Officers mutually conspiring together in the same work to reform a city or town as they list and proportionably a whole nation under the chief Magistrate if he interpose not against it Therefore it is reported of Queen Elizabeth that in her progresse visiting the county of Suffolk and seeing every Justice of Peace with a Minister next to his body said she had oftentimes demanded of her Councell why her County of Suffolk was better governed then any other County but never understood the reason thereof till now It must needs be so said she where the Word and the Sword goe together But what may we expect when both these comply not or jarre one with another wherefore had this one course alone been taken for the suppressing of common and odious sins there needed not to have been so loud a cry for a reformation in the midst of thy people nor so much of thy childrens bloud shed like water round about thy cities and within the gates and also on the furrowes of the field in prosecution of this specious design which can hardly be compassed if at all in any wise by means so unproportionate as these to the end for which they are appointed by those who would be master builders in this work Lastly the great and common neglect of teaching the younger sort and educating them in a Catecheticall way of doctrine and instruction as it occasioned at first the blinde ignorance open profanenesse and meer formality in this Nation so it hath still continued and fomented the same unto this present day And from hence we shall draw another instance to shew the great force which enmity and opposition do gain in the mindes of men to hinder a mutuall consent and joynt concurrence together in those waies which tend to life and godlinesse For what could more conduce to the furtherance and encrease of sacred knowledge to the effectuall planting and growth of piety in the hearts of Christian youth then this necessary and profitable means of institution so much commended by the divine Spirit of God to our imitation and practise * see Gen. 18 19. Train up or chastise a childe in the way he should goe and when he is old he will not depart from it Pro. 22 6. Neither was there wanting the advice of a prudent and learned Prince for the setting on foot this practise with us by changing the afternoon Sermons into this more usefull exercise And yet the Ministers of the opposite party could never for ought as I can learn be induced to entertain a good opinion of it at least so far as cordially to embrace the counsell and submit to the judgement of their superiors therein notwithstanding the visible and apparent benefit thereof and nothing might be reasonably said against it And what was the cause of this Surely in all probability the ill affection and hatred which they bore against the Bishops who did also commend and preferre it to their inseriour brethren in the Ministery as more needfull and profitable for the people then their claborate and painfull preaching so much magnified by their Disciples above other Ordinances and who could not be pleased without a double portion thereof every Lords day although as some object against them with too great limitation and restraint but however better thus then not at all For as a chief Ruler well observed of thy children the omission of this sundamentall way of instruction and the custome of notionall teaching in which was more plenty of words then of matter have given occasion to the Apostasie or falling back of so many from thy Communion some to Popish superstition others to Monasterian confusion while after many years groundlesse and therefore unprofitable institution they were like rasae tabulae or unsealed wax apt to receive any impression or forme of doctrine whatsoever The truth whereof hath more then enough been confirmed by the experience of succeeding time in which we meet every where with aged Infants I mean such who when for the time ought to be teachers Heb. 5.12 have need that one teach them again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat who notwithstanding have been constant hearers of Sermons for divers years together some twenty others forty and some perchance more that we may justly admire and be even astonished at their dulnesse and stupidity in learning Doe we not consider how unsutable this kinde of teaching is with the mindes of the rude and unprincipled multitude to make them skilfull in the word of righteousnesse it being all one in effect as if a man should seek to raise a frame of building where no foundation is laid before or to nourish an infant with strong meat in stead of milk which is proper for him because unable to bear the other 1 Cor. 3.2 Heb. 5.14 as belonging to them that are of full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evill Wherefore in them also is fulfilled the Prophesie of Isaiah which saith By hearing ye shall hear Mat. 13.14 and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive For this cause so many of the Nation at present being children in understanding Eph. 4.14 are tossed to and fro and carryed about with every winde of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lye in wait to deceive fixing on nothing long through the weaknesse of their judgement to discern what they hear and want of reason to maintain what they embrace as truth although upon tryall we have found some of their deceivers or false teachers like those 2 Pet. 2 Pet. 3.16 3.16 Vnlearned and unstable themselves while they boldly took upon them to instruct and guide others wresting the Scriptures both to the destruction of their Disciples and of themselves or like them of whom the Apostle S. Paul speaketh 1 Tim. 1.7 1 Tim. 1.7 Desiring to be teachers of the Gospell as they then did to be teachers of the Law and yet understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm But indeed their pretence of an immediate calling from God by the motion of his Spirit to the work of the Ministery and gathering of Churches here on earth like that in heaven glorious not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish Eph 5.27 together with their strange outward considence and presumptuous ostentation of themselves in a businesse of this high nature far exceeding the measure of their inward parts or gifts of minde easily begat in the weaker sighted and unsetled brethren an answerable opinion or erroncous belief of them that they were such in truth as they were in shew or professed themselves to be who therefore received them as Angels of God Gal. 4.14 even as Christ Jesus When as they were indeed no
