Mr. White g Cent. 1. Example 22. he charges the Parliament with Sacriledg This was all they had to say against him together with these words That he affirm'd the great Reformers of the Church now were Hypocrites for as for the last clause that he otherways expressed great malignity against the Parliament it was but a form you know then in use when they had nothing against a man that deserved such cruel usage whether he said the latter words or no I know not but I am sure he is falsely charged with the former for he did not say the Parliament was guilty of Sacriledg as appears by the Book it self which I have read h Printed 1642. He only shews the danger of this sin and what judgments have faln upon those who were guilty of it even upon Sacrilegious Princes And his instances are such as might have given his Majesty more just reason of anger than the Parliament of whom he only says this That no man should think the nature of the sin altered if the alienation of Church-Lands be done by a National-Assembly of the Estates in Parliament and desires them rather to think it a worthy work and befitting a Parliamentary Reformation to restore the Tithes to the proper owners than taking away the residue of their Lands Gravely Praying withal to God that he would grant them wisdom to see the injustice and impiety of the peoples desires this way who for the most part are led by wicked passions and distempers rather than by Reason and Religion But it seems it was so dangerous a thing then only to name the word Sacriledg with abhorrence that the poor man lost his Living and his good Name too and suffered otherways most lamentably for desiring them to have no hand in it and praying God the ungodly desires of the people might not hurry them to that to which perhaps they had no inclination of themselves This was enough to terrifie all that had not great integrity and courage from meddling in this matter N. C. In which I wish Philag had not meddled but let it pass for it doth but make you bring out old stories which I love not to hear of C Then you think belike that it was very discreetly done of him to pass over so great a part of my Book as he hath left untoucht and only snapt at it here and there though I must confess I look upon this as a part of his disingenuity and partiality For why did he not plainly confess the truth of what I said in many places and pray you to reform Why did he not bewail the folly wherewith this poor Nation is over-run by your new invented phrases i Pag. 34 35. of Friendly Debate The kicking of your people against reproof k Pag. 17 18. the rest you 'l easily siad their reviling of Common Prayer their bold pretence to familiarity with God when they only let their tongue loose without any restraint their unreasonable antipathies to a Form of Prayer their headiness and ungovern'd passion their conceit of themselves and their own gifts their rash censures and gross superstition their contempt of Governours and malepertness toward their Superiours the licentiousness of their tongues and rejoyceing in iniquity their appropriating to themselves the name of Godly their murmuring impatience wicked and scandalous reports of Bishops without any foundation with a great heap of other things which this brisk Gentleman very nimbly and confidently skips over It seems your people have no list or leisure to think of these matters There are higher and more glorious Discoveries to take up their thoughts and they leave this dull low Morality to us The slaying of the Witnesses the downfal of Babylon the calling of the Jews c. are fit subjects for their meditation not these poor things which concern their Duty Thus Mt. Greenham observed long ago l Fifth part of his works Chap 74. p. 797. It is often the policy of the Devil to make men travail in some good things to come when more fitly they might be occupied in good things present And experience saith he teacheth that many meddle with the matters of the Church who are sâ—nseless and barren in the Doctrine of the Nowâ—â—irth In one thing indeed I must commend his ingenuity in that he fairly acknowledges they break his Majesties Law to get a living m Read p. 5. This is an honest confession and thus far he did well in not excusing the business with a company of Religious Phrases If he had also told us that a great reason of his writing against me was to get a little mony I believe he had come neareâ— the truth than when he tells us of his zeal for God But he could not hold long in a good mood For he is so kind and good natur'd to his own party that he thinks not only fear of wanting a maintenance but want of good company fit for a Scholar is sufficient to warrant their breach of the Law n Pag. 7. and at last he talks also of opportunities of doing good as if there were no opportunities but only in prohibited places Nay he asserts this most pernicious principle that they are not bound to obey the Laws unless they be forced o P. 6 Of the Book and Pref. p. 14. that is not for Conscience no nor for fear of wrath but when Justice lays hold of them and is too strong for them N. C. Why Do you read that Christ left Nazareth till they rose up and thrust him out of the City Luke 4.29 c. p Ib p 6. C. Nor do we find there was any Law against Christ's being at Nazareth Why do you not blush at this vile and beggerly way of arguing Do the Novices he talks of that come frisking into the Pulpit with the shells on their heads q P. 284. ever discourse thus weakly Is it easie to find a Boy of any parts that would reason after this childish fashion If he reason no better in his Sermons than he doth in his Writings God help the people that are instructed by him They are like to be abused even by the holy Scripture and to have many an untruth confidently imposed on them with the Word of God to avouch it And therefore had better a great deal be taught by one of those striplings if humble and modest than by this bold frisking Senior N.C. I am convinced of the impertinency of this Quotation C. And what doth the rest of his Discourse in that place amount unto but this that when men have no temptation to break a Law he hath nothing to plead in their behalf but when they have though it be but small as the want of good company or the like he desires they may be excused An excellent Casuist By this device all the world may be saved for What man is there that sins without a temptation And if men may break Laws for fear
