Sence of our Ecclesiastical Performances for which we shall find they have as little kindness or Charity as for the former All the Ceremonies of the Church which they tell tell the People are with us the greatest part if not the All of our Worship are far from that Spirit and Truth which God seeks for in all those Worshippers that he approves That they are no where Warranted in the Word of God and therefore unlawful The Surplice and other Vestments badges of Innocence and distinctions of Degrees or Office are Rags of Rome Bowing at the Name of Jesus flat Idolatry kneeling at the Sacrament the same The Cross after Baptism a vain and foolish piece of Superstition and a Relique of the Popish Crossing In short the whole Book of Common Prayer c. a dull dead Letter formal having not the Power or Spirit of Devotion nothing but a translation of the Mass-book into English Full of Thank Calvin for his Tolerabiles ineptiae frivolous stuff mere Porredge and I know not what for there is nothing that may render the Service of the Church contemptible or Odious which they will stick to say of it and in so doing perswade us they do their Duty and God good Service How far they have successfully advanced in this Wicked Design is but too Evident by the General neglect of People in repairing to the Church on the Holy Fasts and Festival Dayes Though they are enjoyned by the Statute Laws of the Land to be kept Holy Ann. quarto quinto Ed. Sexti st 3. as well as by the Command of the Church And by which all people are enjoyned to resort to their Parish-Churches to hear Divine Service Anno. 1. Eliz. st 2. and to joyn in an unanimous and Vniform Worship of God Anno 23. Eliz. st 1. Nor will they come to Church on the Lords Day in the afternoons when they have no pretence of the hindrance of their Secular Affairs if there be only Prayers and Catechizing but not a Sermon which as hereafter shall be shewn is made the Essential part of all Religion Now all these Waters of Marah spring from the same Fountain The Doctrine of their being the Elect and only people of God For if they be theirs is the right way of worship and all others false and vain But that they are the Elect you have already heard and what infallible Marks their Teachers have given them and more than all that have told them that undoubtedly they are which likewise has been confirmed unto them by the Testimony of the Spirit helping them to pray and filling them with Love and Joy in believing And if ours be false wayes and Will-worship such as keep men in Error and Ignorance Blindness Formality and Superstition such as will certainly bring them to Hell ought they not think you to promote Gods Glory and their own by pulling down the Kingdom of Antichrist and destroying the Brazen Serpent when it is abused to Idolatry Undoubtedly they think it is their Duty and not only theirs but the Duty of all Magistrates Kings and Princes of the Earth who are bound to endeavour it to hate the great Whore of Babylon and to burn her with fire and if they will not be so wise to receive this Instruction from them and so learned as to put this in Execution the people may if they can get power nay must endeavour it with or against their Wills for the Work is the Lords and Cursed be he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48.10 and Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from Blood which is the true Chain of their desperate Opinions and Practices A most admirable Sorites to prove Rebellions not only Lawful but Necessary and which you see is forcibly back't with abused Scripture Thus one Error in the Foundation multiplies into a thousand and contrary to the Rules of Architecture is like an inverted Pyramid the higher it rises the wider it spreads and one mistake in a Principle is the Parent of innumerable in the Practice I will conclude this particular with the following Apologue and leave the Application of it to every mans pleasure A certain Husbandman having in his Plantation a Vine it grew wonderfully and did produce great plenty of incomparable Clusters and of a most delicate tast some of his wise neighbours coming to see his Plantation and perceiving the Shoots and Branches so Luxuriant they gave him advice to crop and prune it and to take off most of the largest and fairest leaves telling him that the Plant spent it self too much that way and that all the good they did was but to make a little unnecessary Flourish which might well be spared that they Beauty or Shade could not make a recompence for the injury they did in drawing away such abundance of the sapp and moisture from the Root whereby they hindred its Fruit robbing it in great measure of they juicy nourishment Upon tryal the Experiment does not succede the Fruit proves neither so fair plentiful nor of that greateful flavour as formerly it used to do But to give him assistance in his design the following Yeaâ— he spies upon one of the Branches a fine wrought webb charged only with a few little tender Eggs his Curiosity and Ignorance of what it was tempted him to let them alone and to see what they would come to The heat of the Sun in a short time discloses a brood of most curiously variegated Catterpillers the honest man finds them still lodged in their cunning inclosure admires their Beauty and many-colour'd nature Ammel and thus argues with himselfe Sure these Worms can do my Vine no hurt they look so finely and feel so soft which arguments prevail with him not to disturb much Iess destroy them Before he thought any more of them or look't again they had overspread his Vine and devoured all the Leaves and had left the tender fruit naked and bare which being thereby exposed to the scorching Sun the unkindness of the Winds and Weather in a little time parch'd and dwindled quite away and if he had not used much industry he had utterly lost his delicate Plant. Which for all his care and pains did not yet in several Years recover the damage it had sustained by these pretty silken Guests You need make no Question but for ever after he knew them again at first sight and assoon as ever he spied a Webb but beginning to be spun upon his Vine he gave it a speedy Dispatch CHAP. XII Of the Desperate influences this Doctrine has upon the State and Civil Government This Amazon Fury bred in Rebellion and ever since nurst up with blood proved from our own and all Europe's sad Experience This Doctrine inclines men to Aristocracy or the Government of a Common-wealth Of the little kindness they have for Monarchy Salus populi Suprema Lex their fundamental Principle of Government abused to perswade Men. that the
that in the latter Times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils 2. Tim 3.1 This know that in the last days perillous Times shall come In the last days shall come Scoffers 2. S. Pet. 3.3 walking after their own Lusts or Desires And St. Jude tells us who they are S. Jude 18.19 They who separate themselves So far the discovery is clear it shall be in the last Days The difficulty will be to know when these last Days are these dangerous Days St. Paul intimates plainly when we are to look upon the Time as the last Days And having told us that in the latter time some should depart from the Faith he subjoynes For the time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine 1 Tim. 4.3 but after their own Lusts shall heap up to themselves Teachers having itching Ears And thus far the discovery is plain that these are those last and perillous Times which he prophesied should come and with the most remarkable Asterisk points them out to us Sure there was never any Age or Time like this for the itching of Peoples Ears nor for their heaping up to themselves Teachers after their own Desires And to satisfie himself of this a man need not take a far Journey or ride a Horse to Death for if he cannot find it true in his own Town or Parish or even at his own Door he may walk on foot to the next where he will certainly find it And so strangly do Peoples Ears itch after Novelties That let every Day in the Week a Teacher of a new Doctrine come amongst them a great Company shall run to hear him Nay should a man come cloathed with outward Profession of Sanctimony and Innocence and with confidence tell them a fine story out of the Jewish Talmud or Turkish Alcoran and pretend it is a new Revelation I question not but he would have a great many Hearers and some Disciples And for their heaping them up to themselves is it not as evident as the former When People are not contented with their Lawful Minister though never so Painful Orthodox and Pious who is set over them and appointed to watch for their Souls as he that must give an account but they must heap them up to themselves have them of their own chusing according to their own Fancies and Desires and not one but many two three four or more Itinerant and Resident in some little Towns and far more in Places of good Capacity for you must know that as this sort of People make advances in knowledge and Confidence which they call growing in Grace they are as they think all taught of God and are to be Teachers of God Though that Prophecy as he himself explains it was meant of Christ the eternal Son of God and fulfilled in him and by him who was God and therefore thought it no Robbery to be equal with God though it is a manifest and the highest piece of Sacriledge in any Mortal Man to arrogate it to himself S. Joh. 6.45 S. Joh. 14.6 And says he They shall be all taught of God Every Man therefore that hath heard and hath learn't of the Father cometh unto me for no man can come unto the Father except I draw him But this will not satisfie them for to gain the greater Authority and reputation they will apply it to themselves so that in some places where the infection has spread it self strongly every third or fourth House can afford you one or more if occasion be either Man or Woman Teacher though S. Paul gives an express Command against these Female Doctresses 8. Tim. 2.12 and tells us positively a Woman is not to be permitted to speak in the Church that is to teach For which Command I met with one of the most subtile allegorical fine-spun Evasions as far exceeding the Brains of Origen The Woman saith a Dissenter must learn in silence that is the Flesh for all Flesh must be silent before the Lord Very well repl'd I and nicely distinguish't to make us all Hermaphrodites but how will the Woman part of you by this sobriety come to be saved in Child-bearing which the Apostle adds as a good encouragement to them to keep them in silence v. 15 which you know is a hard matter and that they may not usurp Authority over the Man and here the Man and Woman were both silent wanting some of the old Fig leaves to make an Apron of or Apron-strings for an Evasion by which he might have been convinc't that his Flesh was no Woman HAVING proceeded thus far and found out the Time of their Appearance it follows that we examine these Teachers and as St. John saith Let them pretend never so much to the Spirit Try the Spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World OUR most blessed Lord has given us a Criterion an infallible Touch-stone to distinguish Gold from Brass though double gilt a certain way to know the Wolf though in Sheeps Clothing from the good Shepherd Mat. 7.19 By their Fruits ye shall know them Not by their seeming good Fruits their appearance of Holiness and profession of Godliness for in these things they transform themselves into the likeness of the Ministers of Righteousness or otherwise they could never be able to deceive It is not by their zealous and passionate ‖ v. 21. Lord Lord for not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It is not by their * The word Prophecy is used for Preaching and by them so understood in many places particularly that which they abuse so often to countenance their way Despise not Prophecying Prophecying in his Name their often and painful Preaching of Christ of Strife and Envy No nor by their wonderful and miraculous Works done as they say in his Name Their converting so many poor Souls from Superstition Heathenism and Idolatry who were better Christians before For Christ tells us for all this be will not know them for his Many will say unto me in that Day Lord Lord have we not Prophesied or Preached in thy name and tit thy name cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful Works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you Depart from me yon that work Iniquity By their ill Fruits therefore it is by their working Iniquity that we must distinguish them and without a careful observation of this it is impossible to know them from the true Prophets the Preachers and Ministers of Righteousness NOW whether the Church of England and her Prophets or these Prophets are the false let their Fruits determine Certainly they who both in Doctrine and Discipline not only Teach but practice in their Lives Actions and Intentions a true departing from all Iniquity quity from whatsoever is contrary to the Commands of the Gospel These are the
