WHoever considers the Contradictions and Hypocrisie of this Age, will think it his Duty to expose it to the Indignation of all that have Sense or Honesty.

Our present Disputes about Religion shall be [...]dlef Sub­ject of this Discourse, a Subject, which whether it abound in Tragedy or Comedy most, I am not able to determine.

With what violence are Opinions and Doctrines supported and oppos'd, and yet what Unity, what Peace, what Agreement in the Ruines of Debauchery, in Vices that have laid waste the Age.

How is the Eternal Religion become a quarrel and a pretence, a Sacrifice to Hypocrisie, and an Offering to Design! and the Beauty of our Natures, and the Guide of our Beings, and the Glory of our Reason, expos'd to the Dis­courses and Contempt, to the Villany and Folly of the worst of Men.

The present Pretences of the Dissenters, are such an Attempt upon our Ex­perience and Memory, that nothing but an utter detestation of all Modesty, and an Association for the Defence and Propagation of Impudence and Impiety, could set them upon another Undertaking of this kind; and if they prevail by our consent, it must be reckon'd no lesser than a Judgment of Delusion, a renouncing the first Principle of Preservation, which is concern'd in our Sen­ses as well as in our Lives.

These honest Greeks are bringing their Wooden Horse a second time before our Walls, for what can be more wooden and brutish, than to be impostur'd into a belief of the sincerity and good meaning of our most subtle and cruel Enemies? This second Horse can impose on nothing but an Ass.

Let the whole World judge, whether this Generation of Men, who when their Principles were governing, and envenom'd with Power, acted such Villa­nies as the Pagans are yet to learn, and that drew the best Copy of the Jews Original, and who approv'd in cold Blood, what they did in hot, be fit to re­form our Church of England, I mean the Dissenters from it and Humanity. I allow them fit Men to Reform our Lives and Fortunes, but not to mend our Religion or Manners, which I wish were done by a good hand directed by the hand of God.

'Tis not my Design to write the History of the late Times, or to Satyr those Men that have set themselves beyond the reach of Charity, and expos'd them­selves to the severest Histories, my Design is to prevent our being abus'd by them any more, a Prudence we are oblig'd to, as well as to the Charity of forgiving what is past, and we will keep what is past in our Memory, not for their Evil, but for our own Good.

They must have a very mean Opinion of our Judgment, and Care of our selves, to make this present Attempt upon our Religion, under the pretence of makeing it Holier.

That Men that have digested such vast Impieties, that compos'd a new body of Wickedness, that those Religions (for such they will be call'd) that gave the [Page]Reign to Murder and Rabble Tyranny, to confusion and slaughter, should pretend our Church of England is not Holy enough to receive them, is enough to enrage the Charity of the meekest Christian, and to Arm the Reason and Passion of all the sensible World, against such impudent Wickedness, and un­veil'd Hypocrisie.

In the very act of crying out against Idolatry, at what a rate did they commit Sacriledge, and many of them that broke down the Carv'd Work of our Churches with Axes and Hammers, are now pretending to beautifie them.

But we have not so learnt the use of our Senses, as to believe such Men as these; if what they have even now done in Scotland, be not sufficient to warn England, then nothing is.

If the zeal of these men be so excessive as they pretend, let them give it a vent in Charity and good Works, in Reforming their own Consciences and Religions; in Modesty and Obedience: let them pull out the Beams, and throw up the Camels they have swallow'd, and when they have done this, let them pull the Motes out of our Eyes, and the Gnats out of our Stomachs.

I am not fond of this Theme, I don't want Charity for their Persons, but to bestow it on their lewd Designs, and their Abstract Wickedness, would be a great abuse of the best thing in the world.

If they are at this minute rakeing amongst our Holy Things, to find where­withall to object and upbraid us, they cannot easily take it ill, if we remonstrate to them their Gyant Wickednesses, and first rate Sins, especially when pro­vok'd by such loathsom and Atheistical Hypocrisie.

Let them go on in their Attempts, and we will go on in our Guard and Caution against such men, we will hold fast our Prudence and Integrity, as long as they shall their profligate Hypocrisie, and bold Attempts.

The Gentleman that writ the late Secret History of King Charles, and King James the Second, charges the first of the Royal Seconds, with dissem­bling particularly with the Dissenters; let the Objection perish with the History, and may the man that writ it, live to recover his Modesty and Reason.

