Crime and Separation from the Communion of the Establish'd Church must be a with-drawing from the Synagogue of Satan If any Church-man shall presume to set forth the heinousness of this Sin or make so bold as to charge Dissenters with it they are taught to call it Railing and instead of reforming the Evil in their own Persons must agree together to run down the Preacher this is too well known in experience to need any proof for none ever reproved this Sin in them but they said he Railed and though it be Zeal and Duty in them to inveigh against the Faults of others yet 't is Malignity of Spirit and Hatred of the Power of Godliness to lay open their Miscarriages But are these Men all this while free from the guilt of this Sin which they are so unwilling to hear of No notoriously guilty of it for a causeless Separation from a true Church is by the Confession of their own Teachers acknowledged to be the Sin of Schism as they often declared in their Arguings against the Brownists of old and the Sectaries of later Days Now the Wisest of them generally own the Church of England to be a True Church and none of them with all their skill have ever shew'd any just cause for Separation from it and therefore breaking from the Worship and Communion of it cannot possibly be excused from Schism How then comes it to pass that their Teachers conceal this from them and not only suffer this guilt to lie upon them but lead and encourage them too in that evil which themselves condemn in others Why the plain Reason is to preserve and uphold the Party for should the People once know the nature and danger of Schism and be sensible how guilty they are of it the Dissenting Cause will fall to the ground and the whole business of the Conventicle be soon at an end and therefore to prevent that the People must be kept in ignorance of their Duty lest they should return to it and not be permitted to know the evil of Separation lest they should turn from it So that Ignorance too is the Mother of these Mens Devotion and they who speak so much of their great Light are merely led on and kept in Darkness But by what Arts do these Men thus hoodwink and blind the Eyes of the People Why To hinder them from the knowledge of Schism they keep them as much as possible from hearing any Discourses of it they permit them not to Read those Books that would discover to them the Evil of it If they hear of any Book written to that purpose or find it put into the hands of any of their Followers they caution them against it as a dangerous Piece and tending to subvert the Power of Godliness Thus do they keep their Followers in Ignorance by the same methods the Romish Priests do theirs If any of their Teachers publish any thing though never so mean to hide the Schism and harden their Followers in it they send it about in Triumph Posting in up like Quack Bills in Market-places and other places of resort thereby spreading it among the deluded Vulgar who are apt to magnifie the Performance to lessen the Sin But if notwithstanding their endeavours the Eyes of any begin to open and they come to see the Error of their ways great care is taken to put out that Light and to stifle such Convictions If by any means they smell out the danger of Schism they make them believe it to be only a Theological Scare-Crow whereby Men in Power would enforce their own Dictates But is breaking the Peace and Unity of the Church a mere Scare-Crow Is the dividing of Christ himself and rending in sunder the Communion of Saints which is the nature of Schism only a Bugbear to fright Fools and Children Certainly they can be no living Members of Christ's Body who are so insensible of these Convulsions But they tell them farther That the Papists charge us with the same guilt and brand us as much for Schismaticks as we do them But Is there the same reason Have not the Terms of their Communion been plainly proved to be Sinful and such as we cannot safely join in And hath this been ever proved of ours Nay Do not themselves own the contrary by their Occasional Communion with us And I hope there is some Difference between a voluntary departing from the Church and being driven from it But to keep them in their Schism they add That the Terms of Communion should be only Scriptural and Unexceptionable whereas Ours are Doubtful and such against which many have great Scruples and Exceptions But is there any thing how wisely soever order'd against which weak and wilful Persons may not entertain some Scruples May not cunning and designing Men raise a mist before the Eyes of the People and keep them from discerning the clearest Truths And must such artificial Doubts justle out a plain and necessary Duty I hope the Wisdom of Superiors may direct and over-rule in case of Doubts and their Authority may carry weight enough to weigh down such Scruples When they are beaten out of these Subterfuges they tell the People That Schism is a falling off from the Communion of the Catholick Church not of This or That particular Church so that they may continue Members of Christ's Church in general though they divide from the National or Parish-Church where they live But is there any Communicating with the Catholick Church without being in Communion with some particular Church Can a Member belong to the Body that is not joined to any part of it No more can any be a Member of Christ's Body that is divided from that part of it where he lives So that if the Church of England be a sound Part of the Catholick Church as is generally owned by all sober Dissenters we