and absurd then for men to esteem or vilifie love or hate any thing not according to the worth or unworthinesse thereof not as it may be usefull or hurtfull in its own nature to them but in opposition to others without due discretion or judgement had of the matter in question or thing what and how it is or may be in it self to account it vile because they have a good opinion or honourable conceit thereof and for no other reason to detest and loath it then for that their enemies fancy or bear a liking to it First loving or hating it and afterward searching out if possible rationall motives and arguments to give a just account of either to the world And yet such was the condition of these bitter and eager adversaries as may appear by the following instances For to begin with the received set form of Prayer and Liturgy once generally used in the Assemblies of thy people for the worship and service of their Maker though since become through the subtle malice of Satan the main bait of their furious and lasting contentions what could have been more profitably devised for the instruction of the ignorant then this What more conducing to order and peace then it in a setled Church What more inoffensive and harmlesse then the rites and ceremonies thereof What lesse obnoxious to any just exception of superstition errour impertinency or absurdity And yet notwithstanding the grosser ignorance of the vulgar people is solely or chiefly imputed unto it by the opposite party together with the generall profanenesse of life and meer externall formality in the acts of piety and devotion every where conspicuous in the nation And it hath been thought by some a sufficient ground not of separation only from the unity of thy body but of war also between thy members even unto rapine spoyle conflagration and bloud at least a fair pretence for these and like courses not inferiour to them Besides this it is too well known what large accusations have been brought against it by many of Idolatry will-worship contradiction tautologie indecency inadvertency redundancy in some deficiency in other parts thereof and what not which might in any respec detract from the worth thereof or make it contemptible and odious with the people To omit the taunts and reproaches which were usually cast upon the orders and ceremonies thereof and the great indignities offered to the persons of them who according to their conscience office and duty maintained it by their preaching and practise All which being taken into the consideration of prudent moderate and peaceable men were judged by them to be nothing else then the fruits of giddy passion or of distemper in judgement and in zeal And indeed he that shall but indifferently weigh and examine the reasons and exceptions which the dissenting and separating brethren alledge against the use of the English Liturgy will finde them for the most part so invalid and weak that one strong argument may be drawn from hence to prove it lawfull because whatsoever hath been hitherto brought by way of reproof to evince the unlawfulnesse thereof hath had in it no greater strength of reason and demonstration very requisite in a cause so important as this and in a charge so furious as was made against it But however reason and truth were wanting to their cause the opinion and confidence of both resting on their side was so deeply rooted in them that I verily beleeve it would be an hard matter to finde any sect either modern or antient who have more obstinately adhered to their principles or more vehemently prosecuted their designes then they As if they had been acted with a spirit of infallibility and carried on thereby in these proceedings when that of errour contrariety and spleen against the adverse party seemeth to have been their chief if not only guide wherefore they oppose themselves with might and main against the established order of prayer and diseipline and to disgrace and depresse the former they highly commend and above measure extoll and likewise use upon all occasions unpremeditate or as some term it conceived prayer A very forcible engine raised by them against Church-conformity and in all likelihood that which hath more upheld strengthened and encreased their faction then any one means whatsoever honouring it with the glorious title of praying by the Spirit and that by way of propriety in opposition to praying with any set form of words composed beforehand or framed to our ordinary use As if the Spirit of God did immediately suggest unto their mindes both the matter and form sense and words of these their supplications but was not assistant to the other or the other inconsistent with the grace and help thereof whereas upon due search into the Scriptures concerning this point we shall finde this pretended praying by the Spirit not to be so much as mentioned therein and for this cause at the best but warrantable and lawfull for us by the generall rule of indifferent things the which are left to the judgement of Christian prudence to be done or omitted by us as we shall see it most convenient for our selves or for other men not of necessary use as many of them suppose and maintain seeing that they cannot produce any expresse or implicite command for the same out of the written word of God For although mention be made there of prayer and supplication in the Spirit Ephes 6.18 yet it canbe proved either by that which precedeth or by that which followeth in the Text that the Apostle doth mean by this form of speech the same kinde of praying which they so much magnifie and contend for But rather he understandeth by prayer in the Spirit that in which the hearty affection is joyned with the mouthes expression and the desire of the soul is answerable to the positure and devotion of the body see Rom. 1.9 or that assistance of the Spirit whereof he speaketh Rom. 8.26 27. Otherwise the Apostle in this place and by these words doth shew what it is to pray alwaies namely not to be continually muttering prayers with our lips as some have vainly imagined but to be in a perpetual disposition of the heart towards this holy exercise yea and to be assiduous and constant in desire of those things which we want without slothfull intermission or faith lesse fainting in case we do not perceive a sudden grant of our requests Luk. 18.1 either of which is farre different from the former as appeareth at the very first sight thereof And yet how great advantage have they gotten upon their adversaries by their facility of utterance and volubility of speech in prayer without thought as they professe and premeditation in the least measure of what they were to say Many of which though learned and eloquent men either because they were ill affected to this practise or for that they did not exercise their gifts and parts this way being unwilling or unable
