Jezabel had to paint with with what face can we call our late happy times the times of Reformation and Gospel days when it will not be allowed that they were so much as the resemblance or likeness of Gospel-days Gospel-worship our forementioned attainments friends wherein through mercy we get glory must not now be admitted to serve for so much as a vizor a mask a cloak of Religion nay he makes the very cloak friends the cloak at Troas to be no more canonical than a Gown or Cassock these are heart-piercing and heart-breaking discouragements friends what will become of us Tenthly Beloved And is it so Then the use we should make of all should be to begin with an use of enquiry who this same E. H. is that we may blacken him friends as brother Harrison said upon another occasion I say friends we must blacken him blacken I am sure must be the word Eleventhly friends further enquire How shall we blacken him was not the father of this E. H. some Jesuit and his mother a Strumpet was not the whore-son born at Tripoly and one of the three that came over in four Ships Has he not a mole above his chin and another on his left knee enquire after that friends if it be so then Beloved our friend and cause-advancing Brother William Lilly will tell us that there is no dealing with him especially if this E. H. was born as I hear he was in the very same year and month with Charles II. before whom we have begun to fall and then I must tell you friends I that am your Prophet must then tell you dear friends with a sad heart as the wise men and Zeresh his wife told Haman that then we shall never prevail against him but shall surely fall before him Twelfthly Again enquire and seek out from among your selves in this nation and Common-wealth as I may so call it friends among our selves friends here 's none here I hope but friends I say enquire and seek out for a Common-wealths man and a modern Orthodox man for some brother well gifted to defend us and our Holiness which E. H. makes a nothingness nay not worth a Louse as being neither so useful vertuous nor so hard to be acquired especially in some Countries enquire therefore for some man amongst us that may endeavour to weaken at least the Authority of his Letter and be sure to blacken him Thirteenthly Friends I think I only give you my advice but in mine opinion there is not of our Party any so well qualified to deal with him as J. O. if He be not too much out of credit already or rather what think you of brother Wild he has some cause to be netled and therefore will the more readily undertake this E. H. who has taken him up already a little smartly and indeed all of us that were at brother Caryl's Funeral I think we had as good have staid at home Friends yet since it is as it is friends as I said but now there is none of us have so much wit for the work as our brother Wild but the mischief on 't is this drink by this drink friends by this vile beastly drinking friends brother Wild has now made his brains as foul and slubberly with his Guzling as are the fore-skirts of his doublet what therefore shall we do dear friends Fourteenthly enquire still I say friends I am upon the use of enquiry whether or no it will not be our wisest course to sit still and never offer at an answer to this Letter from E. H. who I perceive is a merry man and would joy in another opportunity to make us more ridiculous a scorn and a Proverb now that his hand is in I wish it was off Yet Fifteenthly Beloved since this E. H. has rob'd us also which I had almost forgot of that never to be forgotten Good Old Cause mark that friends that Cause I say which we have fought for over head and ears resisting even to blood dear friends and since this E. H. has made it an old rotten Cause that stinkâ—… above ground saving your presence friends Therefore I say therefore some course or other must be taken to answer him if it be but for the Cause sake which now with modern Orthodoxy lies it would pity ones heart to see it friends thus lie a gasping Sixteenthly What think you friends I only propose it what think you of making another Gathering among the Churches for our friend The Author of The Rehearsal Transpros'd to chear up his drooping spirits for I hear he is crop-sick and his spirit like Nabal's almost dead within him but a little encouragement from you I only give you my thoughts would perhaps make him still get some more Ink and Elbow griese and spend it briskly once more in behalf of modern Orthodoxy and the Good Old Cause which though he says is now too good to be fought for be not angry at him friends for he means no harm to us nor it so long as he does not think it a Cause too good to be writ for so he do but vindicate it the second time with his pen we expect no more from such white-livers let us alone to vindicate it with the Pike Seventeenthly and lastly Beloved one use more and I have done it is an use of Exhortation you have heard what E. H. has done in robbing us and making us naked and bare you have also heard several enquiries what may be thought fit to be done in our defence which I leave friends to your consideration which if you think useless fruitless goodless and purposeless then in the last place let me exhort you never to repent as long as you live let them say what they will or laugh their hearts out Repent and recant that would be pretty indeed that would be as much as to confess this Indictment and acknowledge our selves to have been guilty of all the innocent blood shed in these nations Royal blood and all and also to acknowledge that brother Oliver deceased had no Right to White-Hall nor we to the rest of the Kings-Lands Bishops-Lands Lords-Lands Gentlemans-Lands sequestred sold to us in those happy Gospel times the very thoughts wherof friends do you see makes me weep so that my eyes dropping so fast my words can no longer drop as the rain I 'll sob out a little more though in the conclusion of this so necessary use of Exhortation namely that you would friends abhorr this Book or this Letter call it what you will from E. H. so that you abhorr it as much as the Apocrypha or as the Tabernacle of a Robber or as that lewd womans house you read of avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away for there are charms in it I speak mine own experiences there are charms in that Book that will force your wills 't is strange to be ruled by your understandings and then farewel blind zeal for
in wording it they did not nor could not fore-see such as this of the Anabaptists mistake and misconstruction in this particular Yet the word bearing two significations and Lay-men in those times not so audacious and impudent nor the reading Scriptures so promiscuous and frequent as of late of which sad consequences we have too much experience But does not our Saviour bid men search the Scriptures Jo. 5. 39. I answer no he does not he said only to them that were learned in the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to whomsoever of his auditors that were conversant in Scriptures in the Indicative Mood ye do search the Scriptures because in them ye think to have eternal life and they are they that testifie of me yet ye will not come unto me that ye might have life As if our Blessed Saviour should say as he does in another place seeing you see and yet you do not perceive and hearing you hear and do not understand ye search the Scriptures thinking to find this eternal bread that I am preaching of namely eternal life by Christ and there you may see me for they testify of me yet ye will not come for so is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred Jo. 1. 10. tamen sometimes sed unto me that ye might have life I know the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be taken in the Imperative Mood but that it is not so agreeable with the context nor signifies any thing if it were so to prove this promiscuous use and license of reading the Gospel and New Testament of which not one word was then writ Indeed no man in the world can desire more than I do that all people did understand the Scriptures the mind and will of God by reading and searching into the Scriptures themselves and also into the English Bible so they read and search with the spirit of meekness for instruction and not for cavil and disputes raising controversies and horrid new opinions out of difficult places of Scripture not knowing what they say nor whereof they affirm Those controversies should be left to those of greater abilities and of more sober spirits than themselves There are plain places of Scripture enow for edification and to direct us in the way to Heaven by living soberly righteously and godly in this present world And he answered smartly and well to a Fanatick but a light heel'd Gentlewoman that was mightily perplex'd with finding out the meaning of Daniel Ezekiel and the Revelations that she had been better employed if she had consider'd the meaning of those plain Scriptures Thou shalt not commit adultery and Fear God and Honour the King I wonder what rational account any man that understands only the English Translation can give why the Pharisees should find fault Luke 6. 1 2. with Christs Disciples for plucking the ears of corn as they pass'd through the corn fields and did eat rubbing them in their hands did not the Pharisees eat on the Sabbath days yes surely and if they eat any thing could not eat less nor more easily made ready than rubbing the Corn out with their hands and eating some of the grains meat ready dress'd in and to their hands And though some Sabbath days were kept with more abstinence than others and more solemnity yet the English Translation help us to no discovery calling that Sabbath only The second Sabbath after the first The second Sabbath after the first what 's that If the Jews had a Sabbath that was called the first Sabbath as indeed they had namely the Feast of the Passover when the first day thereof fell on a Sabbath day then by this translation this Sabbath day when the Disciples plucked the ears of Corn and did eat must be the second and next following Sabbath to it But that is not true because it is not the meaning of the original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither helps at all to solve the doubt as being but an ordinary Sabbath on which it was lawful to eat a Break-fast but it was not lawful to eat a Break-fast or drink any thing by the Jewish Canon until the sixth hour which we call Noon or twelve a Clock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 6. 1. which our English Translation renders very imperâ—…ectly and untruly the second Sabbath after the first and Beza renders it much worse namely Sabbato altero primo And not at all to the purpose The incomparable Grotius renders it best and gives the best reason for that reddition namely the second Prime-Sabbath that is the day of Pentecost on which it was not lawful to eat a break-fast or eat or drink till twelve a clock and therefore did the Pharisees find fault with the Disciples not for eating upon a Sabbath day as every body did as well as their beasts but for eating upon the second Prime Sabbath the day of Pentecost And this thus explain'd gives a very good account of the strength of S. Peter's argument to prove that the Disciples were not drunk as some did suppose when they spoke with new tongues upon the day of Pentecost Acts 2. 1. 15. These are not drunk seeing it is but the third hour of the day or nine a clock Why Is 't not probable men may be drunk by nine a clock yes on other days but not on that day the day of Pentecost or second Prime Sabbath when none were suffered to sell any wine or meat or drink nor tast any thing till twelve a clock or the sixth hour A great many more imperfections there are in our English Bibles which I had rather were mended than discover'd these Instances are sufficient to abate the confidence of those bold companions that instead of being teachers of others had need learn more humility and modesty themselves and not be so desperately devoted to a new opinion built upon false grounds whose foundation is not laid upon the rock of ages Christ and his word but upon the sandy bottoms of self conceit and the English Bible I hope therefore that without any Paralogism I have evidenc'd that what the Reverend Bishop Bramhall has asserted concerning the promiscuous License of unqualified persons reading the Sciptures is though a Paradox in this hypocritical age where the appearance and profession of piety is more priz'd than the truth yet not Apocryphal nor Popish as Father Grey-beard maliciously insinuates p. 30. rendring him thereby an enemy to the Laity Whereas indeed and in truth he is the best friend to them that wishing them well and desiring their good more than their good will would not willingly have them take that in their hands which through unskilfulness they cannot mannage and through weakness they cannot weild name 〈◊〉 Scriptures sharper than a two 〈◊〉 Sword But is the Good Old Cause which 〈◊〉 thought had taken its last sleep awake again Does not Greg. revive the Good Old Cause again under the name of modern Orthodoxy and give it strength as well as life by the
common Hangman or too good for the Rebel Saints I 'l assure you they did not think so nor yet would if it would please God and the King to entrust them with it once more no no that 's not this Authors meaning he says it is the Cause too good to be fought for Sure he thinks as his friends H. P. J. O. c. blasphemed in that horrid Rebellion begun by the Scots but occasion'd and caus'd by Bishop Laud and consequently the King That the battle was the Lords and that men should standstill I wish they had and see the salvation of God and that the stars in their Courses would fight against Sisera which they construed the King and Cavaliers Sure this Greg. thought the King and Arch-Bishop for sending the English Liturgy into Scotland did thereby involve themselves and the Kingdom in so much guilt that the Cry thereof would go to Heaven for less he cannot mean and that God ought in justice to have taken the cause into his own hand and destroyed us as he did Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone and thereby have sav'd the Rebels a labour and the Scots a long march into England Greg. would have been an happy instrument to have perswaded the Scots to put up their pipes for the cause was too good to be fought for Yet it seems it is not too good to be writ for nor to good to be commended again to the world this mans a great friend to the King to the Bishops to the Government to the English Liturgy which he represents to have been so mischievous in former times and now he quarrels with the Letany because the word Schism is added he does not like that men should pray against Schism I am afraid one great quarrel and irreconcileable he has against the Liturgy is the same as of old because it makes men pray so oft for the King and his Family to which some mens hearts cannot say Amen He might as well have quarrelled the Letany for another word there added namely Rebellion But that had been to rob without a Vizard the Picque now is only against Schism And why and why he tells us It spoils the Musick and cadence of the Period Men that never intend to repent of their Crimes love not to hear of them sure I am Schism in the Letany there added spoils not the Musick so much as it does the Kingdom which by it alone has been quite out of tune I wish with all my heart though that the King and his two Houses of Parliament would take Gregory's advice p. 304. After all the fatal Consequences of that Rebellion which can only serve as Sea-marks unto wise Princes