PILKINGTON MAYOR.  
Martis XIV. Die Maii 1689. Annoque & Regine Willielmi & Mariae Angl etc. Primo.  
This Court doth desire Mr. Tully to Print his Sermon lately Preached in the Guild-Hall Chapel before the Lord MAYOR and aldermans of this City.  
Wagstaffe.   

LICENCED  
Z. ISHAN. June 5th. 1689.   

MODERATION Recommended IN A SERMON Preached before the LORD MAYOR And Court of ALDERMEN AT Guild-Hall Chappel, May 12th. 1689.  
By GEORGE TULLY, M. A. Subdean of York.  
LONDON, Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard. MDCLXXXIX.   

TO THE Right Honourable Sir THOMAS PILKINGTON, LORD MAYOR OF THE CITY of LONDON.  
My Lord,  
THOUGH I am sensible of the obligations I have to your Lordship and the Court for your approbation of this plain Discourse, yet I am apt, at the same time, to believe that it may chance to meet with a different sort of entertainment from some or other in the World: For when Mens prejudices are awakened, their passions up, and they resolve before hand on division, 'tis in vain for a Man to expect from either side any instances of that Moderation he advises both to, it being natural for Men, when unhappily divided into parties, gradnally to contract an aversion to those who give them not countenance enough by running into the same Excesses with themselves.  
However, my Lord, I have very little concern upon me for any men's unreasonable heats, and extravagancies, as being sure to have them of my mind, when they return to themselves, and think soberly and Religiously on things, for then, of necessity, they cool into that very temper I here persuade to, In short, my Lord, I am sure moderation is a virtue, and a very excellent and useful virtue too, notwithstanding that in our late years of extremities it was almost jested and railed out of Countenance. I am farther persuaded that the sincere practice of it on all sides would go a great way to the uniting us both in interest and affection, and that it more especially becomes those, of whatsoever Denomination they are otherwise, to whom God has committed the Ministry of Reconciliation. On these considerations alone I first Preached, and now, in Obedience to your Lordship's and the Court's Command, publish this Discourse, which if it chance to dispose but any small number of Men to Amity, Temper, and Brotherly Love, and thereby contribute to the support of our Holy Religion against its common and immortal Enemies, I have my end, an end for which I am content to undergo all the unreasonable obloquy and reflection in the World.  
My Lord, I am your Lordship's most Obedient Humble Servant. GEO. TULLY.   

A SERMON OF MODERATION.  PHIL. IU. 5. Let your moderation be known unto all Men. 
'tIS one of the great Excellencies of the Christian Institution, that the Virtues and Graces it recommends to our Practice, do not only render us good and holy in our individual capacities in order to our everlasting welfare hereaster, but modest, prudent, and wife in our political Relations, in order to our well being here, as we are formed into Bodies or Communities of men; that they all of them tend mightily to the sweetening of Societies, and to the preventing, or healing those differences which are apt to imbroil us. And upon this prospect, partly, no doubt it is that we find those homiletic, or, if I may so speak, conversable Graces of meekness, gentleness, forgiveness, forbearance, etc. so frequently pressed upon us in the Sacred Writings, and are particularly required in the Text, to let our Moderation be known unto all men.  
In speaking to which words I shall do these three things.  
First, I shall explain what I here understand by moderation in the Text.  
Secondly, I shall lay down some Rules, or Instances of moderation so explained. And  
Thirdly and Lastly, Shall conclude with a Motive or two to the practice of it,  
And first, What is here meant by moderation?  
And this the rather, because, that, as some of late, out of design, and others, from mistake, have declaimed against it, so there are really several Vices, as temporising, halting betwixt two Opinions, cowardice, and a fear of disobliging, that usurp its name, and fraudulently hang out its Colours.  
Now for the more distinct understanding of the the thing it will be necessary to have recourse to the Original word, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an adjective, according to the Greek idiom, put for the Substantive, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from the different Translations and Usages whereof we may be able to pick out and frame to ourselves a sufficient notion of the virtue recommended in the Text.  
