Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	covenant_n	law_n	life_n	4,307	5	5.4437	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43666	Ravillac redivivus, being a narrative of the late tryal of Mr. James Mitchel, a conventicle-preacher, who was executed the 18th of January last, for an attempt which he made on the sacred person of the Archbishop of St. Andrews to which is annexed, an account of the tryal of that most wicked pharisee Major Thomas Weir, who was executed for adultery, incest and bestiality : in which are many observable passages, especially relating to the present affairs of church and state / in a letter from a Scottish to an English gentleman.	Mitchel, James, d. 1678, defendant.; Hickes, George, 1642-1715.; Weir, Thomas, 1600?-1670, defendant.	1678 (1678)	Wing H1860; ESTC R10945	57,651	80

diabolical prophane and blasphemous and Pharoah-like to say Who is the Lord that they should obey him Exod. 5. 2. Now seeing both the Throne and the Judgement is the Lords then O blessed and happy Magistrate who ruleth and governeth his Subjects keeping in a streight Line of subordination to God's Law and Statutes for in so doing who may say to him what dost thou Prov. and O happy and blessed people thus Governed Deut. 4. 8. And what Nation is there so great that hath Statutes and Judgments so Righteous as all this Law which I set before you this day But O the Blasphemous perjuries and Wickedness of this Apostate Generation whom no Bands Obligations nor Covenants can bind except these spoken in the 149 Psal 8. But shall they thus break the Covenant and escape and be delivered Ezek. 17. 15 18. As if the Lords hand and power could not reach them to inflict just and due punishment upon them wich commit such things I do detest and abhor that woful Indulgence and Incroachment and Usurpation on the Crown and Prerogatives Royal of our Lord Jesus Christ at least in the givers thereof howbeit I have very much Love Charity and Affection to many who have embraced the same for I do really think that they have been out-witted in that matter and have not wickedly departed from following the Lord yet I hope they shall get their Souls for a prey in the day of the Lord although they may suffer loss in building such Hay and Stuble upon the Rock Christ Jesus when that their work shall be burnt up by the fire of his Jealousie I protest before God Angels and men against all these Acts of Parliament or Council which are against and derogative to the work of God and Reformation and carrying on of the same according as we are ingaged and sworn in these holy bands of the National Covenant and solemn League and Covenant I abhor the shedding of the blood of the Lords people for their adhering to the same and the peoples guarding such in Prison houses and at Scaffolds unto their death whom both by the Oath of God upon them and by the eminent and laudable Laws of the Land and by the Law of Nature they were obliged to have defended to the uttermost of their lives and fortunes It being most well known that such as were put to death had committed no Crime but on the contrary had performed a Duty which they were as much obliged to have performed as these if the guarders had been as faithful to God and man as the Pannels were Likewise I protest against their Banishment Imprisonment or Finings or Confinements and against all the hardships and perplexities of whatsoever kind which they have been put to through the Iniquity of the times So that we may justly with our predecessors say That our Persecutors have devoured us and have Crushed us have emptied us swallowed us up like a Dragon and have filled their bellies with our Delicates and have cast us out 5 Jer. 34. For which cause God gave a charge to prepare Instruments for the overthrow and destruction of such Persecutors v. the 12. Because it was the Vengeance of the Lord and of his Temple so shall our Remnant who outlive these Persecutors say v. 35. The violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon and my blood be upon the Inhabitants of Chaldea let wrath from the Lord pursue them for their blood and violence in their persons and Estates and their strength wherein they conside and in their friends and favourites who have consulted and contrived within their wicked Courses I hope the time is drawing nigh and that the joynts of their Loyns is loosing their knees are beginning to smite one against another Dan. 5. 6. and the hand-writing begins to be pourtrayed upon the wall because they have not considered what God did to their Predecessors for their Idolatrous Pride and Wickedness although they knew it yet they are become more insolent in Idolatry and Wickedness and daring against God than ever their Forefathers presumed to be in medling with the Vessels and Materials of Gods house and with the Crown and Kingly Office of Christ Jesus and have appropriate them to their own Idolatrous ends and uses 21. 