to match them at this weapon which they had been taught to handle and wield as they listed from their tender years were scorned of them and traduced to the ignorant sort as meer naturall men not having the Spirit of God whereof they did pretend this to be a sure note and character Although indeed if we offer up our prayers unto God from a pure heart with stedfastnesse of faith and fâ—rvency of affection it matters not whether we do it in a set form or by sodain ejaculation Provided that we aske things agreeable to the minde and will of God entertain no thought in our selves that the one is better then the other absolutely considered or more acceptable in it self with him approach with reverence both of body and of soul to the throne of Grace and utter words beseeming the Majesty and holinesse of him with whom we have to doe And now I shall only take a view of one exception which hath been frequently alledged in my hearing against the received form of Church prayer knowing how much hath already been said and that effectually in defence thereof by men eminent for learning and piety and so conclude this point And it is the very same which I have formerly mentioned namely that by the use of this service men were generally nursed and brought up in grosse ignorance profanenesse and formality of Religion The which exception if it were just or true who could doubt but that the Liturgy was to be exploded out of the congregation as impious in it self and therefore unlawfull to be used at any hand But that it is altogether groundlesse and false might be made manifest by severall arguments proving the contrary one shall suffice for the present which is taken from the substance or matter contained therein For this being either some part or portion of the word of God faithfully interpreted according to the Analogie of Faith and minde of the holy Ghost in all things which concern our salvation or what may be deduced from it by rational consequence or that which doth no way contradict and thwart the precepts thereof how can it possibly be a cause or means of ignorance and profanenesse to the which it is so opposite unlesse light may produce darknesse heat cold and good evill How then came it to passe that very many who had the continuall use and benefit of this form were so grosly ignorant of the mysteries of godlinesse so dissolute in their life and so formall in their profession as they were throughout this whole nation Surely not because this was a covert to their eyes that they could not see the light or a flie postern gate opening a way privily unto sin or licentiousnesse as they falsly do imagine but from the corruption of mens hearts Joh. 3.19 whereby it is that they love darknesse rather then light beeduse their deeds are evill and content themselves with a meer shew or slight touch at the furthest of Religion as being most agreeable with flesh and bloud by reason of the lightnesse and easinesse which is therein and the liberty it doth indulge unto those lusts which are most common and predominant in humane nature whereas the sincere and practicall profession of Christianity doth confine and restrain our unbridled affections locks up our wandring desires and ties the knot hard upon our loose pleasures and delights obliging us to abstinence and austerity of life and therefore doth it generally distast with men and universally with all whose hearts are not seasoned with true sanctifying grace or as the Apostle speaketh Heb. Heb. 13.9 13.9 established therewith Besides it is too well known how little care hath been taken by those who had the oversight of the people to inform them concerning the use and end of their publique devotions and of those circumstantiall rites pertaining to the same or make them understand the sense and signification of those things which were so often inculcated into their ears by others or which themselves uttered with their lips yea not a few of their teachers were so forsaken of knowledge and destitute of exemplary holynesse notwithstanding their place and function did require eminency of both that either they were unable to instruct their charge aright or what they taught them carryed no weight of reverence or authority with it but rather was the lesse esteemed of by the people for their sakes who did commend the same unto them being witnesses of their levity and sin and of their continuall practise farre disserent from their own profession and doctrine And yet such was the force of custome with many joyned with ignorance and indiscretion of the nature of things that they verily thought every parcell of the Common-prayer-book and every ceremony prescribed thereby to be of no lesse then divine institution and that a slight perfunctory use of its forms in praying with the other rules and directions of externall worship observed by them was sufficient to bring them unto heaven without any more adoe To this we may adde the remisse and slack hand of Ecclesiasticall discipline as another main cause of the generall ignorance and profanenesse of these times which reached no farther for the most part to the inferiour Clergie how peccant soever otherwise in the exercise thereof then in point of disconformity to Episcopall orders Provinciall or Synodicall constitutions touching externall government neither did it call the people to a due account if any of their proficiency in the knowledge of Christ Jesus or censure them for non-proficiency therein yea scarcely for grosse and scandalous crimes if they were persons known to be well affected towards the present government though upon the weakest perchance and worst grounds which can be imagined namely the defects and failings of those who did administer the same In like manner the sleeping or not executing of necessary penall statutes upon offenders against the Law of God hath been a chief cause of open profanenesse in the land for had these been impartially executed upon every convicted transgressor after some care taken to finde them out I am perswaded by this time we should not have seen many drunkards or heard many swearers throughout this whole populous Hand And indeed I can speak it upon my own knowledge that a town of good note in the Western parts of the the Land not far distant from the Sea heretofore famed for all manner of riot and disorder by this course of late years hath been reduced to that order and discipline that it is a rare matter to see a man there at any time distempered with wine or with strong drink or to hear a rash oath proceed from any mans mouth no not when there is most frequent concourse of people thither from all the neighbouring parts so carefull are men to keep the Law where as the Apostle speaketh Heb. 2.2 Heb. 2.2 every transgression and disobedience receiveth a just recompense of reward So easie a matter is it for Ministers and
