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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80782	An abstract of some late characters. Or, how the principall means appointed for our reformation is become the maine fuell of our wickednes. Laid downe in sundry characters of L. Bishops. Dumb dogs. Non-residenciaries. Men-pleasers. Unpreaching ministers, that edify to damnation, by their scandalous living. false wresting. mis-applying the Scripture. So turning the truth of God into a lye, that they may discourage the godly; incourage the wicked. In which the blind world may see, to their shame, how Satan guls them with a multitude of misprisions, and false surmises against the godly; that so he may barricado [sic] their hearts against all good. Necessary to be knowne in these times of discovery.	Cranford, James, d. 1657, attributed name.; Craufurd, James, 17th cent, attributed name.	1643 (1643)	Wing C6851B; Thomason E67_35; ESTC R7704	68,958	47

AN ABSTRACT of some late CHARACTERS OR How the principall means appointed for our Reformation is become the maine fuell of our Wickednes Laid downe in Sundry Characters of L. Bishops Dumb Dogs Non-Residenciaries Men-Pleasers Unpreaching Ministers that Edify to damnation By their Scandalous Living False wresting The Scripture Mis-applying The Scripture So turning the Truth of GOD into a Lye that they may Discourage the Godly Incourage the Wicked In which the Blind world may see to their shame how Satan guls them with a multitude of Misprisions and false surmises against the Godly That so he may Barricado their hearts against all Good Necessary to be knowne in these times of Discovery LONDON Printed for James Crumpe and are to be sold at his house in Little Bartholomews in Well-yard 1643. 1 For L. B. WOe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites For ye shut up the Kingdome of heaven against men For ye neither goe in your selves neither suffer ye them that are entring to goe in Ye have taken away the key of knowledge c. Luk. 11. 52. Mat. 23. 13. See more v. 4 5 6 7. 23 24 25. 27 28. to 36. Joh. 11. 47 48. 53. and 12. 10 11. 3 Joh. 9. 10. 2 For D. D. Her watchmen are blind They are Shepherds that cannot understand They are all ignorant They are all Dumb-Dogs they cannot barke They are greedy dogs that can never have enough Isa 56. 10 11. See more Heb. 13 17. Ezek. 3. 17 to 22. and 33. 6 7. and 34. 10. Luk. 16. 2. 10. to 16. 1 Pet. 5. 2 3 4. 3 For. N. R. Woe be to the Shepherds of Israel that doe feed themselves should not the Shepherds feed the flockes ye eat the fat and ye cloath you with the wooll ye kill them that are fed but ye feed not the flocke The diseased have ye not strengthened neither have ye healed that which was sicke neither have ye bound up that which was broken nor brought againe that which was driven away nor sought that which was lost But with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them They were scattered because there was no Shepherd They became meat c. Ezek. 34. 2. to 2● See more Prov. 27. 23. Ezek. 3. 17. to 22. and 33. 6 7. and 34. 10. Mat. 13. 25. Luk. 16 2. 10. to 16. Joh. 10. 1. 3 4 5. 10 12 13. Act. 20. 28. Heb. 13. 17. 1 Pet. 5. 2 3 4. 4 For M. P. Prophecy no more at Bethel for it is the Kings Chappell and it is the Kings Court c. Amos 7. 13. We preach not our selves but CHRIST JESVS the LORD c. 2 Cor. 4. 5. My speech and my preaching was not with the inticing words of mans wisdome but in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power That your faith should not stand in the wisdome of men but in the power of GOD 1 Cor. 2. 4 5. See more 2 Cor. 2. 17. and 4. 2. and 10. 4 5. Joh. 5. 43. Phil. 1. 15 16. 1 King 22. 13. 5 For S. M. Thou which teachest another teachest thou not thy selfe Thou that preachest a man should not steale dost thou steale Thou that saist a man should not commit adultery dost thou commit adultery c. Rom. 2. 21 10 25. From the Prophets of Jerusalem is prophanenesse gone forth into all the Land Jerem. 23. 15. Looke Levit. 10. 3. Psal 50. 16 17. 6 For U. M. They justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousnesse of the righteous from them Isai 5. 23. Ye slay the soules that should not dye and save the soules alive that should not live by your lying to my people that heare your lies With your lies you have made the hearts of the righteous sad whom I have not made sad and strengthened the hands of the wicked that hee should not returne from his wicked way by promising him life Ezek. 13. 19. 22. The leaders of my people cause them to erre and they that are led by them are destroyed Isai 9. 16. Looke more 1 King 22. 23. Jer. 5. 31. and 8. 10. 11. and 9. 3. and 14. 14. and 23. 2 3. 9 10 11 13 14 15 16 17 21 22. 26 27 28 29. 32 36. Act. 20. 29 30. 7 For the People Beleeve not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of GOD. Because many false Prophets are gone out into the world 1 Joh. 4. 1. Beware lest any man spoyle you through Philosophy and vaine deceit after the Tradition of men after the Rudiments of the world and not after CHRIST Colos 2. 8. See more Joh. 5. 