pleadto it not guilty and if guilty how then can you escape the same sentence and condemnation that fell on those Priests and Prophets who were found in the same transgressions W. T. To this I answer 1. If the taking a maintenance for our Labour in Preaching be Preaching for hire then we acknowledg we Preach for Hire But that such a construction is a vain surmise is evident by Scripture that saies The Labourer is worthy of his hire Luke 10. 7. We professe we take that which Christ saith we are worthy to have but if he understand by preaching for hire that we exercise and order our preaching for the getting of money and maintenance there are enough of us that through Gods mercy know that to be a meer slander as the other also is of preparing war for those that put not into our mouthes If this man made conscience of applying Scripture he would otherwise apply it and use more caution that there might be lesse calumny 2. Nor are we afraid to hear of an appeal to our consciences For though we do not know so little of our Rule or of our selves as to pretend to perfection as Quakers do but finde many things amisse for which we humble our selves before the Lord yet in reference to those grosse things whereof he speaks our hearts shall not reproach us so long as we live Job 27. 6. 3. We will not secure our selves only within this brazen wall of an accusing conscience but freely offer our selves in this and in the things following to the tryal and testimony of the people of God among whom we have lived Let them say whither they have found such evils in us as are objected against us while we have walked in and out before them 4. We shall willingly and cheerfully joyn issue in refering our cause to the great God that knows perfectly our hearts and wayes and before whom we doubt not to stand in the judgment through Jesus Christ at the laâ— and great day If our sentence should come forth from Quakers we might very well and very much fear but Lord let our sentence come forth from thy presence 5. I wonder it should never come into the heart of this man that hath so many It 's If guilty If so c to think what if it be not so What if they be not guilty Shall not they that be wronged have reparations Will God take it well to have his servants slandered or shall they goe scot-sree that make it their trade to traduce them T. S. Jesus Christ the true and great Prophet of his people denounceth the woe against the Teachers in his dayes for that they did their works to be seen of men standing praying in the Synagogues and the corners of the streets as also because they loved the uppermost roomes at Feasts and the chief seats in the Synagogues and greetings in the markets and to be called of men Rabbi Rabbi view your selves in this glasse also and let the light of Christ in all your consciences judge whether these spots are not manifestly to be seen in your garments and if so who can absolve you from beeing sharers in their woe who are found partakers with them in their evil works W. T. Let the Reader observe that Christ condemneth not 1. Standing in prayer whereof there be divers examples in Scripture Nehem. 9. 4 5 6. Luke 18. 13. And whereof Christ himself saith when you stand praying Mark 11. 25 2. Nor Praying in the corners of the streets though this man of this company know we do not so for wisdome cries and may to cry God in such chief places of concourse Pro 1. 20 21. 3. Nor taking the uppermost roomes and seats as if it were a sin to take them for some body must needs have them Nor 4. greetings in the markets and meetings which humanity requires and Scripiure favours 5 Nor being called Rabbi else t is like Christ would not have taken that name John 1. 38. Mark 14. 45. On the contrary it is evident by the text that the thing which our Saviour blames is praying in places where we may be seen to be seen as Mat. 6. 1. To be seen of men that is in a vain-glorious way and the loving for so he speaks and willing and affecting of higher places and Titles To what purpose then is this place brought but only that this uncharitable creâ—ture who hath no knowledg of our hearts and ends takes it for granted that when we stand in a Pulpit for the peoples edification we do it for our own praise and that because we take therefore we love those a little higher places and titles which civility casts upon us This is so senselesse an allegation and imputation that one would not take notice of it but that the Quakers generally bring it and Christians may understand the text better by giving some explanation of it T. S. The Scripture witnesseth that the sheep and the sheepheards of Jesus Christ were not of the world because by him chosen out of the world and therefore by the world were they hated persecuted imprisoned stoned beaten in their