The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

A SERMON PREACHED AT Guildhall LONDON, Jan. XXIV. MDCLXXIV.

REV. XXI. 2.

And I Iohn saw the holy City, the new Ierusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven.

AND no wonder if there be a new Jerusalem, when at the fifth verse of this Chapter, God proclaims that he makes all things new. And that new Jerusalem must needs be a holy City, when it is sent down from God, and comes out of Heaven. And that holy City coming from Heaven could not but be a most lovely prospect to him that saw it, when the old Jerusalem on Earth had been once so lovely, that it was the glory and joy of the whole Earth, Psal. XLVIII.

Who it was that saw it, he himself tells you, speaking out his name, John: by which I suppose there is none here but understands the blessed Apostle and Evangelist of that name; though time hath been, that some have dreamed of another John: but no account could be given who he was, or whence he came. I shall there∣fore in this matter, which I believe needs but little dispute now, only say these three things.

• I. That it is disagreeable to all reason to think, that our Saviour, when he intended to do some man so much honour and favour, as to impart such noble and glorious visions and revelations to him, as are recorded in this Book, that he should pass by and skip over his own Apostles and Disciples, and should pick out a man, that we all know was no Apostle, that no one knows, whether he were a Disciple or no. But,
• II. It is agreeable to all reason to conceive, that as the man, to whom God vouchsafed the revelation and discovery of the times and occurrences, that were to intervene betwixt his own times and the fall of Jerusalem, was Daniel, a man greatly beloved; so that the John, to whom Christ would vouchsafe the revelation and discovery of the times and oc∣currences, that were to intervene betwixt the Fall of Jerusalem and the end of the World, was John the Disciple greatly beloved.
• III. Of that Disciple Christ had intimated, that he would that he should tarry till ••e came, Joh. XXI. 22. that is, till he should come in vengeance against the Jewish Nation and their City to destroy them; for that his coming, both in that place, and in divers other places in the New Testament, doth mean in that sense, it were very easie to make evident, should we take that subject to insist upon.

Now as our Saviour vouchsafed to preserve him alive to see the Fall and destruction of that City, so also did he vouchsafe to him the sight of a new Jerusalem instead of the old, when that was ruined, laid in ashes and come to nothing. He saw it in Vision, we see it in the Text, and upon that let us six our Eyes and Discourse, for we need not speak more of him that saw it.

In the verse before, he sees a new Heaven and a new Earth, and in this verse a new Je∣rusalem.* 1.1 Something parallel to which is that in Esa. LXV. 17. Behold, I create new Heavens and a new Earth. And in the verse next following, Behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoycing. The expressions intimate the great change of affairs, that should be in the World under the Gospel, from what had been before. A new Heaven, or a change of Church and Religion, from a Jewish to a Gentile Church, and from Mosaick to Evange∣lical Religion. A new Earth, or a change in the World, as to the management or rule of it, from Heathenism to Christianity, and from the rule of the four Heathen Monarchies, Dan. VII. to the Saints, or Christians, to iudge the World; 1 Cor. VI. 2. or being Rulers or Magistrates in it.

And the new Jerusalem is the emblem and Epitome of all these things under this change, as the old Jerusalem had been, before the change came. There is none but knoweth, that Jerusalem, in Scripture language, is very commonly taken for the whole Church then being, as well as it is taken particularly and literally for the City it self then stand∣ing. That City was the Church in little, because there were eminently in it all those things that do make and constitute a true Church, viz. the administration of the Word and divine Ordinances, the Assemblies of the Saints, the Worship of the true God by his own appointment, and the presence of God himself in the midst of all. And can any doubt, but that the new Jerusalem meaneth in the like sense, and upon the like rea∣son, The Church of God under the Gospel, this inriched with all those excellencis and pri∣vileges, that that was, yea and much more? There was the Doctrine of Salvation, but wrapped up in Types and Figures, and dark Prophesies; but here unfolded to the view of every Eye, and Moses vail taken off his face. There Ordinances of divine Worship, but mingled with multitudes of carnal rites; here pure adoration in Spirit and Truth. There an assembly only of one People and Nation; here a general assembly compacted of all Nations. There God present in a cloud upon the Ark; here God present in the communication of his Spirit.

