves had sucked its Precepts with their Mother's Milk, had been initiated into its Rites with pain and blood, and therefore could not lightly give it over, and the Law and the Prophets were full of cautions and severe threaten, against such as should violate it themselves, or attempt to persuade others, and all this will naturally beget in Men a very strong tenacity of Opinions, and an obstinate Resolution to mantain them against all Opposers: And three or four Consequences of rough unruly Nature will, without great care, and the Grace of God, bring them to a revengeful and exterminating Temper. Had not our Saviour done such mighty Works amongst them as never had been done by Moses or Elias, or any other of the Prophets, and such as could be wrought by no mortal Power, but carried with them evident tokens of an Almighty Hand, and fulfilled their Prophecies so exactly, the Jews had been not only , but highly commendable in rejecting him. But this is not at present so much my business, as it is to show, that even honest and zealous Men that did not believe the Doctrines of our Lord, might, as St. Paul himself did, degenerate into Hatred, Cruelty, and Persecution, both of Him and his Disciples: not to extenuate their Gild, so much as to show the Force and Power of Human Nature, biased by such natural and accidental Prejudices. And as to the Chief Priests and Rulers, to whom our Lord immediately refers, as to their not knowing the Son, and therefore persecuting him to death and all his Followers; the Account is this: They were now in full and peaceable Possession of a Religion made up of glorious Outsides, and external Shows, pompous Sacrifice, and glittering Ceremonies, with which the trifling World is ravished and surprised, the Hearts of the Worshippers exalted with vain Pride, and the Beholders dazzled and amazed. And here was Jesus, and they knew not who, came to disturb them in their way of Worship, preaching up grave and serious Matters, talking of wonderful, unheard of and unpractised Morals, discoursing of Judgement, Righteousness, of Faith and Charity, and other weighty Doctrines and Commands, together with an unavoidable necessity of Repentance from dead Works. And this was a mighty Change and grievous to Flesh and Blood. To give up Shows and Ceremonies, of which Nature is very fond, for the Simplicity and Plainness of serving God in Spirit and in Truth, with which Men are soon tired, to exchange some easy Corporal Gestures, and Artificial Motions, for the sober Exercises of the Mind by Prayer and Contemplation, and the painfulness of close Attention: To give up the easy Commutation and Atonements of Sins and Trespasses, by the Lives and Sacrifice of brute Beasts, for the bitter Sorrows of Repentance, and the most solid and expensive Sacrifice of Prayers, and Tears, and Satisfaction, seemed to the Scribes and Pharisees, and Sadduces and Priests, a very hard Exchange, and an intolerable Bargain: and therefore 'tis no wonder that Men so sensually affected and tied to the things of this World, should oppose themselves with so much Might and Vigour to the Preachers of such Mortifying Spiritual Doctrines: And that rather than be disturbed in their Pursuits, than lose what they liked and loved, and accept of what they could not endure to think on, they should conspire the death of our Lord the Author, and his Disciples the Promoters of them. Again, these Priests, these Scribes and Doctors of the Law, had corrupted the Jewish Religion to a prodigious height: they had darkened all the Prophecies of the Messiahs coming in such meek and lowly manner as he came: the Sadduces, a mighty and prevailing Sect, denied the Resurrection of the Dead, the Existence of Angels and Spirits, and yet were good Jews still, and some of them came to be High Priests; and all of them by their vain and wicked Traditions, ungracious Comments, and ungodly Glosses, had had almost killed Morality at the Root. And our Saviour boldly reprehending this ungodly Practice, and laying open before all the People their enormous Villainies herein, so stirred their Indignation, that they resolved upon his Death. The Reputation of Sincerity and Honesty is a tender Point, and like the Eye, will not endure the least touch: Tell a Man he's Vicious, and he'll laugh; say he's a Sot, and Lewd, and an unkind Relation, and he'll forget it quickly; but tell him he's a Villain and a Knave, a Cheat and Impostor, and you fill his Heart with Rage and Rancour, and treasure up Wrath against an Opportunity to destroy yourself. What? tell the High Priest, the infallible High Priest, the prophesying High Priest, the Successor of Aaron and of Moses too at this time, the Man to whom were committed the Oracles of God, tell him, that in Cathedra, with his Conclave, nay with his Sanhedrim, that he had grossly erred in interpreting Scriptures, in darkening Prophecies, in corrupting Morality, and cheating the People, is not to tempt a Danger at a distance, but boldly enter on Destruction, when you have to deal with Men that neither will, nor think they can amend. Lastly, These Men were in present Possession of the highest Honours, and Places, ('tis no doubt) of interest and advantage. And our Saviour's Doctrine seeming to overthrow their whole Oeconomy, and put an end to all the Ceremonious part of Moses his Law, and all the Civil Power as much as depended thereon, it is not to be wondered at if they grew jealous and afraid of the rooting and spreading of Christ's Doctrine, and took the most effectual Means, in human Policy, to rid themselves of the threatening Danger, by putting him to death: For as naturally as Men abhor from shedding of Blood, so, or more naturally do they love their Honours and their Interest; and if these cannot be secured without that, they seldom or never stick or startle at it.  