cannot divide from it without dividing from the Whole and separating from the Catholick Church of Christ But farther to palliate and propagate their Schism they tell them That 't is no unjust Separation till it proceed so far as to deny the Faith and whilst they keep the Christian Faith they cannot justly be charged with Schism But is there no difference beteween Apostacy and Schism Is it not one thing to deny the Faith and another to forsake the Communion of the Church May not some be pretty sound and tenacious too of the Christian Faith and so be neither Hereticks nor Apostates who yet may Separate from the Worship and Communion of the Church and so be justly branded for Schismaticks Do not all the ancient Fathers in their Disputes with the Hereticks carefully distinguish between these Two May we not see some breaking the Unity and Communion of the Church who yet do not renounce there Creed or deny the Articles of the Christian Faith The confounding these Two hath not only confounded their Notions but brought great Confusion into the Church And yet at other times they would
persuade them That Schism is only a breach of Love and Charity within the Church and signifies no more than Divisions and Contentions among the Members of the same Church in crying up different Teachers as it happened in the Church of Corinth when one said I am of Paul another I am of Apollo c. and this say they begot those Sidings and Factions which the Apostle there calls and reproves by the Name of Schisms Well But if those lesser Differences and Sidings among the Members of the same Church be by the Apostle stiled Schisms and condemn'd as occasions of great Heats and Animosities How much more must those greater Variances of breaking Communion and setting up Separate Meetings and Ways of Worship against each other be condemn'd for such And how naturally these things tend to destroy Love and Charity is too plain by those flames of Contention which these sparks have already kindled But there is one thing more by which they mislead unwary People in this matter that must not be passed by and that is their making them believe That an Act of Parliament by granting a Toleration hath taken off the Schism and removed the guilt of it for we find the Ring-Leader of the Party venting this wild Notion Baxter's p. 32. viz. If the Supreme Authority loosen our Obligation to the Parish Meeting the Iniquity upon this account is not to be found and the Schism is gone lo here saith he a way opened for the Parliament if they please to rid both the trouble and scruple of Schism out of the Land But can they rid the Sin and Guilt of it too out of the Land If not 't is fit the Scruple and Trouble of it too should remain to keep Men from it the Peace and Unity of the Church is given in strict Charge by Christ and his Apostles to all the Members of it And is any Earthly Power able to loosen this Obligation Can Human Laws vacate the Authority and Obligation of Divine Laws If so we might invert the Apostle's Question and say 't is fitter to Obey men than God The Parliament indeed may take off the Temporal Penalties which themselves have annex'd to the Sin of Schism but the Guilt and Obligation to Eternal Punishment can be taken off by none but God only who hath laid it upon it And yet there is one way by which the Parliament may rid this evil out of the Land and that is by Removing Schismatical Teachers and Suppressing Seditious Conventicles And that way the Iniquity of it may not be found and the Schism may be gone I am Yours A. B. LETTER IX SIR I Shewed in my last the Dissenters artificial concealing the nature and guilt of Schism and their feeding the People with false Notions of it to continue and increase their Party I proceed now to Another Artifice to this end and that is their mistaking or misinterpreting sundry Passages of Holy Scripture whereby they wrest it from the true sense and draw it in to serve their own purpose And herein again they are the Followers of the Pharisees who by their false Glosses and perverse Interpretations made void the Law of God Of this many Instances may be given and that you may be the better satisfied of this Device I shall single out a few And the first I shall mention of these shall be that of Deut. 4.2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you From this Scripture they infer That the Church of England hath made several Additions to the Word of God and so turn the fault of the Schism upon her by clogging its Communion whith such uncommanded Conditions Now the plain sense of those Words is this Ye shall not Transgress the Commandments of God by doing any thing contrary to them which is to add to them or by omitting any thing required by them which is to diminish from them Now let the Wisest of them shew any one thing Appointed by the Church that is forbidden by the Word of God or omitting any thing required by it and then we shall own the Charge but if they cannot do this which had been done long since if it could have been done at all they must excuse us if we take them not only for false Expositors of the Holy Scriptures but false Accusers of the Holy Church The Additions there forbidden are to the Substance of God's Word by making other and more Precepts and Prohibitions than that hath made and adding new substantial Parts of Divine Worship but cannot with any congruity of sense be extended to the Circumstantials of it as Time Place Habit Gesture and the like which though not particularly determined in Holy Scripture are yet necessarily