hints which by being followed and improved with advantage do many times infinitely surprize both the Speakers and Hearers with a pleasing Novelty and agreeableness that Pleasure begets a secret Joy and that Joy dilates and expands the Animal Spirits which are the true Spirit of Extempore Prayer and these having a strange Mechanism and unexpressible Influence upon the Soul do sometimes put it into such strange and vigorous heats and raptures as even makes a Man out-do himself and his own expectations I am perswaded that the want of understanding this piece of Philosophy which is none of that which the Apostle calls vain and bids beware of lest it spoil us though it might and I hope will spoil some of their ill Designes is the true Reason why they believe themselves to be acted in these Heats and Transports by the immediate Influence and Inspiration of the Spirit of God AND this is the very Art of Prayer and a meer Art it is and no Gift nor Fruit of the Spirit an Art which with a common Industry provided a Man have a competent stock of Confidence any Person may arrive at and grow prodigious in and the sooner the more ignorant he is because he will be proportionably more impudent and conceited of himself his abilities and performances which is the true Reason why so many silly Mechanicks who can hardly speak sense in common Discourse by hearing others pray at this rate will steal their Expressions and with some small Instructions and Directions with Time and many private Tryals grow such strange proficients in the Trade Nay and I will engage he shall have the Pride or it may be it is the Arcanum of the Craft which they are bound not to divulge not to confess how he came by it or to undeceive those who shall wonder to hear so unlearned a Fellow pray so fluently and fervently And this adds not a little amongst those who understand not the Intrigue to the common received Opinion that it is a Fruit of the actings of the Spirit of God And the pulling of this Spiritual Inkle out of their Throats which they would perswade us came thither by a Miracle is one of the greatest and neatest as well as dangerous pieces of Legerdemain with which these Juglers Hocus the vulgar and incautelous of the present Age. CHAP. VIII Of the Doctrines they chiefly insist upon and in which they first instruct their Hearers And first of the Doctrine of absolute and irrespective Decrees of Election and Reprobation Of their Way of trial of their Followers whether they he the Elect by knowing the punctual time of their Call Repentance sorrow for sin c. The agreeableness of this Doctrine to their Followers whom for being such they perswade that they are certainly the Elect and that they cannot fall totally and finally from Grace Their signs of Election proved false from Judas the Son of Perdition who had all they make the infallible Marks of Election and something more viz. Restitution which they will not be be perswaded to HAVING now done with the Prayer let us proceed to the Sermon and see what their Doctrines are for I do not intend to dwell upon their Texts or trouble them more than they usually do As for the Reasons though they pretend to raise many yet we shall see they have very little The Use is what they most generally insist upon and it is the ill Use and Application of these Doctrines that we come now to examine This is their Form so that I find they are for a Form of Preaching though against a Form of Prayer THE first Doctrine upon which they build their Foundation and by which they establish a perpetual Empire over all those who come to be of their Perswasion and which is of the most universal use unto them is the Doctrine of absolute and irrespective Decrees of Predestination about Election and Reprobation A piece of Divinity so hard and knotty that the sharpest Wits and soundest Judgments have not hitherto been able in any tolerable measure to hew smooth or polish And to me it appears that Almighty God did design no great encouragement to our curiosity having afforded us so little light either from Nature Reason or Scripture to make a full and perfect discovery of it COULD they be contented with it as the Scriptures leave it and as the Church of England in her 17 Article has most prudently and modestly left it in general terms S. Mark 1.15 Acts 2. â—5 Acts 3. â— That all those Persons who by Faith true Repentance and an Universal Obedience at least in Intention Will and Endeavour to Christ and the Commands of the Gospel do perform their part of the Condition of the New Covenant of Grace shall through the Merits and Mediation of the Son of God the Saviour of the world receive Eternal Salvation But that all those who wilfully 2 Thess 1. â— â— obstinately and to the last refuse to know God and to obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord S. Mark â— 44 46 â—â— Mat. â—â— 41 〈…〉 and from the glory of his Power and shall suffer those endless and intolerable Torments where the Worm dyeth not and the Fire is not quenched which were originally prepared for the Devil and his Angels Then we should agree with them in the Common Faith of the Holy Catholick or Universal Church in all Ages BUT this would not serve their turn nor at all answer those Necessary Ends which they have to employ this Doctrine about 2 Tim. 2.4 5 6 7. 〈…〉 God himself says he would have all men to be saved by coming to the knowledg of these Truths That there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransome for All the Apostle tells us he was ordained a Preacher of this Doctrine and that he spake the truth in Christ and did not lye but was a Teacher of the Gentiles in this Faith and Verity But say these new Doctors no such matter By his revealed Will it may be God says so but for all that by his secret Will he intended otherwise and that it should never be so I cannot but wonder how they came to be so well acquainted with it Besides this is a plain contradiction in Adjecto for how is it secret if it be revealed to them and if it be a secret which he has reserved as his own purpose from Eternity how dare they so openly proclaim it Were it never so great an Arcanum Imperii I am sure it ceases to be so after they once come to make a discovery of it or but to surmise that they have and they are but too prodigal in divulging of it far and wide Known to God are all his Works from the foundation of the World Acts 15.18 But as the Apostle says Rom. 11.34 Who hath known the
think those Meats unlawful at other Times and only enjoyns abstinence that our Flesh being subdued tot the Spirit we may the better be enabled to obey the Godly Motions of Righteousness and true Holiness as the Collect for the first Sunday in Lent teaches us to Pray which therefore all they who quarrel at or will not pray for must declare themselves Enemies to and that they are against those Means which the Church of God has ever in and since the Primitive Times thought so conducive to those great ends of Religion NOW to shew the invalidity of this Plea we must consider That the intention of the Apostles was to mark out all false Prophets of what Perswasion Name or Distinction soever And If none are false Teachers or Prophets but such to whom every thing they mention does agree then would the Character of Discovery and those Marks of Distinction which they give us to know them by be altogether in significant impracticable and useless for it is impossible to find all those Devilish Qualifications combined in one Person or Sect no not in Mahomet himself who certainly was the greatest Impostor and it may be The False Prophet that ever was or will be in the World And therefore these signs are promiscuously laid down hut are particularly to be applied some of them to one sort or Sect and some to another as they will suit and agree to their Doctrines and Actions and he is as certainly a False Teacher though not so great a one who is wilfully guilty of one or more of these signs by which we must discover the false Prophets from the True as he would be who could really be charged with them all And if these Men do not grant the Truth of this Preliminary Assertion it must be because they dare not joyn Issue with us in the Tryal but being satisfied before-hand of their Guilt are as the Apostle says of Hereticks Tit. 3.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 convicted and condemned of theselves CHAP. XIX A further pursuance of the discovery and that these Men are False Prophets from the Description of St. Paul and St. Peter St. Peter's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and St. Judes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 considered as particularly designed to shew their Infectious Contagious Doctrines Of their despising Dominions querulous unsatisfied and complaining Humour A short vindication of the Church from their malicious Aspersion of being Guilty of Idolatry LET us now come to a further and particular Examination of them by the Description which St. Paul gives of them who are false Prophets 2 Tim. 3.1 and who were to come in the last and perillous Times God forbid we should lay all that is there said to their Charge But I fear they will not escape unconcerned in a great Measure of it and if nothing else would take hold of them yet the Sin of Pride there mentioned will I doubt pull them by the Cloak of which they are so fond The wisest of Mortal Men tells us Only by Pride cometh Contention Pro. 13.10 so that it seems there can be no Contention without it nor would be any but for it There is a strange Temptation in being a Head though but of a Faction Ambition is a Vice as natural as Self-love and Men take a secret pleasure to be taken notice of which they think adds much to that esteem which all men desire and would perswade themselves they deserve from others That a Man cannot walk the Streets but he shall over-hear an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the famous Mr. is the sweetest and softest Musick to all Ambitious Ears digito monstrari dicier hic est to have the Porter or Tankard-bearer or honest Trades-man as you pass by his Shop point you out with his finger There goes the precious godly conscientious Mr. HAD they been truly good and obedient Sons of the Church for any thing I know of Parts of Excellencies abâ—â—â— other Men they must have gone 〈…〉 the Common Crowd and it may be never have been taken notice of or at best have been contented with some small Vicaridge or Parsonage as many Orthodox men eminent for Parts Piety and Learning are who many time the more is the pity are buried alive in some obscure Country Village where partly by the narrowness of their Fortune partly by their religious voluntary and unambitious contentment and humility they are confined to the knowledge of a few Rusticks and the next Market Town For Haud rarò emergunt quorum virtutibus obstat Res augusta Domi Whilest in the mean time some of these empty Boasts fill a whole City and Country with their noise and by that and the liberality of their Disciples who barter ready money with them for infected breath swelling pompous Words of Vanity promises of Liberty c. with which feigned words they make a real Merchandize of their Hearers they arrive at such revenues as otherwise they could never have hoped for And how far even one of these Considerations may transport Ambitious Spirits let that eternal young Ephesian Villain testifie Herostratus who merely for Fame burnt that stupendious Temple of Diana justly accounted one of the Worlds seven Wonders and in a few hours laid those lofty Turrets in Ashes which all Asia had been * They who write most modestly say it was 220 Years Pliny affirms it to have been 400 Years in building by all Asia and several Kings of other Countreys so long in rearing It were well if the same madness and a far greater Impiety did not possess these Men who throw the Flames of Dissention into the Church and Temple of the Living God of which his only Son laid the Foundation with his most precious Blood and of which he himself is the glorious Top and Corner-stone BUT to go on Are they not false Accusers as 't is in the Margin of the Bible Make-bates in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Common Barretors in Religious affairs do they not falsly accuse us and our worship of Idolatry Superstition Blasphemy a thousand other forgeries and calumnies as feigned as they are frequent Are they not Traytors to their Prince whilst like Absalom with fine words and fair Speeches they steal away the Hearts of his Subjects from him 2 Sam. 15.1 to 7. and render him only a King of their Bodies but not of their affections which is his most glorious Prerogative the fairest Jewel and the surest Guard of his Imperial Diadem and without which he is but a King of Brutes and those not over tame and manageable It is the common Character of the King of Great Britain amongst Foreign Nations that he is Rex Diabolorum a piece of Wit which we may thank the Papists for first inventing and this sort of People by the horrid transactions of the late times for continuing and in a great measure justifying BUT further Are they not heady as well as high-minded wilfully wedded to their own