Therefore it is the less wonder that it is called the holy City, because of these things,* 1.2 which is the second circumstance considerable in the words, I saw the new Jerusalem, The holy City. It is observable that the second old Jerusalem (for so let me call the Jerusalem that was built and inhabited after the return out of Captivity) was called the holy City, when goodness and holiness were clean banished out of the City, and become a stranger there. When the Temple had lost its choisest ornaments, and endowments that contri∣buted so much to the holiness of the place and City, The Ark, the cloud of Glory upon it, the Oracle by Urim and Thummim, the fire from Heaven upon the Altar: these were all gone, and Prophesie was utterly ceased from the City and Nation: yet even then it is cal∣led the holy City in this her nakedness.

Nay when the Temple was become a Den of Thieves, and Jerusalem no better, if not worse; when she had persecuted the Prophets and stoned those that were sent unto her, when she had turned all Religion upside down, and out of doors, and worshiped God only according to inventions of men; yet even then, and when she is in that case, she is termed the holy City, Matth. IV. 5. Then the Devil taketh him up into the Holy City, and setteth him on a pinacle of the Temple. Nay when that holy Evangelist had given the story of her crucifying the Holy of Holies, the Lord of life and glory, even then he calls her the holy City, Chap. XXVII. 53. The bodies of many Saints, which slept, arose, and came out of their graves after his Resurrection, and went into the holy City, and appeared to many.

Call me not Naomi but call me Marah, might she very well have said then, and so might others say of her, for it might seem very incongruous to call the holy City, when she was a City so very unholy. She was indeed simply and absolutely in her self most unholy, and yet comparatively The holy City, because there was not a place under Heaven besides, which God had chosen to place his Name there; and there he had: and that was it that gave her that name and title. And while she kept the peculiarity of the thing, she kept the name, but at last forfeited both; and then God finds out another City where to place his Name, A new Jerusalem, A holy City, a holier City; her younger sister fairer than she.

Holy, under the same notion with the other, because God hath placed his Name only* 1.3 there: Holier than she, because he hath placed it there in a more heavenly and spiritual manner than in her, as was touched before. And Holier still, because she shall never lose her holiness as the other did, as we shall touch hereafter. And she cannot, but be holy as I said before, when she comes down from Heaven, and is sent thence by God.

And this is the third thing remarkable in the Text, I saw the new Jerusalem coming down from Heaven. The Apostle S. Paul calls her Jerusalem which is above, Gal. IV. 26. Our Apostle sees her coming down from above; and the Prophet Ezekiel in his fortieth Chapter and forward, seeth her pitched here below when she is come down. She is above,

and yet she is beneath; much as the case was at Mount Sinai, there was a Tabernacle above, the heavenly pattern on the top of the Mount, and there was a Tabernacle be∣neath, the material building and fabrick at the foot.

Jerusalem that is above; intimating that it is not a material building, but a spiritual, that the Builder is not man, but God: and yet that Jerusalem is come down, and is also here below, because it is among men, and consists of men; Men as lively stones being built up into a spiritual house and building, as it is 1 Pet. II. 5. Most commonly in this book of the Revelations, she is called by the very name of Heaven it self, that where you read Heaven you must understand the Church, partly because she is the only Heaven that is up∣on Earth; partly because of the presence of God in the midst of her as in Heaven; and partly because of the holy and heavenly things that are in her; and partly because she is the gate of Heaven, and the only passage whereby to come thither. Upon all which accounts together, it is no wonder that she carries the name of the heavenly Jerusalem, the holy City, and the holy City, that came down from God.

And let this suffice to be spoken concerning the meaning of the New Jerusalem, or what it is, viz. the Gospel Church. The great question and dispute is where it is? And whereas our Apocalyptick saw it coming down from Heaven, the great inquiry is, where it lighted, pitched and took its station? Where is the house of the Prince, and where is this City of the great King? Where is the true Church, this new Jerusalem? The finding, where it is not, will be some direction how to seek it, where it is: and let us begin there first.