Quanto Rectius ille, how much more like a Gentleman, and a man of Sense and Morality and Breeding, does the Author of the new Observator vail the Nakedness of that Prince, who was once the Father of this Ham, who has expos'd him as if he had Ravisht his Mother, and begot the Secret Historian, without his or his Mothers Consent, in the same mad fury that he begot his History or long Prosy Ballad of King Charles and King James.

Had he charg'd the Dissenters with the grossest dissembling with the first and second Charles, no man could ever have contradicted him, but 'twas not his business so much to speak Truth, as to lay the durt thick. I dare appeal to the Author of this Historical Lampoon, whether he has not receiv'd large Correction from his own mind, for what he has writ.

But it will never lye in this mans Power to give a tollerable figure to the Dissenters, and however he may blacken King's, he can never whiten them, tho' one was his aim as much as t'other.

Nor is it my Design to charge the Dissenters alone with the folly and bold pretences of the present time, Religion seems on every hand to be dealt with far otherwise than it ought; for on all hands the Temporal Interests that attend her, are watcht and secur'd with the utmost Diligence: No Policy, no Ad­dress omitted to secure its Constitutions, because they secure its Revenue; but for its Manners, for the severities of life it enjoyns, how little are all [Page 3]Parties concern'd! are not we over-run with Ruin and Debauchery? Is not the English Name and Character efac'd with Vice and Folly? Is not even the Civil Virtue and Genius of the Nation extinct with the Infamy of a general Wickedness? Allegiance, Divine and Humane, Humility and Love, Modesty and Chastity, Charity and Devotion, are esteem'd Arbitrary and Indifferent things, to be practis'd or omitted as we think fit. And where is the Zeal? Where are the efforts for the Recovering these cancell'd Duties? But to Abolish or preserve a Ceremony or Notion, What Zeal! What Contention! What Parties! What Animosities! If their meaning were honest, 'tis certain they would be employ'd in other Business, they would promote a Union in the practice of Religion, in the performing those Duties in which all Parties are agreed; the Eternal rewards of another life, would charm us beyond the Interest of this, and we should take more care to go well out of the World, than to live well in't. If this zeal pretended by all Parties were Heavenly and Real, the Everlasting Glories of the upper World, the Beauty of God, the Charms of Vertue, would heat and provoke us to take other Measures for our Eternity, to build other Lives, and draw another Scheme of Manners and Practice. In­stead of contending for the demolishing or support of a Ceremony, we would receive the Stranger as the Brother of our Nature, and cherish him as our own Flesh, and cover his wants with Joy; we would draw out our Souls to the Miserable, and be in pain till we had reliev'd him; the Charity of Angels would inflame our Breasts, and we should burn with love to our Brother, we should be in pain till the Captive were Redeem'd, till the Oppressed were Reliev'd, and the Miserable at Ease; these things would testifie our Religion, they would witness and demonstrate our sincerity, for these Fruits seldom proceed but from an honest and good Heart.

Our Religion would then put on its Primitive Glory, and shine radiant in its Antient Flames, Heathens would again behold us with wonder, and be­come Proselytes to the conviction and demonstration of our Practice, the Sun would behold us with a kinder strength, and maintain a more fruitful cor­respondence with this neither world, the Seasons would again observe their disorder'd courses, and all Nature would recover a new Strength and Vi­gour, the Land would yield its Strength, and the Earth would bring forth its Encrease, and God even our own God would give us his Blessing.

The Triumphs of Martyrdom, and the Glories of Confession, (if occasion were,) would again revive, and the whole Earth would become a Holy Land, as far as these practices were dissus'd: the Angels would descend with joy, and return with Triumphs, and the boasted Ages deceas'd, would no longer upbraid the Folly and Misery of the present.

And till this be attempted, in vain do we talk of Religion, in vain expect the wondrous Blessings that attend it. If the interests of sincere and effectual Religion were not so far Superior to those of a false pretended one, if this World could court us, and make such proposals as the other does, if its Meaning and Rewards were Eternal, if it could satiate the Infinite Desires of a Soul, that are as unmeasurable as Eternity it self, we might with some pre­tence quit the offers and pursuits of the upper world.