other then false Apostles 2 Cor. 11.13 deceitfull workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ Wherefore many pious and learned Ministers do no doubt though happily too late see their failing in omitting the necessary and beneficiall exercise of catechising their younger people and do bewail it in the daily defection which is made from them to these novell seducers But what help and remedy can be found to cure the present or prevent the future growth of this almost generall contagion For although some have attempted now at length to put the same in practise for this very end and purpose yet they could not bring it to passe according to their desire partly through the pride and arrogancy of some much slighting and yet as much wanting this inferiour kinde of instruction partly through the bashfulnesse and shame of others conscious to themselves of more ignorance then did become their riper age or Christian education and partly through that laxe and boundlesse liberty which these times allow to all men in point of duty and conscience whereby every one doth gratifie his own will and humour in Religion holding that in opinion which seemeth to him best and doing that in order hereunto which liketh him most in the mean time rejecting the counsell and direction of those who were over them in the Lord and both able and willing to afford them spirituall help for the furtherance of their faith and salvation of their souls A third instance I shall take from the Anniversary fast of Lent and other weekly fasts or daies of abstinence from flesh the originall of which I shall not now dispute because it hath been already sufficiently done by many the use I shall breifly examine yet not the civill which is manifold perchance and much concerning the publick good of humane society but that which is religious or tending thereunto and this no farther then may serve my present purpose knowing how far men much more learned then my self and throughly acquainted with this way have travelled therein The use then of these fasts in order to devotion is the chastening of the flesh or as the Apostle expresseth it 1 Cor. 9.27 1 Cor. 9.27 Keeping under the body and bringing it into subjection namely to the Law of the Spirit by sobriety and abstinence as appeareth from vers 25. See also 2 Cor. 11.27 vers 25. Now that this discipline and exercise of the body is very profitable for the subduing and mastering of those corrupt lusts and inordinate motions of concupiscence which do evermore accompany the pampering of our flesh and fulnesse thereof experience as well as Scripture doth manifest unto us For where do we finde more lasciviousnesse wantonnesse and uncleannesse of desire where do we see more levity and loosnesse of behaviour then in great houses abounding with wealth and plenty of all things where there is idlenesse and fulnesse of bread riotous eating of flesh and drinking of wine tables continually overspread with costly dishes and superfluous varieties of meat the choisest dainties which sea or land can afford at the severall seasons of the year these ministring fuell unto the fire and as it were oyle unto the flame of sinfull lust and indisposing the soul to spirituall watchfulnesse and sobriety as appeareth from Luk. 21.34 On the contrary they who feed sparingly and drink moderately and in stead of grosse diet use that which is slender and lesse cherisheth the body especially at certain seasons and sometimes impose upon themselves the harder task of abstinence from meat or sasting are in no wise subject as the former to the desires and motions of evill coneupiscence and experimentally finde in themselves a better disposition both of body and of minde to the worship and service of their Maker And however we can in no respect commend or approve of the Fasts of the Romish Church as being too short for the time and serving rather to sharpen and prepare the appetite for the delicacies of a Feast then to bridle and chastise it for as much as after a slight forbearance of meat they proceed to the dainties of a luxurious banquet and therefore as I am informed the Germane nobility heretofore thought no time more convenient for to visit their Bishops then their Fasting daies as affording them better entertainment then ordinary yet those Fasts wherein we truly and unfeignedly afflict our souls before the Lord are very commendable and usefull exercises of piety and devotion But notwithstanding thus much and much more may be said in the defence and commendation of regular and well ordered Fasts in which hypocrisie is not added to superstition as in the Romish practise and an absolute necessity of observation with opinion of merit affixed to them as in their doctrine and in like manner of set times appointed for this use the Antiepiscopall party could never be brought to conceit well of Church Fasting daies much lesse to have them in esteem or to keep them as the rest of their brethren did But expressed an utter dislike of them upon all occasions where they might utter their thoughts with safety and so far were they from observing them according to order that many of them at least would take these daies to chuse for the eating of flesh and for more then usuall feeding in opposition no doubt to the Bishops and their party who were sometimes very hot and zealous in pressing the strict observation of the same on the inferior and middle sort of people some whereof and those not a few had them in the greater esteem for this reason because the other did vilifie and despise them yea therefore ascribed a kinde of morall holinesse to meer bodily abstinence from meat without any addition of inward spirituall devotion to it an opinion of very dangerous consequence though unperceived of those with whom it resteth A fourth instance we shall borrow from the custome of genuflexion or bowing of the knee to God in our common supplications and prayers the which though in times past observed with awfull diligence of those who came into the Congregation and of necessary use still in our devotions when no just cause doth discharge us from it whereby we may excuse our omission thereof as being commended by by God himself and commanded unto us by the exemplary practise of his Saints in all ages yea and of Jesus Christ himself when he lived on the earth see Psal 95.6 Ps 95.6 7. with 7. where the reason or argument alledged for the action is worth our serious consideration and Mat. 26.29 Mat. 26.39 Luk. 22.41 with Luk. 22.41 hath been for a long time intermitted as needlesse and superfluous by many of the Antiprelaticall brethren who can produce no thing of weight or which hath in it the least shew of Scripture ground for it but have been led herein as in other things by their own will or rather wilfulnesse in opposition to their adversaries And whereas men generally used at