Some Versions render it in this place by the word Mansuetudo, Meekness: Others by the word Humanitas, Humanity, a just sense of the dignity of humane Nature, and a behaviour suitable thereto: Others render it Modestia, Modesty, an obliging sort of demeanour towards others proceeding from low apprehensions of a man's self: Our Translation rendered it formerly by the word Patience, and so I find some Interpreters would still have it, importing thereby an even and equable disposition of mind under all events, at the 24 of the Acts, the 4 ver. 'tis rendered Clemency, which is but another word for Mildness, the one in private Persons, the other in Men of Power and Authority, as Felix was to whom the words are there addressed. In the 2. Epist, of the Corinthians 10. chap. 1. ver. 'tis joined as Synonimous, with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Mildness or Meekness, and is there rendered Gentleness. Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Gentleness of Christ, etc. by that facile and tractable disposition, which was visible in our Lord and Saviour. Aristotle (to omit several other places of Scripture, where it is rendered to the same effect) uses the word in a more narrow and confined sense than any we have yet mentioned; for that, to wit, which we call Equity, a readiness to judge of things, not according to the strict rigour and letter of the Law, but rather as occasion shall require, and prudence suggest, according to the circumstances and exigences of particular cases, as it may reasonably be supposed the Law giver himself would have judged and acted had such emergent cases come before him. Now though this acceptation of the word is more particular, and furnishes us with a more distinct notion than any of the other, yet, as Grotius observes, the word is not limited to this forinsic sense here, but according to him, it imports, partly, a disposition of mind, whereby a Man is inclined to recede from his own Right upon occasion, and, partly, is studious of all fair opportunities of being useful and advantageous to others; from all which I think, we may collect, that Moderation in general will amount to the due observation of a mean betwixt all unjustifiable excesses in matters of difference and contest amongst Men, proceeding from a just amplitude and ingenuity of Spirit, and aiming always at the advancement of the most public and extensive good; and then Moderation, as it relates to religious differences (in which sense I shall principally consider it here) will be that gentle and equable disposition of mind, whereby a Christian, upon a clear sense of the main design of his Religion, and a due consideration of the passions, preposessions, and other infirmities of Humane Nature, is inclined to the most amicable and gentle methods of healing and accommodating lesser differences about matters of Religion, in order to the more general advancement of more important Truths, and the substantial Interests of the Gospel,  
We will take this general definition a pieces, and that will give further light to what I mean.  
First, then, The Moderation I recommend must proceed from an internal habit or disposition of the mind; for if a man, by the uncertain and irrisistable swing of humane affairs, is driven to relaxations of the rigour of things, contrary to the bent and bias of his own, otherwise inflexible, inclinations, than his moderation wants the influence of that internal principle, which gives life to all moral actions, and chiefly, denominates them virtuous.  
Secondly, The moderation we speak of must derive from a clear sense of the main design of the Christian Religion, and always act in order to the advancement of it. Now the great end of the Christian Institution being to render every individual Christian good and holy here in order to his everlasting happiness hereafter, and then, secondly, to plant in him those Graces, which, as a Member of Civil Society, may most promote the general good and quiet of Mankind, and the peace of the particular Community in which he lives, our Man of temper and moderation must always have a special eye and regard to the advancement of these in all his proceed, and then howsoever unsuccessful his endeavours may be with men that resolve to stand divided into parties, yet the honesty and generosity of his intentions will justify him before God, and at the Bar of the severest reason. And here take notice, that I exclude all secular and narrow considerations from being justifiable motives to the exercise of that moderation I would persuade to. Is a Man so inclined purely because 'tis perhaps the humour of the Times wherein he lives? the humour may be a virtue in others, but in him 'tis a sordid and ungenerous compliance. Is he, again, so inclined only to purchase the favour and good will of a Party, away with him and his Party together: The Moderation we speak of, as it must be known unto all men, so must it aim, as far as possible, at the general good, peace, and mutual advantage of all men concerned in the Contest: The moderate Man must, with the great Apostle, an illustrious instance of this virtue, endeavour, as far as may be, to give no offence neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God: pleasing all men in all things, not seeking his own profit, or interest, the gratification of his own passion or humour, but the profit of many, that they may be saved, 1 Cor. 10. 33.  
Thirdly, I said a virtuous moderation must proceed from a due consideration of the passions, prepossessions, and other infirmities incident to our common humane Nature. i e. in short, from this undeniable maxim, that these, and other such like things render an entire harmony and a agreement in opinion an impossibility in morality, and the object of our wishes rather than of our hopes; whereupon our moderate Man, upon a principle of the most extensive beneficence, and compassion on the score of these unhappily dividing infirmities of our Nature, is inclined to make use of such prudential expedients, as may, in his judgement, most conduce to the conciliating a good understanding amongst men, notwithstanding the variety of their apprehensions.  
Fourthly, I said this Moderation must take place in the less and more minute differences about Religious matters. For as for such as sap the foundations, or doctrines, by direct and necessary consequences, tending to the subversion of them, there's room indeed for base servile Spirits to temporize and betray their Religion, but there's no room, that I know of, for any virtuous moderation, unless that of a fair and civilised handling the matters in debate, without virulent and unmannerly reflections.  