And now having shown, as the time would let me, in what senses the Jews might be said not to have known God, not to have known the Father nor the Son, and how those kinds of Ignorance came to produce such barbarous Fruits, and bloody usage of our Saviour and his Followers, and done what right I could to the Text. I am come in the Third and last place to apply it to the Business of this Day. But oh! how far from the design of Christ in speaking these Words, from the Intention of the blessed Spirit dictating, and from the charitable Saints that left them to us in his Gospel. Who in the World that hath ever heard or read the Conflicts, Torments, painful Agonies, and Deaths of all the Apostles but St. John, would not have hoped the Prophecy in my Text had received its full and last Completion in their Martyrdoms? But who at least would not have hoped 300 Years had been sufficient time, and that the Jews and Gentiles only should have been its barbarous Executioners and Fulfillers? Had not our Saviour been all-knowing God himself, one would have ventured to say he could not possibly foresee that Christians should in tract of time become the most exact and literal Accomplishers of this his Prophecy that ever should be in the World, and that to none but Christians? The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God Service; and this will they do because they have not known the Father nor me: That's the Text. What an absurd Comment would this be— The time cometh when my Religion shall prevail over the Jews and Gentiles Rage and Persecution, and most of the World shall have given their Names to me, and become Christians, than whosoever killeth you christian's, will think he doth God and me his Christ Service; and this will they do, because they, and they alone are infallibly certain they know the Father and me, and are resolved that no Body shall dare to know the Father and me, in any other way, or mode, or form of speaking but their own. And yet as absurd as this Comment seems, and truly is, yet it is just in every Syllable; for 'tis not I that made it, but the practice of the Christian World for some hundreds of Years past, and the present Age hath refined upon the absurdity in great measure, and writ the wicked Nonsense in Characters so large, that he that runs may read. Who was it butchered most inhumanly the Albigenses, and the Poor of Lions, with such Barbarity, that though the Relations come from Monks, yet they would move a Heart of Stone? who was it totally extinguished Protestantism in all Moravia, Silesia, and Bohemia? Who was it barbarously dispersed its Flocks, and more than barbarously used its Ministers, and laid its Temples waste and desolate in Hungary? Who was it massacred the Hugonots in France in 1572. and have taken effectual care of later days, that we shall never more reproach their Cruelty by leaving there no more to massacre? Who were the Kindlers of those fierce devouring Flames in Our Queen Mary's days, that consumed so many living human Sacrifices, and who were Author's of the Irish Massacre? Christians! What were the Wretches that were treated thus but Christians? And wherefore, but that they thought they did God Service in so using them? If we should yet proceed to inquire upon what Grounds and Reasons Christians go when they pursue each other to death, and find it is, because some know the Father and the Son in one, and others in another way; and the Stronger will impose his way of knowing on the Weaker, or else he shall not know at all; a considering Man must stand amazed, and have a very mean Opinion both of Human Reason and the Christian Institution: And yet the Case is neither better nor worse than so. One knows the Father and the Son in Pomp and Ceremonious Ostentation of External Worship; and another in Plainness and Simplicity: One serves him by the means of Images and gorgeous Representations; another Worships him in Spirit and in Truth: One takes his necessary Doctrines from Tradition's Mouth; another from the Oracles of God alone: One forms his Notions of a Church, from what his Fancy tells him were convenient it should be; another takes it as he plainly finds it, and is content with the Wisdom of God, which often seems but Foolishness to Man: One interesses Saints and Angels in his behalf to God the Father, together with the Mediation of the Son; another thinks that God the Son is sufficient of himself, being as powerful as willing to save to the utmost all that call upon him; one will have all the Sacrament in both kinds, as it is certain Christ distributed it, and his Disciples, and the Church after them for many Ages: Another gives but half, but says it is the whole to all Intents and Purposes, arguing with subtlety and much distinction in a matter wholly of Institution and Revelation. One takes that Sacrament, and believes it is a Mystery, and certainly made what our Lord designed, and what the Words effect with Prayer: Another takes it, and believes that God hath made himself, which yet destroys the very Notion and Nature of a God, by confounding the greatest Proof we have of such a Being, as neither had nor can have a beginning: And that when he is thus made anew, Man takes him in his Mouth, and swallows down into his Stomach the Son of Man, of Thirty three Years of Age, and the Eternal Son of God, by whom he made, by whom he redeemed the World, with abundance of other plain distinct Doctrines as any in the World; yet calls it, after that, a Mystery. And what's the event of all this contrariety? Why, that they who know the Father and the Son one way, should not endure that any one should know them in another way, and live. 