people yet they ceased not to cry out that to deny the dispossession was in a sort to deny the Gospel It appeared so evidently said the Author of the brief Narration to be the finger of God as though we our selves should forsake it and with Judas betray our Master yea with Pharoah set our selves to obscure it yet the Lord if he love us will rather make the stones to cry out and utter it Yea the Devils themselves to acknowledge it then it shall be hid And I would advise them that slander this work and persecute the Servants of God without cause * For Darrel you must know was imprisoned to take heed lest they be found even fighters against God Now would you know what the business was which made these men stickle and clamour in this fashion It was briefly this When Mr. Darrel and his friends prayed by the Book the boy or as they said the Devil in him was but little moved but when they used such prayers as for the present occasion they conceived then the wicked spirit was much troubled He acknowledged them also to be powerful men and that he was much tormented by their powerful preaching ** Disco very p. 35.48.49.50 This was it which tormented the Bishops also to see such mean persons do such wonderful things or to use their own words It cannot be indured said the Narration c vid. p. 6. that these kind of men which are accounted the off-scouring of the world should be thought to have such interest in Christ Jesus as that by their prayers and fasting he should as it were visibly descend from Heaven and tread down Satan under their feet whereas other men ☞ who account themselves more learned excellent and wise than they do not with all their Physick Rhetorick pomp and primacy accomplish the like But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty A place of Scripture as well applied as that in the 4th of St. Matthew He shall give his Angels charge over thee c. and very fit to stir up the peoples hatred against their Governours who appeared against this Holy Cause as they called it and laboured to suppress this mighty work of God N. C. I haue no leisure to hear these old stories long since dead and buried C. Nor have I any need to look so far back For this very Scriblers Book which you tell me of is a bundle of such like lewd and impudent tricks and shifts as I have mentioned though the truth of it is they are so poorly managed that any one may see he is a meer bungler in his own trade and elther for want of wit or through the violence of his passion cannot understand so much as common sense N. C. O Luciferian Pride O attempts to outrail Ralyhakeh You may make another Lucian in time I had almost said another Julian if you persist in this way C. You have his words by heart a p. 31. of his answer and it is most stoutly and resolutely answered But I must tell you it hath been alwaies thought as Mr. Chillingworth well observes a mark of a lost and despairing cause to support it self with impetuous outcries and clamours the faint refuges of those that want better arguments And little doth he know whom he imitates in these brutish exclamations I never saw any man more like that fellow in Lucian who cryed O b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accursed wretch O damn'd villain when he could say nothing else N. C. Yes both he and we have something else to say C. That is you have a scornful and supercilious way of pittying those whom you have a mind to vilifie which carries with it some shew of goodnesse when it proceeds from a great disdain of others and an high opinion of your selves You may remember it is like without sending you to a Book of undoubted credit where you may find it who it was that said publiquely He intended to have preached before the poor wretch viz. his late Majesty then near his death upon 14. Isa 18.19 c. but the poor wretch said he would not hear me Another also having jeered our Divine Service as much as he pleased at last wiping his mouth sanctified all with a sigh or two over us as poor deluded Souls and then we were much indebted to his charity N. C. You will be called to an account one day for your malevolent and mischievous writings C. That 's another way you have to astonish and delude the Multitude by thundring out Threatnings and denouncing Judgments against us in which this Gentleman is very powerful and may pass for a Boanerges There being this device also accompanying it to make the Art more effectual which is to cry out Blasphemy if we do but mention any of your Follies to tell the people as T. W. doth a Epistle to a new sermon câ—lled the Fiery Serpents 19. Febr. 1668. that you wish we have not sinned the sin unto death and to bid us take heed that some do not think as this scribler speaks we have done despight to the spirit of grace b p. 101. of sober Answer Thus I remember some wrote a letter to Bp. Mâ—ntague c Annexed to the appeal of the Orthodox Ministers as they called themselves to the Par. against him printed at Edinburg 1641. wherein they do bat charitably hope he hath not committed the Unpardonable sin exhorting him to recant publiquely of his malitious Errors and Heresies or else they tell him he could never have Salvation But after this as if they were in no danger do they what they would a fit of railing follows wherein they upbraid him with his birth and parentage nay with his very looks and visage in such vile language as I will not name and at last conclude in this fashion If you can love the Lord Jesus and do belong to his Election of grace d p. 31. N. C. Me thinks you have an art beyond all these having shifted and put me off thus long from what I was going to say that your Book is answered and C. And soberly too as the Title pretends N. C. Yes C. That 's strange when he roars and cries out so hideously as we have heard and complains that he is in a passion that I have made him spit and sputter nay spue in my very face N. C. Do not use such words C. They are his own confessions a p. 14.31 289. And he acknowledges withall that he was impatient till he came out against me that he could not find a man so imprudent and desperate as himself b pag. 2.3.31 and having lay'd about him very furiously he puffs and blows and saies he is overheated in so much that he is fain to cool himself again with some Holy breath and falls to prayer when he can exclaim against me no