I. First therefore, Let me say in this case much like what was said of old by the Hi∣storian concerning the City Samnium, You may look for Samnium there where Samnium stood, and cannot find it. If you look for the new Jerusalem there where the old Jerusa∣lem stood, you will not find it there: though the Jew would have you to look no where else, and have it to be found no where else. It is well known what the conception and expectation of that Nation is in this point: how they look for a most stately Jerusalem to be built where the old one stood, for a pompous Kingdom setled in the Land of Canaan sutable to such a City, and for a pompous Messias riding in the midst of both with state∣liness sutable to both. I shall say no more to this opinion but briefly only this, (for it is not worth speaking much unto) That this opinion helped forward the murther of the true Messias when he came among them. And I much wonder whether the opinion that produced so bad an effect then, can come to any good effect at any time. Because our Saviour, Poor Jesus, did not bring so much pomp and gallantry with him, as that opinion expecteded he was looked upon by them as a false Messias, and under that notion they made him suffer. And it is more than suspitious that such an opinion can prove good, solid and succesful never, that proved so very fatal and mischievous then.

It is true indeed that the Prophet Ezekiel doth delineate his visionary Jerusalem, as sea∣ted in the very place where the old had been: for indeed there was then a Jerusalem to be built there, as it was after the return out of captivity. But whosoever shall take mea∣sure of the dimensions that he giveth to his City in space and compass, will find it to come near, if not to equal, the space and compass of the whole Land of Canaan. And this Apocalyptick, the best interpreter of that Prophet, measuring his square new Jerusalem at vers. 16. of this Chapter, finds it to be twelve thousand furlongs, or fifteen hundred miles, upon every side of the square, six thousand miles about; and the wall about it also fifteen hundred miles high: The wall of Salvation, Esa. XXVI. 1. So that these things considered, a mystical or spiritual sense is enforced here, and for a literal one there is left little or no room at all. And we must look for the new Jerusalem somewhere else, then where the old one stood, for there is not room for it. Where then shall we seek next, since we cannot find it there. Here,

II. I cannot but remember the story in 2 Kings VI. The Syrians are seeking Elisha at Dothan, and he strikes them blind; and this is not the way, says he, this is not the City, but follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek, and he brought them to Samaria. We are seeking the new Jerusalem, and there are those that will tell you (but you must let them blindfold you the first) that you of London, we of England, are out of the way, if we look for any new Jerusalem, any true Church here among us, but follow them, and they will lead you where it is, and they will bring you to Rome. A place where I should as little seek for the new Jerusalem, as I should have sought for the old Jerusalem in Samaria; or as I should have sought for true worshippers, and the place of true wor∣ship at Sichem, and mount Gerizim. When they pretend to lead you to the new Jerusa∣lem, and bring you to Rome, they could hardly lead you to any place under Heaven more unlikely where to find the new Jerusalem, then there.

Our Divines in their writings have evidenced this abundantly, and I shall not trouble you with rehearsing any thing they have spoken. I shall only lay these four Scriptural considerations before you, easie to understand and carry away; and even out of them let

any impartial judgment censure and determine in this case. And first, Two concerning the place and City: And then two concerning the Church and Religion.

I. Concerning the Place and City.

First, As the new Jerusalem is never mentioned in Scripture, but with an honourable and noble character, so Rome on the contrary is never spoken of under any name or title, but with a character as black and dismal. One Memoir only excepted, (which is in her story, as Abijah was in the family of Jeroboam, 1 King. XIV. 13. the only one there, in whom was found any thing that was good.) And that is, that there was once a Church there, whose faith was renounedly spoken of through the whole world, Rom. I. 8. There was so indeed, and there could not be an Antichristian Church there, unless there had been a Christian Church there first: since, There must be a falling away first, that the man of sin might be revealed, 2 Thes. II. 3.

The first mention that you have of Rome in Scripture is in Numb. XXIV. 24. under the name of Chittim: and there it is branded for the great oppressor and afflicter of Na∣tions: and it is finally doomed to perish for ever.

Secondly, You have mention of her armies, Dan. IX. ult. but with this brand upon them, that they are called The abominable army that maketh desolate, there styled by their Vulgar Latine, as in Matth. XXIV. the abomination of desolation.

But thirdly, That which tops up all is, that she is called Babylon in this Book of the Revelations, and described there as she is. For that by Babylon is meant Rome, the Ro∣manists themselves will readily grant you, if you will grant them the distinction of Rome Pagan and Christian, Imperial and Pontifical. And the last verse of Chap. XVII. puts the matter out of all doubt, where it says, that the Woman, the scarlet Whore, which thou sawest is the great City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth. Upon which every one that is acquainted with the Rome-history must needs conclude, that no City can there be understood like the City Rome.