And after what has been said, if there be any vice, or unwarrantable artifice, that pretends to the name and mine of this excellent Grace, Rectum est index sui & obloqui, we may easily pull off its vizor, and discriminate it from the virtue in the Text, by the description given of it.  
And thus much of the first general, the true notion of a virtuous Moderation.  
I proceed to the Second, which was to lay be-before you some R●les, or instances of Moderation thus stated and explained.  
But before I do this, I must premise,  
First, that I would not be understood to prescribe to any one denomination of men, exclusively of all others, but in the extent and language of the Text, Unto all men, that stand in need of it.  
Secondly, That I entrench not here upon any thing that looks more properly like the task of public wisdom, as what is by no means rudely to be touched by private hands, no, all we have to do, is, if possible, by general arguments to dispose Men to, and by general lines to chalk out the way that Leads to the great end of peace, and a good understanding.  
The first Rule of moderation then in general, shall be this, to attemperate our concern for or against things with charity and discretion. For if Fury once usurps the name of Zeal, and those drunken Pilots, our Passions, sit at the Helm, (for Passion is a sort of ebriety of the mind) what can men expect but that, like a Fleet of Ships, with spread Sails, no ballast, and in a mighty Storm, we fall foul upon each other, and some suffer shipwreck in the Scuffle. If our Zeal transports us beyond the bounds of civil decorum and discretion, we offend against the Rules of our common humanity, and the fundamental obligations we have to Mankind, as such, which give the prime and irriversable Laws to all humane Societies, and oblige us to a fair and civilised demeanour towards one another in all our transactions. If our Zeal push us on to exasperating Language, harsh and severe censures, malicious misconstructions, etc. beyond the measures that Charity prescribes, we violate the prime and irrepealable Laws of our common Religion, and transgress both as Men and as Christians. We must therefore in all our debates, especially in those of the Nature we speak of, always appoint two Moderators of our Zeal and Concernment, Prudence in our Political, and Charity in our Religious Capacity, without both, or either of which, our ardency partakes no longer of the Nature of a regular and vital heat, but of the Flame and burning of a Fever: Is no longer Health, but Frenzy and Distemper; without which all our do, how briskly and how bravely soever we may think we lay about us, are most certainly nothing worth, have no intrinsic value in them here, nor will ever avail us one jot hereafter. O thou Divine Charity, the very bond of Peace and of Perfectness! we have often heard of Thee by the hearing of the Ear, but when shall our Eyes see Thee! Never? It may be so. Yet, Abba Father, all things are possible unto Thee.  
Secondly, And in consequence of the former, another Rule of the Christian Moderation we speak of, is, to refrain, as much as possible, from all scornful and scandalous Reflections upon the persons of those with whom we differ. For as they are a manifest indication of want of Temper in the Aggressors, so are they, too fatally. apt to carry their Opponents into the same unjustifiable excesses, especially if the Sparks chance to fall upon Men of as combustible matter as those who sent them out; by which means the quarrel is gradually transferred from causes to persons, which of all other things, sets men at the most irreconcilable distance. Ill Words being naturally, so far from closing, that they never fail to widen men's differences, and Fester, and Gangrene those Wounds, which without them, might probably have healed of themselves. They alienate Men from entertaining any tolerable opinion of our persons, and then we may bring them over to our persuasions, if we can; for we may endeavour to persuade him to great purpose, who, by the rude treatment we give him, shall have reason to think himself the Object of our Malice, or our Scorn. No, we may be as Hot and Angry as we please, but Men, I tell you, reasonable Creatures, expect other usage, and will not be scolded or railed out of their prejudices. There is a natural sturdiness in all Men, that immediately sets itself to oppose, and confront such contemptuous usage, and which therefore is so far from informing men's judgements, or bending their Wills, that it renders them much more inflexible, and therefore it might possibly become our Christian Prudence in such Cases, if we do really and in good earnest aim at an Honourable Peace, and a good Understanding, (and God forgive them that do not) to betake ourselves to humane methods of persuasion, the bands of love, and the cords of a man; to endeavour to catch one another, as the Apostle speaks of himself in relation to the Corinthians, craftily and with guile, by all the Christian methods of endearment, kindness, candour, meekness, good words; and if there be any other obliging and conciliateing ways, any other pious complaisance, which may recommend our persons at least, if not our persuasions, to one another.  
