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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

promising to bad attempts good events in stead of reproving and punishing vice they cherish it and in lieu of correcting and convering their hearers they corrupt and pervert them As the Pharisees were wont to serve their Prosylites making them Twofold more the Children of Hell then themselves if it were possible For this hardens them in sinne rather then reclaimes them from it Yea by flattering the guilty and forbearing to reprove even the foulest crimes they Authorize their defects and sooth up their vices not onely by approbation but also by imitation Their principall care being how to dawbe with the world and their owne consciences But chiefely doth this appeare when they have to doe with Great Ones that are Gracelesse as often they have For when Judas is the Patron Simon-Magus must be the Priest For their sinnes they will be sure to hide by concealement as the Painter hid the Scarre in Agamemnons face to which purpose they have salves for every sore I meane to Hide them not to Heale them And it is a very foule clout which they will not helpe to wash For as that shamelesse Sycophant licked up the Emperours Spittle So these will lick the sores and ulcers of their Maintainers by flattery Neither doe they more stroke them with faire promises of peace then they humour them with invectives against the godly being Chaplaines of Amaziahs humour That with blanching vices and branding graces at the table spoile their grace before dinner dealing with their Patrons or Benefactors as those Foure-hundred False Prophets which fed at Jezabels table did with Ahab 2 Chron. 18 Who cared not so much to inquire what GOD would say as what Ahab would have them say They saw what way the Kings heart was bent and that way they bent their tongues Neither is there any so great misery in Greatnesse as this That it conceales men from themselves except they consult more with GODS Word and good bookes then their Chaplaines whose best service is either to further guiltinesse or smoother it For as the herb Heliotrophium or the Planet Mercury alwayes moveth and turneth after the Sunne So which way soever their Patrons incline thither they bend their wits Whereas every true Nathan or faithfull Micajah or holy John Baptist or zealous Paul without fearing the faces of any will faithfully discharge their consciences in speaking home against sinne whatsoever shall come of it be their hearers never so great well knowing that whether they be Commoners or Commanders high or low none so meane that is Lesse not are any so Mighty that are More then a Subject to GOD and his Ordinances Nor should any obligation so inthrall us as that our tongues should not be free to reprove faults where we sinde them They are Base and Servile spirits that will have their tongues tied to their teeth And were their Patrons wise in stead of being taken with they would even breake those false-glasses that present them faces not their owne We know what Fig-leafe-defenses are made by Meal-mouthed Ministers in this behalfe and how they can alleadge Scripture for it drawing conclusions thence which the Spirit of GOD never imtended But what place doe they cite Acts 2. 2 3. where the Holy GHOST descended from Heaven in the likenesse of Cloven Tongues and of Fire with the sound of a rushing and mighty wind To signifie a zealous and hot preaching Ministery No. But 1 King 19. 11. 12 13. where say they when GOD himselfe appeared to Elijah and spake to him He was neither in the Wind nor in the Earthquake nor in the Fire but in the Still and Small voyce A solid proofe like those the Pope gives for the warrant of his actions whereof one instance or two GOD made Two Great Lights That is saith Innocentius Two Great Dignities The Papal to rule the Day of the Spiritualty And The Emperiall to rule the Night of the Laity And as the Sunne is Greater then the Moone by Fifty-seven degrees as saith a Glosser So the Pope forsooth far exceeds the Emperour in Greatnesse Againe Peter said unto CHRIST Here are two Swords and CHRIST said It is enough Hence Boniface the Eighth argued thus CHRIST said It is enough He said not It is Too much Ergo The Pope which is Saint Peters Successo●● may manage both the Swords and be a Temporall Prince as well as a spirituall Pastor Againe A voyce from Heaven Acts 10. 