'Tis in vain to tell them, that you guide yourself by the Light of Nature, and make the best use you can of your Reason, and call in the Aids of Learning and an honest Mind, and submit to whatever appears to be plainly revealed: This will not do; you must believe, or dissemble, or die; if you have not Faith or Knavery, you must have Patience and Courage, to attend to the last Reasons of Fire, and Sword, and Halters. Sure 'tis impossible that Christ our gracious, merciful, adorable Redeemer, should leave the Bosom of the Father, where he Reigned in everlasting Love and Unity, to come and sow the Seeds of Strife and Discord upon Earth! That he should take upon him Humane Nature, to divest it for ever after of the Bowels of Compassion! That he should descend to instruct the World in new-unheard-of Lessons of Barbarity! That he should design to abrogate the Sacrifice of Beasts, and spare their Lives, to substitute the Lives of Men, and satiate his incensed Father, with the horrid Steams of Humane Blood, and let his own be shed, to teach us how to pour out one another's on the Ground like Water! He should not have been born of such a sweet and gentle Maid; nor sucked the Breasts of any humane Female; he found the World in better Order, and ruled by milder Principles: And if these things be so, he will give us leave, as there is reason, to say with respect to the Concerns of this Life, good had it been for Men he never had been born. But God forbidden things should be so! Heaven is not farther distant from the lowest Hell, the Purity of GOD Himself from the Pollutions of the vilest Sinner, than bloody Principles and Practices are from Christ's Religion. Of all the Constitutions and religious Dispensations, and Oeconomies, that ever were contrived by Men, or revealed by God, there is none so little able to support the deadly weight of Inhumanity, as the Christian is. The very Incarnation of our Saviour preaches up Love and Goodness, in the loudest tone, and most affecting and surprising manner in the World. The Angels sang not only Glory be to God on high, but Peace on Earth, and Good will towards Men; and that not only in respect of God, but of one another. Never was Life more full of Sweetness and Humanity! His Doctrine was all Peace, and his Practice one continued Act of going about, and doing Good Love was his old, his new, his first, his middle, and his last Command; Love was his living Exercise, and Love his dying Legacy. It was the Badge and Cognizance of those that truly followed him, By this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples, if ye love one another. And to be sure he did not mean Men should distinguish so exactly as they do, the Love of their Neighbours Souls, from that of their Bodies. It had been wretched trifling, and unworthy of our Lord, or any good Man, to have so frequently pressed the Duty of loving one another, if he intended only loving of their Souls. By this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples, if you love one another's Souls, though ye torment their Bodies days and years, by Tortures, Racks, and Engines, by burning, strangling, blowing up, or any other exquisite ingenious way of murchering them: This, I say, had been unfit for Christ, or any good and sober Person to intent; and only worthy of the villainous Subtlety and tender Nicety of the Fathers of the Inquisition, who whilst the Eyeballs of the Sufferers in that sanctified Hell, are rolling in Death, and startling from their Orbs, and their Souls expiring amidst the Torments, stand kindly by, and with wondrous Charity beseech the Executioners, by the tender Mercies of God, and by the Bowels of our Lord, to take great heed they shed not a drop of Christian Blood. As if the tender Mercies of our God, and the Bowels of our Lord, were not an Adjuration strong enough to move Compassion for the Body as well as the Soul, and for other ways of killing as well as shedding Blood. No, if the Spirit of Christ and his Religion be to be discovered in the Gospel and the sacred Writings of the Apostles, let Men pretend never so much to know the Father and the Son, yet if their Principles and Practices tend to Blood and Cruelty, and let them be never so firmly persuaded in their Minds that they do God Service, we may as certainly conclude they do not know the Father nor the Son, as we may there are such Persons in the Godhead.  