22. Therefore when the forbished Sword of the Lords Indignation and Justice breaketh forth to devour which it may do before the dark night of these dreadful Dispensations pass over then shall the time-serving Hypocrites of this Generation begin to their untimely Prayers viz. Hills and Mountains fall upon them to hide them from the face of the Righteous Judge for who may abide the day of his coming for Executing of Vengeance on his Adversaries In that day the man shall be accused who keepeth back his Sword from blood and who doth the work of the Lord deceitfully Jer. 48. 10. Yea happy shall he be that taketh this Cursed Malignant and prelatical brood and dasheth them against the Stones yea happy shall he be that rewardeth them as they have served us Psal 137. For this honour have all his Saints the high Praises of God in their mouth and a two edged Sword in their hand to execute Vengeance upon the Heathen Psal 149. Having thus delivered my self in the points that I have mentioned I only add to what I have said that I do only own these things as my own Judgement in these great and Important matters not willing that any thing wherein others may differ from me should be looked upon ●s the principles and perswasion of that party whereto I adhere And I obtest that no man be so Diabolick and Prophane as to charge this upon any of my perswasion it being but my own in which I hope God hath approven me and whom God Justifieth who dare Condemn Now if the Lord in his wife and over-ruling Providence bring me to the end of my Pilgrimage and to my long looked for and desired Happiness let him take his own way and time in bringing me to it And in the mean while O my Soul sing thou this Song Spring up O Well of this Happiness and Salvation of all this eternal Hope and Consolation and whilst thou art burthened with this clog of a clay Tabernacle dig thou deep in it by Faith Patience Hope and Charity and withal the Instruments which God hath given thee dig in it both by precepts and promises dig carefully and dig continually ay and till thou come to the Source and head of the Fountain himself from whence the waters of Life flow forth dig until thou come to the Assembly of the first born when this Song is most suitably sung to the Praise and Glory of the rich Mercy and free Grace of this fountain of Life O my Soul follow in all this digging the Direction of the great Law-giver so shalt thou prosper in all thy taking of pains O happy Nobles and Princes of Israel who were admitted to the sight and to the Song

carp or quarrel never so much yet the purpose and determination of God will not be disappointed in living Witnesses against this mis-believing Generation viz. that he is both al 's powerful and willing to deliver one or more of his People trusting in him yea and that there is no restraint unto the Lord to save by many or by few 1 Sam. 14. 6. If any be obedient to the voice of his Commandments although success doth not always follow thereupon more than it did to Israel Jos 7. 12. against the City of Ai because there was an Achan in the Camp and alas there are many Achans in the Camp of our Israel which cause the Lord's People to fall daily before their enemies and which makes all their endeavours unsuccessful I mean the hidden time-serving Hypocrites and Murmurers who have preferred their backs and bellies to the Interest of God and their hearts still desirous to return to Egypt I say until such Rebels be purged and dye we can have little expectation to prosper in any enterprize or undertaking for they have both betrayed and mis-believed God notwithstanding of all his Miracles which he did of old and which he has done in our days for his people and before their eyes yet they are so far gone back in a course of Apostacy and compliance with the Canaanites of our times and are become so brutishly ignorant of the express Law of God and are such enemies thereto that they do rather concurr with the said Canaanites Judg. 6. 25. to have Gideon put to death for performing his duty conform to the express command of God than either to study thereof themselves or give obedience thereto But if it be objected that Gideon had an express command from God for throwing down of Baal's Altar and for cutting down of the Grove and destroying of the Midianites Answer Indeed he had an express command of God for his encouragement but he had no new command from God save that which was expresly enjoyned upon all the Israelites by vertue of which every one was obliged to have done what he did without any such message from God Deut. 7. 