Backbitings Whisperings Slanders condemning censuring all who are not of their Way to be Reprobates as these Separatists Vncharitableness and Atheism hereby extreamly propagated they separate the dearest Friends and by creeping into Houses and beguiling silly Women divide those whom God hath joined together they are curious and busie-bodies in espying out the faults of all others which they publish to make themselves appear the Elect and all others Reprobates All this is done to fit them to act upon the publick Theater of the World which they practice in private Villages or where ever they dwell CHAP. XI Of the wicked Design they have by the strength of this Doctrine to overthrow the present Church and its Government which by their pretending to be the Elect who worship God in Spirit and Truth they endeavour to make Vnlawful and Antichristian This Doctrine contrary to Gods Promise to be with his Church to the end of the World and derogatory to his Honour Of the false aspersions they secretly cast upon the Church and the Publick Service of God Of the Inconveniences of arguing with them and the Advantages they make thereof their Impudence in boasting Themselves and Arguments invincible Of their Dislike of Places of Publick Worship Of the treatment they met with in the time of their Power The House of Prayer made a Den of Thieves Of their inveterate Hatred against Bishops and the Liturgie Of the dangerous Tenent they maintain That all People Princes and Magistrates are bound to pull down Antichrist which with them is Episcopacy and that if Princes will not the People may if they can get Power into their hands which makes them continually grasp at Dominion CHAP. XII Of the desperate Influences this Doctrine has upon the State and Civil Government This Amazon Fury bred in Rebellion and ever since nurst up with Blood proved from our own and all Europe's sad Experience This Doctrine inclines men to Aristocracy or the Government of a Commonwealth Of the little kindness they have for Monarchy Salus Populi suprema Lex their Fundamental Principle of Government abused to perswade men that the Peoples Election and Approbation are necessary Titles to a Crown That a King is Major singulis minor universis and may be deposed and punished by the People Proved from their Practice The great Encouragement it gives to Rebellion The same Doctrine of Fatality taught by Mahomet to inspire the Turks with courage against the Christians CHAP. XIII Of their Doctrine of the Necessity of Separation from the Wicked which they teach in private and by their Example in publick The Vses they make of it to know their Strength and Numbers which they always boast of if possible to bring Authority to comply with their Desires Hereby they ingross a trade amongst themselves Of their undermining Authority by making it Contemptible by their daily affronting it Of the Vnlawfulness of Separation from the Example of our Saviour and from Scripture Separation by S. Jude made a Mark of Reprobation Jeroboam's Policy the end of their Separation CHAP. XIV Of their Exaltation of Preaching and the Reason why they do so Of the great Veneration People have for the Pulpit The Advantages they make of it to gain the love of the People for being so painful Labourers dispersing their Doctrines and procuring Benevolences Hereby they bring the Prayers of the Church to be nauseous accustom People to Variety and Novelty and have opportunities of displaying their Gifts and Abilities as well as in Extempore Prayer The abuses they put upon the Church that it is against Preaching A Vindication of the Church from this Aspersion Of the Primitive and Modern Preaching It is against preaching themselves and their own Interest and wicked Designs that the Church declares it self CHAP. XV. A short View of some other of their Doctrines Of their Judaizing the Lords Day Of their censuring all their Ancestors and even their own Children to Damnation Their subtilty in deriding all these Accusations and disowning the Actions of the late Rebels when yet they tread in the very same steps That they have the same designs manifested from their great industry in all New Elections of Members of this present Parliament to get Voices for such as will be favourable to their Interest A probable conjecture that they have had a principal hand in the late unhappy differences between the two Houses and of the great desire they have of a New Parliament and their Hopes when that shall happen CHAP. XVI Of the Artifices which these men use to render all Applications ineffectual by their tiring out the Inferiour Magistracy with their obstinacy The Advantages they make of the suspension of Laws to fortifie their followers and perswading them it is a particular effect of the care which God takes of them and the Cause That place in the Acts of Gamaliel's counsel If this work be of God it will stand by which they frighten some and endeavour to discourage all people from medling with them considered and proved to be the word of Gamaliel a Doctor of the Law but not the word of God because not universally true CHAP. XVII A more particular Survey of their Policy in rendring all Expedients useless which have been applied to reclaim them from that place in Ezra 7.26 Of Capital Punishments Of Imprisonment how they make it of advantage to them to confirm their Cause and Followers and to bring a general odium upon the Laws and Government their Evasions to escape Forfeitures Of their Complaints of the Injustice and Oppression of the Penal Laws Of Banishment A Coffee-house Dialogue about it betwixt Mr. Kinglove of and a Grandchild of Martin Marprelate CHAP. XVIII The Heads of Separation brought to Trial by the Scripture proved to be false Prophets by their fruits by the description of them by the time of their appearance the signs given to know them by Wolves in Sheeps clothing Their pretence to be the Ministers of Righteousness the way they would evade these Signs Their Plea of Not guilty because not guilty of all manifested to be vain and such as if admitted will clear all even Mahomet from the guilt of being a false Prophet CHAP. XIX A further pursuance of the Discovery and that these men are false Prophets from the Description of St. Peter and St. Paul St. Peter's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and St. Judes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 considered as particularly designed to shew their infectious contagious Doctrines Of their despising Dominions querulous unsatisfied and complaining humour A short Vindication of the Church from their malicious Aspersion of being guilty of Idolatry CHAP. XX. THE CONCLVSION THE COVNTERMINE Or a short but true DISCOVERY c. CHAP. I. The Reasons and Occasion of the following Discourse The imminent danger of the Church and State by reason of the restless Endeavours industrious Malice and secret Contrivances of dissenting Separatists THERE never was any Age in which the Holy Church of God was more
Jealousies and that they have another Design in dispersing them abroad than the use which they constantly employ them in And that is this THEY find by certain Experience that to accuse any Persons or any parts of our Worship of Superstition or Popery is an Expedient that never yet fail'd to render them contemptible and hated to the Multitude which is a clear Demonstration that the Universal Genius of these Nations is an Enemy to that Perswasion Nor will the Romish Religion ever recover any tolerable credit so long as the Cruelties of Queen Mary's Reign the Spanish Invasion in Eighty Eight and those threatned Inhumanities the Powder-Treason the Inquisition or the late horrid Rebellion and Massacre in Ireland which influenced that in England are either remembred or feared All which makes it strongly improbable That any Prince or Government either in Church or State who must of necessity consult their own interest in the quiet and welfare of their People should attempt to introduce that Religion to which the People their Subjects of all Degrees and Conditions discover such a general aversion and universal detestation and which therefore must create infinite troubles and most desperate Inconveniences AND if it be well considered we shall find that the Jesuites and all the Romish Factors have not been able for this last Century Some persons are strangely mistaken if the Concilium de propaganda fide at Rome has not been very helpful in setting those Divisions amongst us for they know well enough what that means Divide Impera which employment these Dissenters take out of their hands as being the greater Artists in this Mystery of Iniquity so effectually to serve the interest of their own Affairs as these Persons have done and if the Papists have made many or considerable Proselytes possibly they owe them to those Divisions which these men have made in our Church and not to any strength of Arguments they are able to produce to convince them of any Errouts either in our Doctrine or Discipline And though he must be a great Stranger in the Romish Transactions who is ignorant how great Dissentions Heats and Animosities are amongst the Religious of their several Orders and how great differences even about their main Question of Transubstantiation there are amongst their Doctors nay how great Dissentions have been amongst the Popes themselves notwithstanding their pretended Infallibility yet the great Motive they make use of to induce any person to return to the Faith and Obedience of the Church of Rome is the strange Discords and Divisions which are amongst us and the great Unity which is as they falsly boast only to be found amongst them which Unity they urge as an infallible Mark of the true Church BUT as I believe the Presbyterian or any other Dissenter has no real Design or Intention to oblige the Church of Rome though there is no doubt to be made but that by their Divisions they do extremely advance the Roman Interest and Affairs so I am satisfied that their aim is only to amuse us and please the People till such time as they have made their Party strong enough against the Church of England of which they are in reality more afraid than they are either of the Pope or Turk and could they but once come to be uppermost and have the power of the Sword they would be so far from being afraid of St. Peter's double Dagger that if the Pope did not civilly leave them to the management of their own Affairs they would hazard to make the triple Diadem shake and I know they have strong hopes to destroy the Kingdom of Antichrist which when they had finished at home they might have a temptation having an easier passage through the Streights than Hannibal had over the Alps to invade Peter's Patrimony and burn the great Whore of Babylon with fire and fulfil all the Prophecies in the Revelations without the assistance of Kings though there 't is said that they shall do it NOW if any persons will be so adventurous to follow me I will endeavour to lead them through their subterranean Passages and shew their Contrivances and their secret Mines and Magazines of that white Powder which though it makes no noise yet is not a whit less dangerous than that for which we celebrate the fifth day of November and which will at one blow overturn all Root and Branch of Liturgy Episcopacy Monarchy and Liberty CHAP. III. An Account of the Heads of these Factions amongst us from whence we may conjecture what their Intentions are Of their way of Education in the Times of the late Rebellion in the Vniversities or in the Army Of their Lay-Teachers and Shop-Doctors how they came by their Gifts and Talent in Preaching the Advantages they made of Religion in their Trades the Employments they had under the Vsurping Governments the Incouragement they had to invade the Pulpit The desire they have of an alteration in the present Government to recover their former Power and Profit The great unfitness of these men to officiate in the Church who are guilty of Sacriledg Murder and Perjury LET us come therefore to take a survey of their Persons from thence we will proceed to their Principles which will quickly lead us to the consideration of their Practices AS to their Persons we must consider them as that pleasant fellow divided the World into two parts one of which was born to cheat the other or according to the more customary and familiar method we must divide them into the Heads and Body for by the Way I must tell you that these Factions have one remarkable Qualification of a Monster that to one Body there are many Heads all challenging Equality though at the same time every one of them aimes at Priority The Body being for the most composed of those who are deceived I shall not concern my self with them as the Principal Subjects of this Discourse for if at any time one of this Body advances so far as to be able to deceive others that Member presently starts up to be a Head 'T is these Heads and their Hands that we have just reason to suspect and to be afraid of and with these therefore I chiefly intend to deal THESE Heads must likewise be subdivided which is natural to them into two Classes which Word will please some of them though it may be the distinction will not They are either Scholasticks or Laicks Literate or Ignorant Heads The Scholasticks are such as either had their Education in one of the Universities or in the Army-Colledge during the late precious times when the Saints bore the sway and rul'd these Nations with a Rod of Iron viz. the Sword and with that Iron-Scepter broke their Enemies in pieces like a Potters Vessel IF they are such as suckt the Breasts of either of the Universities 't is odds but they are some of those who were nurst up immediately after their poor Mothers had most outragiously
Mind of the Lord or who hath been of his Privy Counsel that is in those secret affairs the knowledg of which is his uncommunicable Prerogative and which he hath reserved within his own peculiar Jurisdiction from the knowledg of which he has excluded not only Mortal Men S. Mat. 24.26 S. Mark 13.32 but even his own Son as a Man for of that Day knows no Man not the Son but the Father Which made an Apostle who had been in the third Heavens break out into that Ecstasie of Wonder and Admiration O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God! Rom. 11.33 How unsearchable are his Judicial Proceedings and his Ways past finding out Now whether we should believe God or Men let them be Judges BUT it is no matter Let God say what he pleases they are resolved to say what they will and what may please their Party and serve their Interest and though the modest Apostle could say Let God be true and every Man a Lyar Rom. 3.4 they say what we affirm is true I dare not think much less speak the consequence though it follows most unavoidably from their confident and positive Assertion for there is but one Truth no more than one God and of a flat downright Contradiction as this is one part must of Necessity be false HAVING by their excellent Talent at Extempore Prayer left no scruple but that they have the Spirit of God and that being the Spirit which must lead all those that have it into all Truth the People are before hand prepared to swallow down this Doctrine without any chewing or Examination and in Truth as they have cookt it it is the most delicate and agreeable Repast to the Palates of those Souls who are so happy as to be treated at their Spiritual Entertainments For having first laid down as a Positive Infallible and Fundamental Truth That God from all Eternity did Elect a Determinate Number to Salvation and that this number is but small for it is but a little Flock Many are called but few are Chosen or Elected the next thing they have to do is to assure them who are their Disciples that they are of this Happy Number who have the Seal in their foreheads and whose names are written in the Book of Life Now the first step to this assurance is to use the means for Faith comes by hearing the Word of God though if this Doctrine