thus to resent your errours is to gain by your losse and to bone it by your pain I have but a word more to speak unto you and I shall conclude It is concerning your lives The which I would to God were not so well observed and known of the people to your prejudice and dishonour as generally they are throughout the whole land for then should I with reverence to your calling gladly passe by your failings in silence But the dimnesse of light cannot be concealed Mat. 5.14 and a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid Ye every where complain and not without cause that scorn and reproach are cast upon you by the basest of the people that men detain your right from you contrary to Law and conscience But consider with your selves whether ye have not excessively deserved this usage from them at the hands of God For what do they yet see or have seen heretofore in many of you worthy of imitation or honour Have ye lived after the pattern of your own doctrine and not rather destroyed by your example what ye built up by your teaching For ye who preached holy contempt of the world unto others were your selves lovers of the world ye who exhorted others to self-deniall and obedience of the Gospell did your selves lead lives unbeseeming the Gospell of Christ Jesus ye that were above others in respect of your office and place in the Church of God did ost times live beneath the meanest of them who were committed to your charge being infamous for your pride of lise lightnesse and loosnesse of behaviour excesse of wine and strong drink and for other crimes dishonourable in the life of the meanest person professing the Gospell much more in the conversation of a Pastour Now what in all probability could be expected from these courses but that the people would at length entertain a low opinion of your selves and calling yea and of Religion it self as we see it come to passe this day Forasmuch as they live after your example and make no account of your precept be it never so well grounded on the word of truth or powerfully laid home to their conscience by the passion and eloquence of the speaker so little regard have men for the most part to the words of their spiritual leaders and so much to their works especially when agreeing with that carnall disposition or corruption which is predominant in the mindes of the major and worst sort of the world Although not only the leaders of the people which cause them to erre Isa 9.16 but they also that are led of them shall certainly be destroyed in the end These things I write not to shame you but as my beloved brethren I warn you not as an instructer but as a follow-disciple with you of that one and only Master Christ Jesus And witnesse the common Father of us all in meeknesse and sincerity of love Accept therefore I pray you my plain but wholsome counsell seasonable though rude advice affectionate though not affected according to the fashion of the times Be henceforth pure and uncorrupt in your doctrine speaking not what humane passion may suggest unto you but what ye have learned from the word of truth not crying down the Law as the manner of some is under pretence of advancing the Gospell as though the Law were against the Promises of God and not rather subservient to them Gal 3.21 but discreetly handling both accordingly as ye meet either with proud and obstinate or with humble and broken hearted sinners that the gate of mercy may not seem shut up towards these nor a way laid open for Libertinisme to them Do the work of the Lord neither deceitfully nor negligently be unblamable in your life austere and grave in your conversation just and peaceable in your actions and dealings with men peace-makers and peace-keepers moderate and abstemious in the use of bodily refreshments not addicted to pleasures liberall and charitable in ministring to the necessities of the Saints where ability is present not covetous or greedy after this worlds good when it is wanting much lesse when it doth abound Be as far eminent above the vulgar sort for holinesse of life as ye are already for dignity of place in the House of God Be admonished and reclaimed from your sins by past and present sufferings lest a worse thing come unto you and iniquity prove your ruine In a word so live for the time to come as it behoveth those who are now if ever 1 Cor. 4.9 made a spectacle to the world and to Angels and to men that they whose eyes are upon you may no longer think the profession of Christ to consist in a meer formality or bare shew of holinesse without the substance thereof but judge it as it is indeed a matter of greatest difficulty and nearest concernment to themselves of any thing in the world That the reproach which is cast upon you may cease and turn to your adverfaries that ye may be blessed in the work whereunto the Lord hath called you not in respect of others only but of your selves also and not complain as one of your brethren not many years agoe did unto his servant at his death who representing to his master at his earnest request for comfort from him in the midst of despair the same consolations which according to his office he usually ministred to others in his life time that had been in the same condition with himself now ready to breath out the last the poor disconsolate man replyed that he well remembred what was suggested to his minde But alas saith he I did not my self then beleeve those things to be true which I preached unto others and therefore cannot now finde any comfort in them when I most stand in need thereof Finally my brethren whatsoever things are true Phil. 4.8 whatsoever things are honest or venerable whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise Rom 15.5 6. think on these things Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one minde and one mouth glorifie God even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ To him be glory Amen To the Nobility and Gentry I Shall not divide you in my reproof and counsell however the Law and custome of your nation hath made a wide difference between you forasmuch as ye both are the Nobility of the land though with great inequality of power place and honour in the Common-wealth especially in former times But the similitude or rather parity of your sins hath brought you into a farre nearer distance one from the other or indeed made you one and the same for guilt and crime both in the sight of God and before men Wherefore I also shall addresse my