2 3 15. and who are readier with Judas before they incurr danger or loss to send three thousand Men to bring Sampson bound to the Philistines than to have sent him ten of his assistance against the common enemy concerning the truth of which we have gotten many sad experiments But however I hope that what hath been said shall occasion a further cognition of and a more serious search into these forementioned truths than hath been for a long time by-past That albeit I have here singly declared my own motives and reasons for that attempt and shooting wherein I then had and now have peace and hope to find acceptance of God according to the multitude of his Mercies to such as seek and fear him in sincerity yet I will not take on me absolutely and in every respect to justifie or assert that it is my own deliberate and fixed principle let be that it is justified by and is the principle of the Non-conforming Presbyterian Party of the Church of Scotland of which I have the honour and happiness to be one the unworthyest of many Nay if I should say so of them I would be found a Lyar against the Truth for I adventured on it upon my own pure and proper motion without the instigation of any yea without the privacy of that party whom therefore I earnestly desire that none may charge with and if any shall I do with the greatest confidence averr that they deal with them most unjustly I have I say again in the simplicity of my heart with candour and ingenuity becoming a dying Man and a Christian believing that he must be made manifest before the Tribunal of Christ and there receive according to the things done in the body whether they be good or evil given an account of the reasons and motives poussing and pressing me on to it wherein I had quietness of mind in the time and have still to this present hour hoping that as he is Soveraign Lord over all Creatures and may use any of them as Instruments to whatsoever his Pleasure is and that as I say I did take and do still look upon the motion as from himself so he will accept of my sincerity in it and one day both bring forth his own and my Righteousness as the Light FINIS I Suppose some will be desirous to know what hath brought me to this place of suffering to which I have no other Answer than that which Elijah gave when threatned with death by Jezebel 1 Kings 19. 14. I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts because the Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant thrown down thine Altars and true Worship and slain his Prophets and Ministers And they seek my Life to take it away With all my Heart and Soul I own and adhere to the work of Reformation as it was begun and carried on in this Kingdom according to the Word of God and the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant as it was settled amongst us in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government by general Assemblies Synods Presbyteries Kirk-Sessions and the Peoples Just Power to choose and call their own lawful Pastors and I do declare that I judge Patronage to be a Popish Right and an usurpation in the House of God I do believe and am perswaded that Magistracy is an Ordinance appointed of God as well under the New Testament as it was under the Old and that whosoever resisteth the lawful Magistrate in the exercise of his lawful Power resisteth the Ordinan●● and appointment of God Rom. 13. 3. For he is God's Minister to you for thy good and in doing good thou needs not be afraid of him 1 Pet. 2. 12. We must obey the lawful Magistrate for Conscience sake Deut. 17. 15 16 17. The lawful Magistrate must be a Man qualified according to God's appointment and not according to the Peoples Lust and Pleasure least in the end he should prove to them a Prince of Sodom and a Governour of Gomorrah whom God in his Righteousness should appoint for their Judgement and establish for their correction he must be one of thy Brethren and not the Face of a Stranger he must not make himself strong by multiplying of Horses to the end he may compel the Lord's People to rebel against the Lord's express command Nor Jeroboam like compel the people to any course of Apostacy he must not multiply Wives to himself and much less Whores nor marry an Idolatrous Wife like Jezabel 1 Kings 16. 31. Nor be covetous in multiplying to himself Silver or Gold he must be a diligent Student of the Law of the Lord all the days of his Life that he turn neither to the Right Hand nor to the Left Hand therefrom but must judge the People accordingly otherways neither he nor his Children can expect

though for the honour of our Nature and Religion I wish no such stories were extant in the World Nay confident I am that when you have consider'd it in all the circumstances that attend it you will say that he who is the subject thereof was one of the most prodigious sinners that ever was extant of humane race For there 's nothing in History comparable to him nor I hope will ever be and had not our blessed Saviour told us that Men may be so wicked as to sin beyond forgiveness I could scarce have believ'd that any Man much less a Christian could have committed uncleanness in all specieses with Women Devils and Beasts But such a Monster was this Pharisee of whom I am going to give you an account which is partly taken out of the publick Register of our criminal