to avoid the Causes And what were the causes if you will believe his hint they were Arch-Bishop Laud and consequently and much more King Charles I. p. 302. the English Liturgy p. 303. and the zealous assertors of the Rights of Princes who are but at best well-meaning Zealots p. 303. Is 't not pity but this Gregory should be call'd to the Helm of Government 't is Pilots own self he shows wise Princes all the Sea-marks here 's Scylla there Charybdis here lies the flats there the Beacon here the Buoy there the Fire-house here lies Dogger-bank there the Galloper and that sand with the two horns is the spits that beyond Goodwin Sands but here here whoop holla holla whoop p. 150 151 152 153. the Kings Channel Good Skipper so much skill and so much pains such a Politician and a Virtuoso to boot thou shalt have a new Perry-wig and once more another Gratuity sent thee from J. O. and a new Thanks-giving-day appointed by the Churches with another gathering at the end on 't to that purpose beshrew me it came seasonably for an use of great comfort after you had been chouc'd at the ordinary and plaid pieces Is it not meritorious enough he super-erogates gratifies the Churches by shriving them and laying all the blame upon that odious and hated thing the Liturgy that was the cause of all the blood-shed all the wars and ruine that the rock on which we split mind the Sea-marks wise Princes avoid the causes if you will avoid the sad and fatal consequences 'T is but lost money now to fee any Courtiers to put in a seasonable word for Indulgence and modern Orthodoxy Father Grey-beard for all Is there never a Corporation that sends Burgesses to Parliament that upon a vacation the late member being dead may cry up Greg. and get him into the House The Cabala cannot but approve the plot Greg. is greater than a second Moses he 's a second Samson can carry the whole house afore him Methinks I see him at it and addressing himself to the Speaker makes this following speech in the Parliament House composed out of his own book for I scorn foul play nor will I adde one material word of mine own to make him look more ridiculously or seditiously than he has already with his own hand pourtrayed himself in his book only to make it to look more handsomely I have dress'd it in the fashion in this following Droll a la mode in forty pages of his incomparable book like that self-conceited bookish Philosopher that undertook to read Lectures to Hannibal puff'd up with the beloved esteem he has for himself takes upon him the Pilot's place directing wise Princes how to govern the Helm stear their Course and observe the Sea-marks And I have stinted my Muse to his very words in all particulars that come most home to him chusing rather to injure my fancy than him or lay to his charge more than what is prov'd to his face under his hand Mr. Speaker I that spoke here but once before Must now speak though I ne'er spoke more When the Seas swell high as the Poop Shall not your Pilot holla whoop And rowze Tarpollians that lye sleeping Ne'er dreaming what cause there 's for weeping Fasting and Prayers of the Churches Now Orthodoxy left i' th' lurch is And swallow'd up for ought I know Prick up your ears I 'll tell you how There is one Bayes and shall I tell ye He has a thousand Seas in 's Belly Another Hobbs Leviathan Swells and will drown us if he can The Netherlands and Hungary Are under water already p. 43. And so is France Bohemia Sweden and Transilvania Denmark and Savoy that by 'th' Alps is All Scotland England ' xcept a small piece Geneva by Lake-lemane Poland I think at last he 'll leave us no land Look to your Ship then hard at Helm Starboard or else we overwhelm Ease the Shrowds there Breda Breda There ne'er was such a flood since Noah Take th' Topsail in do what you may The Mizen on the Prow gives way Down with the Kings flag you nere mind And let her spoon before the wind All stands aloft swack swack no near For we have sprung a Leak I fear There'r Goodwin Sands Tom and John too W'have
experiences those heats of passion and sparks of prejudice that by some incendiaries were likely to be kindled and threatned those combustions in the Kingdom which afterwards by sad experience and tryals we found too true and for very many painful years remedilesly groan'd and labour'd under Not but that a Parliament is look'd upon by every honest English man a most safe as well as acceptable constitution both for the Prerogative and the Crown as much as the peoples just properties and liberties Yet at best it is but good Physick and proves unsuccessful and unhappy for the body politick when perpetuated and made a constant food of which truth we have in our age a fatal Probatum est And only proves that some diseases are with less pain and hazard tolerated than irritated by putting the body into a constant course of Physick in order to cure which many times besides the trouble does sooner and more certainly hasten that death which before we did but fear And sure I am that whatever is the meaning of Sibthorpianism Manwaring Arminiauism Montague Absolute Government or Loans or any such frightful Bugs now brought again to scare the people with fears and jealousies yet put together and at the worst they be no bigger than the little finger in comparison of those thicker loins of pressures and grievances with which to the death we were oppress'd and tyranniz'd over many years together in pretence of remedy and even still thereby our burdens are of necâ—…ssity become so much the greater But were Arch-Bishop Laud and the Sibthorpians never so much to blame were those sores grievances never so great by what authority or to what good end does this bold Greg. now rip them up again when they are healed and cicatrized His design must be either to create jealousies that his present Majesty or some great Favourites about him are again about to tread in Sibthorpian steps if this could be prov'd against him he deserves to be hang'd Or else not satisfied with the indignities his blessed Father and the other Martyrs suffered crucifyes them again in Effigie or as himself expresses it p. 280. And the detestable sentence and execution of his late Majesty is represented again upon the Scaffold And thus much for the temper of that Arch-Bishop Abbot in answer to his charge against Laud if it were truly his charge and narrative under his own hand as Greg saith it was p. 281. And if it was so what great matter does it signifye That an old morose man peevish by complexion and age and improv'd to a far greater height of malice by the old Leven of modern Orthodoxy fermented by his own passions and sufferings through the loss of his Place at Court and the Kings favour his exercise of the Office-Metropolitan being also suspended and the profits of the Arch-Bishoprick to better use sequestred Occasion'd by the intelligence he kept with the factions and not for refusing to license a Sermon as is suggested as improbably as idlely whether by other mens fictions or his own is not worth the enquiry But such a deform'd Issue may shame either the Arch-Bishop Abbot or any body else that should pretend to father it not but that some of its parts are truly form'd but many of them are monstrous untruths as if it were needful I will demonstrate and begin at the first three lines But Greg. has pick'd these few that seem'd most for his turn out of that which indeed goes under his name The Narrative of Arch-Bishop Abbot c. This audacious man as boldly calls it so as if he had stood at his elbow and saw him write every syllable which he must have done or else he is very impudent thus to impose upon men that which he can but guess at and has as little ground to build this faith of his upon as ever any man had that declared so audaciously and confidently as he does here that any such Narrative in Print was another man's hand-writing The truth is Greg. his prime Talent lies in modern Orthodoxy there he is best read and there we find this Narrative c. And if he can show me this Narrative any where else than there which I defye him to do then will I confess that this Butt-end which in his hand he does so terribly brandish and flourish is indeed the Butt-end of an Arch-Bishop and when he has done since it is but the Butt-end of that Arch-Bishop at best is but an Abbots opinion which is now no more credited nor more Orthodox than are the railings of Greg. or other the discontents of modern Orthodox You may find it if you will waste so much time as to read an old Diurnal for such stuff is this composed in a History forsooth dedicated to Queen Dick which was in stile of modern Orthodoxy Richard by the Grace of God Protector of England Scotland and Ireland c. Anno Domini 1657. By your Highness humblest and most obedient Servant John Rushworth Chief Secretary in the Army to General Fairfax and afterwards for pious Declarations penn'd upon all occurrences for the satisfaction of the people upon every new turn or change of Government by that worthy Gentleman for such good services related to and preferred by Oliver Cromwel and his son Richard This terrible dead-doing Tool the Butt-end of an Arch-Bishop thus brandished again by Father Grey-beard for the Good Old Cause was taken out of that Holy Arcenal let him deny it if he dare or can tell how I cannot but smile to see this Huffe buffetting himself with this Butt-end of an Arch-Bishop as at other times he meditates his own ruine when I in mercy and poor pitys sake would step to the man and stop him laying violent hands upon himself in several pages of his own book namely when he says p. 8. Nor was there any thing that could more closely import him than that the race and family of the Railers should be perpetuated among mankind And p. 18. I am the more obliged to repair in my self whatsoever breaches of his Bishop Bramhall's credit by that additional civility which consecrates the Ashes of the deceased And p. 23. For all men pretend a share in Reputation and love not to see it ingross'd and monopoliz'd and are subject to enquire as of great estates suddenly got whether he came by all this honestly or of what credit the person is that tells the story And p. 41. He never oils his Hone but that he may whet his Razor and that not to shave but to cut mens throats And p. 49. Though an ill man cannot by praising confer Honour nor by reproaching fix an ignominy and so they may seem on equal terms yet there is more in it for at the same time that we may imagine what is said by such an Author to be false we conceive the contrary to be true And p. 49. He propagated an original waspishness and false Orthodoxy amongst all his followers And p. 48.
all this deformity was his own doings and that though his Reign was deform'd it was himself his own Inclinations and bent which contriv'd at least concurr'd in making his whole Reign deform'd then and even then it is the old cry of the Rebells who when they had got their wills of the Earl of Strafford and Arch-Bishop Laud and left the King no Councellors nor Kingdomes nor so much as liberty then changed their note and justified the Evil Councellors more than the King himself saying he himself was his own wicked Councellor and a Tyrant and ought to die And though their words like these of this Authour were devillish and malicious yet they were as good as their words and condemn'd him for a Tyrant and cut off his head 'T is indeed answered another all you say is infallibly true and undeniable to a Tittle but that which is admirable and a greater Marvel is the skill and cunning of the man He does the feat so cleaverly as if he shot with white Powder did execution indeed effectually but makes no noyse or evil Report like other unskilful and bawling Phanaticks for though you stare about you shall not see the Executioner nor know whence the shot comes or if you do he puts his vizard on presently and looks like Faux in disguise Or as the Mountebank keeping a man who is content to be slash'd and cut that his master may thereby show his Dexterity and skill in the Cure so this Virtuoso wounds and cuts but indeed with design mortally and with matchless courage and boldness disdaining trivial force fights neither with small nor great except they lye in his way and detard Royal assassination but only the King of our Israel against whom when he has spit his venome and with bold and home thrusts assaulted his Innocence and honour Yet he has his Playster at hand though it be without vertue and would seem to make all whole again with crying Oh Lord Sir I beg your pardon and then as you were All is well again The Playster which he would make Alexipharmacal for the wounds with which our late Soveraign is attempted and made together with his whole Reign deform'd is the neatest of all and clapt on as soon as the blow is struck p. 301. deform'd the whole Reign of the best Prince that ever wielded the English Scepter A contradiction in terminis and as barbarous as absolute For how could he possibly be the best Prince that ever wielded the English Scepter except all the Princes that ever wielded the English Scepter had their whole Reigns deform'd either by their carelesness or folly or which is the less affront to be call'd Knave rather than fool because one may be help'd the other is remediless by vileness and wickedness doing the work themselves and deforming their whole Reign Again if he be the best Prince that ever wielded the English Scepter and yet either did deform his whole Reign or suffered it to be deform'd with Ceremonies Arminianisme and Manwaring Then these three Reign-deforming Buggs Ceremonies Arminianisme and Manwaring are very consistent with the best Prince that ever wielded the English Scepter And if so then these three Reign-deforming Buggs are indeed but Buggs and fright men more than burt them and can scare none but children and fools For that the best Prince that ever England had owns cherishes them or at least permits them to be own'd and cherish'd above all other things and owns above all other men the man that seemed to know nothing else but these Ceremonies Arminianisme and Manwaring with which he begun and with which he ended And all this must necessarily follow or else those good English Princes that kept off or expelled out of their Kingdomes these same three ugly Reign-deforming things were better Princes than He that either brought them in kept them in or suffered them to stay in and thereby deform'd his whole Reign And if they in doing so well and much better than he were better Princes than he how could he be the best Prince that ever wielded the English Scepter So egregiously confident and self-conceited is this Virtuoso Authour this new Politician that through the high value he has for himself together with the mean and low esteem he has for all others thinks so slightly and easily to Gull them and casting a little mist before their eyes hopes to lead them about like fools by the nose Otherwise this fool-hardy man would never have been so lost to all modesty and discretion as to think to impose upon men and be juggle them by such transparent mists and easie Legerdemain namely plain down-right Non-sense and Contradiction Alas the man is not master of his Trade And yet as if he onely and the rest of the new Politicians and Virtuoso's were like the Chinenses and had two eyes in their heads but all the rest of the world blind or at least the best of them but single-ey'd men who with but one eye are not so very quick-sighted especially if you come upon them on the blind side The Company seem'd wonderfully well pleas'd with this discourse all of them but the Virtuoso's and Ingenioso's who were but four in all and they too answered not one word whether troubled with the Fret and at the heart too mad and enrag'd to utter a word hearing themselves thus check'd to the face and their Brother Virt who but a little before they had cry'd up for such a Prodigie and Marvel of wit should so suddenly be charg'd home with so unavoidable a shock whilst they stood by and idly looking on had neither ability nor wit enough to make resistance nor knew how to help themselves nor Him yet to see how soon the wind turns and how suddenly smiling Dame Fortune can knit her brows if he had but come into the Room one half hour before the whole Clubb had rouz'd at the happy surprize of this wonderful wit and had carried the Bugg upon their shoulders like the Knight of the shire on Election-day in Triumph about the Room and had given him as many thanks for his great pains in this admirable Book as the Authors friend I. O. and the Conventicle did when they sent him for these his happy endeavours the Gratuity gather'd amongst the Churches as a due offering with all hearty Acknowledgments and the Thanks of their house especially for promoting the good old Cause modern Orthodoxy Liberty Indulgence and Reformation but particularly for setting the old Cry against Bishops and evil Councellors to a new Tune not the old whining snivelling canting Leer-away now somewhat stale detected and out of fashion but the fashionable that most taking and admired new new Tune the pleasant Droll-away The Brethren and Black-caps fac'd with white having not vivacity nor wit enough for that way the vertue of Sack-possets having not hitherto prov'd effectual nor spritely enough to raise their Phlegmatick and insipid Tempers to any semblance of elevated and Mercurial Style