43. and 7. 17. Mat. 24. 11. 24. Rom. 16. 17 18. 1 Joh. 4. 5 6. Characters of L. Bishops Dum Dogs Non-residenciaries Men-pleasers Unpreaching Ministers c. IT is the Abstract of Religion To imitate him whom we worship Neither are we worthy to be called Christians except we imitate CHRIST and square our lives according to the Rule of his Word Whence Linacre reading upon the New Testament the 5 6 and 7. Chapters of Saint Matthews Gospel and comparing those rules with Christians lives hee threw downe the Booke and burst forth into this Protestation Either this is not GODS Gospel Or we are not Christians And certainly if the Tith of us be Christians who call our selves so there are abundance of Christians in Hell For what eyes can but run over to see for the most part what lives men lead Now what should be the reason of this For it may move wonder to astonishment since we cannot be ignorant of what GOD requires in his Word For every house hath a Bible which plainely shewes that we need no other ground of our last and heavyest doome then Ye have not given ye have not visited c. Mat. 25. 41. to 46. And CHRIST hath continued his Gospel among us now above fourescore yeares with such supply of Able Ministers that no Nation under heaven may compare with us Having often and seriously thought of it I find that the onely cause why so few are Reformed is The many advantages which Satans instruments have in tempting to leudnesse above GODS servants in perswading to holinesse Some whereof are these which I can but name being injoyned to contract a large Volume within the compasse of a sheet or two of Paper Oh! that we could minde them so much as they concerne us First Satans instruments are farre more in number For whereas few have the courage to exhort others unto holinesse Satan who is stiled in Scripture The God of this world The Prince that ruleth in the aire and that Spirit which worketh in all the children of disobedience Ephes 2. 2. hath his tempters in every corner As Where shall a man come and not find seducers namely Drunkards ot Swearers or Adulterers or Idolaters or Sabbath breakers or scoffers at Religion or persecuters of the godly and the like who seduce both by voyce and by example and are set on worke by Satan as Apprentises

then ever the Author meant it sometimes taking the words against the meaning Often making a meaning against the words Either suppressing some of the words or not expressing the true sense As if they would conveigh away the Gold and throw us the Bagge That to utter their Damned Commodities they deale as some Tradesmen about their badde Wares Put out the True lights and set up False in their stead That they wound the truth in her owne coat And as Jacob put on the garments of Esau his Brother to deceive Isaak his Father So these in the apparell of their Elder Brother CHRIST seek to beguile the Church their Mother That they have not the Scripture so much for a Text as for a Pretext In choosing whereof they e●re also by inverting the order For they first make their Sermons and then look for a Text which they take out too with the left hand Though indeed there is not a Text of Sacred truth which their Glosse corrupts not For as GOD brings Good out of Evill so these bring Evill out of Good Wherein they come so farre short of Paul who comparing himselfe with the false Apostles 2 Cor. 4. 2. saith We walke not in craftinesse neither handle we the word of God deceitfully But in declaration of the truth we approve our selves to every mans conscience in the sight of GOD. That they are worse then Balaam who when Balaak said What hast thou done I tooke thee to Curse mine enemies And behold Thou hast Blessed them altogether answered Though he had as good a minde to Curse the Children of Israel as these the people of GOD and said Must I not take heede to speake that which the LORD hath put in my mouth Numb 23. 11 12. Being such false teachers as Saint Peter foretels of that Bring upon themselves swift destruction 2 Pet. 2. 1 2. And Saint Jude Jud. vers 4. Being ungodly men crept in unawares who turne the Grace of GOD into Lasciviousnesse being before of old ordained to Condemnation It is said Revel 22. which is the Closing up of the Bible If any man shall adde unto these things GOD shall adde unto him the Plagues that are written in this booke And if any man shall take away from the words of this booke GOD shall take away his part out of the booke of life and out of the holy City and from the things that are written in this booke vers 18. 19. I wish these men would minde it and what a faire businesse they make of it so wresting the Book of Grace that they quite wrest themselves out of the Book of Life Yea Destruction is threatned to every Prophet that shall but Conceale the truth or forbeare to Reprove Sinne sharply Ezek. 3. 17. 18 19. 23 8. 1 Cor. 9. 