But when of the one hand there is nothing offered but Delusion and Sorrow, and to the greatest Men, and those that have made most of this World, nay even those Delusions, if there be any comfort or support in 'em, will not last long. tho' the sorrows will; if we are entertain'd with false propositions and real cheats, with Arguments unworthy of Children, or the stupidity of Beasts, if [Page 4]we are opprest with the Experience and warning of so many Ages past, the Judgment of all Religions and Philosophy, that have pretended to any Reason or Sobriety, if every one goes Arm'd with the Syllogisms of his own Experi­ence, and most, with the Demonstrations of Misery and Ruine, why are we any longer baffled with the lean pretences of Vice and the World, why are we again repeating the ruinous Experiment, and practising on our own Destruction.

Let us behold Virtue and the upper World, Religion and Glory, with other Eyes than hitherto we have done, let peace of Mind charm, let the Ministry and Attendance of Angels, warm our Ambition, let Palaces, and Crowns, and an Eternal Empire and Kingdom provoke our Glory, let us chafe our Minds with Everlasting expectations, and enrage 'em at the darkness, and disappointments, and deformity of Vice and this lower World.

And while Kings are preparing to meet like the Northern Winds, striving who shall have the lar­gest Care, and the heaviest Crown, and the greatest weight of fall, let all that are Wise ex­pend a better Interest, and pursue a truer Glory; let them extend the Empire of Vertue, over all the Follies of Vice, and then celebrate the Triumphs of a real Conquest of the World.

Thus employ'd, our zeal will have firm effects, and produce Fruits worthy of its warmths, and becoming its true Nature, we shall act like men Baptiz'd to the Philosophy of Christ, and train'd up to another World, we shall assert the Glory of our Nature, and the Divinity of our Souls, Angels will assist us with Joy, and the result of our Labour, would be Peace, and Joy, and Transport, even in this Life, and a fermented and unruly Happiness, in expectation of the Joys of Eternity, for the other World would often break in upon us even before Death, our Peace would be as the River, and our Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea, and the Glory of the Lord would be our Rereward.

But if the Vigour and Spirits of our Zeal and Religion, be exhausted in circumstantials, and lesser Matters, (to which I allow their just weight and decent Importance, as our Saviour did to the Tyth of Mint) and that what we have done in defending them, ought not to have been left undone, yet if our Religion dwells there, and flames out in nothing else, it gives Argument of the greatest suspition that our Design is none of the best, and our Religion none of the sincerest, for that would carry us to farther and weightier instances of our Piety, that would carry the face of another World in them, and an Immortal Design.

If we pretend to a Zeal that's worthy our Profession, let's set on other Lives, let Purity and Chastity, let Heavenly Mindedness, and contempt of the World, Triumph in our Manners, and let Vice be the Object of our Rage and Scorn, till then all our Impertinent or Knavish warmths for or against a Form, or an Establishment, or a Ceremony, will signifie nothing but to manifest that we are not in earnest with our Religion, and that there is nothing sincere but our Hypocrisie.

If we have any value for the Happiness of the World, if we think it worth the while to re­trieve the Honours of the Humane Nature, and to stop the Inundations of Ruine and Shame, and the dissolution of Manners and Society, and the total extinction of our Reason and Happiness, let us remember whereunto we were Baptiz'd, let the Solemnities of those Sacraments we have past, and the Religion of our Vows, set us upon other Manners, and give us other Designs, and bet­ter Lives. It's no mean Enterprise (with the assistance of God's Spirit) to retrieve a dying World, and restore the Humane Nature in its last Agony and Convulsion of Ruine and Shame. All that concur to this work will be greater employ'd than the wild Macedonian, or the first Coesar, who labour'd to destroy the Fabrick of the World, and gave Mankind to the Sword, and Peace and Order, to their Rage and Folly, that our Histories might be full of their Fury and Mischiefs, and Posterity be troubled with their Names and Follies.

But the Progresses we make in Virtue, and the Advantages we procure it in the World, are [...], worthy our Institution, and becoming our Baptism, and the Sacraments of the New Testament. Here we shew the Genius of our Master, who train'd us up to another World, and bid us pursue Immortal Rewards, and an Eternal Heaven, he has trod the rough and glorious Path before us, he himself engag'd all the difficulties he has propos'd to us, and shewd us how to practice, and taught us how to live, and how to dye, and how to live for ever.

Thus we shall Triumph over the World, and our selves, and Folly, and Misery, and shall live in the Joy of Angels, and the Wisdom of Men, and the Comforts of the Holy Ghost.