at his Ordinances then thus grossely to profane them But this impious presumption and over daring boldnesse of sinning and provoking your Redeemer to his Face ye took to be the priviledge of your birth and place and therefore other men were more cautious and sparing herein then your selves or made more conscience then you of what they did at such a time and in such a place as this is It may seeme incredible what I have been informed of a Peere of the Realm and yet I cannot distrust the truth thereof both for the Relatours sake and for the relation which is common in and about that place where he lately lived Hee used every Lords Day when he went with his Family to the Church to have his Mastive goe before him with a Marmoset or some such creature near of kin to this upon the Dogs back a strange Pageant for such a solemnity what his end and aim at was in this I shall forbear to censure because he hath already stood or fallen to his own master Rom. 14.4 Now touching your unnecessary rash frequent and many times false swearing by the terrible and fearfull name of the great God of Heaven and Earth and by his eternall Son Jesus Christ equall to himself in Majesty and Power whose bloud and wounds passion parts and properties were seldome or never mentioned by you but in this sinfull way of profanation and your usuall imprecations of his wrath upon your soules where no just occasion I am sure if any at all were offered of so deep asseverations and protestations against your selves before the faithfull witnesse and impartiall Judge of all hearts what can we say of it but that it was the Gentlemans ordinary Rhetorick the common grace of his speech and the supposed Ornament of his discourse Oathes being with him pigmenta orationis wherein he did much glory and whereof he did make speciall use though bad enough God knoweth when matter of dispute or elocution did fail him although he might well consider how that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God Luk. 15.16 And oh the pernicious influence of evill example from superiours upon the inferior sort how generall hath this contagion been in the land how far hath this canker overspread the body of this Nation Derived as we have just cause to imagine from you as from the fountain and so by your dependants and followers as by so many corrupt channels conveyed to the rest of the people Insomuch as many at this time account no more of this needless but great transgression of the Divine Law then they doe of any idle word which proceedeth out of their mouths without thought or premeditation of what they were to speak And here I should take occasion next to reprove you for your pride I mean that which doth manifest it self to the world by outward garb and fashion of the times but that I have just cause to beleeve at least am willing to hope of many of you that the grievous and sad calamities which by the just hand of God have fallen upon your estates and families in these dysastrous times of war have in some measure humbled and abased your spirits and taken off from the vanity and lightnesse both of your behaviour and apparell so much is sorrow better then laughter Eccles 7.3 for by the sadnesse of the countenance the heart is made better And yet alas not a few of your degree even to this day are so far from being truely sensible of their sufferings that they seem to be more hardned in their pride at this present then before and waxe more wanton against the Lord since his hand hath been upon them for triall and correction then in former times like those of whom we read Isa 9.9 10. The Lord pardon and reclaim them from the error of their wayes And now I shall proceed to speak of your Epicurean or voluptuous manner of living together with your riot and excesse because of their near affinity First then if nothing else could be laid to your charge then a continuall prosecution of enterchangeable pleasures or endevour without ceasing to gratifie sinful concupiscence with whatsoever it desireth or lusteth after were not this enough to condemn you before the just tribunall of your Maker For did he who came to redeem you ever lead such a life as this upon the earth or commend it to his Disciples and followers no surely For mourning mortification self-denyall taking up and bearing the crosse or patient enduring of reproaches and persecutions ever attending on the sincere and zealous profession of the Gospell tender compassion toward our brethren in misery with present relief of their necessities according to our power and ability In a word contempt of this present world and abhorrency from the enticing pleasures thereof are the subject matter of all his Sermons the pith of his Doctrine the marrow of his Divinity And doe ye still think that a paradise of earthly pleasures is the way to an heavenly paradise of comfort and delight or that an heaven of carnall happinesse here may in likelyhood be a passage unto an heaven of spirituall and eternall felicity hereafter The Israelites of old could not arrive to the land of Canaan but by the long and dangerous way through the Wildernesse and the Gospell which doth promise us a Kingdome in the world to come doth withall assure us Act. 14.22 that wee must through much tribulation enter in to the Kingdome of God And ye hope or rather dream of a Canaan in the way and another at the journeys end ye would fain wear the Crown and yet not bear the Crosse obtain the victory and never enter into the battail rejoice in the triumph and not sweat in the fight But oh consider I pray you and lay to heart that curse of your confidence * Luk. 16.25 and what hath often founded in your eares but never as yet entred into your hearts ye especially who every day glut your selves with the choicest dainties which the Sea or land can afford feeding your selves without fear Jude drinking without measure or restraint ye who are mighty to drink wine Isa 5.22 and men of strength to mingle strong drink Hab. 2.15 ye that give your neighbour drinke and put your bottle to him and make him drunken also that ye may looke on their nakednesse Behold your sins in the truest glasse and tremble to think on the curses which attend them that ye may not henceforth drink in foolish imagination the health of others to the reall perdition of your own soules that your tables may be no longer covered with vomit lest the banquet of them that siretch themselves be removed Amos 6.7 Lest the cup of the Lords right hand be turned unto you Hab. 2.17 and shamefull spewing be on your glory And indeed the Lord hath already brought to passe what he hath threatned to doe
