The carnality of religious contention in two sermons preached at the merchant's lecture in…The carnality of religious contention in two sermons preach'd at the merchant's lecture in…

Thi• •s a most high Usurpation upon Divine Prerogative; and how can any insensibly slide into such an Evil as this, in the Face of so plain and so awful a Text of Scripture, that so severely animadverts upon it? T•at 14th ⟨p. 67⟩Romans, in sundry Verses of it. With what Reverence and Dread should it strike a Man's Soul in such a case! When we have the Rights of the Redeemer asserted in those whom he hath bought with his Blood? And are told that for this end Christ both died and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the Dead and Living, ver. 9. And it's thereupon further said to us, Who art thou that judgest another's Servant, as ver. 10. Why dost thou judge thy Brother, or set at nought thy Brother? We must all stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ. We are all of us his, he both died, and revived, and rose again, that he might be Lord of all, as Acts 10. 36. And here of dead and living, i. e. That he might be Owner of all, which is the first Notion of Dominus or Lord, and in both Worlds, the Visible and the Invisible, that into which many are dead; and deceased from hence, and so to us become invisible; and many that, yet surviving, are still visible to us. So ample is his Dominion! And because the Jus▪ Imperii, the night of Government, ⟨p. 68⟩of which Judgment is the last, conclusive Act, hath for it's Foundation the Jus Dominii; 'tis therefore asserted to him as the Coronis and Complement, the very Summity of his acquired Rights, that he is to finish all things by the last Judgment, which must pass upon both the already dead, and the yet living. Thus is the ground of the Expostulation laid. Who art thou who presumest to jostle him out of this his Supreme and most Sacred right? Perhaps the matter disputed about may be doubtful, but there is no doubt concerning this incommunicable Authority of our Lord Christ, or concerning his Law against such Judging, Matth. 7. 1. and to run into certain sin in a furious chasing of uncertain Error! What Consideration? What Tenderness of offending, of affronting him, and of hazarding our own Souls is there in all this?