3ly. Another Rule of the Moderation we speak of is, carefully to distinguish about the weight and importance of those things wherein we differ, and to proportion our zeal for or against them accordingly; for certainly, he were a very ridiculous person who should be equally concerned about the sitting of his hair upon his head, as about the sitting of his head upon his shoulders. When massy bulky Errors, of the very first Magnitude, shall come to be crammed into our Creeds, and be ready to be crammed down our Throats, upon our inability to swallow them, away then with Modalities, Comprehensions, compounding or comprimising the difference; here the rule is, on the contrary, to contend earnestly for the faith, to be zealously affected, to withstand our Adversaries to the face, to keep our Posts, maintain our ground, and not to flinch or abate one jot of our pretensions, as we value the interests of Truth, and of the Gospel. But now in less momentous and important differences, as ours confessedly are on all hands, the same measure of zeal and stiffness is not, I conceive, warrantable on either side, though that of establishment and authority must be owned to have the stronger plea. Here the Rules are a cautious and prudential behaviour one towards another, a walking by the same Canon, or Rule, as far as we possibly can, whereunto we have already attained, an endeavour of reducing our Brethren from their Errors in the spirit of meekness, and the like. In a word therefore, our zeal ●or or against things should always bear proportion to their just weight and importance, otherwise it becomes both criminal and ridiculous.  
4ly. Another Rule of the Christien Moderation we speak of is for a man to carry always about him a fair and teachable disposition, and not to have his ears servilely bored through to the dictates of any one Master, or party of men, exclusively of all others; for by that means we really, and in effect, lapse into the stupidity of an implicit faith, and follow such or such a Teacher, as the phrase is, more like an herd of  than a Congregation of Christians. A man must not therefore, I say, be so over-consident and dogmatical in the truth and rectitude of the things he is inclined to, as resolvedly to bolt out all evidence to the contrary, and leave no room for a further enquiry into the grounds and reasons of the things he is at present persuaded of; for that is not to act in the middle way which alone is suitable to the reasonable nature, that being in itself a sort of medium betwixt the brute and the Divinity, and which, as it may be swayed and prejudiced by the sensual appetite of the one, so is it capable still of receiving farther degrees of the illumination of the other; and therefore he who is thus resolvedly partial, and rigidly deaf to all Objections that may shake the certainty of the things he is persuaded of, acts not like the reasonable humane Creature he pretends to be, but either below himself, with the obstinacy and sturdiness of a brute, or a above himself, in a manner fit only for the infinite and inerrable knowledge of God. Our moderate man than is never invincibly stiff and tenacious, but as his ears are always open, to the voice of reason and truth, from whatsoever point of the Compass the sound comes, so is his heart always equally open to entertain and embrace it. He is ready upon occasion of enquiry into things, to divest himself, as far as possible, of his former prejudices and prepossessions, sets up the Imperial Standard of Reason instead of them, and will stick by Truth, bare naked Truth, wheresoever he finds it, without regard to Parties, or invidious names fixed upon them, or the Examples and Authorities of any one whatsoever; as well knowing, that he who shall in the lump, without examination or distinction, maintain for truth whatsoever one man, or denomination of men, shall advance, and for right and good whatsoever they shall do, and deal just the quite contrary measure to all others, must in all humane probability, often oblige himself to contradict Truth, defend unjustifiable proceed, and provoke God himself, to whose actions and sentiments alone such unlimited deference of judgement and entire obedience is due, for 'tis God only that can never do amiss, and never be in the wrong. And yet such is the weakness of the generality of men, that they are carried away sometimes by the names of Leaders and Parties, one is for Pa●l, another for Apollo's, and a third for Cep●as, and yet possibly without due examination, how far any of these is for Christ; sometimes again, by the names which the wit or malice of men have fixed upon opinions, or designs, without any farther enquiry into the nature of the things themselves, according to that excellent and just observation, Pauci res ipsas sequuntur, plures nomina rerum, plurimi nomina Magistrorum. And of this we have had late, but deplorable, experience, from the cunning and subtlety of those whose business it was, still is, and ever will be, to divide and inflame us. Thus have the great Christian Virtues of the Moderation we are now upon, condescension, forbearance, and the like suffered under the imputation of fanaticism, and thus again, on the other hand, has conformity with the best constituted Church upon earth been obstructed, only because some men were pleased, how justly, time since has shown, to suspect it of Popery; and pray God our foolish passions, animosities, and prejudices do not still give the same common enemy the same fatal opportunity of practising upon us. If therefore men would condescend to be Disciples of the virtue in the Text, they must try all things, and hold fast only that which is good, abet that alone in persons of their own persuasions which is just and true, and disprove that alone in others which is blame-worthy; they must have no men in admiration through prejudice, education, or passion, and not hold the Faith of Christ with respect of persons; and by thus doing they will purchase to themselves the applause of their own Consciences, a good report among all honest and understanding men, and it matters not for others.  