Synagogues dragged before Rulers and Magistrates for his name sake cast out as the sweepings and off-scouring of all things Stand to the Bar O you Shepheards before the righteous Judge that cannot be bribed and in the presence of him that searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins of all men Give true answer to what I shall demand of you Are you by the world hated or are you haters of others Are you persecuted or Persecutors Are you imprisoned for Truths sake or are you imprisoners of others c. W. T. To this I answer 1. That we are hated and persecuted in the height with Ismael's persecution yea and made the off scouring of all things in the Quakers Bookes and in this of his more especially and more studiously more virulently and more generally than in many or for ought I know in any other 2. He shall answer himself in the next Page but one of his Epistle where he saith that the Bishops did in their dayes imprison and evil intreat many of us Why doth he say are you imprisoned when he himself tells us we have been imprisoned If he mean that we are not now imprisoned neither were the Shepheards of Christ still imprisoned Acts 9. 31. Besides this how many were tossed and troubled in the High-commission-court by wicked men in and about their own places T. S. We never read that Paul or any of the Ministers of Christ in Scripture did so much as claime a maintenance from those without much lesse did they Commence suites at Law against the world or the Saints for the tenth of all their Labours Are you the Messengers of Christ And is the Scripture your rule How is it then that you dare not engage to preach having not first made firme Indentures for your livelihood Or why is it that
Rayling Rebuked OR A Defence of the MINISTERS OF THIS NATION By way of Answer to the Vnparrallel'd Calumnies cast upon them in an Epistle lately published by Thomas Speed Merchant of Bristol unhappily become the QUAKERS Advocate WHEREIN Some Scriptures are opened and diverse things Objected by the QUAKERS EXAMINED and ANSWERED With an Hortatory Epistle prefixed to fasten Christians to Jesus Christ in these un-glewing times wherein so many play fast and loose with him By William Thomas Minister of the Gospel at Ubley Mat. 6. 23. If the light that is in thee be darknes how great is that darknes 1 Cor. 4. 13. We are made as the filth of the world the off-scouring of all things Luke 10. 16. He that despiseth you despiseth me Gal. 4. 17. They would exclude you that is shut you out from loving me and all true Pastors saith Paul that you might affect them Tertull. praescript advers Haeret. Avolent quantum volunt paleae levis fidei quocunque ad slatu tentationum cò purior massa frumenti in horrea Domini reponetur London Printed by T. M. for Edward Thomas and are to be sold in Green-Arbour 1656. To my respected and well beloved Friends and Neighbours in and about the Citty of Bristol those in particular of my own Charge and in special those that by the tentation of these times have sadly and dangerously declined from the Scripture-path THat I do in the first place make mine addresse to you my honoured Friends in that great City shall not be I trust otherwise apprehended then as a testimony of my Christian respect and desires of your spiritual good Besides that the business in hand stands in so neer a relation unto you as to call upon me as I conceive to call upon you and exhort you all in these loose and leaving times that with purpose of heart you would cleave unto the Lord It is the Fate shall I say or rather the great fault of eminent places to entertaine and professe religion by way of faction rather then out of election upon solid grounds or with that reverence and awfull affection that is required in religious Undertakings Hence a new Faction causeth a new Defection I do not mention this as willing to fix an imputation upon you whereof there is no reason but yet I offer it to your most serious consideration and care that there may not be just cause of such a censure And however that be I hope I shall be excused in making my application thither where he that will needs be mine adversary hath his abode and where many of the same erronious and apostatising way with himself are so entertained and countinanced I do not say by all that I cannot but present it as a matter of deep humiliation to that otherwise honourable City especially considering how the infection hath spread it selfe thence into all adjacent parts Lastly out of that Citty the Pamphlet that I am called to answer hath posted about the Nation As concerning which I leave it to all that have any sense of religion to consider whether they ever knew so strange and ugly a thing I may say such a Monster brought to Bristol-Fair to be shewed there first and carried