probable that worldly interest is most predominant in the severall opposite parties yet every one is taught to open his mouth wide for the cause and truth of God and none more then they who most blaspheme his name by their impure doctrines which they commend to the world for those of Christ Jesus though as contrary to what he spake as darknesse is to light And because these are the fruits of faction and schism sometimes as it is now apparent with us as well as the causes thereof at other times I wish men all to remember how deep and sad their accounts will one day be who have any wayes procured these dangerous maladies to the State and Church or fomented the same by word or deed For wee plainly see to what condition both are reduced at this present and every man may be so far a Prophet as to soretel yet greater calamities like to come upon us except the Almighty doth wonderfully appeare for us and that speedily but I for bear neither shall I stirre the coals of their lusts nor strike the drunkards cup in indignation out of his hand nor rowse thy delicate Dames from their bed of pleasure and sloth whose life is nothing else but sleep and lust and putting on of apparell not becomming women professing godlinesse and costly fare with ease and sport 1 Pet. 3.3 with 1 Tim. 2.10 according to the severall varieties of them all Nor shall I labour to dissolve the Adamantine hearts of thy creditours into humane pity towards their poore obnoxious debters For have not these been the frequent and faithfull endeavours of thy learned and pious Ministers from time to time for many years together Jer. 9. â— But their habitation was in the midst of deceit Zech. 7.11 through deceit they refused to know the Lord yea thy children refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear Or were like those of whom the Lord complaineth and describeth to the Prophet Ezekiel chap. 33.31 32. who with their mouth shewed much love to the Prophet and to his message but their heart in the mean while went after their covetousnesse to whom he was as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument for they heard his words but they did them not In like manner thy sons and daughters were onely hearers of the Evangelicall word but left the doing thereof to others who were better affected with the same then they contenting themselves with this empty shadow of godlines that they were continually present to the outward Ordinance of the word did countenance or favour the messengers thereof wherefore hath the Lord of hosts melted them and tryed them Ier. 9.7 for how should he otherwise doe for the daughters of his people And oh that thy children had been admonished and reformed by the corrections of their heavenly Father Isa 59. But alas their transgressions are multiplyed before the Lord and their sins testifie against them for their transgressions are with them and as for their iniquities they know them In transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing away from their God speaking oppression and revolt conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood And judgement is turned away backward and justice standeth a for off for truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter yea truth faileth and he that departeth from evill maketh himselfe a prey or is accounted mad yea they proceed from evill to evill and they know not me saith the Lord. Shall he not therefore visit for these things and though he defer his wrath for a season expecting with patience their repentance and conversion unto him will it not break forth at the last to consume his adversaries as in a moment For while they be folded together as thorns Nah. 1.10 and while they are drunken as drunkards they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry Thou hast occasioned and seen with mercilesse hearts and eyes the grievous sufferings of thy countrey and shalt thou goe altogether together unpunished is thy sinne lesse yea is it not much more then theirs have not thy lampes shined forth most gloriously to thy selfe and others when they have sate in darknesse And yet thou hast loved darknesse rather then light because thy works were evill For thou dost represent unto us the wickednesse of the whole Nation contracted indeed into a lesser volume but more polished and refined by the art of thine iniquity overlayed with the faire gilt of hypocrisy but underneath more foule and ugly then that of the people both in the sight of God and of those who know his wayes a right Thus deceit is with thee more elegant and smooth in expression but more dangerous and dark in the mystery then it is with those of the Countrey In like manner other sins goe more fine and trim in their dresse here then in the rurall Townes or inferiour Cities but the skin underneath is much blacker and the shape more deformed then it is with them Only impudence is more daring in thy children then in any of the Nation who generally are as yet uncapable of that immodesty which is every where common with thee And may they never learn more of that from thee of which perchance they have too much already Now as thou hast in thee the sins of those ample and glorious Cities which the Lord destroyed in times past for their wickednesse but are still set forth for example of his Divine justice to us that are alive this day as well as to them that have gone before us and to all generations to come so fear and expect their judgements and the more because his mercies of all sorts have been greater towards thee then them and thy warnings also of approaching vengeance more frequent signal then theirs and yet behold their memorial is perished with them Psal 3.6 But the Lord shall endure for ever the same in justice as in mercy to all men throughout all ages Take heed therefore lest with an overflowing floud he make an utter end of the place thereof Nah. 1.8 9. so that affliction rise not up the second time Security is the daughter of sin but the mother of danger Prov. 16.18 Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall Thou maiest happily as thy elder sisters did before thee dream of perpetuity when desolation is at hand But oh remember that there is no stability with iniquity no safety in sin no peace to the wicked Babylon thou knowest that was heretofore given to pleasures as thou art now dwelled carelesly as thou dost said in her heart as thou perchance speakest to thy self Is 47.8 9. at this time I am and none else besides me I shall not sit as a widow neither shall I know the losse of children But these two things came to her as the Prophet foretold