Now it is a very improper inquest to look for the new Jerusalem in a place that must perish for ever; to look for the holy City among the abominable armies, and to look for Sion the City of God in Babylon that Mother of Harlots, and abominations of the Earth.

Secondly, Whereas old Jerusalem and the Jewish Nation incurred so great a curse and guilt for the murther of the Lord of life, as we all know it did; it requireth very co∣gent arguments to prove, that Rome that had a hand as deep in that murther, should ob∣tain so great a blessing, and happiness on the contrary, as to be the only Church in the World, and the Mother of all Churches. There is no Christian but knoweth how deep a hand Jerusalem had in that horrid fact: and he knoweth but little that knoweth not that Pontius Pilate was Deputy for Rome there, and how deeply also he was ingaged in it, as her Deputy.

And so much be spoken concerning the very Place, and how unlikely it is to find the new Jerusalem there. How improper it is to imagine that that should be the City of God, of which God himself in his Word speaks not one good Word, but evil: to imagine that he should choose that of all Cities for his dearest spouse, that of all Cities had the deepest hand in the murther of his dear Son.

II. Concerning their Church and Religion. If these men that pretend to lead men to the new Jerusalem, and lead them to Rome, would but speak out and plain, and tell them that they will lead them to the old Jerusalem, and so lead them to Rome, they speak something likely. For what is the Church and Religion of Rome, but in a manner that of old Jerusalem, translated out of Judaick into Roman, and transplan∣ted out of Palestina into Italy. And there is hardly an easier or a clearer way to discover that she is not the new Jerusalem, then by comparing her with the old: as God doth most clearly discover the Jerusalem then being, Ezek. XXIII. by comparing her with Samaria and Sodom divers hours would scarce serve to observe the parallel in all particulars, and punctually to compare the Transcript with the Original: I shall only and briefly hint two things to you to that purpose. And,

First, Let me begin with that distinction that the Jews have in their writings once and again; of the Mosaick Law, and the Judaick Law, or the Law of Moses, and the Law of the Jews. And they will tell you, such and such things are transgressions of the Mosaick Law, and such and such are transgressions of the Judaick Law. And as they themselves do make the distinction, so they themselves did cause the distinction. What they mean by the Mosaick Law, we all understand, and by their Judaick Law, they mean their Traditional Law, which they call the Law unwritten. While they kept to the Law of Moses for a rule of faith and life, as they did under the first Temple, they did well in point of Doctrine, and no heresie and heterodoxy tainted them: but when they re∣ceived and drank in Traditions, as they did under the second Temple, they drank in their own bane and poison.

There is in Scripture frequent mention of the last days, and the last times: by which is meant most commonly the last days of old Jerusalem, and of the Jewish oeconomy, when they were now drawing toward their dissolution. But from what date or time to begin her last days may be some question. If you date them from the time she first received and entertained her traditions, you do but fit the calculation to the nature of the thing calculated. For then did she fall into the consumption and disease that brought her to her grave: then did she catch that infection and plague, that never left her, but grew upon her, till it made her breath her last in a fatal end. Traditions spoiled her Religion, and brought her to worship God in vain, teaching for Doctrines the commandments of men, Matth. XV. 9. Traditions spoiled her manners, and trained her up in a vain conversation, received by tradition from the Fathers, 1 Pet. I. 18. In a word, Traditions, as they made the Law, so they made the Gospel of no effect; and the doctrine of Christ, the death of Christ, the belief in Christ, to be but needless business, and things to no purpose. Nay Traditions leavened them to hate the Gospel, to murther Christ, and to persecute his Disciples. For by the principles of their Traditions they could do no less than all these.

Now surely Jerusalem that is above is above this infection; and the new holy City certainly brought no such infection from Heaven, nor was tainted with this contagion, which was the death of the old: as a Priest in Israel could hardly be infected with Lepro∣sie. But you may see the tokens upon the Church of Rome very thick; traditions upon traditions; some of so like stamp to those of old Jerusalem, that you can hardly know them asunder; but all of the like effect and consequence, that they make the Gospel of none effect, as those did the Law; and causing men to worship God in vain, while they are taught for Doctrines the commandments of men. How great a part of their Religion is nothing else but the commandments of men, and other Traditions, and how great a part of their Church is built upon nothing else? The very chief▪ corner stone in all their fabrick is of no better substance and solidity, viz. that S. Peter was Bishop there, and there was martyred, when the Scripture and reason gives a far fairer probability that he was Apostle to the circumcision in Babylonia, and there ended his days.