himself a French coat a French wit a French head a French wigg French legs French cringes French Tongue and all other members about him in apish and mimick imitation of the French frenchefyed thereby to be taken for a Gentleman whence the Proverb Jack would be a Gentleman if he could speak French At which so probably related by the old Gentleman most of the company laughed heartily and concluded that this new Author designing in his whole book to promote again the good old Cause which he calls modern Orthodoxy and sometimes the cause too good resolving right or wrong to plead the Cause of the Non-Conformists which since he has espous'd he is not asham'd of and therefore confesses p. 282. that if he can do the Non-Conformists no good he is resolv'd to do them no harm and we will believe him without swearing To carry on this goodly design he bespatters the present Government with unparallel'd malice endeavours to stain and blemish the late Kings whole Reign as deform'd rails at Bishops and evil Councellors dead and alive justifies Schisme as shall shortly appear cries up Indulgence and liberty Breda Breda Reformation Reformation and with bitter sarcasmes and invective taunts prosecutes the present Parliament Rallery being the most biting and insufferable Railing and all this with as little fear as wit Rather than not have a fling at the Parliament and pinch it till it recant all especially the Act for Uniformity or any Act against the good old Cause and Non-Conformists to twit it home as wittily and effectually as he can he p. 110. confounds nature to create a Joque turns the Parliament-men into a Parliament of women on purpose to break a jeast upon them which had otherwise missed them viz. Superfoetation of Acts. And new-mints a word Trinkle trinkle the members rather than his beggarly wit should have nothing currant It would make a man sick to see this little Tantalus catch and gape for a jeast and a little Rhetorick And alas it will not come And at other times to see him make a Lyons face and grunt and groan to send forth a little wit but it is right Presbyterian it will not come for the man is as costive as one of the old Assembly of Divines or Smec or Tom Dumby-low who dy'd because he was so And all this pother is for an old Cause that stinks above ground in the nostrils of every honest heart both here and all the world over Yet commend me to the men for one thing they are as restless and indefatigable in their endeavours to promote it though so often baffled by God and man that they still cease not to move every stone bribe and flatter threaten and frown fight and rayl cant and recant pray and lye preach and slander snivel and whine exhort and blaspheme in publique in private in City and Countrey in Churches in Conventicles with License and without License by your leave and in spight of your teeth As if old Knox himself was again metempsuchos'd in every one of them To this purpose in this Authour they assault the Church and State with the old weapons new furbish'd and to make you believe their old cause was good they make the old Kings cause bad and this bold man dares in this juncture of affairs with implacable inveteracy prey upon the dead not permitting to rest in the bed of Honour our gracious and blessed King Englands Martyr That sacrific'd his own life rather than to live in infamy by betraying his people the laws and his own just rights And though we can scarce believe our own eyes when we see the matchless Impudence of this Authour thus to traduce him and his whole Reign and the present Parliament with Taunts as bitter as bold yet to make all this seem but a jeast when he casts firebrands arrows and death like mad he seems to say Am not I in sport In an affected but taking and fashionable Drolling way insinuating into every mans humour to carry on the work Cajoling the Rabble with liberty Indulgence Breda Breda Cajoling the Yeomen and Corporations with Interest and Trade and propriety invaded with fears of Sibthorpianisme Ceremonies Arminianisme and Manwaring Cajoling the Gentlemen and noble men with the dangers that again threaten their Reputation and Honour and make them feel for their Cutto's and draw upon poor Cassock and Lawn-sleeves for fear it should come again to the Proverb of his own making Jack-Gentleman But I being suddenly call'd away was no longer happy with the further discourse of this Cabal of wits only I took notice before I parted that the Virtuoso's all this while made not one Repartee or if they did it was but one little one answering mostly with a countenance compos'd and made up of magisterialness and high conceit mixt with some pity but more scorn and a little smile now and then proceeding from both But with such a paltry and surly grace that I could scarce contain my self and I had much ado to forbear kicking the Coxcombs And they had certainly felt the Print of my toes but that I was not so angry as to hold from laughing right out at such affected gravity they look'd so scurvily With Head toss'd up but bridling in the chin As if with half cheek-bit and Curb reyn'd in Mumbling a little sometimes to themselves as the poor ass does when feeding upon Thistles the sharp pricks gawl his Chaps Whether like right-bred Cocks of the Game they kept their best strength for the Reserve and last Close or that they were good Husbands of their wits and would not spend it but in better company some Cabal of their own or thought that the Moderators place was their own by Patent and just right determining all at the last or did not at that time carry their wit about them as loth to wear it out or like old true hunted Hounds would not open but when the scent was certain or whether they had some peculiar endearances for the Authour I cannot decide But I was so netled with what I had heard of this new Author above all admiring the stupendious contradictions and double-Tongue of the man that though I had read in Diodorus Siculus of an Island in Arabia where the Inhabitants have two tongues in a head but loth to go so far to see them yet since I might see the Marvel at home more prodigious than the child at the Swan by Charing-Cross with two heads I was resolv'd though it cost me a shilling to see what I could find in this marvellous Book and readily finding one at the next Stationers the Bugg almost startled me at first it had such a Portenâ—…ous Title The Rehearsal Transpros'd The Rehearsal Transpros'd Some of the Common Herd of mankind that ne're paid six pence yet at a Club of the Virtuoso's nor so much as once got the word for that night would quietly if not frighted with the Goblin pass by this Title-Page when starch'd up with the
Ceremonies of true Religion the true Religion it self and Gods holy Sion but yet the Governours in the City will watch over thee punish thee and keep thee off because thou art an enemy to the holy City to the true Religion or else thou wouldst not have overturned and trampled upon the Suburbs If you understand this you have the true notion and understanding of a Ceremony if you do not I will not further explain my self Wilt thou not suffer thy child to loll and jear with his hat on whilest thou art praying and kneeling with thy hat off though he pretend conscience for his disobedience and wilt thou not kneel then when they bid thee kneel that are thy Superiours in Church and State and be uncoverd when they bid thee be uncovered Hast thou power to enjoin Ceremonies in thy family and have not thy Superiours as much power to ordain Ceremonies in the Church Dost thou that pleadest the fifth Commandement against thy wicked disobedient son servant never plead it against thy self Dost thou say to thy son and servant you must needs be subject and that for conscience sake and dost thou never send that Scripture home to thine own heart thou that sayst a man should not steal or be disobedient dost thou steal art thou disobedient What need of Jayls or Acts of Indemnity or Uniformity Licences or Liberty Indulgence or no Indulgence It is all one to him that is of this Religion which will not suffer a man to pray and lye slander and preach fast and murder talk of incomes and getting Christ whilest he goes the way to hell There can be no Rebel-Saints of this Religion I 'll tell you in one word how truly to get Christ whilest Canters belabour you with a sound and an empty noise To get Christ is to get to Christ and there is no getting to Christ but in his own way his own way is what he taught himself for the sum of all Religion Law and Prophets Mat. 7. 12. which we have been treating of which is ready at hand always to direct thee in thought word and deed believe the Creed say the Lords prayer and the Liturgy frequent Sacraments and this is religion enough to carry thee to Heaven But you 'll say perhaps and object against me that if this be my religion why do I not practise it and again ask me whether in this Letter I have done to others as I would they should do to me that is would I be willing to be so sharply reprov'd and check'd as I sometimes check Father Grey-beard and the Canters To which I answer I not only would be content to be so us'd but if I were such a wretch to trouble and confound the Kingdom where I live with arts and methods that do tend and as by sad experience we have found have tended to blood ruine wars and desolation I would esteem him the best friend that I had in the world that could either convince me and the people seduced by me of our villanies or laugh me and them out of such fopperies by representing me and them upon the stage in as ridiculous a posture if it were possible as ever they were acted by me or them or Hugh Peters himself when multitudes of poor fools strove who should first part with their silver-bodkins and Plate body and soul for the Good Oâ—…d Cause And if it were not to do both the seducers and seduced good by this plain dealing I had not writ a word in this Letter for I know my reward from most of them is that hatred for my good will railing lying and slandering me as the worst of men and yet cannot evidence in one particluar where I have transgress'd this great rule of doing as I would be done by this ten years Which I speak not as a fool or a Pharisee to boast of for fame nor honour nor dishonour riches nor poverty good report nor evil report safety or hazard can seem to me or any that are well grounded in this religion of Christ of doing as we would be done by any thing to move me towards the least desire of applause for I know this justification of my self is the way to create great envy and great reproach against me in those that know no duty so great as the four first Commandements namely the worship of God his days Sermons mysteries discourses and disputes of their ways of worship they are full of that but yet can envy lye slander and rail and then I tell them but they believe not that all their praying hearing keeping Sabbaths are not worth a Louse nor their faith neither though it is the very words at least the sence of what they read with their eyes 1 Cor. 13. 2. only here 's the difference I speak more worthily of their prophesying and their faith than the Apostle does allow to such idle mysteries where charity is wanting for he says such a man as has the gift of prophesying understands all mysteries all knowledge has all faith without charity is nothing whereas I only say such a man's gifts knowledge mysteries and faith are not without charity worth a Louse So that I have therein out-bid the worth of them a Louse is good for something I will not tell all its vertues it is good for the Jaundice c. but all knowledge mysteries prophesying and faith without charity the Apostle makes good for nothing at all Away with mens prate of Religion and admiring this and that precious man this and that precious piece of worship when it only puffs men up makes them more proud more scornful more headstrong more cruel more bloody more rapacious greater lyers greater slanderers more malicious than they were before and more a Devil than any man in the world is Turk Jew or Cannibal Shew me not the meat but shew me the man if these people that prate of their precious heavenly food they have had in these late times have in the mean time such starv'd souls empty of all goodness but a little outside holiness and vizard of worship but are full of such horrid sins as envy malice injustice lying cheating defaming and sometimes murdering and plundering and sequestring that on this side Hell there 's no such treacherous false and unsociable villaines then by this it is evident that like Ephraim they sed upon the wind liv'd like Camelions upon air sound whineing canting feigned words and if perhaps they have cast out some one Devil of swearing or Sabbath-breaking they have entertain'd in the room seven other Devils more wicked than the former and the last state of that man is worse than the first I know with this plain dealing I stir in a nest of wasps and because I have cryed down these feigned words with which craft these silver-smiths and juglers get their wealth these dearly beloved tones and whinings that did so affect the silly women thus undervalued spoils the trade Gâ—…e me pen and ink and paper