about the Countrey to be seen afterward But be it what it will be since it is come abroad and that upon my occasion though altogether beyond my intention I cannot but account my selfe so far concerned in it as to do mine endeavour that they that fear God may not take hurt from it I mean some weak ones for established Christians detest it and that they that fear not God may not take heart from it and animate themselves against Gods Ordinances yea further that it may not ly as a guilt upon this Nation that such things are published to the great dishonour of God and Religion without any refutation contradiction or pleading for truth If herein my declining abilities may be any way usefull I am willing to set them all a work with much desire of divine assistance to serve that Citty and Countrey where beside my imployment in my own place I have divers times bestowed my paines now for the space of neer fourty years to preach and mantaine that Scripture-doctrine and those Scripture-Ordinances which this upstart generation thrusts sore at to make them fall but all in vaine for heaven and earth shall passe away but not one tittle of Gods heavenly truth What I have hitherto spoken is but preparatory to that which followeth which will reflect according to the Title of the Epistle upon two sorts of persons I mean those that have stood firm and those that have lost their first footing and first faith Unto the first of these who have held fast those things which they have received and heard from their Teachers out of the word of God among whom I thank God I may and do speak to those of my owne Charge I say to such I have three things to communicate First that they are much bound to blesse God for his unspeakable gift it being Hee and Hee alone that is able and faithfull to keep us from falling Nor can it but much affect them upon serious thoughts that when in these infected and infecting times so many have fallen on the one hand and so many on the other vet that spiritual pestilence hath not come nigh them especially considering how many false Prophets have arisen and with how many faire shews and seeming wonders they have set forth their wares in so much that they would have deceived if it had been possible the very elect In that so many of you therefore are preserved O how great cause is there to conclude as the Apostle in the same argument doth To the only wise God our Saviour be glory and Majesty dominion and power now and ever Amen Jude ver 25. Secondly I shall say further to such as the Apostle doth Dearly beloved and longed for our joy and our Crown when Apostates crown us with thorns so stand fast in the Lord and for that purpose put on the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devill and those profundities which the old Serpent produceth in these last dayes finding his usual devices to be so well known that he had need betake himself to his new depths You have put your hand to the plough look not back Be old Disciples Nothing is more sinfull nothing more shameful then to give off at last and to be befooled and bewitched out of a good way Let it never be said you have but you doe your will you ever will run well make it your highest designe to die in Jesus When you see any when you see so many fall away think that your Saviour is now speaking to you in particular and saying even as affectionately as of old he did Will ye also go away
If ye will go whither will ye go to Arians enemies to Christs Person to Ranters enemies to his Precepts and Purity to Quakers enemies to his Ordinances and Officers If it seem evill to you to follow the Lord you may go after such companions But doth that seem evill Is it evill to follow the chiefest good or can you follow and enjoy him and not hear his voice and attend his Ordinances Know that nothing but the words of eternall life will make an eternall Disciple If others be gone let them return to you but do not you turn to them Finally look to your selves and desire the Lord to look to you that we loose not the things we have wrought but that we may receive a full reward Joh. 2. 