If then for the Credit of Nature, for the Honour of Humane Reason, and for the Truth and Sanctity of Christ's Religion, we must acquit them of all Blood and Barbarism, where must we lay, on what must we discharge the Horrors of this Day? To what must we attribute those perpetual Plots and dark Contrivances, to trouble the Felicities, and rob the Nation of the precious Life of our immortal Maiden Queen; who, though her Reign were long as it was glorious, yet might have almost marked and counted every year, by some attempt of some ungodly Messenger from Rome, or Factor for their Partisans? It were endless, and useless too, to dwell on the particular Disturbances, and strong Concussions, that this Nation in especial sort, hath felt from that ambitious, restless, and bloodthirsty Party. My design is rather to repeat in short the Grounds from whence they all proceed. 1. The Decrees of General Councils. 2. The Bulls of Popes against whole Nations, or particular Persons. 3. The private Doctor's Writings and Authority. And, 4. The Encouragement the Attempters find, if they succeed, in this World, if they miscarry in the next.  
Whether the Councils I intent, and that are so frequently cited for this purpose, do decree the extirpation of Heresy, in so absolute terms as to lay a Necessity on Princes and Governors to perform, is a Dispute I need not engage in; it is enough, and even too much in Conscience, if they have left the matter in such lose uncertain terms, that they whose Interest, misguided Zeal, or sanguinary Tempers, shall incline them to such Attempts, may find their Excuse, and take their Sanctuary in those terms. The Government of Tunis, Tripoli, of Salee, and Algiers, are far from making any Laws expressly to command their Subjects, the exercise of Piracies and Robberies; yet they are practised every day, and an honest Man would go near to die, that should reproach them with it; and yet no Man can clear them of the Injustices and Violence. And that some Councils have gone farther than this, is agreed upon by all our own Writers, and taken amiss by a great many of our Adversaries if questioned, and denied with a very ill Grace by any of them. And if Councils, which have obtained amongst them the greatest Veneration, and which, if well and rightly managed, would deserve, and find it too from us, and all the sober World besides, if they shall but seem to countenance, much more command, such cruel and unnatural things; the greater their Authority is, the greater will the Mischiefs be, the worse the Consequences; and who shall deliver their Souls from them?  
Secondly, That Popes, to gratify their Spleen, Ambition, or Revenge, have, by their Bulls, excited Princes to exterminate their Subjects, and Subjects to rebel and rise against their Kings; and thereby caused horrible Devastations, inhuman Massacres, and overflowed the World with Seas of Christian Blood, is so plain and manifest, that 'tis as often confessed with glorying in the Power, as denied with abhorrence of the Fact. And 'tis but turning to the Chronicles of any Nation in the World, to find the exorbitant Power, and ill-got Credit of these Sovereign H. Priests, have been the Causes of as many Evils, public and private, as any thing in the World besides.  
A third Occasion or Ground of these Disturbances and barbarous Practices, is the Writings and Authority of the Doctors in Request. A Professor of Louvain wrote a Book of late, on purpose to prove, that abundantly more had written in defence and maintenance of the Deposing Doctrine, than against; afraid, one would think, we should be mistaken, and think it possible for the true Roman Catholics to be good Subjects. But there is an Order of Men, so famous for these sort of Writings and accursed Labours, and for the Guidance of Men's Consciences, and consequently Governing the World, that seem in such peculiar manner to have appropriated the Power and Principles of Blood and Mischief to themselves, that 'twere a kind of Trespass and Affront to their Wit, their Policy, their Pride, Ambition, their Malice, and Revenge, to attribute any of our public Evils, to any other primary Cause, and first Original. It cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Jerusalem, said Christ: It cannot be that any mighty Mischief, any Masterpiece of Wickedness, should be done without that Order, says all the Christian World. I came not to send Peace, but a Sword, said our Lord, that is, by accident, and sore against his Will; but these Men give us such a Scheme of Christianity, as makes the Sword seem natural, designed, and necessary. Be wise as Serpents, said our Lord, and innocent as Doves; but these Men have refined on Wisdom, and the Cunning of the World, to that degree, that they seem to have understood our Saviour, as exhorting to the imitation of the Old Serpent, and the Red Dragon, bending their Studies wholly to the Confusion of the World. My Kingdom is not of this World, said Christ. All Kingdoms of the Earth, say they, are Christ's; and in his Name will we tread them under, that rise up against us. To be short, whilst these Men's Writings are in vogue, and the Consciences of Men committed to their Guidance, the Christian World must never look for Peace; and if God, in pity to the World, prevent not the growth of their abominable Doctrines and Designs, when the Son of Man cometh, he shall neither find Morality nor Faith on Earth. The last Foundation of our Dangers, and Disturbances, that I will mention, is the Encouragement the bold Attempters meet withal, if they succeed, in this Life; if miscarry, in another. Riches and Honours are such powerful Motives and Temptations, that sometimes the reputed Wise and Brave, and Generous Souls, are vanquished by them: But when they meet with needy and ambitious ones, they find them ready and prepared beforehand for the Wickedness; or if these are not for the turn, there are others of a dark and clouded Soul, eat up with desperate melancholy Thought, and overwhelmed with Zeal and Sadness; which Tempers moulded artificially, by ravishing descriptions of the Joys of Heaven, and worked into a lively Hope, nay Certainty, of once possessing them, are fit for all the Impressions in the World, and stick at nothing for the gaining them. And then, if Poisoning, Stabbing, or cutting of Throats, be represented meritorious of Heaven, they will quickly find, or make an Opportunity, altho' the way lead to the paths of certain Death, with Torments. And that these courses have been taken amongst a hundred other Witnesses, the dark Contrivance of this Day, shall rise in Judgement and attest.  