before you and give it for a possession unto strangers whom ye have not known in times past and whose language ye cannot understand The best tenure of your land is the gracious will of God and the condition of his will your obedience If ye be willing and obedient Isa 2.19 20. ye shall eat the good of the land But if ye refuse and rebell ye shall be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it And if this thought may not startle your mindes sleeping on the bed of sinfull sloth and carnall security let that I pray you of a far greater and more destructive evill awaken you from sleep the removing of the candlestick out of his place after that the star is vanished away or set in obscure darknesse never to rise again For ye have a long time turned the grace of your God into wantonnesse and you plainly see that the light beginneth now to shine much more dim then formerly and not at all in many corners of the land and is there not just cause to fear Mat. 21.43 lest that the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof And the rather for that the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to hear * Mic. 9.7 the rod and who hath appointed it unto this day vers 6.10 11 12. For are there not yet the treasures of wickednesse in the house of the wicked and the seant measure that is abominable shall I count them pure with the wicked ballances and with the lag of deceitfull writs For the rich men thereof are full of violence and the Inhabitants thereof have spoken lies and their tongue is deceitfull in their mouth Jer. 9.3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies but they are not valtam for the truth upon the earth for they proceed from evill to evill and they know not me saith the Lord Ch 5.29 Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord. shall not my soule be avenged on such a Nation as this Ye are guilty of the sins of Israel and can you hope to escape the judgements of Israel you have seen what heavy judgements have been executed upon them from time to time by the hand of Divine Justice for the same sins which you dayly commit and not upon them alone but upon the neighbouring Nations round about you the war pestilence and famine which wasted and consumed thero and is there not cause why after so many warnings by the sad examples of others you should exspect greater judgements or the same in greater measure then did light upon them Luke 13.3 Jam 4.8.6 9 10. Surely except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Draw nigh therefore to God and he will draw nigh to you cleanse your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double minded Be afflicted and mourne and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heavinesse Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up Believe and obey those Ministers that most powerfully dehort from sin and exhort you unto righteousnesse both by their preaching and by their living and not them which decry duty and secretly perswade you to libertinism and licentiousnesse of life or who flatter you in your sins bearing you in hand that ye are better then you are or not so bad as some account of you for though this be pleasing and plausible yet God knoweth and you will finde so at the last it is pernicious doctrine whereby ye are brought into the snare of the Devill Neither rejoice to hear the sins of other men reproved as the costome is but truely grieve for them and much more for your own when they are represented to your conscience by the Lords Messenger not storming at his rebuke or having indignation at his person as the manner is by which means he is often discouraged in his Office and you ever hardned in your sins In a word let it be the faithfull endeavour of you all as much as in you lyeth to reform your own lives and the lives of other men O ye Ministers of the Lord O ye Magistrates of the land O ye People both small and great minde this one needfull matter and no longer dote upon private personall interest with the neglect of the publick and to the ruine of the whole prefer not any more the State to the Church the world to Christ gain to godlinesse 1 Pet. 1.15 and earth to heaven But as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation suffer him once to rule in your hearts who hath so often been in your mouths and of whom ye have made so frequent mention with your lips Mat. 7.21 saying unto him Lord Lord but not doing the will of his Father which is in heaven Be his servants in deed and not in word onely his Disciples in truth as well as in shew and in outward profession not for what ye may gain here but for what ye shall enjoy hereafter If ye know these things happy are ye if ye doe them Now that ye may be able to doe them by him who can doe all things Phil. 2.13 and worketh in you both to will and to doe of his good pleasure The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen FINIS A Post-script to the Reader HE that undertaketh freely to reprove the faults of many must expect the various censures of many and so do I but fear them not and trust I have no cause much to passe by them my conscience bearing me witnesse that I have had a tender respect in what I write to the glory of God unto truth and to the spirituall good of my brethren 1 Cor. 74.25 as one that hath obiained mercy of the Lord to be saithfull yet as a man compassed with infirmity and subject to many failings though in the present businesse free from malice or desire of revenge neither do I plead guiltlesse my self while I thus seem to accuse others Far be this from me as already it is I know and acknowledge my own sins in those of other men with whom God knoweth I have been in too great a measure guilty of the common errors of the times whereby we have mutually drawn downe the past and present judgements which the Lord hath executed and doth still execute upon this sinfull nation Psal 51.3 and my transgression is ever before me But blessed be his name for that I have learned by his fatherly rebukes and chastisements both to loath and to leave the follies and iniquities of my youth And oh that I were as free from the inbred corruption of my heart But alas it still cleaveth very close unto me and I have found