of unconditional Decrees be pursued to the uttermost those means must be either unnecessary or nonsence by being the Decreed Conditions of an unconditional Decree Now these means that is this Soul-saving preaching is only to be found amongst them Theirs is the Land of Goshen where the Sun of Righteousness only shines whilst all others are in Spiritual Egypt and grope for the Truth amidst such Darkness as may be felt and is next to the very Region of the Shadow of Death and utter Darkness BUT they are too wary to rest here or to build so weighty a Fabrick upon such a slender Foundation they know that the impious Herod heard S. John the Baptist gladly and did many things And therefore before any one can be assured that he is of the Elect though never so diligent a Hearer that will not do unless he be able to give an account of the exact time of his Conversion and when it was that he was called of God and to God S. Mark 6.20 The Signs of this Calling are Contrition Compunction or a Trouble of Mind arising from a sight of their lost condition as they phrase it And they who are able to inform them of the time of this Call at such a Sermon or such a Night after my first sleep though they did but dream so it is enough the Lord was pleased to call me All those who can do this are pronounced from the Infallible Chair to be in a certain estate of Election the Children and People of God and after a time of probation which were needless since they cannot fall away they are solemnly initiated into their Church and enter into a promise never to return back again to the Tents of the Ungodly which might as well be spared if the rest of their Doctrine be true THIS alone were enough to ravish the hearts of those who do as firmly believe it as the Gospel and to fill them with joy unspeakable and full of glory But they have a Disert behind which closes the Banquet far better than the Egyptian Deaths-Head and that is this That they who are once thus elected can never finally and totally fall away from Grace so as to be in danger of Hell and Damnation Rom. 11.29 for the Calling and Gifts of God are without Repentance Could they prove this and that their Comment upon it were the true and genuine meaning of the Text this would be a happiness not inferior to the joys of Heaven and which for my part I think is only reserved to compleat the Felicities of that blest place where and not before we arrive there all fears tears and dangers shall be wip't away THIS is their great Diana not the Image which fell down from Heaven but the Image of Heaven it self which they all worship and which brings them in such fair Revenues both Temporal and Spiritual as they think as outdoes not only the poor hopes of Demetrius and all his Fellow-Craftsmen but the Riches of both the India's which are Dung and Dross in comparison of being thus certainly found in Christ And no wonder then if it raises such Tumults when it is opposed or in danger of being lost THERE can be no Doctrine more pleasing to credulous and fanciful people as most of their Disciples are and indeed so luscious is the high relish of it that those who have once gotten a say of it are difficultly if ever perswaded to abandon it or in comparison of it not to contemn and despise all others But as it is thus infinitely pleasing above all the Fruits in the Garden so like that treacherous Apple it is for that very Reason of all others the most pernicious both to the Souls of men the quiet of any Society and the safety of any Government that dare oppose it I DO not intend to attempt a long and solemn Confutation of every particular in regard it has already been sufficiently done by the Pens of many great and learned Names I will only therefore use a little of their own method undermine the Foundation and leave the rest of their prodigious Babel to ruine it self by the weight and stress they have laid upon it AND if we can but break these counterfeit Seals and erase these Marks we shall cancel this false Pass-port to Heaven and all those feigned Evidences to the blessed Inheritance of the Saints in Light and all those ill-grounded Joys which are built upon the Hopes of that glorious Reversion will in an instant vanish if once we
can prove there is a flaw and crack in the supposed Title And it may be the task will be so far from impossible as not to prove difficult SHOULD we grant them their first Position that there is but a small and determinate Number who are Elected yet if we shew that their Touch-stone is false and will not distinguish Gold from Brass all the Virtue and Consolation and that vain Joy in believing will immediately vanish in all those who are not resolved with the strength of fancy and prepossessed Imagination to supply the want of Reason and for such we must commit them to Time and Hellebore the Physick of mad-men for a Cure NOW their great and infallible sign of Election being a knowledg of the time of their Conversion accompanied with Compunction and Contrition a sense of Sin and sorrow for it It is almost impossible for any Person at one time or another not to have experienc'd all this especially if they have ever met or been acquainted with Sickness Danger or any remarkable afflictive Accidents Or if they have formerly been gross and notorious sinners as 't is observed many amongst their Converts especially of the frail Sex have been for sin will at one time or other throw off his gay Habit and masquerading Jollity and appear not only with its proper ugliness and deformity but with the frightful attendants of Death Judgment and Eternity Tortures and Punishments of the most dreadful shapes that Imagination grounded upon Reason and a just Fear or a present expectation is able to invent And there are few Spirits so flinty but such black and fearful Apparitions will make a very strong impression upon such as may easily produce all the fore-mentioned effects and many more and greater BUT we will go further with them and suppose all this conviction has been occasion'd by the Means by hearing a sin-destroying a heart-convincing Sermon which has imprest guilt upon their Consciences with the highest Aggravations and greatest terrors After all these sorrows and Agonies of Spirit which they make the certain Indications of the new Birth or Regeneration nay after open Confession publick Repentance and something beyond all that the Person may still be in a state of Reprobation Judas he repented S. Mat. 27.3 4. nay his contrition and conviction his sense sight and sorrow for his sin was so great and strong that he publickly confest he had sinned in betraying the Innocent Blood Nay he went yet further than any of these Men ever did that I have heard of for he made restitution of what he had unlawfully gotten he cast down the dear-bought thirty pieces of Silver in the Temple before them all and by his clearing the Innocent did endeavour to make what reparation for his Crime he was capable of and yet thought not that enough for he went away and hanged himself I would not have any of them follow him so far though it is affirmed some driven by these desperate Doctrines have and 't is a Miracle that many more do not follow his Example But for all their Marks I believe they have not many of them read Origen because he is one of the Fathers who amongst them pass for a Company of scandalous Popishly affected old Gentlemen nor will they easily be perswaded with him to allow Judas the benefit of his Clergy or take him to be one of their number who shall be saved and yet his Title to it by all their symptoms is as fair as any they can make and for all his being a Felo de se being able to give so punctual an account of the time of his Call and Conversion and there being an impossibility of final falling away from Graceâ— I cannot tell what way by their own Doctrine they will be able to exclude even this Son of Perdition from a certain share and Interest in Heaven BUT besides him I doubt not but there are thousands who if they would ingenuously confess have had great sorrows strong Convictions and horrible Agonies of Mind from the frightful apprehensions of Hell and Damnation which are always terrible to the thoughts of Men. Nay I do not question but they may have seriously repented and made great resolutions and some vigorous attempts towards amendment and reformation in their Lives who nevertheless as S. Peter says 2 Pet. 2.20 21 22. after they have escaped the Pollutions of the World through the knowledg of our Lord Jesus Christ after they have known the Way of Righteousness and tasted of the Powers of the World to come have returned with the Dog to his Vomit again and with the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the Mire which place if it be true as I make no question but it is and I hope they dare not deny will in a moment blow up this curious train of Imaginations That Repentance Contrition or a far greater progress towards Heaven are infallible Marks of Election or that there is an impossibility of final falling away from the Happy State of Grace CHAP. IX Of the great danger of this Doctrine as they apply it First to themselves It fills them with a groundless and false confidence of the goodness of their Spiritual Condition makes it almost impossible to convince them by Reason or Scripture though they live after the Flesh in Hatred Envy Malice Disobedience c. but that they have the Spirit and live after the Spirit and are new Creatures It fills them with Pride and Pharisaical contempt of others puts them into Security the most dangerous Condition a man can be in NOW could I make a Sermon like one of theirs and run on to nineteenthly Beloved in shewing the Dangers of this Doctrine but I have no Design to wire-draw my Application as they usually have in theirs I will therefore content my self to recount the Chief from which the rest do almost naturally flow and may be most easily conjectur'd FIRST We will consider the Desperate Influences this Doctrine has upon themselves SECONDLY The Ill Consequences it has upon them as they are Members of any Private Community Hamlet Village Town or Corporation THIRDLY The Dangerous Effects it has upon the Church LASTLY The fatal and portentous aspect it has upon the State and Civil Government WE will begin with the desperate Influences this Doctrine has upon themselves Hereby poor Souls to use their own word they are in the greatest Danger of destroying themselves and missing Eternal Salvation to which certainly nothing can contribute more than an unwarranted Confidence and groundless security When they cry Peace Peace to themselves then are men in the greatest danger of sudden Destruction They make not the least question but that they are of the Number of the precious Ones the Elect of God and are sure that these Elect can never fall away from Grace or be totally and finally divested of an undoubted Title to Heaven and Happiness which Doctrine however some of them in words may deny and
tells them there is a Woe against them S. Jude 11. Num. 16. and that they shall perish in the gain-saying of Corah which was disobedience to and raising a Mutiny against Moses and Aaron the Prince and the Priest and by the same Arts and Ways which they use telling them they took too much upon them since all the People were holy the Lords People and had all who were gifted as good a right to Govern as Moses and to be Priests and offer Incense as Aaron pretending Abuses and Reformation which has we see been the old Stratagem to lead on Rebellion 't is all one they will no more believe you than if you quoted the Alehoran to confute them And thus in a confident assurance of Heaven and Everlasting Joys which they think themselves assured of by virtue of their Election they ride Post and there is hardly a possibility of stopping them in the way that leads to everlasting misery and Damnation NOR is the Doctrine of the impossibility of their final falling away from Grace less dangerous than the former of which it is indeed a necessary Branch for hereby they receive encouragement to commit many lesser sins and under the pretence of Failings the imperfections and frailties of Flesh and Blood to pass over with a slight Repentance many wilful Offences and take any slight remorse for a reconciliation with God Who because they believe he will not suffer them to lye in sin because they cannot dye in it brings them to Repentance and how slender soever it is he will accept of it from these his particular Friends and Favourites And thus they slightly heal their Wound and with an imperfect Cure skin over that Hurt which festers and gangrenes underneath and is so much more dangerous by how much the deeper it lyes and they are less sensible of it If this be not an Effect of this Doctrine very frequent and common sure I am it may be being the proper and natural Result of it and which as in the former does likewise compleat the Danger they are in all Arguments are in vain that are employed to convince them of their Errour I have read of a certain Page to a great Nobleman in France who in the high Phrensie of a Fever fancied himself the King of France and during his pleasant Delirium was by his Lords Command accordingly treated and humour'd And I have heard of many Lunaticks and Melancholy persons who have really fancied themselves to be Mighty Monarchs It were an easier task to induce those to believe the contrary for Time and Medicines have done that than to perswade these men that they are not certain Kings and Priests in Reversion though that latter is a title they love so little that it is a question whether they will accept of any place in Heaven if they cannot have it without that Name which they profess to hate and never use but in derision of such who are so on Earth and in the highest probability of being such hereafter in Heaven But amongst all those who are upon Record in the Calogue of distempered Brains I know no Story that parallels that humour so exactly as his who used to stand upon the Pyraeum or famous Port of Athens and seeing the Wealthy Merchants Ships arrive there from several