more necessary than now when those undertake to inform and teach the Nation who have not so much knowledg as the Prophesying Ape with which Giles of Passamonte went about to cosen the Country N. C. What was that C. It had this notable faculty that it could tell nothing at all of what was to come but knew something of what was past and a little of things present otherwise it would never mount up to Giles his shoulder and chatterin his ear But this Phil. of yours frisks and grins in my face and grates his teeth apace and looks upon me as a scurvy lyar and yet confesses himself Ignorant of what is past and that when he mounts up himself without any bidding to talk of it Thus the poor people are cosened and this man cosens their Conscience while such as the other only pick their pockets of twelve pence a piece N. C. Why What Liturgy were they wont to use in Scotland or when was the Church of Scotland for the use of a Liturgy Were they not alway without and against a Form of Divine Service C. You need not repeat his words I was going to tell you that it is endless to write to such a Scribler who will ask that Question again which hath been already Answered Did I not tell you in our last Dehate r Continuation of the Friendly Debate p. 409. that the Scottish Form of Prayer was printed here in England in the beginning of the late Wars But he is not at leisure to read Books He is a writer forsooth and cannot spare so much time from this great imployment as to read the Book he writes against For had it pleased him to be at this pains there he might have heard of the strange thing which he imagines no body ever saw the Scots Form of Divine Service But he will think perhaps that I wrote like himself without any care at all and transcribed that passage out of my own imagination and not from the sight of my eyes For your better information therefore you may know that there being some persons at Frankfort in Queen Maries time who would admit no other Form of Prayers but that in the English Book Mr. John Knox a principal Reformer in Scotland afterward joyned with those who quarrell'd at it But it appears by the story that he was not against a Form of Divine Service no nor against all things in the English Book But as he had an high esteem of the Composers of it s Witness the Commendation he gives Cranmer whom he called that Reverend Father in God Admonition to the Professors of the Truth in England An. 1554. p. 51. so he approved in great part of the work it self A brief description indeed of it being sent by him and Whittingham to Mr. Calvin and his opinion of it return'd Jan. 22. 1555. Mr. Knox and four more were ordered to draw forth another order of Divine Service which was the very same with that of Geneva But part of the Congregation still adhering to the Book of England after some Conference they composed a new Order by the advice of Mr. Knox some of it taken out of the English Book and other things added as the State of the Church required and to this all consented as we are told in the Discourse of the Troubles of Frankfort t Repriâ—ed here 1642. P. 30 31. A little after Dr. Cox coming thither answered aloud as the manner is here which bred a new contention And to be short the English Book was again established and continued though afterward they left off the use of the Ceremonies and Mr. Knâ—â— went to Geneva There I find he was when Queen Mary dyed being one of those who subscribed the Letter to the Church at Frankfort u Decemb. 15. 1558. desiring that whatsoever offences had been given or taken might be forgotten and that all might lovingly agree when they met in England Not long after he went into Scotland where some had begun a Reformation More particularly it had been concluded by the Lords and Barons a little after their first Covenant x In which they who forsook Popery ingaged themselves to each other by a Common Bond. Decemb. 3. 1557. that it was thought expedient advised and ordained that in all Parishes of the Realm the Common Prayer should be read weekly on Sundays and other Festivals publickly in the Parish-Church with the Lessons of the Old and New Testament conforming to the ORDER OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER And if the Curates of the Parishes be qualified to cause them to read the same if not or they refuse that the most qualified in the Parish use and read it y History of the Church of Scotl. ascribed to Mr. Knox. Book 1. pag. 110. In this Settlement Mr. Knox found them and though the Queen discharged the Common Prayers and forbad to give any portions to such as were the principal young men who read them yet they continued to be read z Ibid. Book 2. pag. 170. an 1559. And what was thus began by a few persons was afterward compleated by a more Publick Decree For by a General Assembly holden in December 1562. it was ordained that one Vniform Order should be observed in the Administration of the Sacraments according to the Order of Geneva That is as I understand it the very same which Mr. Knox and the rest had used when they were there And two year after Decemb. 1564. It was again ordained that Ministers in the Ministration of the Sâ—craments should use the Order set down in the Psalm Book a Both these I have out of the Disputation against the Assembly at Perth and they are alledged to prove there should be no kneeling at the Sacrament because their Old Order did not prescribe it to which now that Form I suppose was annexed Nor did Mr. Knox think himself above these Forms but made use of them as appears from hence That being desired before the Council to moderate himself in his Form of praying for the Queen he related to them the most vehement and most excessive manner of Prayer that he used in Publick and after he had repeated the words at length concluded thus This is the Form of Common Prayer as you your selves can witness b Ib. Book 4 p. 380. an 1564. The same History also records a Form of Publick Prayer used in the Church of St. Giles in Edenburgh upon the Peace made with France c July 8. 1560. p. 245. and aâ—â— ther Form d P. 287. at the Election of Superintendents He also that wrote the Mederate Reply e An. 1646. to the City Remonstranâ—â— against Toleration presents the Remonstrants in the last leaf of his Book with a Form of Thanksgiving used in the Church of Scotland for their deliverance from the French by the English An. 1575. Bâ—t why do I mention these particular Prayers There was Printed as I said 1641. the Service and