though I could fill a Volume upon this excellent subject so needful to be explain'd in these times when people have run a madding with the English Bible in their hands and brought to vouch their Exorbitances and horrid villanies I need say nothing of the mischievous consequences of this promiscuous License of reading the Bible those that thumb'd it so much having prov'd themselves the most execrable Villains and Hereticks that ever the Sun shone upon but shall only give two or three instances for what I have said Which when people have weighed and seriously consider'd they will not so stare and stamp and cry out Oh this man would rob us not of our goods our wives our good names and our lives but that which is dearer to us than all these he would rob us of our dear English Bibles then come the days of darkness again and of ignorance oh look to him he robs us of our Bibles is not here a Popish plot And you will have cause to thank him for it more than all the Sermons that ever you heard from modern Orthodoxy for this has ruin'd everlastingly the souls of millions of poor people guided with that frenzy and zeal and has also shortned their days by duckquoying them into Rebellion and blood blood being therefore given them to drink for they were worthy But the trepanning Priest deserv'd the greatest punishment here and hereafter by drilling them into Rebellion and blood by wresting and misapplying of Scriptures such as those Curse ye Meroz Bind your Kings with chains and your Nobles with fetters of Iron such Honour have all the Saints Babylon the great is fallen and a hundred of the like temper Whereas all that I say makes righteousness and peace to kiss each other makes useless Swords and Guns brings again the golden age where every man sitting under his own Vine and fig-tree leads a holy and happy life here and hereafter has a Heaven upon earth breaking their Swords into Plow-shares and their Spears into Pruning Hooks there being no use of Armory if the world were of my Religion herein contained or rather of the true Christian Religion the summ and scope whereof our Blessed Saviour delivered with his own mouth and epitomiz'd in one verse and sentence Mat. 7. 12. as abovesaid But some instances I promis'd to give to evidence that the English Bible is in some particulars erroneous scarce sence and of ill consequence As in part of our Saviours first Sermon is rendred Mat. 5. 41. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile go with him twain From this story and fiction by our English Bible father'd shamefully upon our Blessed Saviour a Christian is bound if he meet with any man that being stronger than he forces or compels him though he be in post-hast or going for a Mid wife a Doctor or Chirurgeon upon life and death or whatsoever occasion yet he must go another way quite out of his way a mile and may not call for the help of the Constable or neighbourhood or other good body to defend him from this violence but in a quiet submission and obedience he must thus compell'd go a mile which way soever the compeller pleases he must make no resistance but that 's not all he must go another mile of his own accord and being thus easie to be fool'd at the two miles end if the man compel him again further another mile away he must trudge and so along all England over and the world over for there 's no end of this obedience if a Christian meets but with any compeller or freed from him happens upon another that leads him about and about like an ignis fatuus and all this by vertue of your English Bible and in as plain words as any that are in 't and as easie to be understood without Metaphor Allegory figure or parable What do you say to this now you with your English Bible Whereas I say it is false and untrue and our Saviour never spoke such a senceless word in his life For all that he said as to this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Theodore Beza a better critick than a man renders truly Et quisquis te angariabit ad milliare unum abi cum eo duo that is in English Whosoever by vertue of an order or warrant from the Magistrate under whose Jurisdiction thou livest shall compel thee to go with him a mile go with him twain And signifies no more than that ready and cheerful obedience that is due to Authority from every Disciple of Christ who himself not only thus preach'd but practis'd there was no rebel Christians heard on that fought their Christian Kings nor so much as Heathen Kings or Heretick Kings till Calvin Knox Hugh Peters Richard Baxter J. O. Father Grey-beard and modern Orthodoxy Constantius Valens Valentinian Anastasius Justinian Heraclius were all Arrian Hereticks and Emperours yet the Christians their Subjects never confederated in a Holy League and Covenant to reform by arms in spite of their teeth the Church militant in those times did not prove their Texts with Sword and Gun The Good Old Cause was not then in those days old enough for the swadling clouts nay afterwards when Julian the Apostate was Emperour there was no army of Saints nor holy Redcoat-Christians that pull'd off his Crown or cut off his head Perhaps you 'l say thank them for nothing their wills might be good but their arms were too short or perhaps they had no skill in their weapons and though Christians and Saints yet not Army-Saints Yes that they were Army-Saints but not Rebel-Saints Army-Saints they were and there were more Christians in Julian the Apostates Army than all the Heathens and himself put together As is evident by their chusing his successor Jovinian to be their Emperour because he was a Christian but not till the Apostate was dead saying one and all one and all Jovinian Jovinian for we are Christians And our Blessed Saviour as he preach'd this cheerful obedience and also his Apostles Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. 1 Pet. 2. 13. 1 Tim. 2. 2. so did our Saviour practise There was a Holy-day made by the Chief Priest who then was Chief Jewish Magistrate and no mention of it in Gods Law but he declaim'd not against it but quietly observ'd it himself namely the feast of the Dedication Joh. 10. 22 23. He did indeed miracles to get better drink and meat when poor people wanted it but he never did a miracle to get money or Coin but only to pay his Assessment Royal Aid or Poll-money call it which you will for it was each of them and all of them Mat. 17. 27. And all this only by his example to shew true Christians that they ought to make no resistance nor give offence Thus you see I have made very good sence and good use of Mat. 5. 41. which your English Bibles make ridiculously useless and no sence consistent or compatible with
same methods now as in 1640 Did they not then as he now endeavour to enrage the people and rowze them again when they are tyred and willing to be quiet with new jealousies and fears fears of Ceremonies fears of losing their Bibles and their Sabbaths rendring the Eminent Bishops dead and alive friends in their hearts and doctrines too to Popery but for a certain reason rather making love to it than espousing it He sets not down these opinions of Bishop Bramhall's with an intent to confute them 't is beyond his ability but only notes them with an Asterism as bordering upon Popery as pernicious to the Laity to beget in them new heats against the Church by exposing the deformities of King Charles I. and all his choicest Bishops for the love they bore to Ceremonies and Arminianism and making all their Religion both of those deceased and of those yet in power and alive to be wholly trivial if not prophane Which brings to my mind that observation of his Sacred Majesties in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 15. concerning the same practices that now this Greg. does again renew It was a great part of some mens Religion to scandalize me and mine they thought theirs could not be true if they cryed not down mine as false It has always been the method of Atheists and Hell by scandalizing the Clergy and bringing them into Contempt thereby to foil all Religion and bring God into Contempt He that violates the Embassadour is not afraid of the King that sent him Plato was of an opinion that no man that went into a dark dungeon an Atheist and staid there two hours alone could come out an Atheist Because though company and frolicks may drown the secret whisperings of the soul that the natural instincts of the truth of the Deity cannot be heard yet when the soul is left to an undisturbed conference with and reflexions upon it self an opportunity it seldom wants when the hour of death is at hand it must needs determine in the behalf of God Almighty and against its own vanity As that Scotch Secretary of State that liv'd Atheistically died more wretchedly with these last words Heu miser aeternos vado damnatus ad ignes Muzzle the Conscience some men can and keep it from loud barking but the longest practice upon it cannot altogether so stop its mouth but it will make them hear sometimes if not gnaw them yea enough to make them weary of life to be rid of such a troublesome companion but neither live nor dye can they with comfort such a precious life leads an Atheist his head is at variance with his heart his wicked life and fears of an after-reckoning make him wish there was no God but cannot long make him believe there is no God Tantùm optat nullos esse putare Deos. For this reason it is that their words and actions fall out by the way and are so often contradictory sometimes laughing at all Religion and then presently apologizing for it sometimes railing and then immediately condemning all railng commending what they condemned and condemning what they did commend like brothers of the blade that when they have rob'd in one disguise change their Vizards and shift themselves into another shape for â—…ear of the Hue and Cry which puts me in mind of this Gregor Who did ever see so much railing in so little a book as his was ever any man prosecuted as he does the Ecclesiastical Politician with such variety of style in such prodigious rayling as we have already noted in part what can be said more to defame the memory of King Charles I. Than to say his whole Reign was deform'd with Ceremonies Arminianism and Sibthorpianism and Manwaring Has not his present Majesty our Gracious Soveraign as high interest in and concern for his Blessed Fathers honour as his Crowns can any violate the Majesty of the Father and the Son be untouch'd and unconcern'd and if this be true that Greg. suggests That the whole Reign of King Charles I. was deform'd the Duke of Buckingham stab'd by Felton had a great hand in that deformity and then does not this malicious invective seem to plead for the justice and equity of that horrid violence that depriv'd his Majesty and the Duke of their lives Could they fall desired and beloved for their innocence that liv'd for nothing but to deform the whole Reign Father Grey-beard reads his own sentence against himself the same Book that evidences his villany craves justice against it any I 'll join with him in his wishes p. 187. I could wish that there were some severer Laws against such villains who raise such false and scandalous reports of worthy Gentlemen and that those Laws were put in Execution and that men might not be suffered to walk the streets in so confident a Garb who commit those Assassinates upon the reputation of deserving Persons That King Charles I. was a deserving person he confesses when he calls him the best Prince in the world that Arch-Bishop Laud was a deserving person he confesses when he says he 's confident he studied nothing more than to do his Majesty and God Almighty good service and withal was so learned so pious so wise a man and that he ought not to be mentioned without due honour and that he deserved a far better fate than he met with and yet notwithstanding all this merit and honour due to him he makes him the cause of the Rebellion begun in Scotland as he would make us believe by imposition of the English Liturgy p. 303. And surely the King had a hand in 't too or else he makes him a cypher rather than a King sure this man was by when the Inditements were contrived and drawn up against our Blessed Soveraign and Arch-Bishop Laud for then they lay to their charge all the innocent blood as they call'd it shed in England and Ireland and who could expect any better should come on 't when they seem'd to know nothing but Ceremonies c. with that begun and with that ended till the whole Reign was deform'd And yet for all that this Gregory double tongue makes one a Pious Learned wise man and the other the best Prince that ever wielded the English Scepter Was not this Greg. begot by some Proteus of a Camaelion an Oedipus cannot riddle him he fights backward and forward sometimes for the King and sometimes for modern Orthoxy he slashes with a two edged Sword and cuts both ways brandishes against the enemy and then falls foul on his own party and the Good Old Cause but it is with pickeerings and flourishes rather than close fight and good earnest and therefore he gives the Good Old Cause a good new name and because the old one is odious he calls it sometimes Primitive Simplicity sometimes modern Orthodoxy and p. 303. the Cause too good A Cause too good too good for what too good to be burnt does he mean as it was by the
scap'd them tho' with much ado Rummage the Ship throw overboard What in the Ship may best be spar'd There y'have done finely have you not Thrown away th' best the worst forgot The Masse-Book there do you not see With th' Act for Uniformity Lying i' th' Chaplains Cabbin there Founder the Ship they will I fear The Surplice too I think y' are blind You always leave the worst behind Orthodoxy's gone already W' are sunk if you do not steer steady There Grandeur lies you are so dull Hand all the Sails and let her hull Keep your Loof Hold w'have sprung a Mast This 't is to bear more sail than Ballast Ply the Pump there for I am told Five foot of water 's in the Hold. Now Master Speaker if there be Within you so much Repartee As to ragoust now what I mean By this Harangue tuant and clean This English Ship of the first Rate The Hieroglyphick of the State Is sav'd from wrack by Virtuoso Ingenioso Politicoso Thus have I taught you in Parable Now for the Moral th' other was fable I meant plainly to say Wise Princes Viewing the fatal Consequences Of the Rebellion look out spye Where the Sea-marks and Buoys do lye That ye may guide us right and even Not tost and wrack'd as we have been For to say truth 't was Bishop Bramhall Laud and King Charles who did deform all With Ceremonies Arminianism Manwaring and Sibthorpianism Also the English Liturgy And Schism in the Letany May grieving th' Saints again put soon Us and the Musick out of tune p. 306. Put out that word then as is fit Or put it all out every whit And if y' are wise all th' Liturgy It makes some Saints in prayer to lye And against conscience say a thing That checks them Praying for the King These made the whole Reign ugly look I dare be sworn Give him the Book Saith Master Speaker kiss it so on But presently as in a swoon Or Planet-struck poor Greg. was dumb He hawk'd and hum'd nothing would come At last said I 'll not break my Oath Further to lye I would be loath For never I since I was born Did break my Oath or was for sworn Nor since I took the Covenant Can for my heart or blood recant Therefore now I 'm upon my Oath Not one word will I speak but troth The Good Old Cause should bear the blame Where the sin lyes lay there the shame 'T was neither good nor yet too good Nor so ought to be understood Charles the best Prince was truth to say That erâ—… did English Scepter sway Arch-Bishop Laud was wise and pious And learned too and vertuous Who dares charge him with Popery His learned Book gives them the lye Nor is it just he should be blam'd Nor without Honour due be nam'd Who study'd alwayes what he cou'd For God the King and Kingdom 's good Therefore deserv'd a better fate Than he good Martyr did come at And he that dares these truths deny Is a bold Villain and doth lye Only I could wish that there were p. 187. Some honest Laws made more severe Against such Villains who do raise Such false reports and do dispraise With Scandals worthy Gentlemen Either alive or dead And then We should not helpless thus grieve when We such