Secondly, You would hardly think that there was a worse brood in the old Jerusalem, than those that we have spoken of; the men so infected with the Plague (and with a Frenzy with it) of traditions. And yet I can name you a worse, and that was those that had forsaken their Judaism, and entertained and embraced the Gospel, but at last apostatized from it, and revolted to their old Judaism again; to their old Mosaick rites, which sometime had been right, but now antiquated, and to their traditional principles, which had never been right, but now least of all to have been embraced; and to a dead∣ly hatred and persecution of the Gospel, that they once professed.

How the Apostles speak of and against this Apostasie in their Epistles, I need not tell you, he that runs may read it: But he that stands still, and reads presely will find, that they find The Antichrist, that then was, in that Apostasie. I say the Antichrist, that then was. For the Scripture gives a hint of a twofold Antichrist, one in the Epistles, and the other in this Book of the Revelation: one that was in those times, and the other that was to be afterwards: one among the Jews that had embraced the Gospel, and the other among the Gentiles, which should embrace it. And if you will let the unbelieving Jew to be one part of the Antichrist, that then was, the Apostatized Jew was much more. Many Antichrists in those times, as this our Apostle tells us, 1 Joh. II. 18. but those were they especially of whom he speaks immediately after; They went out from us, but they were not of us. And the like character do these Apostates carry in other places in the Epistles in terms equivalent.

Now therefore the nearest way to discover the Antichrist, that was to be in after times among the Gentiles, is by observing his likeness and similitude to the former, viz. in apo∣statizing from the pure and sincere profession of the Gospel to Judaism, or to Mosaick manner of worship, and Judaick principles and Religion.

Which how the Church of Rome hath done, it would require a long time to compare in all particulars; but it will require a far longer time for her to clear her self from that just accusation. How near doth she come to Judaism in the doctrine of Justification? how near in the doctrine of opus operatum? How near in the doctrine of expiation by bare Confession? How near in the doctrine of the value of Traditions? And one for all, how near in turning all Religion into Ceremony? Their present year of Jubilee is it not Mosaick? And were you there at it, and saw the manner of their devotions, their for∣mal Services, and Ceremonious Worship, would you not think you were in the old Jeru∣salem among the Scribes and Pharisees, rather than in the the new, where the true wor∣shipers worship the Father in spirit and truth.

So that when we departed from the Church of Rome, we did but the same thing, that the Apostles, Disciples, and other holy converts of the Jewish Nation did; they forsook Judaism to embrace the purity of the Gospel. And so did we. And in the way that they call Heresie we worship God.

If I have trespassed too much upon your patience by so prolix a discourse upon so un∣pleasing a subject, I must crave your pardon. We enquiring after the new Jerusalem, where we might find it, come to the place where your ways parted, and one went right, and the other wrong. The wrong way is the broader, pleasanter, and more trodden; and not a few that stand in it, and cry, This is the right way, and no other. It is good to give warning, it is needful to take warning, that we be not misled, that the men and the way do not deceive us.

And having thus far observed where the new Jerusalem is not to be found, let us now look where it is.

And, first, we must not expect to find it in any one particular place, as you might have done the old Jerusalem; but it is dispersed here and there abroad in the World. It is the Catholick Church, as we are taught in our Creed, and it is not in one only, but in this, and that, and the other Nation. When the new Jerusalem is to be measured in Zach. II. an Angel bids, O run after yonder young man, that is to measure it, and tell him, that Jeru∣salem shall be inhabited as a City without walls, for the multitude of men and cattel that shall be therein. It is a City unlimited, and therefore not to be bounded within this or that compass. We may use this Paradox of it, That it is a fluid and yet a fixed body, nay fixed because fluid: that is, it is moving sometime into one place, sometime into another, and therefore it shall never fade or perish.

