will the juglers say this must not be suffered we must use some course speedily to blacken I say blacken the author and impair the value of his Letter or our trade is gone Join your forces up and be doing truth is strongest ye fight against your Saviour S. Peter and S. Paul to the Corinthians if you quarrel me for this come meddle then if you dare And if you do provoke me I will not only spoil the sale and market of your new-coin'd feigned words but I 'll cry down your market-day too on which you sell your empty sounds to fill your pockets Not that I am against preaching up charity and goodness and faith and hope too in order unto charity and upon the Lords day too if so be that preaching praying or worship hearing or faith doth not hinder better duties viz. works of mercy mercy to my own body to my beast to my family to my neighbour But if keeping any day of worship or performing any duties of worship hinder any of those greater duties then I sin in doing those duties of worship which hinder those greater duties of mercy Yet I say if I can do both both worship God and keep a holy day to him and also perform the greater duties of mercy then both is better God has join'd them together let not man put them asunder faith is a good grace and hope is good and charity good and preaching and prophesying knowledge and mysteries are all good it is a pity they should be parted but if we want charity we want the great accomplishment the greatest of these is charity And if any body think that I herein speak too slightly of keeping the Lords day let them know that if they think so they do but censure amiss and like the Hypocrites and Pharisees condemn me for that that was the very cause why our Saviour himself was accounted a sinner as you may see Jo. 9. 14. 16. 24. The Sabbath day and all other days were made as all things else and as all Commandments were made viz. only for the good of man not for his hurt and dammage if you will believe our Saviour The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath If my neighbours house be on fire as I am going to Church I ought to get my bucket and throw water and help to quench it for all going to a Sermon and God likes me better with my pail in my hand at that time than the Bible in my hand or a prayer in my mouth when charity to my neighbour supersedes my worship of God as being superiour to it as our Saviour tells the Pharisees upon the like occasion Mat. 12. 9. I will have mercy and not sacrifice that is not sacrifice when it hinders the greater duty of mercy And if a flood be coming down ready to flow my meadows when my Hay had need be carried away with my cart or else it will be carried away with the flood I should sin at that time if going to Church or any worship of God should prevent me from harnessing my horse and going to cart on the Lords day and my servants should sin grievously with going to Church when a work of mercy to my poor family and cattle called them another way And though our modern Pharisees and Hypocrites will condemn me herein yet they cannot tell how to confute it by Scripture nor reason and if they had known the true Religion or what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice they would not have condemned the guiltless I might give many other instances in making ready food in mercy to my body I mean not only necessary food to keep life and soul togethet as we vulgarly say but such food as is most convenient good hot victuals and good drink on the Lords day for watering a man's Horse and Ass on the Sabbath day is not necessary for life they will live as hunting horses often do a longer time without water but it is not convenient so to make them fast and being a work of mercy though but to your beast therefore does not every one of you think it lawful to do this convenient good on the Sabbath day That is supposing the fourth Commandment had the same force and efficacy that other Ceremonies and Types had in our Saviours time But alas the case is alter'd now those types and shadows are now of no more force than Circumcision and new Moons which in respect of Gospel discoveries are but weak and beggarly elements whereunto our modern Pharisees desire again to be in bondage and lest the hope of their gain should be gone they are wonderful zealous for the morality of the Sabbath and the morality of the fourth Commandment that yet are the most unmannerly sawcy peremptory people under the Heavens endeavouring to shew morality no where but in their market-day where they get much gain with as light frothy ware as ever was sold poor people are cheated and have a hard penny-worth of it as ever men had if they give a penny for these fictitious words such as this the ten moral Commandments and the morality of the fourth Commandment which all the art they have can never prove nor that there is since Christs death any more intrinsecal holiness in one day than another nor any more holiness in the Lords day than any other Holy-day mentioned in the Act of Parliament for that purpose wherein are these words These days shall be kept holy namely every Sunday in the year then follow all the Saints days and holy days to which the King and Parliament may adde more holy-days if they please and as they have done and as they are of humane institution can also take away some if they judge convenient Nor ought any man to keep the Lord's day in conscience or duty more than any other Holy-day And the ground of a man's keeping the Lords-day and all other Holy-days is in obedience to the fifth Commandment not the fourth Commandment Which if it were moral i. e. perpetual in their sence it is not in the power of the Church nor King nor Parliament to alter the day from the seventh to the first but all Sabbath days were like the new-moons and other Jewish festivals mere shadows of things to come but the body is Christ which being come the shadows vanish And those that zealously affect men with this Jewish conceit of keeping days c. do zèalously indeed affect men but not well nor honestly I know men are apt enough to take liberty to themselves in this licentious age to any prophaness but I deny that it is prophaness for me to dress convenient food for my self and family hot and good if I can get it on the Lords-day and Greg. does acknowledge himself and all that he knows of his party to be of this opinion herein in this one thing then we do agree and this is the first particular we have concurr'd in since we