8. Thirdly I have one word more It is easy and obvious to observe that many poore profane Creatures who have nothing of the power of godlinesse in them yet blesse themselves in this that they be not Separatists Anabaptists Quakers which they that are such have cause to look upon as a sad fruit of their falling a way I shall therefore earnestly move those Christians that have not been removed as others in these tottering times to expresse the power of that truth in their whole soules and lives to which God in so great mercy and with so great power hath held their hearts which I do the rather mention 1. Because that is the way to keep for ever the truth hitherto kept for faith that is the doctrine of religion is held in conjunction with a good conscience If you put away the conscience you will make shipwrack of the faith It is the life of religion that preserves the light 2. This will put to silence the ignorance of foolish men whose most plausible argument against a right religion is an unrighteous conversation 3. This is a course to confirm those that yet stand firm who shall receive the most familiar operative conviction of the soundnes of your religion and theirs in matter of opinion by the efficacy thereof in the holines of your carriage for that which is the truth of God indeed is described to be a truth which is after godlines That is it teacheth to live Soberly Righteously and godly They who have been taught as the truth is in Jesus put of the former conversation and put on a better Yea 4. By this you may possibly regain those that are inpart departed for why should not that good conversation that is one meanes to bring an Heathen to be a Christian be a means also to bring a revolted Christian to be a right Christian And to those who are so revolted I am next to speak which I confesse is a very heavy task not only because their going back is so godlesse for to be without God and without a teaching Priest and without Law go together and how farr they put away the two latter wherein God is injoyed their writings shew I say therefore not onely because their going back is so godlesse and thereupon so grievous to think and speak of but also because their return I meane of the chiefest of them is so hopelesse and the more hopelesse because their hearts are so high In these dayes they that have got a new opinion are like prodigals that have newly got their portion they go into a far country from their fathers house and when they have done that think none in a more noble condition then themselves But because all are not gone alike and that God who hath perswaded Japheth to dwell in the tents of Shem can perswade those that be gon furthest yet to goe their way forth by the footsteps of the flock and againe to feed beside the shepheards tents That is to walk as they were wont with the true sheep after the true shepheards I shall therefore offer such assistance as I can give and which the Lord can make to take by opening the causes of declining and adjoyning the remedies The causes are either within or without 1. Within I And the great cause and sum of causes within is the corruption of nature If the prince of this World adventured on our Saviour himselfe in whom hee fonnd nothing no marvel if hee presume hee shall be successefull with us in whom hee findes so much I meane so much of that pravity which makes so much for his purpose In particular there is within us 1. An unbelieving heart the very character whereof is that it departs from the living God these are the dayes wherein Christians do not only professe that they can live without but pretend to be above ordinances which is an height so strange that we may be astonied at it so shameful that we may blush and be confounded at it so dangerous that we may feare and tremble at it What Above that which Christ himselfe hath ordained them to be under and that to the end of the world as his way to their happiness would they ever do this if they did believe either the promise of life made to hearing or the threatning of unavoidable destruction denounced against despising But when men be of this minde that no good or comfort is to be had in ordinancecommunion perhaps because themselves have wanted it for that they did not rightly humbly and patiently seek it no marvel if there be ordinance-desertion when men change faith into fancy no mervail if they change Religion into frensy 2 Tim. 3. 9. 2. An unstable heart led away with diverse lusts that is light desires inconstant and alternant motions longing after every thing and pleased with nothing long How many be there whose light is weak but lusts affections cupidites strong No marvail if with such a new man and a new matter like new wine work mightily and if such Athenian eares be quickly turned from the Truth to Fables 2 Tim. 4. 3 4. 3. A carnal heart wherein there is a great desire to hear Ministers of parts for their Parts not but that parts are to be regarded for their good use and because by greater and quicker abilities Gods Word is opened more clearly to the understanding or prest more powerfully upon the conscience thus to love parts that is for the Word and the good service they do in the things of God is very good but on the other side to love the Word for the good Parts that in regard of the Christian that is so taken mistaken is a dangerous thing and in-regard of the Word of God a dishonourable thing To have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of Parts is much alike as to have it with respect of persons such are easily wafted thether where there is more of the parts though lesse of the Word and truth of God for it is for the great Parts of men that they go rather than the good Word of God This is