5ly. Another Rule, or instance, of the Moderation I persuade to, when men stand divided in opinion, is what the Apostle prescribes, and that upon occasion too, of such differences in the Church of Corinth, That no man seek his own, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, every one the things of another, (1 Cor. 10. 21.) the common public good of the whole Community concerned in the contect, not the private separate advantage of any one single party; for whatsoever leads men to an intemperate love of themselves, and their own ends, divides the unity that ought to be amongst them. And certainly, says a late great Prelate of our own, A. B. Laud himself, there's no keeping of unity either in Church or State, unless men will be so temperate, (when it comes to a push at least) as to lay down the private for the publicks sake, and persuade others to do the like. And indeed 'tis too obvious to imagine what peril to the public good must derive from an immoderate love of the private, to need a Comment; for how only, in a word, should that body, whether Natural or Political, be preserved safe and entire, if the hands, for instance, would assist no other part but themselves, if the head would not direct the feet, nor the feet contribute to support the head: Let us therefore, I say, (and I am sure 'tis high time so to do) divest ourselves of that littleness of spirit, and narrow selfish principle which reigns so visibly amongst us, and is so unworthy the dignity of a man, and the p●ety of a Christian, and so directly opposite to the peace and preservation of all humane Societies; and reassume we, on the contrary, that just amplitude and generosity of temper, that like charity seeketh not its own, but the public and most universal good.  
6ly. Another Rule, or instance, of a virtuous Moderation is for men to put the most charitable constructions they can upon one another's actions and persuasions, ascribing them to the best causes, assigning them the best ends, and deriving them from the best principles they fairly may. For, for men immediately to fall foul upon one another's integrity, to charge the difference of persuasions and practices observable amongst us, upon the corruption of our minds, and the depravity of our hearts, is to assail one another in the most quick and sensible parts, and to set us at an irreconcilable distance; the heart and intention being that grand leading principle by which as the great searcher of hearts will judge all men hereafter, so likewise that too, by which they ought principally to stand or fall in the estimate of their fellow-servants here; and therefore not rudely to be assaulted without the keenest resentments. Let us not therefore, if we have any sense of moderation and temper, persist to dress up things in shapes, that for aught we know belong not to them, in hideous and portentous forms to frighten and exasperate one another, but let us rather ascribe the differences amongst us to error of judgement, the prejudices of Education, infelicity of Constitution, or to any other of those either innocent or excusable causes, which render an entire unity of opinion an impossible thing: but don't we by any means set up for searchers of hearts, and peremptorily judge of men in reference to their future states; we know whose great attribute that is, and to him, their own master, as to that particular, must every man stand or fall. Who art thou that invadest this mighty Prerogative, and that thus arrogantly judgest another man's servant?  
7ly. Another Rule of the Christian moderation I speak of, I take to be this; not to charge the faults or failures of particular persons, either upon whole parties, or their persuasions. For as to to the first of these, 'tis an open breach of Justice, Charity, and Logic, all at once, it being against the known rules of reasoning to argue from a lame induction of particulars to universals, for in that case there is more in the conclusion than was in the premises, which is a fallacy, and not to be admitted. St. Jude's Rule therefore of making a difference, must take place here, and that will set us right. Nor is it, secondly, any more justifiable to load the several causes men may chance to maintain with the exorbitancies or irregularities of their particular abetters, in as much as there is no necessary connexion betwixt truth and error in the understanding, and rectitude and obliquity in the will; we must not then argue from persons to causes; for as (to instance) we read of several Heretics of old whose lives were as pure and unblameable, as their errors were gross and pernicious, so, what is but a melancholy consideration, we need not go far for instances of those, whose lives are as scandalous, as their communion is orthodox.  
8ly. Another rule of the Moderation I would persuade to, is, not to engage in any needless contests and disputes about these lesser matters: according to the advice of the great Apostle in his fourteenth Chapter to the Romans, at the first verse. Him that is weak in the faith, (who is still scrupulous about his Mosaic Rites, Meats, Days, etc.) receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. In as much as experience shows such conflicts are seldom attended with better success than with heating both ourselves and opponents into passion; and then for aught I know the giving way to anger and resentment on both sides may be of worse consequence than the error on either. And therefore possibly 'twere most advisable for men in such cases, fairly and modestly to propound their reasons, without endeavouring forcibly to bear down their Adversaries with the strength of them, for the seeming insult and triumph of such a procedure does but more impregnably steel men against that conviction, which the truth of our cause, and the weight of our arguments might otherwise create: better therefore, I say, leave men to the cool of their thoughts, and suffer private reflection to work what bearing hard upon them would never produce, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth we shall have fairly propounded.  