Court and where that cannot relieve me from common fame the notoreity of the things related or the Authority of Persons of known Integrity and great Reputation in the World He was born and bred in the Western parts of this Kingdom which as it appears from the preceeding Narrative hath ever been the most Fanatical part of our Country and most disaffected to the King and the Church There he was early prepossessed with the principles of Schism and Rebellion which he shew'd upon all occasions particularly in the beginning of the late Rebellion wherein he was a forward stickler and by his extraordinary zeal for the Cause raised himself to a greater command in some Troop or Company than Men of his mean Original use to arrive unto here About the Year 1649. he had the great trust of the Guards of this City committed unto him under the quality of Major and from that time to the day of his Infamous Death was always called by the Name of Major Weir He behav'd himself in this Office with great cruelty and insolence towards the Loyal party being very active in discovering and apprehending the Cavaliers and bringing them to be arraign'd and try'd for their Lives He used to insult and triumph over them in their miseries and persecute them with all manner of Sarcasms and Reproaches when they were led out like Victims to publick Execution as many yet alive can testifie to the World In particular the barbarous Villain treated the Heroick Marquess of Montrosse with all imaginable insolence and inhumanity when he lay in Prison making his very calamities an Argument that God as well as Man had forsaken him and calling him Dog Atheist Traytor Apostate Excommunicate Wretch and many more such intollerable Names This cruel manner after which he used to outrage the poor Royalists pass'd among the people for extraordinary zeal and made them consider him as a singular Worthy whom God had raised up to support the Cause He studyed the Art of Dissimulation and Hypocrisie always affecting a formal gravity and demureness in his looks and deportment and employing a vast and tenacious memory which God had given him in getting without Book such words and phrases of the Holy Scriptures as might serve best in all companies to make him pass for an Holy and gifted Man He had acquir'd a particular gracefulness in whining and sighing above any of the sacred Clan and had learn'd to deliver himself upon all serious occasions in a far more ravishing accent than any of their Ministers could attain unto By these and other Hypocritical Arts he had got such a name for sanctity and devotion that happy was the Man with whom he would converse and blessed was the Family in which he would vouchsafe to pray For he pretended to pray only in the Families of such as were Saints of the highest Form insomuch that the Brethren and Sisters of these Precincts would shrive who should have him to exercise in their Houses and of those that liv'd at a greater distance some would come forty or fifty miles to have the happiness to hear him pray He had indeed but by what assistance will be seen hereafter a wonderful fluency in extemporary Prayer and what through Enthusiastical phrases and what through Extasies and raptures into which he would appear transported he made the amazed people presume he was acted by the Spirit of God Besides praying he used to exhort and bless the Families in which he prayed but he never undertook to Preach in them for fear of invading the Ministerial Province which certainly would have offended the Kirk After this manner and in this mighty reputation he lived till the Year 1670. which was the 70th year of his Age. When like the Tyrant Tiberius after so many Murthers and sorts of unnatural Lusts he was no longer able to endure the remorse of his awakened conscience but to ease the inquietudes of his guilty mind was forced to accuse himself which he first of all did among those of his own party and desired them to bring him to publick Justice to expiate for his abominable crimes But they considering what a confounding scandal and dishonour the Hypocrisie of such an eminent Professor would reflect upon the whole Sect did with all possible care and industry strive to conceal the Major's condition which they did for several months till one of their own Ministers whom they esteem'd more forward than wise revealed the secret to the Lord Abbotshall then Provost of Edinburgh who judging humane Nature uncapable of such horrid crimes as the Minister told him the Major had confessed concluded he was fallen into a phrenzy or high degree of melancholy and therefore courteously sent some Physicians of his own perswasion and acquaintance to visit him and Physick him for his distempered Brain But the Physicians returning to the Provost assured him that the Major was in good health and that he was free of Hypocondriack Distempers and had as sound intellectuals as ever he had had and that they believed his Distemper was