1648. pag. 6. But you can wink when you list at those things among your selves which you call by all the odious names you can invent when you do but fansie them in another man Being very much like the Lamiae whom you have heard of I make no doubt the story is so common who carried their eyes in their head when they were abroad and at home closed them up in a box We may not so much as smile at your affected language no not reprove your canting and gross abuse of Scripture phrases if we do you say we are profane scurrilous blasphemous and what not but you may abuse the most innocent things and sport with them as much as you are able and this passes for pleasant discourse and sanctified wit There was a very sober and discreet Petition for instance from the County of Kent to the House of Commons k Printed with many other by order from his Majesty 20. May. 1642. in which after their thanks for those excellent Laws which they had obtained from his Majesties goodness they prayed among other things that they might enjoy the solemn use of the Liturgy quiet and free from interruption scorns prophaness threats and force and that Episcopal Government might be preserved Papists suppressed differences concerning Religion and Ceremonies determined in a Lawful free and National Synod c. In short there is not one offensive word in it but only Liturgy and Bishops which brought all those scoffs on it which were wont to be thrown on them A grave person as he would seem to be by his Book l Late Covenant asserted 1643. pag. 24. entertained you with a mock Petition after this dull fashion Humbly sheweth That since it was well with your Petitioners when like People like Priest they would go to the Alehouse with us and we could offer cakes to the Queen of Heaven N. C. Now you mock him in Scripture phrase C. They are his own words I assure you and you cannot but know how much your people love to abuse us in the Holy language and to pick out such expressions as may signifie us to be Idolaters Philagathus himself is so used to it that he doth it even when he doth not know it as I charitably believe W. B. saith he would not have said a word of the Bowl and the Pottage Had he been to prâ—phesie at Bethel or at the King's Chappel as Amos speaketh m Sober Answer p. 264. that is at Whitehall where one would imagine the Golden Calves are set up and worshipped N. C. He had no such meaning I am confident C. It 's well if others do not so expound it who know your usual meaning in such like words But let us go on with the other Gentleman Our hearty petition saith he is that you would be pleased to give us our Bishops again who thought no more of preaching than a Cobler of plowing and had no more care of Souls than of their old shooes and our Service Book so full of good Prayers which we can say as our Parson doth though half asleep or quite drunk and that we may have leave to be drunk and dance on Sundayes a time designed by our good Bishop for that purpose N. C. O abominable No more I pray you C. There is enough to show the wickâ—d Spirit that was then among you Onâ—â— for a more full demonstration of it I â—â—all add that after he had mockt as â—â—dg as he thought good then he thinks 〈◊〉 sanctifie all at the last with a little â—â—nking breath which he spends in a few â—â—ghs saying twice or thrice Poor Souls â—â—â—r Souls If my head were a Fountain I could weep over these and if my heart were as it should be i. e. not full of laughter at them I would sigh â—â—t my words Poor Souls Poor Souls Nay thus he jeers at His Majesties most solâ—â—â— Protestation which he made at the tâ—king of the Holy Sacrament before the Primate of Ireland and all the Company then present N. C. For Gods sake forbear you cannot grieve our hearts more then 〈◊〉 remember any scorn cast upon so sacreâ— a person C. The great pride and insoleâ—â— which this man discovers still to remâ—â— among you makes me think it necessâ—â— to call these things to your mind Bâ—t will let that instance alone unless 〈◊〉 continued Folly call for it N. C. You should not impute tâ—â— faults of some to all as you have 〈◊〉 through your whole Book C. That 's another instance of his disâ—â—genuity who will take no notice of thâ— distinction I often made between soâ—â— men and the rest But will needs sayâ— accuse all even there where I expreâ—â— say some as you shall hear before 〈◊〉 end The truth is this Phil. is so 〈◊〉 that he writes in many places as 〈◊〉 had said nothing unless I had writ a Book on purpose against him It is enough he thinks to silence me to say I never preached to my remembrance one Sermon of that strain n Page 284. 280. 282. and many other places I was never one of those flatterers I have urged that advice several years past Just as if he had a Saints Bell in his pocket as your old friend Martin said to another o Martin Marprelat Protestation when one of his Books was taken in the Press I hope you will not be offended at his words crying ting ting ting And what doth it ting my modesty my moderation my peaceableness my Charity p Sobeâ— Answ p. 143. 144. 225. Nothing but my my my As if he was some Universal Nature of whom all the particular N. C. did pertake He might at least have considered that there are several degrees of those who differ from us and that they are so many that no man can in one breath mention them â—ll They were above threescore years ago most ingeniously painted and likeâ—ed to Anacreons q A Sermon at St. Pauls Cross 1 Nov. 1607. by S. Collins fond loves Some of which were perfect some Pipient some â—â—acht some half hatcht some peering â—â—t of the Egg some riper in the Chick â—hilst others had the strength to flye nimâ—â—y away All of them have this quality â—o despise us and think we know little 〈◊〉 nothing of the Mystery of Godliness or want the power of it but some in their opinions are further others a lesser way from us Now there is nothing in my Book which the N. C. speaks whatsoever this man boldly talks but some or other of them alledge against us or reply to us though every one doth not object or answer every thing therein mentioned As for those who are sorry for our breaches and dislike the furious and factious Crew who scorn and revile us all that I had to say to them was as you may remember to desire them to separate themselves from that Herd by frequenting the publick worship of God disclaiming their unlawful practices opposing their bold