The Jews accused S. Stephen of Heresie and blasphemy, because he said, that the Church and Religion should not alway be pinned to that City and Temple, but taken away. In his answer he sheweth, that the Church and Religion is a Pilgrim, one while in one place, another while in another: in Mesopotamia, in Charran, in Canaan, in Egypt. And our own observation may tell us, that when it failed in Egypt, and Israel followed the Idols and manners of that Land, as Ezek. XX. that then God found himself a Church in the family of Job and his three friends. The saying of our Saviour may suffice for this, The Kingdom of Heaven shall be taken from you, and given to a people, that shall bring forth the fruits of it. And this is that that makes it fixed, or never failing, because when it decayeth in one place it groweth in another. And that promise of our Saviour will ever maintain it in life and being, Upon this rock will I build my Church of the Go∣spel, and the gates of Hell shall never prevail against it: as they have done against the Church of the Jews.

In Matth. XXIV. when Christ foretels of the desolation of that City, Church and Nation, that their Sun and Moon and Stars, Religion and Church and State, should be darkned, and fall, and come to nothing: and they should then see the Son of man, whom they would never own, coming in a thick cloud, and storm of vengeance against them; it might be questioned, where then will God have a Church, when that is gone? He gives an answer, That the Son of man should send his Angels, or Ministers, with the sound of a trumpet, the trumpet of the Gospel, and gather him a Church from all the corners under Heaven. To which may not improperly be applied that, Heb. XII. 22. Ye are come to an innumerable company of Angels. God will never want his Church, but if it be not in one place, it will be in another.

Secondly, There is an invisible Church as well as a visible. Pauls Jerusalem which is above and out of sight, as well as Ezekiels Jerusalem pitched here below. There is com∣monly some invisible Church within the visible, as Ezekiels wheel within a wheel. But there is sometimes an invisible Church, where there is none visible, as those seven thou∣sand men in the days of Elias, when he could not discern one. The Apostle speaking of the new Jerusalem, that we are speaking of, in that place of the Epistle to the Hebrews before alledged, among other things saith, Ye are not come to the Mount that might be touched, meaning Mount Sinai, but ye are come to Mount Sion. One would think when he spake of Mount Sinai, he should rather have called it, the Mount that might not be touched; for God charged that neither man nor beast should touch it, Exod. XIX. But you may see the Apostles meaning, That the Mystical Mount Sion is not such a gross earthly thing, as Mount Sinai was, that was subject to sense and feeling, to be seen and felt and trod upon: but that Sion is a thing more pure, refined and abstract from such sensibleness, spiritual and heavenly.

And from this undeniable notion of a Church invisible, we may easily answer that captious, and scornful question, that you know who put upon us, Where was your Church and Religion before Luther? Why, it was in the Jerusalem that is above, out of the reach, and above the ken of mans discerning: it was upon Mount Sion, above the sphere of sight and sense. It was in such a place and case, as the Church and Religion

was in, when there were seven thousand men, that never bowed the knee 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to the Golden Heiser at Dan or Bethel; and yet the greatest Prophet then being could not dis∣cern the least sign of any Church at all. Now,

Thirdly, The new Jerusalem must be known by her Pearls and Jewels, upon which it is founded and built up. True Religion is that that must distinguish and discover the true Church. And where that is, it is like the Wisemens Star over the house at Bethlehem, that points out, and tells, Jesus, and his Church is hero. I must confess I do not well un∣derstand that concession of some of our Protestant Divines, that yield, That the Church of Rome is a corrupt Church indeed, but yet a true Church. For I do not well understand how there should be a true Church under a false Religion. If the Church of the Jews, under the great corruption of Religion, that was in it might be called a true Church, that was all it could look for. And it must have that title rather because there was never a Church in the World beside it, than from any claim by Religion. But what do you call true Religion?

1. First, That which is only founded on the Word of God; as the Wall of the new Jerusalem, in vers. 14. of this Chapter, is founded upon twelve pearls engraven with the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.

2. That Religion that tends directly to the honouring, of God and saving of souls, and is adequate to these ends. In short, That Religion that can bring to Heaven. For I so little believe, that any man may be saved in any Religion, that I believe there is only one Religion, in which any man may be saved. And when Moses can bring Israel only to the skirts of the Land of Promise, I hardly believe that any Religion will bring them into it.