implied in the general Rules of Order Decency and Edification required in it And yet these Men will never leave asking that Question Isa 1.13 Who hath required these things at your hands Though the nature of the Thing the general Rules of God's Word and the Power set up by Christ in his Church to which we owe Obedience have expresly required these things from us Yea these rare Expositors have unwittingly fallen into that very Evil themselves which they condemn in others by making more things Unlawfull than God's Word hath made so and Forbidding many things which are no where Forbidden by it which is a plain Addition to the Substance of Religion But those words of Jeremy say these Men Jer. 7.31.19.5 They built the high places of Tophet to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire which I commanded them not neither came it into my heart lay the stress of the Provocation not upon doing what God had Forbidden but in doing what he had not Commanded them But how often must these Men be told and by some of their own Party too that the meaning of those words which I commanded them not is the same with what I had forbidden them for so the thing there referred to expresly was viz. their offering their children unto Moloch Yea that Phrase which I commanded them not is in the Old Testament generally applied to what God had Forbidden They offered strange fire which the Lord commanded not Levit. 10.1 that is which he had forbidden them They worshipped other Gods which I have not commanded i.e. which I have forbidden So that to make it necessary to have an express Command for every Circumstance of Divine Worship and to charge the doing any thing in it without such a Command for an Addition to God's Word is it self a plain Addition to it where no such thing is either mentioned or required Yea the mistake hereof hath been so frequently and so fully laid open that they must be past all shame that have the face to mention it any more Another Text perverted by these Artists is that of Joshua 7.13 where
The Mystery of Phanaticism OR THE ARTIFICES OF DISSENTERS To Support their SCHISM Together with the Evil and Danger of them Set forth in several Letters to a FRIEND Wherein is made appear That nothing but the Subtilty and Cunning of their Teachers doth now hinder the People from Conformity By a Divine of the Church of England 2 Cor. 2.11 We are not ignorant of their Devices The SECOND EDITION Corrected LONDON Printed for T. Leigh at the Peacock in Fleetstreet and R. Knaplock at the Angel and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1698. THE PREFACE THE DISSENTING Cause being in a great measure deserted in Point of Argument is now merely upheld by Artifice and what it wants of Reason and Truth is supplied by Subtilty and Cunning And because the Discovery hereof may help to undeceive and open the Eyes of some well-meaning but unwary People it may not be altogether an unprofitable Task to lay open these Devices that they may the better see how they are gull'd and be the more aware of the Imposture Truth we know is willing to be seen with open Face and hath that Native Beauty and Lustre that needs no Paint or Varnish to recommend it But Error hath so foul and ugly a Complexion that makes it need and covet a Vizor to hide its Deformity and can only be set forth by False and Artificial Colours We read of some mens Works that they cannot bear the Light and therefore come not to it lest their deeds should be reproved Joh. 3.20 Such as these do but act a Part in Religion and only play the Zealous and Devout and are indeed to be shunn'd and detested of all Men as the worst of Impostors for they at once mock God and deceive the People and prostitute the Best Things to the worst and vilest Purposes And that too many such there are our unhappy Age can sadly testifie For may we not daily see the Sons of Craft acting under various Disguises and wheedling the People with their Pious Frauds Do they not work upon the Weakness of some the Wilfulness of others and the Discontents of all to serve their own Ends upon them And like Spiritual Mountebanks cry up their Infallible Medicines for the Cure of Souls merely to draw in and deceive the unthinking Multitude They are sufficiently acquainted both with the Ignorance and the Headiness of the Vulgar and apply themselves to them accordingly following that known Rule Si populus vult decipi decipiatur With this untemper'd Mortar do the Architects of Schism build their Babel laying Hay and Stubble upon the Foundation of Christianity which they at the same time undermine by their Hollowness and Hypocrisie Our Blessed Saviour forewarned his Followers of such false Teachers that should come to them in sheeps cloathing Mat. 7.15 that is with soft and smooth Pretences but inwardly were ravening wolves dividing the Flock that they may the more easily devour them and making a Prey of them whom they pretend to feed These he afterward describ'd by their divided Dialect Matt. 24.23 26 one saying Lo here is Christ and another there And when things come to this pass that one saith Behold he is in the field another he is in the secret chambers a third in the Conventicle 't is time to hearken to our Saviour's Advice Believe them not and go not after them The Apostle likewise foretold of such Seducers that would arise in the latter days Acts. 20.29 30 speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them Describing them sometimes by their despising dominions Jude v. 8. 