9ly. and lastly, Another Rule of the Moderation I persuade to, is what the same Apostle advises in the same Chapter to the Romans; above mentioned, at the third verse. Let not him that eateth (him, who, upon the abolition of the Ceremonial dispensation by our Lord is satisfied, he may lawfully eat of such meats as in the Levitical Law were reputed unclean) despise him that eateth not; (him, who on the other hand, through his former prejudices thinks himself still obliged to abstain from them) and let not him which eateth not, judge (or condemn) him that eateth. Where 'tis manifest each party rallied and reflected on the other. The Eaters 'tis likely looked upon the non-eaters as silly, weak, and superstitious people, laughed at and ridiculed their childish scrupulosity; and these he advises to abate of their intellectual pride, and supercilious scornful humour; the non-eaters on the other side were sullen, sour, and morose, full of censure, and ill nature, and probably condemned the Eaters as persons irreligious, that made no conscience of their actions, and who were ready, upon occasion, to comply with any thing; and these he persuades to modesty and sobriety in passing their verdicts upon those who were otherwise persuaded; and indeed the reasonableness and wisdom of the Apostle's advice is demonstrable from the nature of the two extremes of which these parties were guilty; contemning and undervaluing on the one hand, and judging and censuring on the other. For as to the first of these, contempt, nothing in the world is more exasperating and provoking than it. Men had rather be the objects of your malice than your scorn; the former supposes them considerable, and every man is willing to be thought so for something or other, but the latter speaks them below your notice, and strikes directly at that value which every man is apt to set upon himself. Nay indeed, all other provocations borrow a great part of their sting from the contempt they imply, for no man injures or abuses another, but who at the same time, tacitly, at least, dispises and contemns him. And then again, for the excess on the other hand, the sour, censorious, judging humour, that too extremely irritates and provokes, as what, in these lesser matters especially, looks more like the product of peevishness and malice, than of ignorance or mistake; and how far the continuance of our unhappy divisions has been owing to these faults, and the want of putting this Apostolic Rule in practice, is perhaps a fit subject for our sorrow than our discussion. I might detain you longer upon this head, but whilst I treat of Moderation, I must remember that I am then more especially obliged to keep within bounds myself, and proceed therefore, briefly, in the last place, to some motives, or inducements to the practice of it.  
And need there indeed any other motives besides the simple reasonableness of the thing, to induce men to the practice of any one particular I have persuaded to? need I yet advise men to be sober, modest, prudent, and temperate, when heats, animosities, and excesses, have almost undone us? and do not the dangers we have escaped, and the circumstances we are in, call louder upon us than a thousand other Arguments, to lay aside faction in Religion, and to glorify God with one heart and one mouth? Surely they do. And if you need any farther motives consider,  
1. That the moderation I recommend is the peculiar virtue and ornament of that excellent Church you own yourselves members of, the Church of England; I say again, of the Church of England, which in her very fundamental Constitution, is a mean betwixt the two extremities, Superstition on the one hand, and Enthusiasm on the other; and as for those excesses her adversaries have been pleased to charge her with, she is no way in herself, responsible for them, unless they could, at the same time, prove that the personal failures, indiscretions, passions, etc. of every particular member of her Communion are adopted into her Constitution, which were no less an absurd than an uncharitable Position.  
2ly. Let me persuade you to the practice of this virtue, because 'tis the truly Evangelical temper, and the practice of the Apostles themselves. The great Doctor of the Gentiles has left us an undeniable precedent of this matter in his own person; for though he tells us, He was Free from all men, yet he made himself a servant unto all, that he might gain the more; He made himself all things to all men, that by all means he might have some. And how was he to all, as a Learned 
Bishop Hall of Exeter.  Prelate of our own asks the question, if he did not sometimes remit of his right to some, & indeed had the Saint solicited the Christian cause with the same zeal and stiffness, the Persecutor had pursued it with not long before, he might have saved himself the labour of preaching the Gospel from Jerusalem round about to Illiricum, his Gospel had been hid to all intents and purposes: And in his own language, he had spoke all the while unto the air; in as much as experience attests, that fierceness and violence are the most improper engines imaginable to move the great weights of so strong prepossession, and such long prescription. Nay, 'tis farther evident that the transactions of the whole Apostolic Synod recorded in the 15th. of the Acts, are an eminent instance of the temperate proceeding I at present recommend. For though they might justly have insisted upon their Apostolic authority, the extent and plenitude of their Commission, and the unquestionable infallibility of their decisions, and thereupon have peremptorily condemned the scrupulous Judaizing Converts by some Canon, or Decree, to which they should be obliged to submit, without farther debate, upon pain of Anathema, yet I say, notwithstanding all these indisputable advantages on their side, it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to the Apostles, to come rather to a Temperament; for they proceeded neither to an absolute prohibition of the Mosaique Rites after conversion, wisely considering that they might thereby have exasperated the Judaizing Zealots into an absolute Apostasy from the faith; nor were they so regardless on the other hand, of the liberty of the Gentile Converts, as to require any other observances of them than such as they presumed were requisite, in that exigency of affairs, in order to a perfect union and agreement amongst them, that they might thereby prudentially remove such occasions of difference as might obstruct the growth and progress of the common Christianity in the world.  