places of the World he wonderfully pleased himself with the belief that they were all his own all their rich Cargo's brought thither only for his use or pleasure when in truth he had not the least share or proporty in any of them So these men fondly think that God Almighty has stor'd up all the Treasures of his Wisdom Riches and Mercy only for them that he displays all his Goodness and Bounties upon the World for their sakes and so arrogantly do they ingross all that they perswade themselves that Heaven and all those inconceivable Pleasures and unspeakable Glories were from all Eternity purely and solely intended and created for them THERE is so much pleasure in the enjoyment and so little satisfaction in renouncing this Opinion that though it be but a meer Cloud they will hug and embrace it with that Ardor and those Passionate Transports as if it were a real Juno a Celestial Beauty and would some of them scarce be divorced from it but with their Lives which I am perswaded they would make no difficulty to quit rather than the pleasing Dream and so much the more willingly because they believe Death to be the Under-Sheriff of Heaven who is to put them into immediate Possession of those dear Delights those unexpressible Joys which they do with so strong an Imagination phansie are there laid up for them in store AFTER all this I would not be thought to be of their Faith who believe there are no such things as assurance of Heaven Joy in believing or Comfort of the Holy Ghost I am very well satisfied that these are not Fictions but the greatest and most certain Truths and that there is a great possibility of enjoying a great Measure of them But this Blessed Hope which is the Anchor of the Soul must be fixed upon firm and solid Cround otherwise it will in our greatest stress and necessity slip and come home to us and indanger our Wrack upon the Rock of Desperation and therefore this Joy and Comfort must be built upon our Willing and Universal Obedience to all the Laws of God and Commands of the Gospel in desire will intention and endeavour which through Faith in the Merits of Christ is only able to fill the Devout and Pious Soul with those true Joys and that Peace of God which passeth all understanding and this Universal Obedience I am sure these Persons cannot justly pretend to so long as they continue in that manifest wilful disobedience to their Lawful Superiors both in Church and State which is so plainly contrary to the Will and Positive Command of God BUT further this Doctrine fills them with a spiritual Pride and Opinion of themselves which makes them despise all others and certainly is one true reason of their Separation whilest though it may be their Words do not yet their Actions speak it out plain enough in the Language of those in Isaiah which said Stand by thy self come not near to me for I am holier than thou Isa 6 5. these are a Smoak in my Nostrils and a Fire that burneth all day says God of these Pretenders to Holiness and Breakers of Union in his Church Good encouragements to Separation and to perswade this sort of men that they are in God's Favour and his Elect and Chosen ones he gives so good a Character of them and that their Actions are so grateful to him Sure they overlook this Text or never soberly consider of it or measure themselves by it for if they did God Almighty would not have so many unrequired Pharisaical thanks from them as I question not but he has That they are not as other Men so or so
such as complain'd to her of any affront or injury they knew not well how to revenge Defame 'em Defame 'em some Body will believe it and whose Disciples and Followers they are and what designs they have we may soon know if we call to mind that it was the advice of their great Masters when they were to draw up a Charge against the most innocent King Charles the First Let us blacken him by all means let us blacken him which they did to purpose till their Cruelty gave him the Coronation Robes for Heaven dy'd in the pure Scarlet of his own Blood Nor do these of the Nursery ever fail to put the Doctrine in practice and all this they think they may do and that it is good and justifiable being only against the Wicked who are God's because their Enemies And that hereby they may make them appear such and manifest that they only are the Godly and Elect and all other Reprobates BUT these are but slender attempts and only in order to their Grand Design of Religiously subverting both the Church and State which let them protest never so much against and pretend themselves never so innocent of any such Intentions I shall never be able to believe but they do design Others may do as they think fit But if I meet a Man at Ware going towards London I shall conclude that to be the Place whither he designs his Journey though he tells me he is travelling towards York which if I were not well acquainted with the Roads I might otherwise be apt enough to credit especially if I tell him he is mistaken and must turn back again and I find he intends to deceive me telling me I am mistaken and that he is in the Right way and his Wits too and knows better than I can direct him whither he is going which is the exact humour of all these Barge-Saints who tugg so hard at the Oars of Reformation and constantly Row one Way and look another CHAP. XI Of the Wicked Design they have by the strength of this Doctrine to overthrow the present Church and its Government Which by their pretending to be the Elect who Worship God in Spirit and Truth they endeavour to make unlawful and Antichristian This Doctrine contrary to Gods promise to be with his Church to the End of the World and derogatorie to his Honour Of the false aspersions they secretly cast upon the Church and the publique Service of God Of the inconvenience of arguing with them and the advantages they make thereof Their impudence in boasting themselves and arguments invincible Of their dislike of Places of publique Worship of the treatment they met with in the times of their Power the house of Prayer made a Den of Theeves Of their inveterate Hatred against Bishops and the Liturgie Of the dangerous Tenent they maintain that all People Princes and Magistrats are bound to pull down Antichrist which with them is Episcopacy and that if Princes will not the People may if they can get the Power into their hands Which makes them grasp continually at Dominion LET us now come to examine the dangerous effects this Doctrine has upon the Church and how industriously secretly and with an unwearied and restless constancy they undermine its Foundations and with all their Power mightily endeavour to overturn it And wisely they do like their Predecessors make their attaque upon that quarter of the Government which is most defenceless and unarmed and by Ruining which they formerly gain'd the Town Now that they do really design this is apparent from the New Model of Church-Government which they should introduce and impose upon the Christian World as the only true and Evangelical way warranted by the Word of God and for the Establishment of which they have so often drawn the Sword in Scotland and England For the very design of building a new house in the same Place necessarily implyes the pulling down of the Old one as being decayed useless and inconvenient Does not this new invention of theirs extreamly conduce to the Glory of the only Wise God and confirm the Truth of his Promises that he would be with his Church to the End of the World and that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it When from the very time of his Ascension if we will believe them for fifteen hundred years and upwards he never thought more of it For sure if he had he would never have suffered Antichrist to rule in it so long and in all that time never reveal what was his Positive Will and Pleasure in the way of his publique Worship and Service till this new Apostle Fisherman found it out in the Lake of Geneva or in that other Lake which has no Bottom which by the fire and Brimstone with which it has set the World in Flames one would be apt to Guess and that it came from the Angel of the bottomless Pit whose name is in the Hebrew Abaddon Rev. 9.11 but in the Greek Tongue hath his name Apollyon and in the English the Destroyer and some will be ready to interpret it the Presbyterian They may talk what they will of the Mystery of Iniquity which with them is Episcopal Government and the Church-Hierarchy which begun they say to work so Early I am sure the woful Experience of the greatest part of Europe especially England can sadly testifie that their way is the Abomination of Desolation or that which makes Desolate wherever it comes which they would set up in the Holy Place or in the Place of the Holy Church But the thing is certain for they are the Elect People of God who were predestinated from all Eternity to be so and therefore the true Church and if so all others must be False And to make this manifest and apparent having neither * unless a stat prorâ—tione Voluntas Reason Antiquity nor Scripture to assist them they are resolved to be their own Friends and since Fathers Councels and Scriptures are all Prrtial because the writings of Bishops in their own Cause they can do the Work without them And though St. Peter tells them no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation St. Pet. 2. Ep. 1 Cap. 20 v. and they are yet but Private men and I hope will never be other Yet will they put them upon the Rack of their private Interpretations and the prophecy of the Revelations for all the Curse at the End of it more than any other till they wrest and Extort a confession from them that Episcopacy is Babylon c. that is such a sence as may advance their own Designs and it is to be feared Damnation since the same Apostle tells all those do who are unlearned unstable 2 Ep. St. Pet. 1. v. 12. or unfixed in the truth as he uses the Word which does exactly correspond with the humor of these people who after they have once left the Church roul from one Opinion to another and
I promise you in some Company where he thought he might be bold lamenting the looseness and vitiousness of the Times and the blame being laid at the Door of the Inferiour Magistrates who were so remiss in putting the Laws in Execution Pray says he how can it be otherwise when there are none in Authority but the God-damm'ees and though no former Prince has so highly obliged them as his present Majesty by the Act of Oblivion and a General Pardon since though possibly a better Temper and milder Inclinations are not to be found amongst all Mankind yet for all that I believe the Guards about White-hall at which they grumble so oft calling them a standing Army are a greater Security for him than their Love or Allegiance And I make no dispute but if they had Power proportionable to their Desires if he would not consent to their unreasonable Demands and in Effect depose himself they would make bold in plain English to un-King him and it may be something more as well as his Glorious Father whose Caution I think therefore ought never to be forgotten * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lady Elizabeth's Relation of what the King said to her immediately before his Death To Forgive them but never Trust them For what is a King to them if he be not one of the Elect and that he can never be unless he be of their Church and resolve to Establish their true and Evangelical Ways from which he must therefore be very far so long as he suffers the Laws and his subordinate Ministers of Justice to persecute these People who are the Elect the undoubted Children of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 16. upon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer-Book And as his late Majesty of blessed memory does in the forementioned Book not improbably Conjecture Possibly that aversion they all have for the Publique Litturgy of the Church is because it does so frequently pray for the King and the Royal Family to which in their Hearts they cannot say Amen and that the Conjecture is not wide of the Mark this following Instance will in some measure make apparent One of this Gang being amongst other Company entertain'd as a neighbour at a friends house immediately as soon as Dinner was done he steps out of the Room into a by Entry and a Clergy-man who was present returning thanks and as is customary and commendable closing his Grace with a short Prayer for the Kings Majesty the Queen and Royal Family this impudent Fellow was by those who stood next the Door heard scornfully and maliciously to say when he came to that Passage Oh! by all Means if it were not for that all were worth nothing and indeed it makes me apt to think that this is one if not the only Reason why they account all the Prayers of the Church worth nothing for they are not yet arrived to that Perfection in Christian Religion to love or pray for their Enemies in which number they never fail to put all Crowned and Mitred Heads How directly contrary this Doctrine is to the Divine Philanthropy the infinite Love of God to all Mankind and indeed to the whole Current and Consent of the Sacred Scriptures how dishonourable to God and disadvantageous to Christian Religion are Subjects already largely and learnedly treated of by other Pens And if as they fell in my Way I have lightly touched upon any of them it is only so far as they were necessary to shew how pernicious this Doctrine of theirs is to themselves and the salvation of their Souls how troublesome unquiet uncharitable and unchristian it is amongst their Neighbours How destructive it is to the Church and Ecclesiastical Government Places Persons and Performances and how irreconcileable and desperately dangerous it is to the State of the present Royal Dignity and Government CHAP. XIII Of their Doctrine of the necessity of Separation from the Wicked which they teach in Private and by their Example in Publick These uses they make of it to know their strength and numbers which they always boast of if possible to bring Authority to comply with their Desires hereby