Assassinats do meet In Garb so confident i' th' street As if no harm at all th' had done Murdering Reputation Why should the Wolf be hang'd up when The Jaccal Scot-free goes Poor men That for necessity do prey And take a purse on the High-way Your Law hangs up but he that does Like Staphyla rob Graves he goes Without controul because the Laws Are dumb and silent in this cause To you it therefore does belong To keep the Tombs secure from wrong Lastly 't is known to all the world This Realm was blest till overhurl'd With the now Modern Orthodox That Gull'd this Land with Calvin Knox. And But here I fancy he is interrupted speaking so maliciously and inveterately against the blessed memory of King Charles and saying his whole Reign was deform'd in so great a Presence as this Parliament which be it spoken as far from envy as flattery yields to no preceding Parliaments for Eloquence as well as Loyalty and therefore commands Mr. Greg. to the Barr not questioning him for the good he had spoken but for the evil For he that spit in the face of that blessed Martyr did not thereby do him the hundredth part of that ignominy and harm nor shew'd half so much venome harbour'd within This Father Grey-beard not contenting himself with what our late Soveraign in vindication of his peoples Laws and Liberties more than his own has suffered from the hands of tyrannical and blood-thirsty men but as in the Enditement against him he charges him again with deforming his whole Reign and by Sibthorpianism affecting an absolute Government upon which rock he is bold to say we all ruined p. 302. It seems then this rock of absolute Government which the King surely affected if he countenanc'd it so much as this audacious man would make us believe for which the Rebels in no worse but plainer terms call'd him tyrant and lay to his charge the guilt of all his innocent blood shed in England and Ireland I am sorry this man should again rip up the old sores which we thought had been cicatrized without any deformity on the Kings part And therefore he does with unparallel'd confidence attempt to talk so much of Sibthorp Manwaring Montague c. It is the business of many pages from p. 285. to p. 304. And to evince all this the first and choicest weapon he brings upon the stage is as unresistable as terrible there 's no fence against a flail he falls in pell-mell without giving one volley to close fight Handy-gripes and Butt of Musquet which he calls p. 281. the Butt-end of an Arch-Bishop that was Abbot of Canterbury Now think I wo worth the day look to thy hits poor Bayes and beat but this Butt-end of an Arch-Bishop about his ears and I 'll warrant him spoil'd for a fencer whiles he lives again To make room and heighten the expectations of this matchless onset he would make men believe p. 280. that the wounds that shall be given to his Majesty Arch-Bishop Land and the Government at that time by proving against them the guilt of Sibthorpianism and absolute Government are the wounds given by a Friend Against which there is no fence we keep no guard against him and being secure on that side the thrusts like that of Joab's into the heart of Abner and Amnen are certain and deadly as being made with as little difficulty as truth and as easily and readily as basely and treacherously And such is this Butt-end of an Arch-Bishop it admits no answer cannot possibly be warded 't is the testimony of Arch against Arch the testimony of a friend And I confess the testimony of a mans friend though but his
But unluckily in this fatal year of Seventy two amongst all the Calamities that Astrologers foretel this also hath befallen us And p. 68. Which meeting with the former fracture in his Cranium and all the concurrent accidents already mentioned has utterly undone him And so in conclusion his madness hath formed it self into a perfect Lycanthopy He doth so verily believe himself to be a wolf that his speech is all turn'd into howling yelling and barking and if there were any sheep here you should see him pull out their throats and suck their blood And does so verily believe himself a Jaccal that if there were any dead Corps here interr'd you should see the beast scratch up their graves and tear them out to inâ—…omb them again ignominiously in his nasty Guts And p. 77. That after they have done or suffered legally and to the utmost they must still be subjected to the wand of a Verger or to the wanton lash of every Pedant that they must run the Gantelope or down with their breeches as oft as he wants the prospect of a more pleasing nudity And p. 85. Speaking to the little comfortable importance call'd for variety of phrase p. 12. closer importance Parthenope whose mother Sir sells Ale by the Town wall as you love your self Madam let him not come near you he hath been sed all his life with vipers instead of Lampreys and Scorpions for Cray-fish and if at any time he eat Chickens they had been cramb'd with spiders till he hath so invenom'd his whole substance that 't is much safer to bed with a Mountebank before he has taken his Antidote And p. 136. For I am weary of noting the stabs he gives himself as much as possible I would not expose the nakedness of any person so eminent formerly in the Church And p. 139. Perhaps he said so only for evasion being old excellent at parrying and fencing And p. 139. He has face enough to say or unsay any thing that 't is his privilege what the School-Divines deny to be even within the power of the Almighty to make contradictions true And p. 155. Whereby you may see with what Reverence and Duty he uses to speak of his Superiours and their actions when they are not so happy as to please him And p. 164. But of all his three bolts this was the soonest shot and therefore it is no wonder if he miss'd his mark and took no care where his arrow glanced But what he saith of his Majesty and his Council And p. 146. He confounds himself every where in his reasonings that you can hardly distinguish which is the whoop and which is the holla and he makes Indentures on each side of the way wheresoever he goes And p. 275. But such as you it is that have always strove by your leasing gently good Hec. as you love me to keep up a strangeness and misunderstanding betwixt the King and his people and all the mischief hath come on 't doth much lye at your doors And whether all the invectives against the whole Reign of King Charles I. deform'd as he says with Sibthorpianism absolute Government the rock on which we split the imposition of the English Liturgy the cause of the Rebellion Ceremonies Arminianism Montague and Manwaring libelling the Reverend Bishops for their worthy cares sentencing Ministers of State Privy Counsellors jeering the present Parliament with being trinkled and bringing forth Superfetation of Acts as if he had a Commission to be chief Censor prying into all Offices and Officers and condemning all that stand in the way of Mâ—…dern Orthodoxy and the Good Old Cause and Nonconformists without mercy or fear dead and alive and all this in seventy two and with as many self-contradictions as impertinences can have any other meaning than by such Leasing to keep up a strangeness and mâ—…sunderstanding betwixt the King and his people judge you Is 't not pity but he should have his own wish p. 187. Only I could wish there were some severer Laws against such villains who raise such false and scandalous reports c. Sure I am he gives himself often enough to his shame the Bâ—…stinado and if they are not all Butt-ends yet they are dogged Counter-buffs with the least whereof he hits himself a vile box on the ear And instead of encountring the enemy le ts fly at all adventure and the random shot rencounters his own party and being overcharg'd the Butt-end of his Gun bumps his own breast and fells him with the Recoil A sad accident like that but much more fatal than that which befel an honest well-meaning Zealot our friend and acquaintance W. S. Who good man conceited of his own Prowess and Gallantry and taking â—…he Alarm at The Contempt of the Clergy musters up presently all his force in a Letter to a Friend with design to vindicate the Clergy from Contempt and the fury of that Charge But in his wrath and rage mistaking his way and to oblige his friends by the next Term makes more haste than good speed and missing also his Rest in the height of his Career coming to the Grapple fights in the Shock hand over head for the enemy against his own party In an Answer so incongruous to the design confessing all asking forgiveness and crying for quarter before the enemy had any thoughts of hurting him and all this in language so insipid and ridiculous that he made the Clergy they thank him so much the more contemptible and both himself and the Clergy the more laugh'd at Producing nothing but a mere black Patch aim'd indeed against and clap'd on too upon the face of his adversary but only thereby rendring the enemy so much the more a Beauty who indeed was lovely enough before So that my dear friend if ever the mad hair-brain'd humour of Scribling possess you as it has done Greg. and W. S. so that nothing can hold you but you must needs come out in Print tempted by the Dog-Star the Stationer or the near approach of the next Term In a Letter to a friend let me beg of you as you tender your Reputation and Honour that you take care not to subscribe it of all the Letters in the Cross-Row with those in the Fag-end of it W. S. And be sure you put not in the Superscription one syllable of The Rehearsal Transpros'd Lest thus mark'd the Hue and Cry pursue you upâ—…n suspicion of folly and self-conceit for the former and upon suspicion of folly self-conceit and sedition for the latter and punish you as self-condemn'd by your own gross self contradictions for both But especially take heed that you have not the least resemblance of Greg. who does so often with his own hand foil and baffle himself and the cause he designs to promote The man 's a Fanatick and by certain Paroxyâ—…s as pleases the Planet that governs him Lunatick with Modern Orthodoxy and talks like Oliver's 〈◊〉 now in Bedlam craz'd with a notion on that side
because no body can believe that the same tongue does in good earnest in one breath speak contraries and blow hot and cold together at the same time Indeed the man that blew his Pottage to make them cold and blew his fingers to make them hot came something near in likeness to your mouth but the Story says it was at several times and he made two blasts on 't and two Periods But you in one sentence and breath without stop or comma talk of a whole Reign deform'd by the best Prince that ever wielded the English Scepter and the like of the Arch-Bishop you outdo all that ever I heard of And worse than the cruel Panther that allures and entices his Prey to come near him by sending forth a sweet scent and savour from his mouth 'till the silly brutes thus trepan'd come within his grasp and the reach of his bloody paw Your breath is not so intirely perfum'd but has two savours I wonder any body that have their senses intire should be in love with you and but that you are incomparable in your own conceit I wonder you are so much in love with your self And nothing do I admire more excepting always your own unparallel'd confidence than that any body should admire you for such a tall fellow and tough Champion for Modern Orthodoxy which you so often by your self-contradictictions betray as well as therein your own weakness and infirmities Indeed you manage a Cause that is plausible enough God knows in these days when you strike at the Bishops who have not at present too many friends and they themselves scorning to be grave with a Buffoon it is his own phrase and having not many that I see to take up the Gantlet in their defence so readily as my self though I confess with great disadvantage to my own fame The Argument I undertake being not so plausible and taking in defending them now a days as your jolly opposition and affront in which particular alone you have the advantage of me mine is the better though your's be the more acceptable Cause and this alone makes you to be cry'd up for a Sampson because you smite the Church and Clergy Hip and Thigh though it be be not angry with the Jaw-bone of an Ass. Is it not possible there should be true honour and vertue under a Cassock or Lawn sleeve Has Holland shirts Perrywig and light Drugget got the Monopoly of true Nobility As the Noblemen and Gentlemen would be affronted if the Clergy should despise them with your Proverb Jack Gentleman so why should not the Reverend Bishops and others be as much offended when such a Pick-thank in a whole discourse seems to cry Jack Clergy-man The King alone is the Fountain of Honour and are those streams of honour that flow from him more pudled in a Clergy than a Lay-Channel Does not the man forget his own Father I hate the folly as much as the pride of such Upstarts that because in their Pride Jollity and Atheism they would cast contempt on the Clergy in their folly they think they may and should cast contempt on the Clergy Who in the opinion of Greg. himself are the fittest to make the best Politicians in the World if they keep to their Bibles Which none probably does or can better understand nor any in like probability better observe 't is true they are men and subject to frailties but all men as much and in all likelihood more than they And now I am upon 't I will but make tryal what virtue there is in Perriwig Father Gray-beard above all others to make a Politician of For he often ope's and gapes at Politick Lectures like an Oyster against the coming in of the Tide it is his very element and he is either there good or no where worth the opening I can scarce forbear smiling to my self to see how prettily he sets his face and makes up his mouth with such caution and gravity before he begins to read to Princes his Politick would-bees First blaming the Ecclesiastical Politician he must not be forgotten for offering at that which was none of his Province p. 61. Instructing Princes like Sancho how to govern his Island And p. 206. He had put all Princes upon the Rack to stretch them to his dimension And in another place I am asham'd Mr. Bays that you put me on talking thus impertinently for Policy in us is so Now think I we cannot be far off this Politick Lecture it is either in front or reer before or behind it is hereabouts look for Greg. his whole book then and there most condemns what he is forthwith about to practise as formerly is instanced in the case of railing To make the King and Parliament secure he would lull them asleep with saying p. 252. That men are all so weary that he would be knock'd on the head that should raise the first disturbance of the same nature A new war must have like a book that would sell a new Title In the front of his Book you have a strange and unheard of New Title here he gives you the reason of it he resolv'd there should be something in his Boook to make it sell. And what if a man that had a mind to raise a disturbance should give the Good Old Cause a new Title and call it the Cause too good or Modern Orthodoxy are not those Titles as new and as ready made to a mans hand as the the new Title to his book and by the same hand too this man cannot for his life but he must confound himself But he that should raise the first disturbance of the same nature would he knock'd on the head would he so I do not believe any man likes it so well as to be willing to be knock'd on the head except those knocks be fine gentle knocks not Scotch Knox nor Modern Orthodox knocks they did knock so gingerly that not any man I know would be so knock'd with his good will however I suppose by would be knock'd on the head he means he ought or should be knock'd in the head and that is somewhat deeper than on the head it is as much as a mans life is worth to be knock'd in the head but to be knock'd on the head may be but a Tailors blow a knock with a Thimble a Prick-Louse Rap. But not to play further with his words the thing means as plain as it can speak that the first Rebel that should make disturbance must needs be knock'd i' th' head Therefore disband your Red and Blue-Coats you need not fence where there is no fear the Modern Orthodox that use to be so busie and indefatigable are now 't is very strange and news you tell us weary As soon as ever I read this news thought I to my self and whispered this is all Leasing the Factions and Modern Orthodox weary 't is impossible As they are the Modern Orthodox so they are the never-to-be-tired modern