16. and other places How much more in this Case For alleadging Scripture to maintaine thy sinne and to revile holinesse is to presume to wrest GODS weapons out of his hand and as it were to wound him with his owne Sword And I wonder how they dare climbe up into the Pulpit with such a purpose for feare lest Thunder should strike them downe againe But to speake to them who have sworne allegeance to the Prince of darknesse is labour in vaine 2. Another slight of theirs is this Knowing that if the Cup of their poyson were not rubd with Hony it would not downe And that their base Coine would not passe except they mixe it with a considerable quantity of good money They will not vent their devilish Doctrines without a mixture of some wholsome Truths like as Gardeners will sow among the herbs that are wholsome and pleasant others noysome and venomous Or rather Hannibal who to intrap his enemies mixed their Wine with Mandrakes whose operation is betwixt Sleepe and Poyson Or as Avicen was made away by Annoynting the booke with poyson which he was to read Or rather like the Devil who as Lactantius saith many times spake truth in Oracles to the intent he might shadow his falsehoods the more cunningly These men are the Servants of the most-high GOD which shew unto us the way of salvation Acts 16. 17. Who would look for the Devill under the habit of such good counsell But what 's his reason He makes a shew of under-propping the truth but he meant to undermine it This old Fox like the Fox in the Fable never praiseth the Law but when it may make away for his booty Wherefore Paul cast out the soule Spirit that confest him For though he spake true he knew to what hellish purpose he spake it And our Saviour another who worshipped him and confest him to be the Sonne of the most-high GOD. Mark 5. 7. 8. Deceit gets credit in small matters that it may cousen in things of greater weight The Dequoy will suffer the simple man to winne for a while till he hath whetted him on Then he foists in false Dice and after leaves him in the lurch If fraudulent Merchants had not some Good Wares their Base ones would not be saleable But the Good must help away with the Bad. So if these spake nothing but true they could not deceive us if nothing but false we would not beleeve them Therefore they mingle the one with the other as men mingle poyson with good and savory meat when they intend to destroy And this their crafty and deceitfull kind of wresting and mis-applying the Word they have immediately learnt from the Devil him selfe whose Chaplaines they are For he hath used this kind of handling the Scripture ever since Adam was in the state of Innocency as appeares by Gen. 3. 4 5. and many other instances 1 King 22. 21 22. 1 Sam. 28. 19. Psal 91. 11. Matth. 4. 6. Mar. 1. 24. c. Yet to give the Devil his due I doe not finde Satan in all the Scripture to be so injurious against GOD as these men For what is recorded of him worse then this uttering it by the month of that Assyrian Monarch I will Ascend and be like the most-High Isa 14. 13 14. It was great blasphemy for the Devil to say so But it is greater blasphemy to Personate GOD and bring him in saying I will Descend and be like the Prince of Darknesse And what is it better to make the Scripture GODS owne Oracles to Descend to the Disgracing of Verme and true Religion And to the Magnifying of Vice and Impiety The Discouraging of the Good and Incouraging of the Wicked Surely this is to make GOD like the Devill CHRIST like Anti Christ and to bring downe the Holy GHOST in stead of the Likenesse of a Dove in the shape of a Vulture or Raven So that however these Beasts like tha● other Beast Rev. 13. 11. have Hornes like the Lamb would seeme to deliver nothing but Scripture yet they Speake like the Dragon Yea worse then the Dragen And it is hard for ignorant people who are unacquainted with these kind of wiles not to

thirty or forty in a Shire were put out of their ministry at a time But who and what were they Dum-Dogs Or Non Residenciaries Or Men-Pleasers Or Scandalous Ministers Or these Serpentine-Preacherst No. Not One of them But such as were too Zealous and painfull That Preached twice upon a Sabbath day That had Tender-Consciences and would not Read and Allow of sporting upon the LORDS-day That were more Obedient to GODS Lawes then to the Bishops Canons Preferring an innocent and Holy Life before a White Surplice Such as were Flockt after As I have heard a Bishop at the High-Commission-Board Chafe at the Chaplaines in these and the like words Is it fit that such a one should be suffered to preach when all the Towne followes him He meant When so many soules were converted by him As who did feele the smart of their Censures so much as those Ministers who by their faithfull and powerfull preaching made their Hea●ers of Naturall men to become Christians Indeed such Courts were appointed for the Correction of Vices But now they Cherished Vice and corrected Vertue I may now blessed be GOD call A Spade a Spade Foure yeares since this Gall was so impatient of spurring that a Minister could not Speake the Truth without Hazarding the Pillory Whipping Post Losse of Eares slitting of Nostrils and Branding in the face The case of Doctor Layton for a Book that if wise men may be beleeved hath a world of worth in it As for Mr. Prynne Dr. Bastwicke and Mr. Burton