Though one should not stick to grant that a person may be saved in the Church of Rome, yet should I question, whether in the Faith of Rome. And it is the Faith or Doctrine of a Church more especially that I mean by the Religion of it. Let a Romanist ride all the stages of his Religion, from his uncouth kind of Baptism to his extream Un∣ction, through his auricular Confessions and Absolutions, through his Penances and Pardons, through his Massings and Crossings, through all his Devotions and Austerities: will all these bring to Heaven, if the main fundamentals of Faith be faulty and failing? Nay if the main fundamentals of belief be clean contrary to the way of God to Heaven? A Scribe or Pharisee in old Jerusalem is as devout in Religion, and as strict and severe in out∣ward conversation as is imaginable, that you would think sanctity it self were there; yet will all this bring to Heaven, when the chief principles of his Faith are directly con∣trary to the way of Salvation; while he believes to be justified by his own works, and places all in opere operato, in a little formal and ceremonial service? Like him in the story and on the stage, that cried, O! Heaven, and pointed down to the Earth; these pre∣tended for Heaven in their practical Devotions, but pointed downward in their Doctri∣nal principles.

I shall not insist to illustrate those particulars that I mentioned; I suppose they carry their own proof and evidence with them, that they are most proper touchstones, where∣by to try the truth of a Church and Religion. And it is our comfort that we can, that we do, that we desire to bring our Religion to such Tests and touchstones, and refuse not, but most gladly appeal to the impartial Judge, the Word of God, to give judg∣ment of it. I shall not therefore undertake so needless a task, as to go about to prove the truth of our Faith and Religion, since so many Protestant pens have so clearly, and so abundantly done it, far more learned than my Tongue. And since I may make such an Appeal to you, as the Apostle did to King Agrippa, King Agrippa, believest thou the Prophets? I know thou believest. Fathers and Brethren, believe you the Truth of our Religion? I know you believe it. Then I have no more to do but to offer two or three words of humble exhortation and entreaty, viz. Prize it, Cleave to it, Beau∣tifie it.

I. Prize it; for it is the chiefest jewel in all our Cabinet: And the wisest Merchant in all your City cannot find out a Pearl of greater price. It is the life of our Nation at home, and it is the honour of our Nation abroad. It is that that makes our Land a Royal Street of the new Jerusalem. It is that that must make your City a holy City.

We see a new London, as our Apocalyptick saw a new Jerusalem. The buildings stately and magnificent, the furniture sumptuous and very splendid, the shops rich and bravely furnished, the wealth great and very affluent: but your Religion the all in all. As it was said in old time that Athens was the Greece of Greece, and as it may be said at this time that London is the England of England, so let your Religion be the London of London. It is that by which your City must stand and flourish, by which your prosperity must be watered and maintained, and the An••ile, which kept in safety, will keep us in safety.

II. Keep therefore close to your Religion, and leave it not. Dread revolting from the true Religion. The Apostasie in the Apostles times was the sin unto death, in our Apoca∣lypticks first Epistle, and last Chapter. And there is an Apostasie in our time but too com∣mon and to be deplored with tears, to a Religion but too like to that, to which they then revolted. I would therefore that those that are tempted either by the lightness of their own hearts, or by the Emissaries of Rome, to revolt from their Religion, would remember that dreadful saying of the Apostle, Heb. X. 26. If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin; but a fearful expectation of judgment, and firy indignation, which shall devour the adversary. Which is spoken peculiarly of Apostasie, or else it were a passage too terrible for all flesh.

Hannibals father took him at nine years of age to an Altar, and there swore him never to have confederacy and friendship with Rome. If all the World had alway been under such a tye, it had been happy for it. I hope our Religion, our Hearts, our God will keep us from entring into league and society with that City, that had so deep a hand in the murther of our dear Saviour, and in the blood of his dear Saints.

III. Lastly, Let us strive to adorn our Religion with a sutable conversation: to beautifie our Church with the beauty of Holiness. We desire to be owned for Citizens of the new Jerusalem: and whereas our Religion may give us some title to it, it is holiness of conversation that must naturalize and enfranchise us. The new Jerusalem doth chalenge a new conversation: and doth not a new London new Hearts and Lives? The City so stately and sumptuously built up, if such top stones be laid on, we may comfortably and joyfully cry, Grace, grace, Peace, peace unto it.

Notes

• * 1.1

  I.
• * 1.2

  II.
• * 1.3

  III.