As far as a man may gather from his Answer to my Book he would sooner turn a Turk than a Son of the Church of England for he hath expressed a great deal of wrath and spite against some of us but none at all against any of the Turks What an untoward Adversary have I to deal withal who if we will not be impertinent leave our business and go out of our way to dispute with a man concludes that we have nothing to say to him He loves so to ramble himself that he takes it much to heart if we will not bear him company As W. B. pottage you know led his prophane fancy to the story of the Girl that cryed Butter Butter too when her Mother taught her the Lords prayer and came to those words Give us our daily bread l I hope you do not mislike the word Bread in the Lords prayer and as thinking that expression too dry cry out as a Child did c. p. 265. N. C. Why should it be called prophane It is but a merry story C. In the Child it was not prophane who knew not what it said but in him it is impious to suppose it possible that I should mislike those holy words of our Lords and think them defective and dry unless I might pray with this Addition Give us our daily Bread and Butter too I did not think there had been a Divine among you who was so much a Child or else so little a Christian as to write such stuff as this Martin indeed was so bold as to desire the Lord he would put it into the Assemblys heart to divide the Directory not only into Chapters but into Verses into Verses too that so we might have a new Directory-Gospel But this you know was called an horrid Blasphemy N. C. Pray do not you tell stories too C. Mine is no old wives tale like his but to be seen in Print in a Book m A fresh Discovery of some new wandring blasing starrs c. 1646. Sect. 5. where you may find more such scoffing Prayers from the men of the New light whom Philag is resolved to defend N. C. I pray God deliver us from their darkness C. Shut your windows then against them And pray withal that God would send Philag more wit or more Modesty that he may not trouble the world with such wretched Prefaces and Books any more As for the advantage which you fancy the Papists may make of what I have said it is not to be considered in compare with that which they make of your Schism and your loud clamours for more liberty then the Laws allow We did sweare said Mr. Rutherford n Sermen 25. June 1645. at the Abbey p. 6. the extirâ—ation of Popery c. now we preach profess and print that liberty is to be given for the Consciences of men and how can this â—e denyed to Papists This design of Liberty which you have in your heads is that white Devil that noon day Devil if you will believe Mr. Edwards o Antapolog p 56. which coming under the merit of much suffering and well deserving clad in the white Garments of innocence and holiness is like to do the more hurt And it was the opinion I find of an old Dr. in Cambridg long before you or I was born that if ever Popery come into this land again to have any power it would be by the means of such Precisians as you N. C. Why do you call any body by that name C. Let Dr. Feately tell you an Author whom Philag quotes very often Our refined reformers saith he p A Consecration Sermon March 23 1622. as they would be thought according to their name of Precisians pare the nailes of pretended Romish rites in our Church so near that they make her fingers bleed For 〈◊〉 of monuments of Idolatry all ornaments of the Church must be taken away For feâ—â— of praying for the dead they will allow 〈◊〉 prayer to be said for the living at the burial of the dead For fear of bread Worship they will not kneel at the Communion of Christs body and blood But how fairly you have contributed more than any body else to bring that which you fear upon us by disturbing the Government of Church and state and still continuing a lamentable separation from us there is none now among us of any understanding but easily discern For he is blind indeed that cannot see through the holes of a Sieve It is possible you may remember also who that Gentleman was that told the City of London when he was upon the Scaffold that it was part of his prayer to Almighty God that the tumultuous people of this Nation might not be like those Pharisees and their followers who pretending a fear of the Romans coming and taking away their place and Nation when there was no cause for it but they only made use of that suggestion to further their mischeivous design of murdering the innocent had at last the Romans brought upon them indeed and were utterly ruined by them Truly the factious and tumultuous people of this Nation saith my Author q Eaglanâ—â— Complaint An. 1648. have in all other things the most resembled the Pharisees that ever any people did God in his mercy grant that they do not also resemble them in this N.C. There is no fear of that I warrant you C. A great deal the more because you are not sensible of the danger For as if it were a small matter to make such a wide breach in our Church you seek to make it wider by advancing your selves above all other men disparaging us and our Ministers and loading them with reproaches as if they were not worthy to be named together with you Which forces us to say that of you which otherways should never have come out of our mouths though alas it could not have been hid you proclaim it so loudly your selves This very Advocate of yours hath given such a Character of you in his Book as may satisfy all wise and sober men what you are though we should hold our peace For he hath one faculty you must know wherein he surpasses most other writers and that is after he hath made a long discourse to prove a thing at last to overthrow it all Or to speake in his own phrase he is such a Cow as having given a great deal of Milk throws it all down with her foot For after all the evil he had said of me in conclusion as I showed you he acknowledges so much goodness in me as is inconsistent with his accusations And in like manner after all the praises he had bestowed on the N. C. for their piety sincerity modesty patience and such like things in the end he grants the worst things that I charged them with all and makes them as bad as bad can be Though you may be sure it was not his design only truth would out when he did not
