A word in season, for a warning to England: or a prophecy of perillous times open'd and apply'd. Wherein the signes of bad times, and the means of making the times good, are represented as the great concernment of all good Christians in this present age. First exhibited in a sermon preached in the Abby at Westminster, July 5. 1659. and since enlarged and published. / By Thomas VVilles, M.A. minister of the Gospel, in the city of London.

The second Case. Protection of Errour and false-Worship.

VVHen Errour and False-worship [unspec II] hath as much Countenance and Protection from men in Authority as Truth and the true worship of God, the Times must needs be perillous. When the Harlot hath equal favour with the Queen, and the Stews as strong a guard as the Palace. When Thieves and Robbers shall be as quietly per∣mitted, and as fully protected in stealing and robbing as the faithful Shepheard in watching his Flock, and painful Labourer in working in the vine-yard. When Mad∣men shall be suffer'd to go up and down with naked swords in their hands, to kill and slay all that are not able to resist them. When Plague-sick men shall have freedome to walk the streets; and our Enemies full li∣berty to impoyson our Springs. When a Guard shall be granted to them that come to throw Baits of Wild-fire into the City of God, for the kindling of those fires that cannot be quenched. When men shall be protected in their undermining the founda∣tions of the House of God, and in bringing

in their Powder and March to blow it up. When those shall be admitted Stewards of Divine Mysteries, who put Poyson into the meat of the Kings children, the Times must needs be sad and perillous. When illitera••e Mechanicks shall be allow'd to be publick Preachers, who shall confidently vent the grossest Errours for glorious Truths. When those that publickly cast contempt upon the Call of the Ministry, upon that Ordinance of God, which is the onely Gos∣pel-way for the Investment of fit persons with Ministerial Authoritie, ORDINA∣TION shall be suffer'd to usurp the Mi∣nisterial Office, and impudently to chal∣lenge the Churches Dowry, meerly so violating of her Chastity, or if that faile, for falsely accusing her to be be a Harlot. When so wide a Gap shall be cut out by the Sword into this sacred Function, that Po∣pish Priests and Jesuites, in a Disguise, may enter in, and have as much Counte∣nance and Encouragement as the ablest Or∣thodox Minister of the Gospel. When a Schismatick shall be the onely Chirurgion allow'd to heale the Churches Breaches; and a Wolfe shall be set over the Flock of Christ; and the Souls of men shall be com∣mitted to the charge of one of the chiefe Agents of Satan, are not these Dayes of Danger and Distress, perillous Times?

When multitudes of discordant opinions, and Diversities of Religion, or wayes of

worship are tolerated by the Civil Magi∣strate, in his Dominion, the Church of Christ is turn'd into a Chaos of Confusion. This indeed was a piece of the Pagan-Poli∣cy of the Egyptian Kings, for the pre∣vention of whatever Conspiracies might prove prejudicial to their Establishment in their Kingdome. For with what Rigour soever they rul'd over the People subject∣ed to their Scepter, while they kept them at a Di••••ance one from another by Diver∣sities of Religion, they judg'd there was lesse danger of their conspiring together, or uniting their strength to cast off the Yoke and Burden laid upon them. For still one Faction would be jealous of another, and so while they were divided by different de∣signes, they could hardly be ever united in one Common Interest. But it must needs go ill with the Church of Christ when such carnal and cursed Policies have place in a Christian Common-wealth. Hereunto there∣fore we shall oppose what we finde in the learned and judicious Casuist Baldwin, upon this Question; Whether it be con∣sistent with Peace of Conscience & publick safety to admit of more then one Religion in a well-constituted Common-Wealth?

Having mention'd the Opinions and

Judgement of some others in this matter he thus concludes, It is therefore con∣fessed on all Hands, that, that Magistrate does grievously sin a∣gainst GOD and his Subjects, who volun∣tarily admits, re∣ceives, cherishes, or without any necessity, retains divers Religi∣ons in the Common-Wealth, which he might have made Pro∣vision against. For he does no other then in∣troduce a confused ig∣norance and opinion of God (which Plato call'd the chiefest Plague of all Com∣mon-wealths) foras∣much as he destroys the foundation of all humane society, who is injurious to Religi∣on.

Wherefore Tholo∣sanus judged that if a Magistrate should admit of whatsoever Religions should a∣rise,

he was proceed∣ed against as an un∣derminer of the Com∣mon-wealth, and a privy traytor to his Countrey, and so not on∣ly to be deprived of his Authority and Dig∣nity of governing, but also if he was a King, of his Kingdome and Dominions, which should become a prey and possession to them which should have freed them from such a plague; and this he asserts to be done by a new constitution of the Emperour Frede∣rick.

This resolve I shall leave to the censure of them that shall peruse it; only this I shall say (& that I conceive upon a sufficient ground) that an Authoritative Allowance and publick Protection of diversities of Opinion & Practice, about the Fundamentals of Doctrine and Wor∣ship, in the same Religion, is every whit as pernicious as the Toleration of different Re∣ligions. For as in the liberty of different Religions, People are in danger to be drawn off from the true Religion to a false, so does the allowance of different opinions and practices about fundamentals, tend to the utter subversion of the true Religion, to the manifest and inevitable Ruine and Destruction of mens pretious and immortal soules. The Magistratical Protection then of Errours in Religion, and different ways of Worship, swarving from the rule of the Word of God, must needs speak the times

perillous; especially when this LIBERTI∣NISME shall be establisht by LAW, rec∣kon'd amongst the just rights and Priviledges of the People of God, and accounted a GLORIOUS LIBERTY. When the Plague is thus far broke out a∣mongst us, we may all write upon our Doors, LORD HAVE MERCY UPON US.

Notes

• Vid. Dio. Sicul. de Egypt. Reg lib. 11.
• Num consultum est Conscientiis & saluti pub∣licae, plures quam unam, in bene constituta Repub∣lica, admittere Religio∣nem?
• †

  D. Bald∣win. de Cas. Conse. l. 2. c. 6. cas. 3.
• Idcirco apud omnes in confesso est, Magistra∣tum illum graviter pec∣care in DEUM & sub∣ditos, qui Religiones va∣rias, quas praecavere po∣tuisset, in Republica voluntarie admittit, re∣cipit, fovet, aut absque ulla necessitate retinet. Is enim nihil aliud facit, quam quod confusam Dei ignorantiam & O∣pinionem (quam Plato summam omnium rerum publica••um Pestem ap∣pellavit) introducit, si∣quidem omnis humanae Societatis Fundamentum convellit, qui Religioni est noxius.

  Qua propter Tholo∣sanus censuit, Magistra∣tum, si adventitias Re∣ligiones admiserit, tan∣quam Rei publicae ever∣sorem & clancularium Patriae Proditorem, pri∣vandum esse Authoritate & Dignitate gubernandi non tantum, sed & si Rex fuerit, Regno ac Ditionibus suis; quae in praedam & Possessionem eorum veniant qui eas illa lue liberaverint, id{que} per novam constitutionem Friderici Imperatoris fieri adserit.
• Lib. 19. de Legibus.
• †

  Lib. 2. de Eunomia.