it that undoes great Cities that people flâ—ck to publick Ordinances as it were in way of recreation as if Paul and Apollo and Cephas that is various Ministers of different gifts were sent by Jesus Christ to please mens several humours and that they may run from one to another for their better content and not as the truth is to deliver unto them from God a â—aw of faith and life which they ought to hear with a trembling spirit as that whereby they are to be guided here and accordingly to be judged at that last and great day 1 Thes 4. 1 2. Mark 16. 16. John 12. 49. 4. A carelesse heart taking the Doctrines of good Ministers on their words without observing their grounds and examining as the noble Bereans did those Scriptures whereupon they did build the doctrines delivered to their hearers Hence it comes to passe that though the Word be delivered to them yet that and their hearts are not delivered to it but to the Minister that is the deliverer of it upon this followeth that which is worse to wit that when other Teachers step in especially if they make shew of much holinesse and deliver contrary things to those they heard before they take those also upon their words that deliver them and let go the former truths sell these and buy those no wonder for we may say one mans word is as good as anothers to wit if the Word delivered be taken on the bear warrant of the one and the other 5. A proud heart and a foolish Hence the Jewes formerly sought life in a way of legal righteousnesse to wit for want of knowledge and because they were fooles as to suffer themselves to be bewitched and withall for want of humility and because they would not submit themselves unto the righteousnesse of God Papists since have troad in their steps no mervail for proud man would fain be his own Saviour and the Quakers go far this way for howsoever they seem enemies to that pride which we all condemn by some outward and bodily neglects wherein the Papists go beyond them yet they and the Papists both discover and display a far more dangerous pride in lifting up as they do an inward light and their inherent pretended perfections yea in all Sects and deviding parties height of Spirit hath a great part Gal. 6. 12. 13. John 3. 9. These are the causes within unto which may be added Secondly causes and occasions without namely these 1. Christians forsaking their fellow Christians Apostacy in Religion begins or at least begins to be setled and to shew itselfe in separation and breach of communion when the Apostle saith Let us hold fast the profession of our saith he saith soon after Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together but exhorting one another for good Christians by mutual exhortations and communications are not only a comfort but a guard one to another It is observed that they that Quakers prevail with are either ignorant persons and raw professors or meer Notionalists full of brave words but that have little of the power of godlinesse or else men of separating spirits Hear what he saith that was for a time and in a great part one of them I doe not hear saith he nor know any that have been well grown and experienced Christians maintaining a close communion together according to the exemplary waies of Christ and his Apostles that are thus overcome and betrayed by the subtil Wiles of the Devil 2. Their forsaking the Ministry Sheep without a shepheard are easily made a prey to the Woolf as Joash was when Jehojada was dead and the Galatians in Pauls absence Let Christians that have departed from their first principles coÌ„mune with their own hearts and enquire whether they staid so long with their first Pastors as seriously to seek from them a resolution of their doubts and to see whether all reasons of running away might not have been answered But no marvail if they go out of the way by those that are unfaithful that never enquire the way of those that are faithful yea that forsake their proper guides What would the Deputy have done when Elimas the Sorcerer sought to bewitch him if Paul had not stood by come in with his charmes Observe therefore that the first work of Seducers that they may prevent all preventions of prevailing is to make their new Disciples abhor their old Teachers just as good-fellowes handle the Prodigal that is so as to make him detest his Fathers house that they may make a prey of him yea they do so new mould their spirits as that they make them open their mouths in out-cries and curses against those now for whom to speak in Pauls language they would once have pluckt out their eyes thus as somtimes Achitophel counselled Absolam to go into his Fathers Concubines in the sight of all Israel to make the difference between him and his Father irreconcilable by that odious act and thereby to secure himself So do Seducers teach their followers a minister-reproaching-language and usage that so they and their former yea and all sound Teachers may be at an everlasting difference and by that means their hold may be the more firme Gal. 4. 