Mount Sion in themselves This was one of those things which turned their eyes from Authors now named to look for some greater thing which these new Teachers had to reveal to them N. C. I must confess I have heard some of our own Divines complain of this But I doubt you have helpt to make the people reject those Authors as weak and frivolous and to listen to what new Rational Doctrine your selves are about to bring as he tells you p. 13. C. He talks idly and spitefully opposes his own imaginations to the plain and manifest truth They were laid aside and other Books come in their stead before those whom he strikes at begun either to preach or write And some of those very Ministers of yours who complained of the New lights and Discoveries have contributed to it not a little by affecting of new words and fine phrases and devising Sauces for that food which those old Divines delivered in a plainet and more simple manner These many people began even then to long for when Mr. Rogers his Book was writ as we may learn from one that prefaces to it Mr. Fr. Merbury there tells us that some professors in those dayes liked none but such conceited Cooks as this Philagdthus who commends so heartily T. VV. Sances and tells us an Anchove or two gives the gravy a fine relish and rather then fail can be content with Carriers Sance an Onion to get a man a better stomack to his meat r All these are his words p. 50. But he himself did not like them as he tells us in these words the rest of the professors which â—e like wanton children and begin to play with their meat and brook nothing but conceited writing and speaking are to be bewailed And therefore he desires the good Readers in the conclusion of that Epistle to receive Mr. Roger's provision made for them of wholesome meat not caring for conceited Cookery but rememtring that hunger is the best sauce for beavenly food This is a plain demonstration to me that this buisy Informer and Reproover hath not been conversant himself in those Writers which he so much commends but is one of those who hath laid them aside though he be no Rational Divine I dare say for him At least he is never the better for them being one of those that writes not elegantly but conceitedly if ever any man did and that labours hard in this phantastick trade of Cookery which those grave Writers did so solemnly condemn Witness the bread and butter I told you of before the hot broth of reproof which he talks of p. 123. The Beef and Bacon the Rabbets and Chickens which he fetches in to make a savory Mess of W. Bs. bowl of Pottage f pag. 264. and 265. and the conceited jest which he makes a shift to strain at last out of a Galimaufry of Latine and English compounded together for which he would be soundly firkt if he were I know where and at every lash be told in his own language that he had both jus in re and jus ad rem too far more then any boy in the School N. C. Did not you bring in your Cheese too in the Epistle to your Reader C. And I take it neither for an out-stretched Allegory u Like his discourse of this matter which takes up 3. pages l. p. 264. c. as he would have it nor an unhandsome resemblance Others I am sure who are no bad judges think it as far from conceited as they think him from being witty N. C. You must consider the matters about which he write are not very grave and so it may be pardonable if he be a little phantastical C. No I thought all this while he had been defending the use of these Sauces in T. W's Book of Repentance and such like that have taken the place of those better writers Which are the less acceptable to many of you for another reason that he thinks not of being I have cause to think but little acquainted with them N. C. What should that be C. They resolutely maintain the lawfulness and usefulness of a Form of prayer which now is so much despised if not abhorred and withal approve of the publique service of our Church and commend some other things which are now neglected N. C. Can you prove what you say C. I tell you nothing but what my eyes have read Mr. Rich. Rogers for instance whom p. 13. he sets in the first place in his seven Treatises x Commended by Mr. Culverwel one of the Authors Philag praises dedicated to King James in the beginning of his raign tells you * Treat 3. chap. 4. that the Publique Prayers solemnly offered to God in the congregation and praysing God with Psalmes is one of the publique helps to Godliness to be used by every Christian In the which saith he if that mind be in us with the which we have been taught to come to all holy exercises and so be prepared for them who doubts but that we may receive much help by them Yea ☜ and the better a man is the more he shall profit by them And when a man doth not profit it is partly of Ignorance partly from a prejudicate opinion and rash zeal which makes men give themselves to slight and negligent hearing of and attending to them And then having answered the objection of those who said the Ministers in some places were ignorant and unreformed Sots and idle drones in philag language p. 284. and resolved that notwithstanding we ought to joyn with them in prayers He proceeds to satisfy those that said a Minister should use no set form of Prayer but as he is moved by Gods spirit To such he saith It is a fond error so to think N. C. I know many would not like those words C. I told you so but hear his reason For as there be necessary things to be prayed for of all men and alway and those are the most things which we are to pray for So there may be prescript forms of prayer made conceming all such things Which being so what letteth that in the Reading of such prayers either of confession of sin request or thanksgiving what letteth I say that the hearers heart may not profitably go with the same both to humble to quicken and to comfort For is the reading it self unpure when the Minister in his own behalf and the peoples uttereth them to God I speak not you see of the matter of prayer but of reading it for if the matter be naught the pronouncing of it makes it not good any more then reading doth if it be good and pure being uttered and pronounced the reading cannot hurt it or make it evil And further to satisfy them they may know that in all Churches and the best Reformed there is a prescript form of prayer used and therefore they who are of a mind that it ought not to be must separate themselves from