These are, I think, the chief, though not the only Arguments that have all along influenced the Sons of Violence to our destruction more or less, and always will, till God give them the grace to renounce the wicked Principles they builded upon, and instruct them truly in the knowledge of Himself, and of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. For without this mighty Operation of God's Spirit on their Understanding and their Wills, to think that they who never failed of being cruel where they could with safety, who never spared a Nation or a Country yet, will now, or any time grow merciful and kind, is to hope the Ethiopian may change his Skin, and the Leopard his Spots, and they do good who are accustomed to do evil.  
Let us then (to conclude) be just to the Memory of this Day, and keep it from the Fate of obsolete and antiquated things: It was of late endeavoured to be laughed and frowned out of Countenance and Credit; and had not God in his All wise Disposal of Affairs, marked it a new with a peculiar and most signal Providence, and made it memorable once again, by bringing on it, to our Shores our brave and generous Prince, to save us from the same (though now more open and more manly) Enemies; this Day had, doubtless, by the imperious Sway of some, the vile and criminal Compliance of others, and by the Acquiescence and the cold Indifference of the rest, been wholly razed from out our Calendar, and in a little time denied as confidently by them all, as it has been of latter days by some. But if such matters of fact, so public and notoriously attested, are to be disbelieved, and discredited so soon, that the Ashes of our Forefathers, the designed Sacrifices of this Day, are scarcely cold in their Graves; what Faith shall be given to these Men's Histories of past, or present, or of times to come? Let us then be just to the Mercies of God doubled this day upon our Heads, and gratefully remember these Deliverances past, and study to walk worthily for the time to come; that we tempt him not by Infidelity, Unthankfulness, or Wickedness, to deliver us over into the Will of our Adversaries. Let us be just to our Religion, and that Knowledge of the Father and the Son, to which we have already attained, by the Light and Understanding of the Gospel. Let us have the Principles of Blood and Mischief in all the abhorrence and abomination in the World, as becometh those that profess the Gospel of Christ. Let us hinder them from taking effect, by all the lawful and the honest means allowed us: Let us say of them and their Religion (as far as it is not Christian) what dying Jacob said of his two Sons, Simeon and Levi: Instruments of Cruelty are in their Habitations; O my Soul, come not thou into their Secret, unto their Assembly, mine Honour, be not thou united For in their Anger they slay Men; and in their Self-will dig down Walls: Cursed be their Anger, for it is fierce, and their Wrath, for it is cruel. But let us withal put in practice all those Lessons of Peace, and Love, and Gentleness, of Mercy, and Compassion, and Forgiveness, that our Religion urges and obliges to: Let us heap Coals of Fire and fervent Charity upon their Heads; and let them see and know we are not more reform from the Corruptions of their Doctrines, and their Superstitious Practices, than from their Doctrines of ill Nature, and their Practices of Cruelty and Blood. We shall in vain pretend to distinguish ourselves by Name and Party, if we change not Nature and Condition: we must not think to exclaim on their Uncharitableness and Cruelty, to exercise our own. Tumults, and Rage, and Fierceness, and Destruction, are as innocent and Christian in Romish Hands and Hearts, as they are in Protestants; and it may be so much the more, by how much the less we pretend to them: and wretched are we if we condemn in them what we approve, and what allow of in ourselves. If then we would convince the World and them, that we know the Father and the Son as we ought to know, we must pursue the things that make for Love, and Peace, and Unity. Which the God of Peace grant we may all of us do, for the Sake of him who came to Preach it to us: To whom, with the Blessed Spirit, be all Honour and Glory, Might and Dominion, now and for ever.  
FINIS.