only an exulcerated Conscience which could not be eas'd till he was brought to condign punishment as with cryings and roarings he desir'd to be Afterwards the Provost for his further satisfaction sent some Conventicle-Ministers to enquire into his condition and make a report thereof who finding it impossible to disguise the matter which now was Town-talk told his Lordship that the Major was not affected with melancholy but that the terrours of God which were upon his Soul urg'd him to confess and accuse himself The Provost thereupon began to conclude that he had good grounds to take publick notice of this affair and therefore without further enquiry sent the guards of the City to seize upon the Major and his Sister who was involv'd in his confessions and carry them both to the publick Goal There they were visited by Persons of all Sorts and Qualities Clergy-men Lay-men Physicians Lawyers Conforming and Non-conforming Ministers who all flocked thither to see this Monster and discourse with him about his horrible crimes They had not been long in Prison before they were brought to Tryal which was on the

true this Hypothesis will never be able to solve those Diabolical Phaenomena in the Air. Some again think that the words and expressions of his Prayer were represented by the Devil upon the Stage of his Fancy after the same manner as when a man dreams he reads such a Letter or Book But he never was affected with any Consternations Tremblings or Abreptions of mind which both in true and false Prophets were the constant effects of such strong and violent impressions as were required to exhibit such unwonted representations upon the Imagination nor after his long Prayers were ended were his natural strength or Spirits exhausted as if his Devotion had been Visionary they must have been Others therefore considering him as an Apostate from God and as a Vassal and Apostle of the Devil think it very agreeable to Divinity to assert that he was immediately but yet without much violence inspired by the Devil and helped by him both in the Conception and utterance of his Prayers This they conceive the Evil Spirit might do like an assistant form by impregnating his Fancy with Enthusiastical conceptions and thereby rendring his Imagination very turgent and ready to swell above its banks which being done by the immediate Operation of the Evil Spirit the wretched 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could not fail to burst forth in flumine Orationis or a full Torrent of Prayer and likewise be affected with such moderate Raptures as yet left him in a condition to understand what he said Furthermore to prevent all possible objections they say That if God suffered the Devil to counterfeit Prophetical Visions or the true Spirit of Prophecy under the Law then they know no reason why it should be thought inconsistent with his goodness or disagreable to his infinite wisdom to permit him under the Gospel to counterfeit Inspiration or the true Spirit of Prayer But for my own part had not the Monster himself ascribed his fluency in Devotion to the assistance of the Devil I should have wholly ascribed it to the vigour of his own Enthusiastical Imagination without any Foreign Force For not only his fluency in Prayer but the moderate Raptures and little extatic fits into which he was Transported are explicable by the natural power of unassisted Imagination as I could make it out by many examples and where a natural cause alone is sufficient to account for any effect I am always sparing to joyn with it a supernatural Cause All the while he was in Prison he lay under violent apprehension of the heavy Wrath of God which put him into that which is properly called Despair a Despair which made him hate God and desist from Duty to him and with which the Damned Souls in Hell are reasonably supposed to be constantly affected In this sence he was desperate and therefore would admit neither Church nor Conventicle-ministers to pray for him or discourse with him about the infinite mercy of God and the possibility of the forgiveness of his Sins Much less could he endure to be exhorted to repent or be brought to entertain any thoughts of Repentance telling all the World that he had sinned himself beyond all possibility of Repentance and Pardon that he was already damn'd that he was sure his Condemnation to Eternal burnings was already pronounced in Heaven and that the united Prayers of all the Saints in Heaven and Earth would be vain and insignificant if they were offered to God in his behalf So that when some charitable Ministers of the City by name the present Bishop of Galloway and present Dean of Edinburgh were resolved to Pray before him for his Repentance and Pardon against his consent he was with much difficulty withheld from interrupting of them in their devotions and the posture he put himself in when they began to pray was to lye upon his Bed in a most stupid manner with his Mouth