words which will be thought too scornful by many of you now That a set Form of prayer is lawful much need not be said the very newness of the contrary opinion is enough to show the Vanity and falshood of it The truth of it is it was so new that there were few of those old Divines but they opposed it in their constant practice This Dr. now named Dr. Sibbs Mr. Hildersham Mr. Dod Mr. Bradshaw c. alway using one Set Form of Prayer before their Sermons and some of them in their Families For which the last mentioned gave this reason as Mr. Gataker tels us in his Life i Life of Mr. Wil. Bradshaw published by Mr. Clark p. 67. in Fol because he sitation in prayer is more offensive than in other discourse unto profane ones especially whereof in mixed multitudes and meetings some lightly too many usually are And he affirmed this also to have been Mr. Th. Cartwrights practice with whom he sometimes conversed And Mr. Clark I remember confesses that Mr. Sam. Crook who dyed no longer ago than 1649. was the first man who brought conceived prayer into use in those parts where he lived in Somerset-shire k Collect of 〈◊〉 o◠〈◊〉 Diviâ—â—â— p. 38 〈…〉 If you would see more of this you may read Dr. Prestons Book called the Saints daily Exercise l 〈◊〉 6. 1 31. p. â—â— set forth by Dr. Sibbs and Mr. Davenport where you will find this Question largely handled whether we mâ—y â—se set Forms of Prayer and resolved assirmatively For which he gives many reasons N. C. I 'le seek them when I am at leisure C. Only remember this for the present that he saith he knows no obâ—ection of weight against it How do you like this Doctrine now N. C. Is not the Spirit straitned in stinted Prayer And doth not a man find his Spirit bounded and limited when he is tyed to a Form C. That 's the main objection he tells you to which he gives three substantial Answers The first is that those very men who are against this and use this reason do the same thing daily in the Congregation for when another prays that is a Set Form to him that hears it who hath no liberty to run out though his Spirit should be more large but is bound to keep his mind upon it And therefore if that were a sufficient reason that a man might not use a set Form because the Spirit is straitned it would not be lawfull to hear another pray though it were a conceived Prayer because in that case his Spirit is limited Secondly he tells you though the Spirit be limited at that time yet he hath a liberty at other times to pray as freely as he will It is no general ty though he be then bound up And Thirdly he adds that there is no ty and restraint upon the Spirit because there is a ty to words For the largness of the heart stands not so much in the multitude and variety of Expressions as in the extent of the affections which have no ty upon them when we are tyed in words N. C. Too many words will not do well in any other thing Let us therefore make an end of this C. I shall only tell you that if you turn a leaf or two further m Saints daily Exercise p. 84. you will find another case resolved about the gesture of Prayer which he would have to be very reverend especially in publique And that Mr. Hildersham exhorts to kneeling as the fittest gesture And complains of those that neglected it as also of such as would not sit bare at the reading of the holy Scriptures wishing withall that when we come in and go out of the Church we would give some signification of such reverence as now is rather derided than approved By all which you may see without travelling through the rest of the Authors which he mentions that they will not down with your squeamish stomacks and have been thrust out of doors by a number of frivolous writers among you who can better humour the childish fancies and the corrupt appetites of the professors of this Age. This very man is one of them who jeers those old Puritans as they were called as well as us when he compares a man that uses a Form of Prayer to an Horse in a Mill * Page 97. of his Book which goes round and round and cannot easily go out of his way if he do but jog on though he be hood-winkt and blindfolded N. C. But Religion as he sayes is like to suffer greatly by the not reading of those good writers C. That 's spoken only upon supposition that our Ministers have made them to be rejected but if they have been the cause of it themselves he can tell you another story Doubt not of it he can find you Authors enough as good as they if not better and as many as you please twenty or forty or more Say how many you would have for it 's all one to him whether it be twenty or forty n Pag. 55 56 57. one is as soon said as the other and they shall be such Treatises that there are not better extant in the World of those Subjects N. C. Do you think he will write against himself C. That 's a very small matter with one that minds not what he writes In a twelve moneths time you may think it is easie for a man to forget what he hath writ and so no wonder that he who told us in 1668. that some good Scholars were put to such hard shifts as to beg their bread the Laws at that time being too hard for them and too strictly observed to let them get any sufficient employment for a livelihood o Rebuilding of London p. 331. c. should tell us now 1669. that the severe Ordinances signified next to nothing where he was conversant and should ask to what purpose it is to mention them as long as I tell of no Execution done by them p Sober Answ p. 254 255. But he can do a great deal more than this comes to in an hours time or so he can forget what he hath said and say the contrary In the 31. page of his Preface he tells you that he hath endeavoured to restore me with a Spirit of meekness notwithstanding that but two leaves before p. 26. he had excused himself for not making a milder answer flesh and blood being not able to bear some of my expressions In his Book also if you mark it he desires you to believe he is far from being one of those who say as if we were the Jews or Gentils he speaks of in another place For what acquaintance should we perswade our people to joyn with you Or how came we to ow you so much Service q Page 221. And yet he hath not writ many leaves before he tells us in plain termes without excepting himself that the N.