so was Hen. IV. of France the former by Clement a Monk either in revenge of the death of the Duke of Guise and other the confederates in the League whom that King having once catch'd them in his net put them to the pot or whatsoever other bloody motion animated this cursed Monk to that horrid Deed. Hen. IV. his Successor and next Kinsman with much ado and by the help of his Protestant Subjects and our Queen Elizabeth conquered all opposition and was happily crowned but leaving the Protestant Religion wherein he was educated but not altogether his affection and kindness to the Protestants Ravilliack stabs him to the heart at one blow as he sat in his Coach and the Villain being put upon the Rack to the very last denled that he had any Consederates in that bloody assassination but of his own accord and design alone was moved thereunto by reading of a Book writ by a Spanâ—…sh Jesuit called Mariana Both these murderers were tortured their flesh by piece-meal nip'd off with red hot pincers and lastly drawn in pieces with four Horses Ravilliack had a Father and a Mother alive but not the least suspicion of confederacy with their Son in that fatal stroke could be laid to their charge but in detestation of such a monster brought forth into the World his parents were for ever banish'd and the house wherein the villain was born and brought forth into the World was pull'd down and made a Dunghill unto this day This is the truth of the story if it be not let Greg. if he can or has impudence enough deny it and if so then Mr Greg. must either conclude that his Majesty and Cabinet Counsel are very shallow and meanly conversant in the History of his Progenitors and Neighbour Nation and so believe the groundless insinuations of this impertinent man or else he falls upon the party he has espoused with another terrible but-end and counterbuff by perswading his Majesty to follow the example of his Kinsman Hen. IV. of France and his Cabinet and not leave one of our King-killers alive or if there be any on whom the innocent blood of his Father still calls for vengeance that he would first put them upon the Rack and make them confess who it was besides the Devil and their own wicked hearts that did instigate them to so horrid a villany and then pinch off their flesh from their bones with burning pincers and pull their four quarters asunder with wild horses and make their names as hateful as themselves banish their parents and make their houses a perpetual dunghil in example of Henry IV. of France and for an everlasting pattern to all King-killers unto the end of the world And this is all that our Nibler at History gets hitherto by his sly insinuations and indigested impertinencies in the behalf of his minions Now let us proceed and follow him to his next instance for I am resolv'd I 'll take a brush with all the Butt-ends in his book if 't be but for curiosity to try the metal of this vapouring Huff as well as to prove what metal his weapon is made of And now stand clear the next is a none-such a Goliah's Sword They Kings observe how the Parliament of Poland will be their Kings Taylor c. For which unsufferable affront to his Majesty our Gracious Soveraign his Crown and Dignity Hereditary and not Elective and at the good will either of people or Parliament as is the Polish-Crown I leave him to be chastised by those whom it does so highly concern Leaving the consideration to their Comments upon this bold intrenchment and invasion of our Kings Prerogative and Title to his Crown by a comparison so odious as well as false And so much the rather do I wave any enlargment upon this and the rest of his ridiculous instances which would tempt any man alive if he has any laughter in him to laugh and droll upon this foppish Greg. the most impertinent thing that ever offered to tell a story but that I know he must shortly be disciplin'd for them by another hand which by turning up all for want of the Prospect of a more pleasing nudity will make us as good sport with Greg's following Stories that were Nuts to Mother-midnight Go say thy Prayers Greg. and tremble at the rod that is coming upon thee except thou thinkest the wisest way in brief is some way or other to save the Hang-man a labour and so be as insensible of the blows that are coming upon thee as is thine old Masters head Bradshaw's or Father Grey-beard's your name-sake as well as Fellow-sinner's heads when the Jack-daws sh upon them and be thankful likewise that thou hast escap'd my fingers too whose Dexterity in flashing more than any of the former Pedants to your smart you may yet further feel when you give me far less provocation than in these idle instances of your Politick Abilities I tell you true I do not think it was worth your while to go so far as France nay as Italy for a sample of a King that had a Gentlemans memory and could not so much as remember that ever his father was murthered our King-killers for whom you plead so heartily might have made better escape if you had never gone beyond Sea to find out Kings to be for the murtherers of a King Royal Advocates viz. Henry IV. of France and Augustus Caesar whose Father too was murthered And now am I so weary with following this Wild-goose-chace thus long that if I would be knock'd on the head I cannot write one Page more till I throw my pen away and laugh a little at one pretty word he has many on them but this pretty word does so jear the Parliament and flear in their face for the Act of Uniformity and the superfetation of that Act p. 310. I cannot but admire the sagacity of his Raillery It hath been observed that whensoever his Majesty hath had the most urgent occasions for supply others of them Fathers of the Church have made it their business to trinkle with the members of the Parliament for obstructing it unless the King would buy it with a new Law against the Fanaticks And this is that which of late years hath caused such a Superfetation of Acts about the same business Modern Orthodoxy still tooth and nail fly at King and Parliament all dead and alive that have a hand or has had an hand in the Act of Uniformity that bane of the Good Old Cause but quite desperate by the Superfetation-Acts about the same business But this is no laughing matter that which does tickle me spite of my teeth is the word the new coin'd word by Greg. his own self minted is Trinkle trinkle with the members of the Parliament some of the Fathers of the Church when his Majesty hath had the most urgent occasions for supply did make it their busisiness to Trinkle to trinkle with the Members I wish for all
my Cassock and Girdle but let him and all the Virtuosos in England laugh how they will whether with open mouth or in their sleeves they can never be able to laugh me out of my Coat Indeed I am none of these merry Greeks I can neither pergraecari nor laugh now I 'm not in the humour they only can best laugh that win But I must be serious and mind the great business in hand to see when it will come to my turn to wait upon Father-grey beard as one of the Clergy to make him laugh Let 's count Every day How many days is there in a year Ask poor Robin According to the Julian account 365 days Fanatick Calender 366 days for there is a mystery in 66. Well then 366 days in a year and above 1â—…000 Parishes in England of which I have but just four Parishes neither more nor less How long then will it be before my turn comes for one or other of these four Parishes to make sport for Greg. and make him laugh who is not one day without the company of one or other Chaplain new as the day to say grace for him and make him laugh At a venture I 'l say it will not come to my turn to tickle and trinkle him till he laugh again above once a year and to the most of the Clergy who have but one Parish once in four years Now what great Marvail is all this in reproach to the Clergy that every one or other of them some once a year and some of them of the most wary and poorer sort that have but one Living and that scarcely a Living neither once in four pears does or saith or at least some accident befals him or them that a merry man and full of spleen sure he means a Phanatick cannot hold from laughing Nay if there were a whole thousand of Clergy-men so ridiculous that once in a year or at least once in four years did do such a ridiculous action or else spoke such a ridiculous word or at least some gave him a twitch by the Girdle or some other sad accident befel him that might make a Gentleman laugh Why are all the rest of the eleven thousand Clergy-men thereby any more blemish'd and made contemptible than were the eleven Apostles for one Judas Or than all All the Lords Parliament-men Gentlemen and Tradesmen because a certain Lord he shall be nameless and a certain Parliament-man I name none or a certain Gentleman and also fourthly and lastly a certain Citizen that either did or said or else some accident befel him or them or at least befel the wife of him or one of them so ludicrously and ridiculously that a man merrily dispos'd could not but laugh as if he had seen a pair of Horns upon the head of him or them or one of them a sad accident or that a certain Lord Parliament-man Gentleman I forgot to say the Knight or Citizen with his Perywig off either pluck'd off or struck off or box'd off or fourthly and lastly by some other sad accident fallen off Now what a blot in the Scutcheon would this be to all the Lords Parliament men Gentlemen and Citizens in England if Greg. was their Adversary or should come to be Garter King at Arms Oh! yes a very great blot and blurr to Honour and Reputation of which the Gentlemen of England are so tender that 't is two to one if Greg. had not ten thousand Gloves sent him all left-handed if he had dared thus to confront persons of Quality and men of Honour But to put the affront upon the Clergy great and small poor and rich long short Gowns Lawn Sleeves or no Sleeves Cassocks silk or Cassocks thread-bare from the Ordinary to the Rector Vicar or poor Curate from the silk Girdle with four Livings to the worsted Girdle with poor one Living 't is all one to Greg. He dares all slights all jears all nay huffs and struts stands a tip-toe and looks big shakes his Perywig and stamps scolds rails swells frets and rages like a profess'd Hec. at all of them as a pack of puny Gown-men a Pen and Ink-horn-crew a sort of spiritless and cowhearted milk-sops dastards and white-livers and dare not send a Gentleman the length of their sword Excepting this there 's nothing tends to the contempt of the Clergy in his whole relation and invectives any more than what changing the name may with as much ease and unavoidably make a thrust at Reputation of Lord Parliament man Gentleman or Citizen Some one or other of the Clergy nay a thousand of them may be black and yet both the Church-men and the Church continue comely I wish indeed with all my heart that all the whole company of Divines in England were a Divine company I wish that the Clergy and all other men of what quality soever were without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that might tempt either a light heart to laugh or a good heart to weep But though I so pray I have no cause to believe it will be so or any great ground for hope that it ever shall be so whilst we are mortal although Modern Orthodoxy and Hugh Peter should be rediviv'd The Modern Orthodox Oh! there 's your man Iste regit dictis animos Nec longè scilicet Hostes Quaerendi nobis circumstant undique muros These are the men that can make Candida de nigris de candentibus atra I 'l fit you for ends of verse and I 'l use them as I list and when I list for all you Father-gray-beard Greg. tells us not of one Daw-Divine amongst the Modern Orthodox no he says that if he can do them no good he is resolv'd he will do them no harm nor tells us of one Buffoon or mad Priest amongst them not one Cock-wit Hugh Peters J. O. Smec or Cock-Divine c. Thus Asinus scalpat asinum The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously yea the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously But though there be not one of the Modern Orthodox that pretend to fear God who does truly honour the King Yet I wish if wishes would do that there were not one of the old Orthodox Divines who truly honour the King but would also truly fear God Turpe est Doctori cùm culpa redarguit ipsum Which I english thus Great Doctors sins when Doctors fall Just like their Robes are scarlet All. Not but that I think that evil Ministers if men of Parts may possibly minister some good a crackt Bell may serve to ring others to Church though it self must be cast into the fire or like Noahs Carpenters who made a shift to build an Ark of Salvation for Noah and his Family though themselves were drown'd A dull whet-stone may serve to set an edge upon a knife and the life-less Sun does yet enliven other Creatures and in this sence denies the old Axiome Nil dat quod non habet speaking like the Magick-head of Brass with