wide open and when Prayers were ended being ask'd if he had heard them and attended to them he told them They were very troublesome and cruel to him and that he neither heard their devotion nor cared for it nor could be the better for all the Prayers that Men or Angels could offer up to Heaven upon his account It was his Interest to believe there was no God and therefore to ease the torments of his mind he attempted now and then to comfort and flatter up himself into this absurd belief For he was sometimes observ'd to speak very doubtfully about his existence in particular to say that if it were not for the terrors which he found tormenting him within he should scarce believe there was a God Being with great tenderness and compassion besought by one of the City-Ministers that he would not so resolvedly destroy himself by despairing of God's Mercy which upon Repentance had been granted to Murtherers Adulterers Sodomists Bestialists nay to those that had denyed Christ he replyed in anger Trouble me no more with your beseeching of me to Repent for I know my sentence of damnation is already seal'd in Heaven and I feel my self so hardned within that if I might obtain Pardon of God and all the Glories of Heaven for a single wish that I had not committed the sins with the sence whereof I am so tormented yet I could not prevail with my self to make that single wish And were your Soul in my Soul's stead you would find your exhortations impertinent and troublesome for I find nothing within me but blackness and darkness Brimstone and burning to the bottom of Hell I have been told by very credible Persons that the Body of this unclean Beast gave manifest tokens of its impurity as soon as it began to be heated by the Flames and certain it is that after it was burnt a report was presently sent from hence to the Brethren in the West that the Malefactor who was burnt for such execrable crimes was not Major Weir but another Person who exactly resembled him and whom the wicked Prelates and Curates had bribed to personate the Godly Major who was said to be gone with a contribution to the exiled Brethren in Holland and call himself by his name This report was believed in the West for several Months till time discover'd that the Major was no more As for Jane this incarnate Devils Sister she was very insensible of her great sins and was so far from remorse of conscience for them and despairing of the mercy of God as she did that she presum'd too much upon it placing a great deal of confidence in her constant adherence to the Covenant which she call'd in her Brother Mitchel's style the Cause and Interest of Christ She confessed indeed as he did that her sins deserv'd a worse death than she was condemn'd to dye but she never shewed her self in the least concern'd for what might ensue after death When she was upon the Ladder she bespoke the people in the following words I see a great croud of People come hither to day to

behold a poor old miserable Creatures Death but I trow there be few among you who are weeping and mourning for the broken Covenant and having so spoken she threw her self in greater hast off the Ladder than a Person should have done who was no better prepar'd for another World I could tell you many more remarkable stories of our Fanatick Zealots that have been put to death for lying with Beasts and other unnatural crimes One not many years since was put to death at Sterling for committing uncleanness with five Individual among which there were four species of irrational Animals and immediately before his Execution the unclean Wretch protested against the Prelates and boasted of his constant zeal for the Covenant and so without declaring any detestations of his crimes or desiring the people to pray for him went off with all assurance into the other World I should not have related any of these stories with reflection on the Schismatical party but that nine parts in ten of the horrid sins such as Witchcraft Bestiality and Incest are found among them which hath occasion'd a Proverbial Sarcasm in our Language against them that the Whigs ga to Heaven a Gate of their own This is no Hyperbole but a plain Historical Truth which our Judges can testifie and which may be confirm'd by the Registers of our criminal Courts And then as for Adulteries and Fornications those common failings of these Pharisees there are more of them committed and more Bastards born within their Country the Western Holy-Land than in all our Nation besides This is evident from comparing the Parish-Registers and the Registers of the Presbyterys or Rural Deaneries of those Shires with the rest of the Parish and Presbytery Registers in every Diocess of the Church Not very long since in a Parish within the Presbytery of Paseley there were no fewer than 17. Whigs who did publick Penance for Fornications and Adulteries at one time The Parish is very disaffected so that on that Lords-day wherein this Herd of