Norfolk wherein a Woman was presented who doting upon a young Gentleman had the more securely to enjoy his affection secretly murdered her Husband whose Ghost haunted her and at divers times in her most solitary retirements stood before her there was a Towns-woman till then of good repute who finding her Conscience at this sight extreamly troubled suddenly shreeked and cryed out O my Husband my Husband I see the Ghost of my Husband fiercely threatning and menacing me At which shrill unexpected out-cry the people about her being amazed they enquired the reason of it When presently without any further urging she told them that not seven years ago to be possessed of such a Gentleman whom she named she had poysoned her Husband whose fearful Image personated it self they are the words of my Author m Mr. Tho. Heywood the Actors Vindic. Book third in the shape of that Ghost This she also voluntarily confessed before the Justices and was condemned for it of all which there were many eye-witnesses besides the Actors living a little before this was written n In King James his reign as appears by the Book N. C. So Conscience it seems hath been awakened at a Play No wonder then you say one of W. B 's Sermons is no better than a Play o Pag. 187. C. I have left off now to wonder that he makes no Conscience of what he saith This I have shown you is a forgery of his own which he hath further improved in his Preface into these lying words which you heard before One of his Sermons is not so good as a Play p Pag. 20. He hath a dispensation it should seem to write as he list by which means he is able to confute any Book even the Bible it self It is but changing the words and leaving out some or putting in others according to his liking and then they are for his purpose to declaim against Of this Legerdemain there are so many instances in his Book that they alone are sufficient to make a Volumn if I should go about to discover them all If I say it would not be amiss that their folly were a little chastised who fancy they are persecuted when they are not q Friendly Debate p. 190. He shall tell you that I say They who fancy themselves persecuted ought to be chastised r P. 256. of his Answ If I say you account him a painful Preacher f Friendly Debate p. 194. who preaches often he shall say that I make you confess you call him a plain Preacher who preaches often As if we were so silly saith he as to think that to preach plainly and to preach often were the same thing t P. 267. of his Answ Would not one think either that this man could not read or read with other mens eyes or else come to ill-disposed and with such naughty affections that they disturbed his light It is painful Preachers as clear as can be in my Book and plain Pâ—eachers as manifestly in his He is like those people in Lucian u In his true Hist Book first that had eyes to take in and out as they pleased themselves or when they had lost their own eyes borrowed of other men He sees nothing I mean but what he pleases and like the most of you can be satisfied to believe others and not see for himself N. C. You have made hast to get to the end of his Book I perceive notwithstanding your high charge he is not much to blame in such like matters C. These offered themselves most readily to my thoughts but if you have a mind to go further back with all my heart N. C. You shall not lead me through the whole Book if the labour be so tedious as you tell me C. I protest as Bishop Hall doth x Postscript to the desence of the humble Remonstrance in another case that I never saw any writer that would dare to profess Christian sincerity so fouly to overlash and so shamefully to corrupt and pervert anothers words as he doth as if he made no Conscience by what means he upholds a side or wins a Proselyte He would have you think for instance that I maintain that the Gospel cherishes fear more than the Law p. 41. when I only said that a Christian is moved by fear as well as hope and that the things which the Gospel threatens us withal are more terrible than the threatnings of the Law This is the manifest scope of my discourse and I still maintain it to be true that a man may be of an Evangelical Spirit who is moved to do his duty out of a fear of what Christ threatens as much as out of a hope of what he promises Nay I do not see but one may have an Evang. Spirit who is moved more by such fear than he is by hope though that was not the thing I undertook to make good It was only this that it is not a just Character of a Gospel-Spirit that it is put on rather by promises than threatnings This I said and still say is false which is not to affirm as he would have it that the Gospel cherishes fear more than hope but that it cherishes them equally or rather that one may be a good Christian who is moved as much by the one as by the other By this you see either how dull and stupid he is or how maliciously disposed who cannot understand so plain a discourse And yet he would have you think he is so sagacious and hath so good a Nose that he can smell y Pag. 42 I smell what you would be at c. my thoughts even then when he mis-reports my words you make saith he as if the Mosaical spirit did fear only temporal calamities upon Body and Goods c. That word only is his own not mine as you may see if you will compare our Books together though I must tell you all that he hath said to overthrow that position is of no more force than a small puff of wind for they might and I doubt not did know under the Old Testament that there was a life to come of misery and happiness though it was not declared by Moses his Law And so the meer Mosaical Legal Spirit which we spoke of may truly be said to fear only those calamities which were threatned by that carnal commandment But he hath not done yet He makes you believe that I deny the Legal dispensation to be terrible and the Gospel comfortable p. 44. which is a gross abuse for my position was that this is not the difference between the dispensations that the one is terrible and the other comfortable because both are terrible and knowing the terror of the Lord the Apostles perswaded men This he could not but see and therefore to make work for himself pulled my words asunder And as he could not find in his heart to speak a word of the Impertinances I noted