7. Joh. 9. 24. 3. Their forsaking at length the ordinance of God and the outward exercise of religion both in the publick congregation and in their own Families Now when Christians leave the Word which is the builder up of Saints Acts 20. 32 and the Sacraments that are their Confirming Seals Rom. 4. 11. And Sabbaths that are the cement of Religion And that Prayer that is the Christians keeper Jude v. 20 21. sweeping the house for the Devil by sweeping out holy exercises Luke 11. 25. no marvell if they be ruinous unstable shattered and even lost creatures To adde a little more now I am engaged in this argument The precedent distempers partly arise from and partly are fomented by such furtherances thereof as I shall now subjoyne To wit 1. Satan himselfe who is as a Murtherer so a Lyar from the begining that is not only a teller of Lies and a maker and moulder of untruthes but also a maker of lyars and an instiller and promoter of all those falshoods that are in deceived and deceiving men If there be a man appointed of God to be deceived to his destruction I le perswade him Saies that Murtherer If he be asked where withall I l'e be a lying Spirit saith that liar Many talk much of Spirit but Christians must not be soon shaken in mind by such Suggestions nor suffer men to impose upon them by the name of Spirit for perhaps it may be the spirit of Ahabs prophets There is a saying cited out of Luther that will give every man reason to raise a suspicion upon the pretensions of extraordinary revelation it is this Verily God must bee incessantly implored with
Christ in the way of Christ least God not only give them over to teach erroneous things which they often do but leave them at last to fall off from preaching themselves without a calling to be bitter enemies to those that preach with a calling as this miserable man declares himself to be who notwithstanding hath nothing to defend himself from the dint of his own sword-like words but only this that he is no Minister and making us none neither the case is alike and so all fals on himself in reference to the time wherein he was a publick Teacher and no better sure than other publick Teachers whom in this Satyr he so much enveighs against The Epistle T.S. Sirs the night is far spent the day is at hand and blessed yea blessed from the Lord are all they who are found walking not as children of the night but of the day The hour is coming and now is that all coverings shall be removed and the vails pluck't from off all faces and lamentation and woe will be to all them who are found covered but not with the covering of my Spirit saith the Lord God Awake therefore O ye shepherds awake awake stand up seriously consider of and prove your coverings make diligent inquisition and search whether ye are covered with power or profession with the substance or with the Forme c. You do all pretend your selves servants to the Son of God and to be Ministers by him called forth to preach the everlasting Gospel from the bottome of my heart do I wish that I were able truly to say of every individual of you that you are found walking worthy of such a Master and bringing forth fruit worthy of that high and holy calling with which you pretend your selves called I shall not undertake rashly to judge you or accuse you unto the world let your fruits demonstrate what Trees you are and let your works judge you W. T. The Ministers of this Nation are not unwilling to be awakened to the serious consideration of any thing wherein they are truly concerned nor are we deaf at but yet we wonder at those false witnesses that in these dayes rise up against us and lay to our charge things that so many of us know not of Psal 35 11. Among whom the Author of this Epistle will needs appear to all the world and that as an eminent undertaker one would hardly think thâ—t one that is so much a Novice should so far lift up himself but that Novices will do so as to sit in judgment upon call to the Bar indite and prepare for the highest condemnation not only the publique Teachers of this Nation to â—ll whom he writes but which he may do upon the same false account of all the Reformed Churches yea of the Churches of Christ generally since the Apostles times as if Christ had forsaken his Church for so many Ages with which he hath promised