they engross a Trade amongst themselves Of their undermining Authority by making it contemptible by their daily affronting it Of the unlawfulness of Separation from the example of our Saviour and from Scripture Separation by St. Jude made a mark of Reprobation Jeroboams Policy the End of their Separation LET us now proceed to a second Doctrine which is he Spawn of the first and the Daughter of such a beautiful Mother cannot chuse but must be most admirable fair Being the Elect People of God those whom from all Eternity he has out of his infinite Love predestinated to Holiness and Happiness though they are in the World yet they are not of the World and therefore they must Separate from Sinners and be a peculiar People without which they think they are not sufficiently zealous of Good Works which in plain English is That whosoever will be of the Number of the Elect People of God must have no religious commerce with the rest of the World for all other he may and that a true Title to Heaven is only to be hoped for and had in their Church and Communion and by this means they advance the so necessary Point of Separation or Distinction of a Party without which Instruments their Spiritual Carnes and Engines to draw up the Stones after they have hew'd and fitted them by the former Doctrine they cannot go on with or ever hope to finish the New Model of their Church so as to set up the Corner-Stone and with joy and shouting cry Grace Grace unto it for they would only change his Grace of Canterbury into his Grace of Presbytery And this they manage with as little noise as possible and with the same Secrecy and Subtilty as the rest though some people say they can plainly hear the Axes and Hammers go perpetually Psal 77.6 which they lift up to break down the Carved Work of all the Houses of God in the Land in order to their setting up the Synagogues of Satan in the room of them If you discourse with them and put the Question Whether the Church of England is a true Church and whether Salvation may not be obtained in Communion with it They will do all they can to decline the Question and will certainly dissemble their Opinion by telling you They dare not judge every man must stand or fall to his own Master That they forbid or hinder none from coming to our Church whose Consciences will give them leave All which is only to avoid the Pinch of the Controversie and is neither better nor worse but what the Apostle S. Paul calls Speaking Lyes in Hypocrisie 1 Tim. 4.2 For it is evident that they think it unlawful because they abstain from our Church and refuse Communion with us themselves and should they speak never a Word to their
the Pasture and not permitted to make all Common or range into the Corn-Fields Though after all these brags I have not met with any person whose observation has found Money more plentiful or Trading a Farthing better even in the time of the Toleration But lastly By this Separation they are sure to undermine the foundation of all Government which is the principal thing they always aim at both in Church and State for by their departing from one and Disobedience to both they bring their Power into question and contempt and whilest they endeavour to render them odious tyrannical heathenish and persecuting superstitious and unlawful and yet escape unpunished by the hopes of the like impunity they encourage others to follow their example and insult over the Laws and to esteem of all Power as the Frogs in the Fable did of their Wooden King And this is all in order to the accomplishment of their ultimate Design which is the subversion of the present Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical in order to the setting up a new one according to their own Phancies and Humours Now to demonstrate the unlawfulness of this Doctrine it were enough to shew that in Publick they will rarely own it themselves and will never charge the reason of their Separation upon any of these ends but upon the Ceremonies of the Church to which they pretend their Consciences will not give them leave to submit I think we shall cut the Sinews of this pretence and shew how feeble and lame an Excuse it is If we consider That these Ceremonies by their own confession are acknowledged to be indifferent in their own Natures and the reason they give why they are unlawful is because they are Imposed the Liberty of Conscience being thereby taken away Now this is a most certain truth that an indifferent thing when commanded by a Lawful Authority ceases to be indifferent and becomes necessary for all the Authority of the Church to command or impose is only exercised upon indifferent things What is absolutely necessary is commanded by God whatever is unlawful is forbidden by him so that they must of necessity either take away all Liberty from the Church to impose indifferent things that so they may have their Liberty which is unreasonable to desire and if granted them would destroy that Liberty which they would have or they must deny the lawfulness of the Authority that commands and determines indifferent things otherwise let them confess that they seek for a knot in a Rush to maintain the Quarrel But the plain Truth is the Vse they have for this Engine of Separation is to shew by their Example that they believe the Authority which commands these things is no Lawful Authority that therefore the impositions are not necessary or Obedience to them a Duty for rtherwise I cannot think them so sottish but they know it is and I am satisfied if they were in Power they would use the same Arguments to persuade to Obedience which now we do though they have stronger in their Budget upon occasion than have been yet employed to make them obey But for a further manifestation of this Error we will bring it to the Doctrine of our Blessed Lord S. Mat 13.29 in the Parable of the Tares The zealous Servants were for a present Separation and Extirpation of the Tares from among the Wheat But the Wise Master was of another judgment Not so lest they should root up the Wheat also and certainly as before was shewn this Separation of theirs has not fail'd of that effect but has already rooted up much of the good fruits of Charity Peace and Vnity out of the Church and has left us the Tares of Dissention in their room of which we may well say an Enemy hath done this And whether this Doctrine is pursued to the uttermost would not lead them to Extripation of the Tares let their Holy League witness For they all hold that Dominium fundatur in gratiâ and the Wicked have only a borrowed Right to whatever they have of Life and Fortune And how easie it is for religious Covetousness to perswade them when in Power to invade the Rights of Sinners and spoil the Egyptians will appear if we call to mind former things which though the Gracious Act of Oblivion has pardon'd them for they will never pardon the forced Restitution of the Kings Bishops Dean and Chapter-Lands But this being only a Parable may not be sufficiently convictive Let us look therefore for Example St. Joh 13.15 Now the Blessed Jesus who tells us he was to be our Example was so far from Separation or making Communion with Sinners a Crime that it was one of the greatest Objections against him S. Matt. 2.10 11 12 13. that he familiarly converst eat and drank with them and was a Friend to Publicans and Sinners S. Matt. 11 19 which accusation he did not excuse himself of but justifie from the good designs of thereby calling Sinners to repentance Nor do we find that ever he separated Himself or his Disciples from the Communion of the Jewish Church though full of such Types and Ceremonies as he came by fulfilling to abrogate but as his custom was he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath-Days went up to Jerusalem to celebrate all the commanded Festivals even to the last Passeover at which he was betray'd And further to shew us that we ought not to break Vnity or Communion with those who continue in the Visible Church he was as conversant with Judas as with the rest of the Apostles and yet he knew from the beginning who it was that should betray him knew Judas to be a covetous Hypocrite and worse than that a Devil and it is more than probable that he himself at the first Institution gave the Holy Communion to Judas as will appear to any that reads that place of St. Luke Chap. 22. from the thirteenth Verse to the two and twentieth And for the lawfulness of Separation let us hear St. Jude who having given us such a Character as I shall hereafter shew exactly fits these men lest their fair pretences should still endanger our mistake he concludes it with this distinctive Note of Separation These are they if you know them by nothing else you shall be sure to discover them by this These are they that Separate themselves S. Jude 19 Sensual or Animal having not the Spirit for all their great pretences to it unless Sedition Faction and Rebellion be Fruits and Effects of it as before has fully been made appear Could they prove us guilty of Idolatry or that we erre in any Substantial Fundamental point of Religion then their Separation would not only be lawful but necessary but till they can do this and convince us that we are not a true Church their Separation from us is unchristian and unlawful condemned by Christ and his holy Apostles But all this is nothing Their Religion must be such as
well serve their Interest and cannot be Godliness unless it brings in Gain and should this Doctrine once appear unlawful down goes their Dagon and loses both his Head and Hands and will be an useless Trunk a mere Stump and no longer a God The setting up the two Golden Calves was not the least Policy of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat 1 Kings 12 26. to vers 31. who is rarely mentioned without that infamous Remarque that he made Israel sin and that Sin was Separation from the Church and Rebellion against his lawful Soveraign To go up to Jerufalem to Worship will in time bring the Kingdom back again to the House of David and therefore the Calves must be erected at Dan and Bethel Not that Jeroboam was so sottish that he did not know that Idolatry and Schism Revolting and Rebellion were unlawful but something was necessary to be done to preserve his ill-gotten Crown and the People had formerly been strangely fond of a Calf and two he thought would please them better I fear Jeroboams Policy is one end and the chief one of their Separation even to nurse the People up in Disloyalty against their lawful Prince and disobedience against the Holy Church For should the People go to the Church to Worship to hear Divine Service and receive the Holy Sacrament should they hear their lawful Ministers preach their Duty press them to Fear God and Honour the King they might in time be convinc'd of their Errors and Mistakes and then all 's lost CHAP. XIV Of their Exaltation of Preaching and the Reason why they do so Of the great Veneration people have for the Pulpit The advantages they make of it to gain the love of People for being so painful Labourers dispersing their Doctrines and procuring Benevolences Hereby they bring the Prayers of the Church to be nauseous accustom People to variety and novelty and have opportunities of displaying their Gifts and Abilities as well as in Extempore-Prayer The Abuse they put upon the Church that it is against Preaching A vindication of the Church from this aspersion Of the Primitive and Modern Preaching It is against preaching themselves and their own Interests and wicked Designs that the Church declares it self NOW to the end that they may have the better opportunity to disperse and divulge their Doctrines there is no place that can be so subservient as the Pulpit a Discourse from thence having gained the mighty Reputation of being Authentique and the generally received Opinion being that from that place men speak as the Oracles of God and that every Word that comes from their mouths is as true as the Gospel as in truth it ought to be There is therefore a Necessity that they should exalt Preaching as the chiefly necessary most excellent Christian Duty and give it the preheminence above all other Ordinances And this is the third Doctrine which for the same Design with the other with so much vehemence and earnestness they press upon the People And to satisfie you how strangely the present Age is enamoured of the Pulpit and how great an Opinion People have of what is spoken there I will relate a passage which happened to a Reverend Divine in the County of Essex Every Lords Day as he thought it was his Duty in the Afternoon he Expounded upon some part of the Nine and thirty Articles to instruct his Parishioners what was the Doctrine of the Church of England judging it a good expedient to remove the Scandal that lies upon our Religion and to prevent their falling into Sects and Factions with which that County does abound and this he did in the Reading Desk without the formality of a Prayer to usher it in or make it look like a Sermon but never met with any thing but the discouragement of a thin Audience whereby ghessing at the true Reason he gave them notice that for the future he would Preach in the Afternoons being determined to try if the same Matter would take better from the Pulpit than it had done from the Reading Desk he chose such Texts as were suitable to the Doctrines he intended to Expound upon and from them delivered the very same Words he was resolved to use in his Exposition Nor did the success at all deceive his expectation The Church is now throng'd and crowded whereas before it used to look as if the Stones and Pillars must have said Amen as 't is said they once did to the Prayers of our Venerable Bede The Discourses are extreamly approved of and the People wonderfully pleased The plain truth on 't is the Commons of England by the Disorders of the late Times and the many tickling Promises which were made them That the Burthen of Tithes should be taken away and a more Evangelical Way for the maintenance of the Clergy should be found out have lost the true sense of payment of Tithes and do not do it out of a Principle of Conscience nor consider that they are a just Right which in all Alienations passes as a reserved Rent to the use of Almighty God and it may be are one of the best Tenures in Capite of their Estates from the Great Landlord of the Vniverse and from hence it is that if they had no such esteem for Preaching yet they look upon it as a Debt their Minister ows them for what they pay him and though several of them care not how little he has yet they would be sure to have enough for their Money which makes them many times come to Church to see that the Parson does his Duty rather than from him to learn their own or perform what they know by joyning with him in humble and devout Prayers and Praises But they think they have not their Penniworths for their Penny and that a man takes no pains for what he does not speak in the Pulpit or if he does not Preach twice in a day Besides Curiosity and the desire and love of novelties and mighty Natural and the Athenian humour does but too universally prevail a certain pleasure in hearing or telling some New thing So that a Sermon though never so good and useful which was preached in the Morning would be Crambe bis costa nauseous if repeated in the Afternoon and with this humour of the World these men are so well acquainted that it is variety that makes the Feast that usually they have one Text for the Morning and another for the Evening Sermon and neither the same Prayer exactly before or after either though it is but putting Almighty before Eternal or Eternal before Almighty and it will please And I am perswaded if any man would give himself the trouble in Short-hand to write down one of their Prayers for three or four Days together he would find the great Secret of Extempore-Praying to consist in this neat and cunning transposition turning the inside outward and the foreside backward more than in any thing of New Invention at which for all