they are fresh in memory And having silenc'd these Whom did they place in their roomes But such most of them that Even the Devill himselfe if he did make and send forth Ministers Could not finde worse upon the earth For if he would have worse he must bring them from hell The Synod of Constantinople out of experience did find that in those times among fifty Catholike Priests hardly one could be found that was not a Notorious Fornicator And that there was great want of Ministers onely for the Prohibition of Matrimony Which made Pius the second a Learned Pope contrary to his former practise leave this behind him in writing There is great cause why the Clergy should be deprived of Marriage But greater cause why they should be suffered to marry And doe not we in these times find by experience That among fifty of these Bishops-Priests hardly one can be found that is not a bitter Malignant to Holinesse and a Despiser of them that be good If he be not also a Rank-Whoremaste● or a Common Drunkard And that by this meanes there is great want of Good Ministers As hath beene plentifully proved to This Parliament and may be found upon Record Even such that if Holy David were now alive he would not admit A Man of them to be his Chaplaine I grant their wicked hearts help them to P●●tences that carry a Faire shew why they Silence so many Precisians and put in so many profane ones But their Consciences cannot but tell them of more and weightier Reasons why these should rather be Cashired and the Number of the other increased The Godly cherished and the profane curbed and utterly restrained But because they want honesty and ingenuity to confesse what they thinke I will declare them unto you 1. They ought to be Silenc'd First Because as I have shewne They are false Prophets and teach Lies in CHRISTS name Now if a man be opinionated against the Truth it is not Answerable Si quis docuerit But if a man teach such a Doctrine It is Abominable Or if they Preach not false Doctrine they will so sophisticate the Truth with the Leaven of maliciousnesse that there shall be no difference Like as if they should break the bread of life to the people and throw in Crooked Pins to Choak them Or we may say of them as Luther of the Popes They hold us out Bread on the point of a Sword And when we come nigh they beat us with the Hilt Or lastly If they deliver nothing but the wholesome Truth They will Turne it into a lie by misapplication And he is not worthy to be a Physitian who giveth Vomits in place of Cordials And Cordials in stead of Vomits 2. Because they infect almost all that heare their Sermons and make them as Bitter Malignants to Religion and scoffers at Holinesse as themselves as I have shewen And so in stead of becomming Instruments of their peoples Salvation they become as farre as in them lies Authors of their Damnation Now if one Breake the Law that 's a Personall-sin But if he Teach so that 's a Pestilent sinne 3. For that t●e Gospel and the Name of GOD is Blasphemed and an Evill scandall raised upon the Godly by reason of their slandring them and disgracing Goodnesse in their Sermons And how unsufferable this is in such as are GODS Ambassadors and have the charge of soules may be seene in the example of Eli's sons 1 Sam. 3. 4. chap. And in GODS dealing with Nadab and Abihu when he sent out Fire and devoured them for offering strange fire upon his Altar Giving no other ●eason but this I will be sanctified of them that draw neare me Levit. 10. 2. 3. Are such fit to succeed the LORD Jesus and have the charge of soules who preach lies in his Name even forcing GOD to speak for Baal the Spirit for the Flesh Or if they be connived at How fearfull shall their Reckoning be when they shall be summon'd to appeare before That High Judge at the great day of Accounts 4. Because so long as he supplies the Roome of a Minister he keeps out another that would Preach better and perhaps save those poore soules whom he destroyes An ill man in the Church is but like some Shrubby-Tree in a Garden whose shade not onely keeps better plants from growing but drawes away the nourishment from the rest that would beare us fruit Or as a great Oak in a Greve which not onely pines all the underwoods near it but spoyles the Grasse that should feed the Cattell So that it were better for the Perish to have no Minister at all then such a one For though it be miserable to want food for the soule yet better nothing then onely poyson A Blank doth farre better in a Roome then an ill filling 5. It is most just equall and proper That having so much abused their tongues they should in some sort lose the use of them We read That when Tiberius the Emperour past sentence at the barre upon a Great Talker and Railer with his Tongue he commanded that for part of his punishment he should not speak a word for the space of one whole yeare after but ponder upon what he had formerly spoken and study better how to speak when it came againe to his turne True Our Worthies in Parliament have Blessed be GOD taken the like course with many of them And I hope their many Eyes will find out