to be present in the Ministry to the end of the world Strange it is that a man pretending to piety should put himself into such an office if the adversaries of a right Religion that say as the King of Syria fight neither with small nor great save only with those whom they call Ministers seek for a Proctor to plead their cause throughly may not thâ—y finde one here unto whom it belongs seriously to consider and I heartily wish he would think upon it before it â—e too late how near he comes to that Tertulius that lov'd to call Paul a pestilent fellow and how that will speed when he comes to be tried by that word he that despiseth you despiseth me if such Scriptures be nothing to him but he will needs think he doth God service when he will cast all reproach upâ—n his servants therein lies his danger which I speak the rather for their sakes that are of the saâ—e way and spirit with him who if the Teachers of the Nation be found at the last day the Lords Ministers and Ambassadors as the consciencâ—s of some of them cannot chuse but acknowledge they will if the work of the Word be not clean blotted out of their hearts then may they collect what a fearful reckoning there doth without repentance remain for them from those direfull things that befel the Ammonites state upon their base usage of David's messengers Yet had the Ammonites a pretence for it and made as if David's servants had come to search the City to spy it out to overthrow it nor did Tertullus want a colour for that which he pretended as Paul's black character for he doth not say of Paul he is reported to be but we have found him to be a pestilent fellow just as this man saies let your fruits demonstrate what Trees you are let your works judge you and so Tertullus this Paul is a pestilent fellow let his works judge him for he is a mover of sedition among all the Jewes throughout the world Here is a great proof if Tertullus had not been a great lyar Howbeit I do not deny but that if he speak of particular men there may be divers or many among the publick Teachers of this Nation justly blamed though few in that height in which he sets them forth whom neither my self nor any godly Minister will plead for but mourn for but what is this to all the publick Teachers of this Nation Yea how is this to any purpose at all Since there was never any National Society of Ministers wherein there was not an observable corrupt company If that be a sufficient reason to condemne the Ministery because there is not a walking worthy of that calling in every individual Minister then no society of men will be uncondemned because unworthy persons are still mixed and ordinarily the most T. S. You pretend the Scripture to be your rule come therefore let us plainly reason together and see if your own rule will condemne you or absolve you W. T. We own the Scripture for a Rule though this Writer doth not and are willing as in duty we are bound to be tryed by it but while we acknowledge the Rule and the Law we deny the Fact and the things that are here alledged against us in that generallity wherein he alledgeth them We say as Jeremy its false And as Paul Neither he nor his Partners can prove the things whereof they accuse us T. S. The Spirit of the Lord by the mouth of the Prophet Micah ch 3. 11. accounted it among the abominations of the Priests and Prophets of those dayes that they taught for hire and did divine for money and as an aggravation of this their wickednesse he further testifies that they even prepared war against him that refused to put into their mouths v. 5 Let these Scriptures be your inditement before the Judge of all the Earth And to the light of Jesus Christ in every one of your Consciences do I appeal whither you are able to
lived scandalously your selves but also brought a scandal and all approby on all those of the same calling that have lived better O think seriously and seasonably of that heart-smiting aggravation and the sheath-lesse sword that followed it By thy sin thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme A good Minister is the Ornament of the Ministry yea the glory of Christ but a bad one the blot and the blemish who hath therefore three heavy things to be acountable for a bad carriage the bad carriage of a Minister and making the Ministry it self despicable by so bad a carriage Let this if any thing hasten an amendment for the preventing of an accumulated Judgment And for that reason I have written thus much and not as assuming any thing to my self over others of the same calling or as loving the faults of any were it not that there is such a cause and by occasion of this Book such a call It s high time for me to draw to a conclusion wherein I shall returne to him with whom I have to do to those of the same way concerning whom myself and I doubt not to say the publick and pious Teachers of this Nation are willing and ready to pray that they do no evil not that we should appear approved but that they should do that which is honest though we be as Reprobates and yet I trust they shall know that we are not Reprobates 2 Cor. 23. 