3ly. Be persuaded to the practice of this virtue, because you thereby make the nearest approaches that the infirmities of Men, and the circumstances of human affairs will admit to the Divine Oeconomy itself; for what, I beseech you, is God's whole Government of the world, but a moderation of the rigour of his justice, with a temperament of mercy? For if he should be extreme to mark what is done amiss, as we are, should pursue things to their utmost rigour and extent, take advantage of all the forfeitures we make him, and not recede one jot from his just pretensions against us, Who could live if God should do this? and it appears to me a very hard case, that we cannot be induced to treat one another with the same temper that our common God treats us all with. And this naturally leads me to shut up all with the sequel of the Text.  
Let your Moderation be known unto all men, the Lord is at hand. He is not far off in his final judgement of all flesh, and then I am sure the best of us all will stand in need of that temper and moderation in him, which we deny to one another. He is at hand, again, not far off, possibly, in the execution of some temporary and heavy judgements upon this sinful Land of our Nativity. Sure I am that if an unnatural ingratitude, unchristian animosities, ill grounded jealousies, unreasonable dissatisfactions, sinful murmur, if, I say, in a word, one of the worst abuses that ever was of one of the greatest of mercies in possession, be a fatal forerunner of the forest of Judgements in reversion, we of all Mankind bid the fairest for them. For if, after God has unexpectedly dropped his mercies in our mouths, we shall ungratefully throw them up again, will not the Divine indignation have just reason to use the same passionate expostulation with us that he did with the dull murmuring Israelites of old, What could I ha●e done more for my Vineyard that I have not done for it? and to inflict likewise the same judgement upon us; Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. If we will still persist to sacrifice our Holy Religion, the interests of Truth and of the Gospel, all in a word, that is dear to us as m●n or Christians, to our passions, animosities, self-will, private interests, notions; or to speak more properly, to we know not what; why then we fall as ridiculous as unpitied victims, God our deliverer, with all the Nations round about us, will justly laugh at our calamity; mo●k when our fear cometh, and give us up to that destruction wherein we seem to delight. In a word, the Lord is at hand, I hope in the midst of this present Assembly, and when thou, Lord, shalt come to judge the World, 'tnot then, surely, be enquired, who has most stiftly and vehemently asserted the little inferior opinions, persuasions, and interests of his own particular party, but who in his life and conversation has most promoted the true Spirit and Genius of thy holy Religion for its own sake, and most laboured the advancement of one of those great and glorious ends thou camest into the world for, of Peace on earth, and good will a mongst men.  
FINIS.   

Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswell.  
THe Case of Allegiance in our present circumstances considered, in a Letter from a Minister in the City, to a Minister in the Country.  
A Sermon preached at Fulham, in the Chapel of the Palace upon Easter day 1689. at the Consecration of the Right Reverend Father in God Gilbert Lord Bishop of Sarum: By Anthony Horneck, D. D.  
The Judgements of God upon the Roman Catholic Church, from its first Rigid Laws for Universal Conformity to it, unto its last End. With a prospect of these ●ear approaching Revolutions, Viz. The Revival of the Protestant profession in ●● Eminent Kingdom, where it was totally suppressed. The last End of all 〈◊〉 Hostilities. The general ratification of the power of the Roman 〈◊〉 in all parts of its Dominions. In Explication of the Trumpets and Vials of the Apocalypse, upon Principles generally acknowledged by Protestant Interpreters. By Drue Cressener, D. D.  
A Breviate of the State of Scotland in its Government, Supreme Courts, Of●●●●s of State, Inferior Officers, Offices and Inferior Courts, Districts, Jurisdictions, Burroughs Royal, and Free Corporations. Fol.  