Goats did stand in the Seat of Publick Repentance there were but two Regular Persons besides the Minister and Precentor in the Church I know you are already wondering that Fanatical Sinners will do Penance in the Kirk which is as serious and solemn a piece of Worship as any belongs to the Service of God Therefore to unriddle the Paradox unto you be pleas'd to take notice That if any Fornicator Adulterer c. contumaciously refuse to submit to Church-Censure his Majesty's Advocat is to pursue him before the Supream Judicature or Lords of the Session who upon Evidence of his Contumacy issue out Order for having him declar'd the King's Rebel that is to be solemnly denounc'd an Out-Law with the sound of an Horn. After the Horning for so we call the Denunciation Letters of Caption are direct against him so that if he be taken he must be put in Prison and although he be not he forfeits his Personal and the Annual Revenues of his real Estate and becomes altogether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophilus the Greek Civilian calls Slaves and Minors and all that are Civilly dead Hence an Out-law is almost in the same Condition with us as Deportatus in Insulam was among the Romans he is uncapable of all Civil Employments he hath no Head in Law He can make no Will or Testament of his own nor receive any Benefit by any other Man's So that our Whigs like yours who will be Married by the Common-Prayer choose rather to mock God and offend their tender Consciences sometimes than forfeit their Liberty and Estates I am very well satisfy'd in my own Conscience that I have done nothing against the strictest Rules of Christian Charity in discovering the impious Principles and Practises of this Sect I have done it upon the same grounds and motives that the Ancient Fathers publish'd the Wicked Lives and Opinions of the more primitive Hereticks particularly of the Gnosticks who were the Archetype of our Whigs And the Parallel in most Particulars runs so exact between them that I cannot abstain from comparing them together First then as the Gnosticks were so call'd from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Knowledg falsly so call'd and boasted that they were the most Knowing although they really were the most Ignorant of the Christian Religion of any Sect in the World So our Whigs stile themselves the Knowing Christians and look upon us who adhere to the Church but as ignorant silly formal People that understand not Gospel Mysteries but are spoil'd after the Tradition of Men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ Secondly As the Gnosticks pretended to understand the Scriptures better than all other Christians and yet did most absurdly and blasphemously interpret them as Epiphan hath shew'd in many particulars So our Whigs pretend to this gui●t as their own peculiar Talent and yet interpret the Word of God as absurdly to make it comply with their wicked Opinions as the Gnosticks did to make it countenance theirs Mr. Mitchel's Papers are full proof of this Charge besides the Books I mention'd before Thirdly As the Gnosticks spoke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mighty high things of Simon Magus equalling him with God So our Whigs speak big-swelling words of Baal-berith or the Solemn League and Covenant to which they ridiculously apply whatsoever is said of the Covenant of Grace which God made with Abraham and of that Political Covenant which he made with the Jews and of the counterpart of it which the Jews or any of their Kings made and renew'd with God baptizing their Children into it as into the Covenant of the Gospel and making it the cause and Interest and Truth of Christ In the fourth place As the Gnosticks pretended to be Christians and yet in many things comply'd with the wicked Jews and joyned with them in raising Persecution against the Church so our Whigs pretend to be the purest Protestants in the World and yet in many things are real Papists and now joyn most cordially with them to overthrow both our and your Church which the Papists acknowledg to be the strongest Bulwarks against themselves that are in the Protestant World In the fifth place as the Gnosticks contumeliously used the Apostles and Presbyters of the Primitive Church hating them with the Malice of Cain and gain-saying them among the People after the impudent manner of Corah and opposing them as Jannes and Jambres did Moses and Aaron so our Whigs treat our reverend Clergy with all imaginable contempt and barbarity hating our Bishops with a mortal hatred calling their Government an Usurpation over God's Heritage and rail at his Majesty and all other Magistrates that support them binding and re-binding themselves by a solemn Oath to extirpate the Apostolical Function though in doing of it they should shed an Ocean of Protestant Blood To proceed as the Gnosticks were raging Waves of the Sea i.e. a fierce tumultuous and troublesome people so are the Whigs