6 7. But I had cause notwithstanding thus to apply my self to this first and foulest part of our Adversaries Book out of a sense of what David sometime said I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy Fathers House to wit fourscore and five Persons of the Lords Priests My love to my Brethren will not suffer me to do lesse than to reflect upon my self when I read these most abusive things as the Person through whose occasion the â—eâ—r servants of God have been thus vilified and though the railings of injudicious and uncivil men be of little value upon right consideration save only to lay upon themselves a fearful guilt yet because diverse weak Christians who are not so well able to see into the subtilties of Deceivers and to finde out the depths of Satan in this designe may be induced to a lesse estimation of publick Preachers and Preaching which are Gods principal ordinary way to the salvation of their soules I have taken the more pains to afford them the help of this Discovery that so the ordinance of the Ministry may not have lesse efficacy upon their soules by having lesse respect in their hearts Now if God shall be pleased to blesse any thing that hath been spoken so as to make it prevalent for the confirming of those who have yet kept the Faith and the reducing of those who are not far gone or not long gone from the right way I shall humbly blesse God for it and doubt not but they will do so also however I shall leave all to that all-working God who when Paul plants and Apollo waters doth himself alone give the increase and adde through his good Spirit which I humbly beg for that end an effectual operation FINIS a Acts. 11. 23. b 2 John 10 11. c Isa 59. 4. d Luk. 16. 17. 1. â— a Jude 24. b 2 Thes 3. 3 c Ps 92. 11. d Mat. 24. 24. 2. e Phil. 4. 1. f Ephes 6. 11. g Rev. 2. 24. h 2 Cor. 2. 11. i Luk. 9. 62. k Act. 21. 16. l Gal 3. 13. 5. 7. m 1 Thes 4 14. n Joh. 6. 67. o Josh 24. 15. p Joh. 10. 27. q Psal 65. 4 r Joh. 6. 68 Å¿ Jer. 5. 19. t 1 Tim. 1. 19 20. u 1 Pet. 2. 15. a Tit. 1. 1. b Tit. 2. 12. c Ehes 4. 21 22 23 24. d 1 Pet. 2. 12. 3 1. e 2 Chron. â— 15 3. f Gen. 9. 27 g Cant. 1 8. h Joh. 14. 30 i Heb. 3. 12. 1. i Heb. 3. 12. k Mat. 28. 19 20. l Isa 55. 3. m Heb. 2. 3. n 2 Tim. 2. 3. 6. 2 Pet. 3. 16. a 1 Cor. 3. 3. b Jam. 2. 1. c Isa 66. 2. d Rom. 6. 17 e 1 Tim. 6. 3 4. Gal. 3. 1. f Rom. 10. 2. g Rom. 10. 3 h Gal. 4. 17. i 2 Tim. 4. 10. a Heb. 10. 23. 24 25. b Mat. 3. 16 c The worlds wonder or the Quakers blazing Star p 33. 54. d Chron. 24. 7 e Gal. 1. 6. f Heb. 13. 17. g Acts 13. â— 9 10. h Gal. 4. 15 i 2 Sam. 16. â—1 k Psa 122. 1 2 3 4. Isa 56. 6. They that joyn themselves to the Lord to his servants keep the Sabboath l John 8. 44. 2 Cor. 11. 3. m 1 Kings 22. 21 22. a 2 Thes 2. 2 3. See the Book called A Faithful discovery of a treacherous design p. 18 19. 12 Cor. 11. q3 c Rom. 16. 18. d Mat. 24. 24. Osiander Hist Eccles Epit. Cent. 4. ch 43. lib. 2. lib. 3 ch 51. d Mat. 24. 12. e 2 Pet. 2. 2 f 2 Tim. 2. 26. John 8. 44. g Isa 11. 6. h Psal 32. 9. a Act. 5. 40. b Phil. 3. 16. c Act. 15. 14 15 16 17 c. 28. 31. 16. 4 5. d In his Preface before his Lectures on the Psalms of Degrees e 1 Kings 18. 38. 38. f 1 Pet. 2. 25. Calvin g Chron. 30. Nehem. 8. 2. 4. Psal 122. 1 2 3 4. h 1 John 5. 1. Psal 119. 63. a Tim. 3. 5 6. b Rom. 16. 17. c Mat. 24. 26. d 2 Pet. 3. 17. e Prov. 23. 23. Mr. Pâ—yn Mr. Baxter Quak. Catech p 27. Faithful discovery of a treacherous design p 12. The Oath of George Cowlishaw of the City of Bristol Ironmonger taken Jan. 22. 1654. Worlds wonder p. 40. They who desire to be acquainted with the mysteries of this way may be satisfied in reading that Book Worlds wond q 27. See the same Book p 16. 17. a Jer. 50. 4. * Neque enim sic cum protervis at indomitis agendum ut cum mansuetis docilibus Calv. in loc a Cant 2. 15 Col. 2. 8. b Luk. 10. 16 * But why doth he not say what he way truly say of so many of us a Math. 28. 19 20. 1 Tim. 3. 6. b 2 Sam. 10. 6. 12. 31 c 2 Sam 10. 3 d Jer. 37. 14. e Acts 24. 33. f Act. 24. 20 g Psa 17. 2. h Acts. 15. 23. We find greeting in letters to be dispersed in every City Acts 21. 19. 1 Pet. 5. 14. * Read more of this in M. Bakers Qua kers Catichisme p. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 12. 38. compared with 1 Sam. 2. 16. Gen. 34. 19 vide Beram in locum significatur voluntas cum summa cupiditate conjuncta * Gal. 4. 29. with Gen. 21. 9. * See this about Indentures answered in the 7. Article of his scoffing Charge 1 Cor. 9.