honest words like the Divel in Samuels Cassock 1 Sam. 28. 14. And the weeds that may now annoy the Churches Garden may yet prove medicinable virtute officii though not virtutis officio Galba Otho and Vitellius as our Richard the Third were good Emperours though bad men and 't is possible bad men may yet sometimes be good Preachers Yet we may say as of weeds they do more harm than good in the Garden of God they make the way of Truth to be evil spoken of and stain the Surplice they wear Being the Churches Opprobrium Rom. 2. 23 24. the scandal of their Profession and high Calling putting Religion to the Blush For when we compare their prophane lives with those of the good Apostles whom they succeed we may say as that Painter replyed to a Cardinal who was angry with him for painting the faces of St. Peter and St. Paul so red I do it saith he for the very nonce that they may be thought to blush at the lives of their Successors He was in the right on 't that of old complain'd that formerly the Church had wooden Chalices and golden Ministers but now saith he we have golden Chalices and wooden Ministers Such Drones so they get the Honey care not who labour or under what discouragements they labour that 's work for the poor Bee Thus Damasus the Scholar to St. Hierom stept up into the Infallible Chair whilst poor St. Hierom ended his days in a Cell at Bethlehem Yet it is more true Honour to deserve Honour and want it than by Simony or smock Simony to bluster in swelling Titles without merit Cato had rather men should question why he had no statues erected in honour of his great worth than why he had any True Piety and Vertue is vera nobilitas it s own ornament and needs not the varnish of dear-bought Heraldry to set it off And if true Piety be required in any man much more in a Clergy-man whose escapes like a City upon a Hill and the oyntment of the right hand cannot be hid especially in these times when men watch for advantage against them and like the Divels rejoyce in iniquity A little spot is seen in white in a Swan not so in Swine fine Lawn is sooner stain'd than course Canvas every little flaw spoils a Diamond The people are affected opere more than ore exemplis plus quam verbis more with Examples than Precepts more with deeds than words except they be very flattering words and pronounc'd by such glozing Parasites as will lick up the peoples spittle in hopes of gain or fame humoring them to the life but to their own and the peoples everlasting death like Demas that forsook St. Paul to be further preferr'd to the favour of the rabble and in the Idol Temple at Thessalonica They therefore that tread in high places had need look to their steps that they walk uprightly especially when they have many followers and dependents lest they be accessary to other mens fall as well as principally to their own As the due place of the Clergy sets them above many others Heb. 13. 17. 1 Thes. 5. 12. so should they be more eminent than others in Learning and Piety Gods high Priest of old had Pomegranates for smell as well as Bells for sound King Solomon the Preacher call himself Koheloth the Preacheress of the feminine gender and Preachers are called wisdoms Maids Prov 9. 3. And the Apostles are called Joh. 3. 29. Christs Nymphs to teach the Clergy purity as Virgins The longer their Gowns and Robes are the more apt to contract dirt and therefore the more carefully to be holden up lewdness in a Virgin is insufferable Epicurism and Libertinism prevail'd in the World not for the goodness of the Doctrine but because of the sober and austere life of the Doctor that brought it Epicurus And I am confident that rebellion and schism which is factions libertinism had never prevail'd so far in the hearts of the people of England against so righteous a King and Laws but for the austerity of many of the most vile incendiaries and the loosness and remissness of others who went not so steddily though walking upon better ground Thus you see my friend I am not possest with a spirit of contradiction right or wrong to oppose all that Greg. does say I can be content to accept truth even when it comes from the father of lyes and all I have now writ toyou upon this occasion given me by Greg. is only out of my hearty well wishes to the Clergy that the enemy by standing on their ground may have no advantage over them for we are not ignorant of his devices endeavouring to foyl and always twitting a good cause where he finds the least resistance and defence Though in the greatest latitude of Charity no man can imagine that Father-Gray-beard exposes the loosness of any of the Clergy for any love he has to a more strict conversation either in himself or them That which is most admirable in the man is the pregnancy of his fancy in only one Art to wit the superfetation of wit in all the kinds of railing the worst Butter-whore is to seek and may well go to school to Trinkles he and she both being so sertile sure the brood they ingender will all be Marvelous railers With what exuberancy of stile and variety of invectives does he prosecute the Ecclesiastical Politician Bishop Bramhall Arch-bishop Usher Bishop Sparrow Bishop Andrews deceased Arch bishop Laud deceased King Charles deceased with many sinister reflexions upon his gracious Majesty and this happy Parliament How falsly does he charge the Church of England when he says it admits none to Baptism without the sign of the Cross whereas the sign of the Cross is not the Cross in Baptism by her Constitutions But the Cross after Baptism when the God-fathers and God-mothers vouch for the visibility of the Childs profession and education in Christ's Religion and is a practice as ancient as innocent amongst Christians who being scofft by the Heathens for believing in Christ crucified on a Cross they did ever since the Apostles time thereby testifie and openly and couragiously justifie to the World that they were no Gnosticks but like St. Paul not ashamed of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And whereas he makes it such a horrid thing to keep men from the other Sacrament of Christ viz. the Lords Supper because they will not kneel and stoop to a Ceremony let him know they do justly and warrantably in so doing granting there is such an Humane Law and Ordinance for the same which ought to be lest men left to their liberty some would out of novelty singularity or capriciousness loll or lye upon the ground in unseemly if not in immodest postures and consequently tempt some to abhorr the offering of the Lord. And whether we stand or keep walking all the time as many Calvinists do or sit as do some other Calvinists
comfortably But let J. O. and R. B. that writ Oliver's Maxims of Policy and damnable Treason and the poyson to the Antidote of his Saints Everlasting Rest together with all the Modern Orthodox and your self in the first place I should have said Mr. Greg. alleviate and take off the weight of this interpretation of Curse ye Meroz which I impose upon you and all of you put together have not Art enough to shake it off Though thus you are bereav'd of your Darling-Text that sent so many poor souls to the Devil so many thousands to an untimely and desperate end and so many millions of blood and treasure cast away and lost by your leasings and lies told so speciously upon this Text. I know I had better have stirr'd in a Hornets nest than thus to fret and anger the Modern Orthodox the Leven of whose Religion makes them waspish peevish touchy clamorous and malicious slanderers and backbiters But I am as much above the reach of their malice as above their low and base Principles and unmanlike as well as ignoble and effeminate Practices Answering a man's Arguments with a Libel upon his Person and clapping upon him such a beastly character as did the Heathens when they arrayed the Christians in Bear-skins on purpose to set their dogs at them according to their keeness either to bite or barke Let them oppose the strength of my Arguments and reasonings with answerable skill and force and then the danger is over as soon as it appears though the Cabala club for the shot as the whole Assembly of Divines did six years together with joynt and united forces to make only at last a Catechism for little children when Ball 's Catechism new printed had done the feat much better These are brave fellows for whose sakes the Government and Laws must give place and bow which way they please I know wise men know them well enough but because some look upon these Demagogues and Incendiaries as the great Lights and Luminaries against Ignorance and Atheism as Greg. suggests p. 313. I 'le but draw the picture of one of them in the pulpit and barely represent the words that a thousand witnesses yet alive are ready to depose unto as the very language of the Pulpit of Hugh Peters particularly when they gull'd the people of their souls bodies money arms and plate by their damnable doctrine from that blessed Text Judg. 5. 23. Curse ye Meroz It had been happy for England the King Parliament people and themselves too if they never had preach'd nor ever should be suffer'd to preach on any other Text than Matt. 7. 12. And because their Pulpit Buffonery on so sacred a Text as Curse ye Meroz was all drolling stuffe I have suffered my Muse to make use of her Rhime but not her Fancy in this Pourtraicture in which I can plead no propriety other than the Chronologer does in the villanies of Wat Tyler or Jack Straw the bare Historical relation I neither have nor can claim any right or share to this representation and interpretation of that sacred Text nor this following Seâ—…mon of Hugh Peters thereupon more than he that writ Sermon-notes after him to which I have added only the Rhime and abridg'd Hugh Peters idle Tautologies and some slovenly as well as prophaner expressions unworthy my pen. The Historical relation and dress is mine own but the Buffoonery is well known to be the Pulpit stuffe of Hugh Peters in many Congregations thwack'd full all the Kingdome over to listen to that prophane Hocus and paid him well for his pains They shall have it therefore as freely as ever it was mine they have bought it and paid dear for it therefore do I give it them put it in print for them that keeping it by them they may yet have something for all the Plate Thimbles and Bodkins the poor fools gave him with such a liberal hand I am sure I deserve more for representing it in Droll but they 'l be far enough before they 'l give me so much as one silver spoon for my pains or perhaps so much as thanks which is all I look for or need I thank God though my design is purely for their good and to show them their folly and madness in so desperate a cause to throw away their estates body and soul for such foppery as Hugh Peters's Sermon upon Judg. 5. 23. Curse ye Meroz Represented like it self in this Drolling Pulpit-stuff HId in these words it plain appears Lie men and arms 'gainst Cavaliers I see them clear as any thing Both Foot and Horse against the King Couchant I grant Perdue they lie Nor seen indeed by Carnal eye Because they lie in Ambuscade But ready are for a Parade Arm'd Cap-a-pee and One and All To come when we do beat a Call Drum-Major I on Pulpit Drum Am therefore now beloved come With Bible in Geneva Print To turn up All this Text has in 't In which two Parts at least I câ—…unt Here 's Gerazim there 's Ebal Mount Here lies the Blessing there the Curse Take you the better parâ—… the worse Is good enough for Cavaliers And such as dare not shew their eares As Round-heads do in good Old Cause For Liberty Religion Laws For which who dies is cursed never From which who flies is cursed ever For which who dyes is blessed ever From which who flyes is blessed never Since I was with you last I 've been To tell you Truth in Hell and Heaven You 'l say perhaps it is a great way Yet to the first it is a neat way And to be found out very easie And down-hill all way to 't an 't please ye Nor is 't far off ye may come to 't In one day though you go on foot And Bare-foot withâ—…ut shooes or hose Of all days in the week I chose The Sabbath taught by Master Gurney To speed the better in my Journey For one may preach and cant and pray Yet never be out of the way When I came there who do you think I spi'd as I stood at Pit's brink Except the Cavaliers not one And only one Committee-man With Sequestrators three at th' door Only condemn'd for being poor And baâ—…king of a Bishop's land Sentenc'd for ever there to stand My foot stood just at brink of pit A little more I 'd been in it Truly I durst not come too near As I good reason had to fear Long Prayers there are no assistance I therefore still did keep my distance And loth to stay the fiends to shun Like Hâ—…re before the Hounds I run And I though fat away did hie To see what I in Heaven could spie And to that purpose I did gather In Arabs a great Phoenix feather To fly withall a pretty thing Daedalus ne're imp'd such a wing Resolving with my self to flie Above the Clouds and starry skie Hoping the better to get in Because my name-sake is in Heaven St. Peter at the door yet I Thinking
Acts 4. I wish the Modern Orthodox would shew us how they can answer this with all their cavils cheats evasions and tricks that we might have another occasion to render them as ridiculous as they are already in themselves to all the ingenuous of Christendom And that which makes devout men own the Common-prayers of our English above others is that a great many prayers are taken out of the Mass book englished that we might not pray as many Papists do in an unknown Tongue taking out of it only the Jewels which are for ought I know or any body else alive Apostolical and almost as old prayers as the Lord's Prayer 't is an unanswerable Schism to depart from the Church of Rome Antioch or Greek Church in any thing but wherein they depart from Christ and the Apostles But these fiery headstrong and wicked Modern Orthodox instead of sweeping a house pull it down and consequently make more work as well as more bad work 'till they have quite erazed the very foundations of the House of God Nor did the Race or Religion of these Modern Orthodox ever come into any Kingdom but they fill'd it with blood and ruine sad instances whereof we have at home in Scotland in France and Germany c. desolated by their means a hundred leagues together in more places than about Munster their desolations and depopulations to be seen at this day a sad spectacle whereof I have often had which makes me the more loath their abominations And every good man as well as every worthy man that has either honour or estate to leave to his Children and Posterity had need be careful not only to leave his Lands and fields to his children and posterity but likewise use his utmost care and diligence that those fields be not Akeldama's to his children fields of blood which they must needs be if these Modern Orthodox men be not kept under and muzled as you do a curst curr for when ever and in what Kingdom soever since the first Rebel of them Calvin broach'd their Religion they have mouth'd and bit so keenly where they had liberty that the blood always followed you may see the print of their teeth yet good Lord deliver us from them and the father of lies from the Devil his children and all his works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle to Titus I. II. Speaking of unruly and vain talkers and deceivers spiritual Gypsies cheats and Juglers It is very fit that their mouths should be stopped saith St. Paul It is not fit that their mouths should be stopped saith Gregory Father Gray-beard Indulgence Liberty Breda Breda And what a rare fellow this Gray-beard is you may know by the opinon he has of Calvin p. 59. whom he calls a good Scholar and a honest Divine calling the Calvinists p. 69. our Calvinists They may be Calvinists Father Gray-beards Calvinists because they are always bloody Headsmen whereever they have room to strike and a sword in their hand But they are not our Calvinists I assure you Greg. let them be your Calvinists then it is pity you should be parted And for Calvin's being a good Scholar I doubt you would scarcely be mightily in love with the Jesuits though they should approve themselves as many of them have far better Scholars that is men of better parts and better read men and have shown more schollarship in their Works and yet I think many of their principles have been as destructive to the peace of Kingdoms even almost as Calvin himself called therefore Lucian so meritoriously anagrammatized 100 years before Father Gray-beard was born For my part I hate to undervalue any man's scholarship but I hate the folly as much of those men that argue so ridiculously that because Calvin was a good scholar therefore he could not be a Knave or as bad as a Jesuit This must be Greg's meaning or else his scholarship does not at all vouch his Divinity Perhaps Greg. is more acquainted with Calvin's scholarship than I am though I think I have seen and read all his Works the most famous the Calvinists themselves say is his Institutions designed for a Confession of Faith the Adjuster of Controversies the Oracle of his Followers and as if pronounc'd è Cathedra unerring Divinity and infallible dedicated to that purpose to his King that once was so I mean Francis the French King whom he there in his Epistle Dedicatory styles the most Christian King yet though he therein