GREGORY Father-Greybeard With his Vizard off Or News from the CABAL In some REFLEXIONS Upon a late PAMPHLET Entituled The Rehearsal Transpros'd After the fashion that now obtains IN A LETTER to our old Friend R. L. from E. H. London Printed by Robin Hood at the Sign of of the He-Cow I. O. if it be not a Bull on the South-west and by West end of Lake-lemane and sold by Nath. Brooke at the Angel in Cornhil 1673. REFLEXIONS Upon a late PAMPHLET Entituled The Rehearsal Transpros'd In A LETTER TO Our old Friend R. L. SIR ONe would think you were at certain with the Company of Stationers and as their Pensioner retain'd in constant Pay For of late a man cannot write a private Letter to you but forthwith you Print it And though All of you be in the fault yet the Innocent Sheet does the Pennance on the Book-seller's Stall Or stands like a poor Greek or some Mountebanks Bill at every Pillar and Post to be gaz'd on if not laugh'd at I know what you 'l say that all this modesty I now put on is but a meer Copy of my Countenance and that indeed and in truth you keeping the Key to the Press I had not writ to you above all others but on purpose that you might open the Press-door and let me in with Imprimatur R. L. Which Pass-port had been set down in the first place as commonly it is like a Ticket in hand to get into the Play-house but that the Book-sellers like it not For they honest men knowing the worth of a Book only by the ready sale perceive the people have got an opinion and then there 's no beating it out of their heads and have taken such a prejudice against Books so mark'd in the forehead that construing it to be a Brand of Infamy they will scarce ask the price of them or bid a penny Taking it for granted the Author so licens'd was some dull Phlegmatick fellow and either wanted wit or honesty to vouch himself To tell you the plain truth on 't and not to lie It was neither the Importunity of friends of the Stationer in particular nor the near approach of the next Term nor very much against my will nor to Cancel the obligations many and great to his Worship her Lady-ship c. neither as a Testimony of great thankfulness nor out of penury and want of a better Offering nor any of the like stale Pretexts that now set my Pen a work But of my own accord meer motion and advice mine own dear fingers itch'd to be at it till I had finish'd and dispatch'd the Packet in this Express Wherein is inclosed and wrapt up a bundle of serious and honest Truths as if held forth from Pulpit it self But I confess they are like my self merrily dispos'd yet purposely so dress'd that the wholsom food therein contain'd not disgusting the Palate of this humorsome and frothy Age might rellish the better and go merrily down Indeed it is a Quelque-chose here and there a little Tart sometimes but without gall or Bitterness and here and there a Bit so sharp too as like mustard to bite the Tongue of a sinner but it is only to make his eyes water and bring him to repentance and the better digestion of his former crudities If you suspect the Truth of all this as related by a Party concern'd for who is not in Love with his own Issue though Crouch-back'd or Crook-legg'd then read not one Syllable more 't is alike to me for I shall not get a penny by your custome neither do I desire it For I am well and warm and wish all Mankind so and to doe what in me lies for the common Beneâ—…t do I now write Praying that all men were of my Religion contain'd in this Letter and then the world would need neither stocks nor Gaol neither Inquisition nor Surrogate neither Act of Indempnity nor Uniformity neither Drums nor Colours Swords nor Helmets Fire-balls nor little Cutto's Red-Coats nor men of War nor have any great use of those two lately-found out Inventions Printing and Gunpowder and whether of them has most troubled the world I will not take upon me here to discuss yet I think the latter has not prov'd so mischievous as is suppos'd Battles having been before the use of Gunpowder the most bloody But if you think this Preface is all but Quack and promises more like an Empiricks Bill than can be perform'd upon Tryal and proof and has more in the Contents than in the Chapter then let the rest alone for I write not to an Infidel Yet the greatest part of the world is so and a pretty quantity of the lesser part is inhabited some think by people that either have foreheads of brass or no eyes in their foreheads I mean Knaves and Fools Knaves will not and Fools can not understand my meaning in this following Letter And thus far by way of Preface At the Rainbow-Coffee-house the other day taking my place at due distance not far from me at another Table sat a whole Cabal of wits made up of Virtuoso's Ingenioso's young Students of the Law two Citizens and to make the Jury full vouz avez one old Gentleman his bald Pate cover'd with a huffing Peruke without an Eye of gray in 't or one gray-hair But I knew him to be Old because they all laughing heartily and gaping I took that occasion to look him in the mouth and knew his Age for indeed the mark was out of his mouth I was tickled to know the cause of all this mirth and presently found it was a Book made all this sport the Title of it The Rehearsal transpros'd Look you here says one of them do not you see p. 309. how smartly he ferrets the old Foxes the Fathers of the Church as in biting Irony he calls the old Bishops and how he claws off one of them by name A. Sparrow D. D. Bishop of Exon nay scratches one out of the Grave L. Andrews late Bishop of Winchester He 's a notorious bold fellow I 'le warrant him sayes another he takes up the old Fathers like so many School-boys and like a stout Pedant or Priscian himself he whips one of them publickly and gives him chastisement for his worthy cares because he had no better ply'd his Book But he goes a little higher says a Third if in the same page you look a little lower and turns up his Majesties Evil Councellors and gives one slash at a great Minister of State with great courage pulling the dead Lion by the beard I like it not at all and the Author much worse says the old Gentleman it sounds so like the old cry of London-Town in 1642. Down with the Bishops Down Down with the Evil Councellors That do so keep us off we cannot come at the King and therefore it is we can never have him at our wills to deal kindly by him for his own good and for reformation to make him
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.
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
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
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
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