S●me Considerations touching Succession and Allegiance.  
A Discourse concerning the Worship of Images; preached before the University ●● Oxford: By George Tully Subdean of York, for which he was Suspen●ed  
Reflections upon the late Great Revolution: Written by a Lay-Hand in the C●●ntry, for the satisfaction of some Neighbours.  
The History of the Dissertion; or an Account of all the public Affairs in Eng●●●, from the beginning of September 1688. to the Twelfth of February following. With an Answer to a Piece called The Dissertion discussed, in a Letter to ● Country Gentleman. By a Person of Quality.  
●. William and K. Lewis, wherein is set forth the inevitable necessity these Nations lie under of submitting wholly to one or other of these Kings; And that ●●● matter in Controversy is not now between K. William and K. James, but ●●●een K. William and K Lewis of France for the Government of these Nations.  
An Examination of the Scruples of those who refuse to take the Oath of Allegiance, by a Divine of the Church of England.  
A Dialogue betwixt two Friends, a Jacobite and a Williamite; occasioned by ●● late Revolution of Affairs, and the Oath of Allegiance.  
Two Sermons, one against Murmuring, the other against Censuring: By Sy●●● Patrick. D. D.  
An Account of the Reasons which induced Charles the Second, King of En●●●●, to declare War against the States-General of the United Provinces in 1672. And of the Private League which he entered into at the same Time with the French ●●●● to carry it on, and to establish Popery in England, Scotland; and Ireland, as 〈◊〉 are set down in the History of the Dutch War, printed in French at Paris, with ●●● privilege of the French King, 1682. Which Book he caused to be in mediate●●●●ppress'd at the Instance of the English Ambassador. Fol.  
An Account of the Private League betwixt the late King James the Second, 〈◊〉 the French King. Fol.  
The Case of Oaths Stated, 4to.  
The Answer of a Protestant Gentleman in Ireland to a late Popish Letter of N. N. upon a Discourse between them, concerning the present posture of that Country, and the part fit for those concerned there to act in it. 4to.  
An Apology for the Protestants of Ireland, in a brief Narrative of the late Revolutions in that Kingdom; and an Account of the pr●s●●● State thereof: By a Gentleman of Quality: 4to.  
A Letter from a French Lawyer to an English Gentleman, upon the present Revolution. 4to.  
Mr. Wake's Sermon before the King and Queen at Hampton Court.  
— His Fast-Sermon before the House of Commons, Jun. 5. 1689.  
Dr. Tenison's Fast-Sermon before the House of Common●, Jun. 5. 1689.  
Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria a Christo nato usque ad Se●●ium XIV. Facili ethodo digesta. Qua de Vita illorum ac Rebus gestis, de Secta, D●gmatibus, Elogio, Styl●; de Scriptis genuinis, dubiis, supposititiis, ineditis-de●erdi●●s, Fragmentis; deque variis Operum Edi●ionil us perspicue agitur. Accedunt Scr●●●res Gentiles, Christian ● Religionis Oppugnatores; & cujusvis Saeculi Breviarium. Irseruntur suis locis Veterum aliquot Opuscula & Fragmenta, tum G●ae●a, tum Lati●● bactenus inedita, Praemissa denique Prolegomen●, quibus plurima ad Antiq●●●●●● Ecclesiasticae st●dium spectantia traduntur. Opus Indicibus necessariis instructum. Autore GVILIELMO CAVE, SS. Theol. Profess. Canonico Windeso●iensi. Accedit a● Alia Man● Appendi● ab ineunte Saeculo XIV. ad Annum usque MDX VII. Fol. 1689.   

ADVERTISEMENT.  
Whereas a Book, Entitled, FASCICULUS RERUM EXPETENDARUM ET FUGIENDARUM, with a large Additional APPENDIX, was promised by Richard Chiswell the Undertaker to be finished in Michaelmas Term last; This is to give Notice. That by reason of the Sickness of ●he Printer, and some necessary Avocations of the Publisher, it has been re●arded. But, for the Satisfaction of Subscribers, the Book will be forty or fifty Sheets more than was promised in the Proposals, which will cost the Undertaker 100 l. extraordinary, yet, in Consideration thereof, he will not expect one penny above the first Subscription price; only craves their patience till the Book can be done, which is now going on with all possible speed, and so so●● as finished Notice shall be given in the Gazette. In the mean time there being some few of the Impression not yet subscribed for, such Gentlemen as please to take the Benefit thereof may be admitted Subscribers, and may have Printed Proposals for sending for, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard, or at most Booksellers Shops in City or Country.