gave his own cause and his own heart the lie yet not altogether to forget himself and to show he was still John Calvin he threatens him with the strong hand of the Lord which shall without controversie come in time and extend it self armed I look'd for that both to deliver the poor out of misery and to take vengeance on the despisers which now triumph with so great confidence Sure this great Divine was a great Prophet or rather he knew well he had laid in that Book such grounds of and for sedition that his Followers would with strong hand stretch forth themselves to take vengeance and call all this The hand of the Lord and the help of the Lord. Curse ye Meroz to this is but the second part of the same tune Some men have had such a Reverence for this same Calvin especially being dead O! de mortuis nil nisi bonum that it has been thought as bad as sacriledge to tell truth of the man No man can have greater Reverence to urns than I have nay though a man die or be hang'd for his crimes yet when the law is satisfied all good men ought to be so But in haynâ—…us murtherers Parricides and Traytours the Law is not satisfied with their deaths but their horrid heads and quarters are set up as long as they 'l last not to scare crows but to scaré men from the like villanies There is as great difference therefore betwixt my speaking truth of Hugh Peters and John Calvin and betwixt Father Gray-beards speaking lies of our glorious Martyrs Charles I. and Archbishop Laud as betwixt light and darkness truth and falshood honour and infamy innocence and villany heaven and hell Except bold Greg. that assassinates the Innocence and Honour of these sacred Persons deceased do likewise say that the Law was not satisfied except they also had been quartered as well as beheaded and more I could say but that the grief of my soul is so great to think such a bold villain as this Greg. should dare now now that his Son our Gracious Soveraign is happily return'd to aspeâ—…se the sacred memory of his Father and friends and the whole Reign infamously as can be spoken in saying against them and the Reign that it was wholly deform'd and if so who is guilty of the Innocent blood which those King-killers laid to the charge of our Sovereign in that unparallel'd Indictment against him and Archbishop Laud sure Gregory Grey-beard was not far off when that
particulars established in the Church then those sermons and sermon-mongers are diabolical schismatical hypocritical seditious false foolish and Hellish and such sermons in the Church are like Baal an Idol in the Temple of God and such Sermon-mongers Baals Priests All whom here I defie in the Name of the Living God to come out if they dare try it out with me in this particular and plead for their Baal so I call those sermons that men have not only made Idols of but those Idols have been set up in the house of God ever since Modern Oliverian Orthodoxy was set up and all true and Holy Worship has been quite thrown out of the Church to make room for this Baal Not that I neither would have the Pulpit thrown out of the Church since it may be so useful by Exhortations and honest Instructions from thence how men may demean themselves in the holy Worship of God and in Temperance and Charity and Justice towards themselves and others But still I say though I allow it a place in the Church yet only such a place as the Seat of Ecclesiastical Judicature those judicial Benches you see in some Churches when Discipline was in fashion namely those Benches and the Pulpit are only for Direction Correction and Instruction and as much and more need of the former than the latter if those Seats and Benches of Discipline were as they should be fill'd with honest and able men not with Salesmen Brokers and Hucksters But neither Spiritual Courts nor Sermons neither Discipline nor Doctrine are any parts of the holy Worship of God though by reason of men's infirmities they have like Physick to the Body or Laws to a Nation been found useful when well manag'd But still they are happiest people that need fewest Laws and the healthiest people that need the least Physick and the holiest and wisest people that need the least Doctrine or Discipline Sermons or spiritual Courts Both which I confess have prov'd pretty gainful Trades as some have gone to work to the peoples great loss as well as great disparagement and reproach to them there being no greater sign of a Dunce than that he is taught and taught and taught his Lesson over and over again and yet can never say it take forth or turn a new leaf ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth as those silly women St. Paul chastises 2 Tim. 3. 6 7. But that our men should be so silly too they may be ashamed of their dull pates if they have any shame in them Besides like Blockheads and ill-thriven lean Jades they also shame their Keepers Teachers and Masters who if they had the right art of teaching could not but make better Scholars Perhaps the hypocritical Oliverian Crew will think I speak against Hour-glass Sermons out of a lazy self-interesting Preservation owning here plain and short Pulpit-talk thereby to vouch my own negligence and sloth Let them think so still I care not but though they think my Sermons too short I 'le make them amends in another bargain I am sure they think my Writings and this Letter in particular long enough if they do not perhaps they will think so upon the next occasion they give me to hold forth against them Besides my Sermons are not Hour-glass Sermons for I give order to my Clark and Sexton to turn the Hour-glass in their Pew that a great quantity of the sand may be run out under the Rose be it spoken before they set it up in view upon my first approach to the ever-to-be-adored Pulpit chusing rather to whet than dull the appetites of my hearers and leave them rather a longing for more than cloy their affections with tedious stuff 't is healthful at such meals to rise with an appetite And indeed I and my Auditory are pretty well agreed for that matter most of them I hope having not so ill been taught or so learned Christ but that they had rather be good than seem good and so they have but the Worship of God in our sacred Liturgy to the full they are more indifferent for those Pulpit after-drops of which yet they have not been scanted nor have they wanted any of their due and wonted measure this fortnight that I have spent in this Letter more troublesome to my Amanuensis than my self costing more pains and time in the Printing and Press than in the Composure However my Congregation for the generality of them judge not the worth of a Sermon by the Quantity but Quality thereof an ounce of meat being worth a pound of poyson as much as an ounce of Gold is worth a pound of dull Lead chusing rather to have a profitable and plain Sermon though short than an impertinent story antiquely told though never so long they coming not to Church to see Tumbling tricks and Hocus juglings with Cloak hung by Buttons scracht ope Hands heav'd up with wide open Mouth and Cheveril Lungs with Teeth bitingly set and grinning with such apish Peters Rogers Dedham-Jack-Pudding Tricks willing to leave those to modern Pharisees Sermon-mongers Hypocrites and Oliverian-Orthodox the Head and Body of whose Religion is made up like a dismal Monster in which nothing appears eminent but sowcing great Luggs and a Mouth greater without Brains and without any Face like true Religion and if the Devil did not possess men strangely with greedy Covetousness Pride Blood and Singularity no man could be in love with it But if any of these Mad-caps will be so hardy as to venture a fall or foil in behalf of their monstrous Mistress of modern Oliverian Orthodoxy and undertake against me to prove that she has a portion and share in religious and holy Worship and also endeavor to prove that she has decent Features if she be not a Beauty and has more eminent and protuberant parts than Mouth and Ears let him come out as soon as he will for her credit and his and all the credits of good Old Cause men lie desperately in jeopardy and at hazard Therefore the sooner they shew their courage and strength the better it will be for them and not much the worse for me now my hand is in I long to try again what metal they are made of or where their great Sampson's-strength lies which Fops only admire For we never could find yet that their strength lay in their Brains or any Excrement that their Brains put forth or hitherto produc'd Their Talent lies in chucking the white and blew Aprons and if the Husband be Novice enough to be cullied into the bargain there 's so much sav'd but if he be too crafty like a cunning old Bird that will not be catch'd with such Chaff in that Case it is lawful for the dear heart his Wife to filch religiously and cheat her Husband for God's sake And so let them address to Petticoat that 's the height they can goe and plot how to make their approaches to her Pocket and for the
endless questions disputes glosses controversies Lectures whimsees stories and Harangues set off with antick twangs of the nose wry faces mops mows split jaws sparrow-mouths grunting lyons faces hems haws yawnings gapings snivellings whinings and mock-gypsee cantings and juglings by spiritual Hocus Pocus and Oliverian Orthodox being Traytors heady high-minded lovers of their own wills and pleasures more than Gods will and pleasure having a form or face of godliness and that no good one neither but denying the power thereof For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sint led away with divers lusts c. Now will they have the impudence to say I rayl and reproach them in this reproof no matter so said their Predecessours to my Saviour when he denounc'd a wo to these Scribes Pharisees Hypocrites Besides they are not my words so much as the words of the Holy Ghost 2 Tim. 3. What can be said too smartly and home to such malignancies as these Foppish stories Lectures whimsees wrestings of sacred Scripture by Hugh Peters and the rest of the Tribe which has undone us once already he that cheats once 't is his fault but if I am cheated twice with the same Juggle Interpretation and Legerdemayn though from another Hocus or pick-pocket I may thank my self no matter Look better to the pocket another time Aftertimes for envy like hollow friends accompanies every man that is worth any thing till he comes in his Grave and then it leaves him when prejudice and passion does not bribe the judgment will best determine which of these three Greg. Trinkles or Hugh Peters thus in their colours pencill'd have the best Physnomy Indeed they all three face one way go one way and follow one and the same Modern Orthodoxy but with a different style and under a different name Hugh Peters held forth manag'd Modern Orthodoxy under the name of the good Old Cause but Father Gray beard follows it under the name of the Cause too good Hugh Peters rendred the good Old Cause good enough to be fought for but Greg. has a higher value for it at least seems to be so chary and tender over it that he says it is too good to be fought for But both of them agree in fundamentals and with joynt forces inveigh against the King our late Sovereign and his whole Reign rendring it and him despicable and deform'd all over with Ceremonies Arminianism and Manwaring Both of them agree against the Common Enemy Bishops and Evil Councellors both of them quarrel with the Cross after Baptism and kneeling at the Sacrament Only Hugh Peters does more tolerably pretend to Controversies in Divinity as not being out of the Road of his Profession But certainly this same Greg. whatever he be is no Divine It would almost tempt Charity to very hard thoughts of him whilst he like Julian the Apostate prosecutes so vehemently and maliciously Religion and all religious men If Plato's transmigration of souls were true I should conclude that Cham was again in him Metampsuchos'd he does so turn up the Fathers of the Church and exposing their nakedness to his Power slashes them for their worthy Cares But his Rod does most wound his own face and his own malice and betraying its self becomes his own Executioner For certainly if his conscience were awake it would fly in his face and make him recant with St. Paul for a less defamation unawares I wiâ—…t not Brethren that it was God's High Priest God's High Priest and yet a wicked man and then too going about a wicked action and yet St. Paul does ask forgiveness But Certainly Greg. can have no call to pass a censure upon either Ministers of State Councils Fathers of the Church their Actions Councils or Books sure if the way were good and the good Old Cause never so good yet certainly Greg. it is not your Road and therefore if for no other cause you are out of the way as much you are when you talk Politickly of Augustus Caesar Hen. IV. c. Your Policies are like your Divinity but neither of them taken out of the Bible which you say will teach a man the best Politicks You might learn other measures of Government out of the Bible then displeasing or pleasing the People Herod to please the People killed James and because he saw it pleased the People he put Peter in Prison also Acts 12. 3. Pilat to do the Jews a pleasure delivered our Saviour to be crucified and Foelix willing to do the Jews a pleasure left Paul bound Argumentum turpissimum est Turba faith Seneca These soft and unmanly Rules of Government and Policy may perhaps agree with your own effeminate temper but they are not grounded upon Reason nor Religion Indeed when the light of these are obscured and Hood-wink'd with fear and cowardise the man is no more a man much less a Governour nor with these circumstances capable of direction for fear frights ' hâ—… out of his wits and how can he govern others that cannot govern himself But Almighty God does usually give large and noble souls to them that are design'd for Government and not capable of such puny impressions of fear that mollifie and unman vulgar and narrow spirits The threatning â—…llows daunted and amaz'd Julius Caesar's waterman till the great courage of Caesar reviv'd the poor spirited man with Caesarem fortunes and fetch'd him to life again and made him tug it out This noble spirit of Government is called in Holy writ the spirit of God which came upon Soul when anointed to be a King and upon the seventy Elders Numb 11. 17. when they were appointed to be Councellors of State Indeed those Independents Numb 16. 3. Korah Dathan Abiram and their Crew thought themselves as good as the best and as holy as the best and as good as their Governours but Moses presently shew'd them the difference on 't There are many incomparable instances in the Bible which will teach Governours better policy than puny and narrow hearted Greg. dares think on for all the commendations he gives the Bible for the most absolute accomplishment of a Politician The people mutiny'd were displeased with Moses their Governour and rebelled Exod. 32. now if Greg. had been at his elbow how would he with fearful S. Peter have advis'd Moses as S. Peter did our Saviour Master spare thy self how would Greg. have read politick Lectures to him and have entreated him to look to himself and shift for himself and not hazard himself among the Rebels and tumults Hell was broke loose the people swarming in uproars and terrible in threatnings or if he could not have perswaded Moses to run away he would as he does to our Governours insinuate the Wisdom and necessity of pleasing the people coming with cap in hand rather than sword in hand and beg of them for Gods sake to be quiet and they should have any thing But Moses Gods servant was not