13. said to Peter Kill and Eate Ergo The Pope may designe the Killing of any Prince Depose them and Dispose of their Scepters With an hundred the like But as these Scriptures will not free the Pope from being That Great Antichrist no more will the former free these from being Little Antichrists There be Many Antichrists saith Saint John 1 John 2. 18. There is nothing easier then to perswade men well of themselves Even the best men are apt to beleeve they are better then they be But when a mans selfe-love meets with anothers flattery in such as are strangers to GODS Word They cannot be perswaded to the contrary but they are good and in GODS savour Experience teaches that be men never so wicked They can apply CHRISTS Passion and GODS me●cy as a warrant for their Licen●i●usnesse or at least live they how they list they Can Repent at the last hou●e as the Theife did Therefore adjourne they their Repentance from Youth to Age and from Age to Sicknesse Yea it is the generall case of all Libertines never to prepare for their End till Death assaults them Conscience ●ings them Sinne accuses them the devill seares them and GOD forsakes them How much more when their Ministers shall Preach this dangerous liberty whereof they too too freely carve themselves It is the fashion of our bold nature upon an Inch given to challenge an Ell. If the Minister from GOD allow an handfull men are apt and bold to fathome an Armefull Briefly naturall men are so incouraged by these Preachers that whereas at first they knew not when they sinned now they know to justifie their sinnes and defend that wherein they offended And yet you must take them for mercifull Preachers who thus spate and forbeare their flocks Indeed there is a cruell mercy And the mercies of the wicked are cruell Prov. 12. 10. Most of all this which proceeds from false Prophets when they shall deale by their people as a Physitian by his Patient when in the Symptomes of a Plurisie or Lunacy he will not bee so hard hearted as to let him blood which is the onely way to recover him But gives him Iulebs to drinke or Cordials to comfort him whereby he suddenly dies or which is little better falls starke-mad Which is mercy with a witnesse like that of Hazael to his Master who having fed the hopes of his Soveraigne with expectation of recovery the next day smothers him with a wet cloth 2 King 8. 15. Secondly and as they imitate the false Prophets of old in incouraging

the wicked So no lesse in discouraging the Godly whether 1 Ministers or 2. People 1. They use their utmost to discourage all godly Ministers both by flighting their Sermons and slandering their persons 1. Touching their Sermons A godly Minister especially if he be a zealous and powerfull Preacher any whit famous or much followed as many had beene more secure if they had beene more obscure He shall not be able to Pray or Preach upon any point of Doctrine but they will being disposed to cavill find some thing to carpe at at least as they will wrest his words And then cut his thtoate with his owne knife As the Fowler in the Fable wounded the Eagle with that shaft which was feathered with her owne quill And its easie to censure or contradict a truth for truth is but one seeming truths are many Besides judgements are from every tongue a severall No man can thinke that the Prophets Apostles and CHRIST himselfe delivered false Doctrine For they were moved by the HOLY-GHOST and spake as the SPIRIT gave them utterance Act. 2. 4. Yet wee know the Baalites continually busied themselves in finding fault with Elijahs Doctrine 1 King 22. 11. Zidkiah and the rest of those 400. false Prophets most fiercely opposed Micayahs preaching Neither could out Saviour CHRIST be able to deliver the truth so safely but the Pharisees will finde fault with him and except against many particulars If Philip labour to convert the Samaritans by preaching the Gospell there will be a Simon-Magus as earnest in bewitching them with sorceries Act. 8. And lastly where a zealous Paul is there will be false Apostles malicious Priests Epipicurean and Stoick Philosophers Elymas the Sorcerer Alexander the Copper-Smith and eloquent Tertullus to oppose him whereof some mocke him Others say He is a Babler a Preacher of Sedition and Schisme and a setter forth of strange Gods now Doctrins c. doing him much evill and withstanding his preaching sore on purpose to turne away his hearers from the faith Act. 13. 7 8. and 17 18. to 21. and 24. 5. 2 Tim. 4. 