his Glory was sent into the World out of the pure Love of God to all Mankind St. Joh. 3.16 For God so loved the World that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting Life and that therefore he sent him to be a propitiation for our sins 1. St. Jo. 2.2 and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole World That is in his good Intention he is unwilling that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance and by this preaching of the Gospel to come to the knowledge of these Truths that so they might be saved Let those men therefore preach as Christ commanded and as the Apostles Evangelized and then if the Church forbids them they may say it is against Prèaching Let them obtain a Lawful Deputation and not run before they are sent saying The Lord sayes when the Lord hath not sent them Let them Teach and warn all men every where to Repent because he that is baptized Repents Believes and continues stedfast in that Faith shall be saved but he who does not though he has formerly escaped the Pollutions that are in the World through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ yet shall be damned if he fall away from Grace and return with the Dog to his Vomit which it is not impossible for him to do even after he has been enlightened and tasted of the Powers of the Life to come so long as he has Within him a treacherous evil Heart of unbelief Without him the powerful Temptations of the World and the Devil and therefore let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall lest he perish from the Right Way Let them exhort that first of all Supplications Prayers c. be made for Kings and all that are in Authority that so People may lead a peaceable and quiet Life in all Godliness and Honesty in Subjection and Obedience to the Powers that are appointed and ordained of God to be over them because they that will not live so shall receive Damnation Let them press the People to Peace and Vnity and tell them that they who live in Envyings Strife Sedition and Divisions live after the Flesh and not after the Spirit and therefore shall not inherit the Kingdom of God That they who speak Evil of Dignities and despise Dominion the things they understand not shall bring upon themselves swift Destruction and then let them Preach in Gods Name and certainly all Preaching that is not to this Effect and for these Designs is far from it till the Church or any Bishop in it finds fault with them and that will be never as long as they live nor after their death All these are Evangelical Commands Doctrines and Truths But if Satan be divided against himself how shall his Kingdom stand and if ever you find them harping upon any of these strings I am much mistaken I know they have a Thunder-clap ready but God be thanked it is but a Brutum fulmen it may make a great Crack but it will do no hurt What say you to that place of St. Paul Necessity is laid upon me and woe is me if I preach not the Gospel I say that place is nothing to their Purpose Let us first see the same Commissiom from them which St. Paul had 1 Cor 1.1 Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and then let them undertake the same Work to Evangelize as the Word is to preach the Gospel to those who never heard of it before Let us see them so Zealous as to go and convert the Savage Indians and then we shall begin to believe they are afraid of the Woe and preach the Gospel out of pure Conscience of the Necessity that is laid upon them But to go about to make all the World believe that We are Idolators and Heathens such as know not Christ that so they may have the glory of our Conversion and be thought Apostles is just as if they should first pick our Pockets and by giving us Brass again instead of our Gold perswade us to believe they are our best Friends and Benefactors wonderful kind and bountiful to us which indeed would make Us look like Fools and Children but would certainly prove those who did it to be Cheats and Knaves If in one thing they will act like Saint Paul let them in another and not boast as they do of their Great Labours in the Gospel in other mens Lines 2 Cor. 10.16 of things made ready to their hand of which Saint Paul would by no means be guilty But they are not so scrupulous in that particular as he was and for all the Necessity and the Woe will rather act the Bishop in another mans Diocess than go to Mexico to preach the Gospel and get one of their own And for that preaching which does not preach these things but a Gospel of their own that is it which the Church by Authority of Scripture protests against and if they or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel in whole or in part than what the Holy Apostles preached let him not only be silenced but accursed And so long as the Pulpit is made the Shop of Schisme not to say Heresie in the Church and the Forge of Sedition and Rebellion in the State so long as Preaching is exalted above devout Prayers and Praises which are the only Tribute we can pay our Almighty Soveraign and shall be one part of the happy Employment in Heaven so long as it shall stand in Competition with the Sacraments those holy Seals whereby we are sealed to the Day of Redemption Not only our Church sayes it but all the true Saints and Servants of God have said the same and will say so to the end of the World that not onely twice in one Day but once in a Mans Life is too much for any man to preach or any Christian people to hear And of all these miscarriages in Religious as well as Civil concerns this their Preaching is and has been most notoriously guilty I would not have them take their Measures of us by their own Standard for though they know not how to distinguish betwixt the Vse and the Abuses of things let them not say therefore that We do not neither The time was when they pretended there were great abuses crept into the Ecclesiastical Government therefore away with it Root and Branch of Episcopacy the Office it self as well as the Offence if any were besides their Loyalty Honours and Estates Crimes great enough for Pride Envy and Ambition our Church is for no such unreasonable Methods nor because they have and do greatly abuse Preaching therefore nothing less will serve than an utter Abolition of the thing I hope were there nothing else yet common Prudence will allow any Government that Liberty which is for its own Preservation and to endeavour to correct those abuses
which by experience are found so dangerous to the Souls Bodies and Estates of Men both in their Private and Publique Capacities It is their idolizing of Preaching making it the Golden Calf of Beth-el the House of God and exalting it above all other means of Grace It is their justling with it for precedency and not that only but the All of Godliness or at least the sine qua non without which according to their Measure and Manner there can be no true Religion which the Church condemns in them and with very good Cause for it is a most manifest falshood and the Bishops are so far from being against Preaching that many of them are very eminent and constant Preachers themselves to the Confusion of this notorious Slander notwithstanding that which as Saint Paul sayes of himself comes upon them dayly the Care of all the Churches in the heavy as well as honourable Charge of Government But the plain truth is This is so necessary a Tool that if it be taken away they cannot go forward with their Babel without this they could not be able to Caress the People or conveniently to disperse their Opinions nor indeed make any tolerable advance in their Grand Design and therefore Silencing Godly Ministers of which Number they only account themselves is one of the most horrid Cruelties that Perfection can invent though unless their Tongues were out it is as easie to Silence a Thunder-clap and they are all like the Aspen-leaves of which the Story sayes a Wicked Womans Tongue was made the more the wind of Persecution blows upon them the faster do they wagg To conclude it is not for their preaching of Christ or the Gossel but for their prating with such malicious Words against Kings Prelates Magistrates Prayers and all Government Ecclesiastical and Civil for which the Laws as well as out Church condemns them and is against their Preaching CHAP. XV. A short View of some other of their Doctrines Of their Judaizing the Lords Day Of their censuring all their Ancestors and even their own Children to Damnation Their subtilty in denying all these Accusations and disowning the Actions of the late Rebels when yet they tread in the very same steps That they have the same Design manifested from their great Industry in all late New Elections of Members of the present Parliament to get Voices for such as will be favourable to their interest A probable Conjecture that they have had a principal hand in the late unhappy Differences betwixt the Two Houses and of the great Desire they have of a New Parliament and their hopes when that shall happen THere are several other Doctrines of theirs which I shall only briefly touch upon in order to a Discovery of what is their Design in maintaining them though they may deserve a just reprehension from some other Pen. One of them is their teaching the People to Judaize by making a Sabbath of the Lords Day not that I believe with all their turning over they can find any thing in the New Testament for countenancing their New Opinion or for the Institution of it And though possibly the Disciples might have some intimation from our Lord about it Yet having not left any thing upon Holy Record that they had the more probable Opinion is that in Commemoration of the Glorious Resurrection they keep it as a Festival and that it is to the Ancient Vsage and Command of the Church that it ows its Institution and that they never intended it for the Sabbath in a strict and Jewish sense we have the same Ancient Vsage to testifie and it was and still is the Ancient and present Quarrel of the Jews against the Christians that they break the Sabbath not only as to the Day but as to the strict Observation of it even on the Lords Day which they take for the Christian Sabbath And methinks that is strange that these men should cry out so against us for observing Dayes and but using the name of ALTAR Heb. 13.10 We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat who serve the Tabernacle for both which we have Scripture and Authority to justifie us should yet think it is no Crime in them to seek for a refuge for their Error by being obliged to the Sanction of the Law for a Sabbath And how they will make one part of the Commandment mutable by changing the Day from Saturday to Sunday and the other part eternal and unalterable without an express Warrant from him who is Lord of the Sabbath I confess it poses my Vnderstanding for as I take it they can shew no Deputation to be his Vice-Gerents But if there were nothing worse though I think this an Error I should not deny them my Vote to be Jewes and enjoy their Sabbath and think it as great a Sin to dress a good Dinner on that Day as to commit Murder or Adultery Provided they would keep it a Day of Rest from those ill Employments they have so often and still do abuse it to as well as their Fasts which were always observed to be the Prologues to Mischief or raising of Money They who are for Liberty let them not condemn the Lawful Liberty of others nor impose what they have neither Warrant nor Command for upon mens Consciences as absolutely necessary to Salvation But the truth of the Business is as they have no Doctrine without an Vse so they have severall very ill ones for this for besides that it adds not a little to that opinion of Sanctimony which is so necessary for them to cover their Black Designs by the rigid Austerity they this Day impose upon themselves and others The great Vse they make of it is to lessen the Esteeem of the Holy Fasts and Festivals of the Church which they say are mere Superstitious inventions of Men forbidden by Saint Paul where he tells the Galathians he had bestowed upon them Labour in vain if they observed days and years but the Sabbath is of Gods own appointment and to be Sanctified according to their Doctrine So long therefore as they put it to these Employments as they do in their frequent Preaching upon it to make a Distinction of a PARTY and to bring not onely our Christian but Politique Liberty into Bondage I think it is not without Danger as well though not so much as the rest As for that strange Doctrine which I have heard several of them maintain That all their Ancestors and even their own Children who dye in their Infancy are damned because they have not actual Faith or had not the true Faith as they have it is a great Uncharitableness but no injury to the Dead who are never the further off from Heaven for their saying so But this is a necessary Corollary to their former Doctrine or Predestination and of their being the only Elect for not only all Heathens but all others who are not of their Faith and Perswasion are damned and that till