14 15. In like manner a zealous Minister of CHRIST cannot so preach as to escape the forked tongues of venemous detraction nor so deliver the truth but it shall meet with exceeding opposition from these false teachers foretold of by CHRIST and his Apostles That what the right hand of the LORD doth raise the left hand of Satan may destroy That wicked one the Devill will ever be sowing Tares in the field of the Church among the Wheat as it is Matth 13. 24. 25. Against which sowers the Minister may well take up those words of Paul to Elymas Act. 13. 10 O full of all subtilty and all mischiefe The child of the Devill and enemy of all righteousnesse wilt thou not cease to pervert the streight wayes of the LORD And those other words to Alexander the Copper-Smith 2 Tim. 4. 14. 2. Their next stratageme is to slander their persons For as the malicious Priests and false Prophets slandered Jeremiah of telling lies to the people Jer. 26. 8 9. and 18. 18. and 36. Chapt. Or as the Priests and Pharisees slandered John Baptist our Saviour CHRIST Saint Paul and all the Apostles Matth 9. 34. Luke 11. 15. Or lastly as those of the Synagogue Act. 6. slandered Steven who when they were not able to resist the wisedome and the Spirit by which he spake affirmed he had spoken blasphemous words against Moses against GOD and his Law Vers 11. 13. So deales Satans Ministers at this day with CHRISTS messengers As let any knowing man take notice of the severall foule slanders which Baals Priests have raised upon most of the godly Ministers of note about London now these discovering times and he cannot but wonder that the Devill himselfe should be so impudent as to broach them there being no colour of truth in any one of them I have my selfe offered to many of the reporters ten pounds for twelve pence if they were able to make proofe of any one word which they affirmed upon their own knowledge to be true And have used my best indeavour to sift things out whether there were any ground or pretence for the rise of such a report and in the upshot found them like that which the foule mouth'd Watermen for these twelve yeares have mocked a godly discreet neighbour of mine with viz. That he kild his Cat and knockt out the head of his Kilderkin on a Munday The one for killing of a mouse the other for working upon the Sunday before Saying O leud Cat O prophane Beere Without once taking notice that the first Deviser of this Jeere did both rot and stinke and die in a most fearefull and unusuall manner as if GOD intended the party for a dreadfull spectacle of his wrath and vengeance to make all scoffers and slanderers beware of abusing his poore servants because they faithfully serve him The remembrance whereof one would thinke should strike their hearts and soules with terrour and amazement But wicked men are flint unto GOD wax to the Devill And which is the mischiefe true or false the common people that ignorant Fry or Superstitious swarme for in respect of their aptnesse to beleeve and tell lies I cannot give them a terme odious enough will not once question it and few are so wise as not to suspect the men whereby their Ministery becomes almost ineffectuall For thousands hereby are either hindred in good or hardned in evill As lop off the arme of a tree and it bringeth downe a great number of small branches with it To which slanders they alwayes adde that they are ignorant sots no scholars not worthy top each in a Pulpit Who may answer them as John Barbevile did some Friers that cald him ignorant Asse Admit wee were so yet shall our preaching witnesse against such Balaams as you are Neither doe some of them speake more falsely then others write for its strange to see how these un preaching-Ministers sharpen their pens and how deepe they dip them in the gall of the Red Dragon that they may write bitter things against the faithfull Ambassadors of JESUS CHRIST not forbearing to name them Which were not sufferable were the accusations true For he who hates not the person but the sinne cares onely to mention the sinne not the person And though it is justice to prosecute the vice yet it is mercy in this case to spare the offender Thus they deale by the primest men As Timocreon a Rhodian Poet did by noble Themistocles who at the request of the Athenians that envied him for his vernies made report in his verses That he was a covetous person a violater of his faith and no keeper of Hospirality Yea out of malice and to please great ones they will doe as Vlpian the Lawyer did by the Christians of his time Who wrote a booke to instruct the Emperors how they should Torment and Punish them As Lactantius hath Now if you

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