it should be so You are Men of Peace and Religion certainly you have no other Sword but that of the Spirit Marp A Worm if it be troden upon it will turn again Kingl. Very good but so will not a Sheep when it is led to the Slaughter I understand you But God be praised the Curst Cow has short Hornes You yet want a Parliament for your purpose and I hope long will The Militia is out of your reach and there are Guards enough and no more than enough about White-hall to hinder insolent Petitioners from affronting Majesty and crying your old stinking Fish No Bishop So that whatever your intentions may be I perswade my self you are too wary to betray your Good Cause by shewing both your Weakness and Wickedness at the same time Marp Well! for all this I hope the Lord will not forsake his People or suffer us to lose so many good men Kingl. It is strange this should be a loss when the outright loss of 10000 better men in a Battel to secure or obtain our Peace would not be thought a loss but an advantage to the Publick and hereby not only their Lives but many thousands may be saved hereafter for any thing we know Marp Sir You create fears to your self which we are far from the thoughts of Kingl. You do well to lull us asleep with singing Peace Peace Hush Lullaby Baby But if there be such fears of Mutinies now what may there be some years hence when you are grown so strong and numerous as by compulsion to endeavour to obtain those Demands which now you dare not petition for Marp We for Compulsion we are utterly against it and for Liberty of Conscience for all Men. Kingl. You tell us so now but what would you say if hereafter your Contagion should spread it self amongst those Persons who ought to be the defence of the Royal Person our Laws Property and Religion amongst those who may come to be Elected Members And here a great deal of Company coming in and the House beginning to fill they broke off their Discourse and presently after went both one way out of the Door though they seemed to be of far different Wayes in other things and so I lost the diversion of their further converse but not the remembrance of what then passed or at least the principal part and substance of it Clandite jam rivos pueri CHAP. XVIII The Heads of Separation brought to tryal by the Scripture proved to be false Prophets by their Fruits by the Description of them by the Time of their appearance the Signs given to know them by Wolves in Sheeps Clothing Their pretence to be the Ministers of Righteousness The way they would evade these Signs their Plea of not guilty because not guilty of all manifested to be vain and such as if admitted will clear all even Mahomet from the guilt of being false Prophet THAT these Heads of Faction may see that I for my own particular Part have a mind to be serious with them and that I am in sober earnest and so far past the Lusoria arma that I will close in with them and come ad Triarios and to satisfie all those whose strength of Prejudice or Interest does not render them utterly incapable of Satisfaction I do cite them before their own Judges the Scriptures let us therefore fore impartially examine the Character and then in God's Name Detur dignissimo let it be awarded to those who deserve it most THAT there shall arise false Apostles false Prophets and false Teachers in the Church of God we can make no doubt having so much and so plain Scripture for it so many Caveats given us against them S. Mat. 7.15 Beware of false Prophets saith our great Lord and Saviour which come to you in Sheeps Clothing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves Take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my Name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many S. Mat. 24.4 5. S. Mark 13.5 22 23. False Prophets and false Christs shall arise ands shew Signs and Wonders to seduce if it were possible the very Elect but take ye heed behold I have foretold you all things For I know saith S. Paul that after my departing shall grievous Wolves enter in amongst you Acts 20.29 30. Also of your own selves shall Men arise speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them Therefore watch And S. Peter is in the same mind But there were false Prophets amongst the People 2. S. Pet. 2.1 2. even as there shall be false Teachers amongst you who primly shall bring in or as the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies shall insinuate by the By Damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them Denying or scarcely owning that he is the Propitiation for the Sins of all the World And many shall follow their pernicious ways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their wayes which come from Apollyon and are destructive to themselves to the Peace Unity and Safety of the Church and State by reason of whom the Way of Truth shall be evil spoken of the Ancient Catholick or Universal Doctrine and Practice of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be blasphemed or accounted Blasphemy NOW as it is most certain that there shall be such Men so it is no less certain that it shall be a very great Difficulty to discover and know them FOR first they shall come in the Name of Christ pretend a Commission from Christ and as confidently call themselves the Servants and Ministers of Christ and of the Gospel as they that really are so IN the second place they shall be able to draw Disciples after them and not a few but they shall deceive many Nay so far able as if it were possible to deceive the very Elect. And to effect this it is absolutely necessary that to deceive the Sheep they should come in Sheeps Clothing look most innocently and appear most harmless good and profitable Nay further they must have the appearance and resemblance of the Ministers of Righteousness And this St. Paul tells us is no difficult thing for such saith he are false Apostles deceitful Workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of Light therefore it is no great thing if his Ministers also be transformed as the Ministers of Righteousness IN the last place they shall arise from among our selves and their design shall be to draw Disciples after them THAT we may not be mistaken we must therefore make a Discovery of them by those Ways Marks Signs and Directions which Christ and his Apostles have in the Scripture given us to distinguish them and know them by And therefore for the fulfilling of any prediction we must first enquire for the time of its Appearance and that is all along said to be in the last times or Days Now the Spirit speaketh expresly 1. Tim. 4.1
are driven about with every new Wind of Doctrine and truly let them but alone and they want neither Skill nor Will to accomplish these and far more difficult Enterprises In General therefore they perswade all Men every where that the present visible Church is Antichristian and Popish a thing strangely made up of outward Pomp and Splendor Formality Ceremonies and Will-worship the Inventions Traditions and Commandments of Men not at all agreeable to the Word of God or the naked and Primitive Purity and simplicity of the Gospel and the Truth as it is in Jesus These Controversies have been so learnedly debated and they have been so often baffled in all they could say for themselves that I know no Plea that has been left them except Conscience which they will not part with though most people from their Actions Judge if they have any it is an Evil conscience and of the largest size in the World Though the plain truth is the thing which they call Conscience is commonly known and called by the name of Wilfulness in Opinion And is just like the Mother Viper which when her young Brood are hunted and in Danger opens her mouth and there secures them and it may be mortally stings the pursuers I will not therefore repeat the Combate since they can never be so often thrown to the ground but like the Gyant Antaens they rise again and gather strength by their frequent foils And though I would not have any one think I have an intention by what I say to put my self into the number of those Worthies I am perswaded by the repeated victories which the Champions of Truth have so often gained over them these vanquished become victors and the great Condescensions of so many Famous and Learned Cheiftians as have undertaken to confute them and have really done it has rendred them more considerable amongst the Vulgar than all their own Abilities put together could have done For Ignorant and credulous People must of necessity believe that they are some body and that there is something more than Ordinary of truth in their Opinions which emboldens them to affront Authority and to have the Courage to measure their Weapons with the most Famous and Learned Persons of the Age. And by these Comabtes these Triflers purchase a real Victory Honour and Reputation and triumph in their being defeated by such glorious Armes And here it will not be amiss to inform all people of one of their Stratagems which never fails them Vide their Reports of the Conferences at Hampton Court before King James nor they to make use of it amongst the credulous Company of their fiends Followers and Disciples they alwayes boast themselves Invincible and tell them that such and such with whom they disputed were not able to resist the Wisdome and Spirit by which they spake and though they will own their Weaknesses yet will they glory in the pretended Victory of the Truth And by disclaiming their own Interest in these great Atchievements and ascribing it all to God who hath chosen the Weak and contemptible things to confound the Great and Wise they still advance their Reputation as being the particular Favourites of Heaven and the only Instruments which God is pleased to make use of to carry on his Work his great Work which appears so much the more his own wonderful doing by how much the Means he imployes in it are despicable and unlikely to Effect it And hereby they insinuate and wind themselves into the esteem and admiration of their Party though others who observe them thus cunningly crawling upon their bellies with a seeming humility think it discovers in them more of the subtile Serpent than of the innocent Dove But to go on they will not be contented with Generals but their attempts descend to particulars and therefore as if they meant to fulfill the prediction of our Saviour against the Jewish Temple upon the present Church there is not one stone from the Foundation to the highest Pinacle which they would leave upon another or do not endeavour to throw down Not the Porch that is called Beautiful nor the Altar sacred in all places Ages and amongst all Nations and Religions except the Turks can escape their Zealous Rage and Holy fury Their secret practices and aims are levell'd at All Root and Branch is the Word of Ecclesiastical Places Persons and Performances As to their dislike of Places that is not so General and I question not but if they and their Appennages were converted to their use and sanctified by the Word and Prayer for they must not be Consecrated because that is a Popish word and Ceremony they could dispense with any of them except the Cathedrals which so long as they stand will put the World in mind of Bishops their true and Ancient Possessors But yet some Dissenters who are no Steeple-house Quakers will speak most contemptuously of the Church of God which is the House of God 1 Tim. 3.15 Nor indeed do any of them believe there is any such thing in them as a Relative Holiness though God tells them there is when he commanded Moses to put off his Shoes from off his Feet Ex. 3 5. for the Place whereon he stood was Holy Ground And many Ornaments and Vestments dedicated to his service are called Holy Ex. 29.6 As the Holy Crown or Mitre for the High-Priest Lev 16.4 Ezech. 4.14 the holy Linnen Coat and holy Chambers where they laid these Holy things But these Men are not under Law but under Grace As if the great Obligations of the Gospel were intended to set us free from that respect we owe unto Almighty God Whereas common reason will tell us they ought rather to increase and augment it And I know not what is if this be not as St. Peter sayes an abusing of Christian freedom 1 St. Pet. 2. Chap. 13.14 15 16. and using it for a Cloak of Maliciousness As all those persons do who will not submit themselves to Government and by Obedience Honour the King which is the way to shew that they fear God How little fear or respect they have for either is but too plain What will they say to you of the houses of God are they any more than other Places Heaps of Wood and Stones they are sorry that they are not heaps of Rubbish too Were they not all built by Papists in the times of Superstition Blindness and Ignorance But some of them will yet go further and can afford them no better Title they are the High Places the * A pretty witty new name for a Church it is to be thought from the Publicans and Sinners that resort to it Oh the happy Inventions of some Men Publick and the Places of Idolatry One of these Venerable Men riding not long ago near a Cathedral of this Nation took occasion at the next Meeting whither he was going to hold forth to speak to this Effect if not these Words