2 Tim. 3.6 and speaking evil of dignities At other times more plainly pointing at them by their creeping into houses and leading captive silly women laden with divers lusts thus beguiling the Weaker Sex who being lead more by their Passions than Reason are more easily seduc'd by them And therefore we are exhorted Rom. 16.17 To mark them that cause divisions and avoid them for they serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and with good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple And as Christ and his Apostles have thus forewarned us of false Teachers who by their subtle Insinuations would if it were possible deceive the very elect so have they foretold the Giddiness and Instability of some among the People who would hearken too much to their false Insinuations and be easily deluded by them These are described by their Vnwillingness to hear and endure sound doctrine 1 Tim. 4.3 and heaping to themselves teachers having itching ears by which means they would turn from the truth and be turned unto Fables Both these Predictions are unhappily fulfilled in our Days which affords too many sad Instances both of the cunning Craftiness of some who lie in wait to deceive and the too great Easiness and Willingness of others to be deceived by them So that we are certainly fallen into those perilous Times in which the Apostle foretold that men should be lovers of themselves 2 Tim. 3.1 2 c. traytors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof of whom he wills all wise men to beware and to turn from them Indeed there hath been no Age since the Apostles wholly free from Schismaticks and Impostors but perhaps none ever afforded such Swarms of them as our unhappy days in which like the Flies of Egypt they are still buzzing in the ears of the people and like the Frogs croaking in all corners of the Land It will not therefore be amiss to expose to Publick View the Frauds and Fallacies of false Teachers to lay open the Evil and Danger of them that if we cannot wholly cure the Schism we may preserve as many as possible from the Contagion of it Farewell The CONTENTS Letter I. THeir great Zeal in making Proselytes Page 1 Letter II. Their pretence to greater Light and Knowledge than other men p. 11 Letter III. Their pretence to greater Strictness and Sanctity than other men p. 22 Letter IV. Their pretence to Purer Ordinances and a more Spiritual way of Worship p. 32 Letter V. Of their crying up Peace and Vnity tho' all their Actions tend to destroy and undermine them p. 42 Letter VI. Their Censuring the Lives and Actions of those within the Church the better to commend theirs who Dissent from it p. 51 Letter VII Of their calling the wise Injunctions of our Superiors by the odious Name of Impositions p. 62 Letter VIII Of their keeping the People in Ignorance of the Nature and Danger of Schism p. 70 Letter IX Of their Misinterpreting and Wresting the Scriptures to serve their own purpose p. 81 Letter X. Their confining the Offices of Kindness and Charity to those of their own Sect p. 89 Letter XI Their working upon the Weakness the Wilfulness and Discontents of the People to serve their own Ends upon them p. 97 Letter XII
shew and pretence of Religion Again 2dly This Device is a mocking of God and a high affront offer'd to our Maker for he that only gilds and paints the outward Man without any regard to the Heart shews indeed an Awe and Reverence to Men who behold and judge only by the outward appearance but betrays an insolent contempt and slight of God who looks chiefly to the Heart and requires Truth in the inner parts he that seeks only to recommend himself to the World by fair shews and pretences without approving himself to God by the sincerity of the Heart plainly bids defiance to Heaven and shews a greater fear of Men than God before his Eyes Lastly This great pretence to Religion brings oft-times a scandal upon Religion it self and tends to destroy and undermine it for when these appear to be only Pretences and that these great shews of Holiness are void of all reality and truth it makes the Name of Religion odious and the Profession of it vile and despicable in the Eyes of the World This at once debauches and destroys Religion by drawing out the life of it into mere shew and appearance and making it evaporate into Air and Formality Yea this naturally leads to Atheism and Infidelity for when Men see so many vile Tricks acted under a colour of greater Holiness when Faction and Sedition are gilded over with a specious pretence of Zeal and Men prosecute their Ambition and Avarice under the ensigns of Holiness and Devotion this makes too many think Religion it self a Trick and so cast it off as a device of Cunning and Designing Men And 't is not to be doubted but the Atheism and Infidelity of the present Age is in a great measure owing to the Hypocrisy of such Pretenders SIR I suppose you plainly see the design and the danger of this Artifice so much us'd by our Dissenters which is indeed the Master-piece of their Craft and the principal Engine to draw and deceive the People they know the Vulgar are easily impos'd upon by fair Shews and fair Speeches and how willing they are to embrace a Religion that is so favourable to their Pride Lust and Worldly Interest and puts them to no trouble about the mortifying of either for 't is but to polish the outward Man and make a plausible appearance of Holiness and they need not take care about purifying of the Heart or rectifying any thing that is amiss within and 't is no wonder if so easy a Religion finds many Followers I am SIR Yours A. B. LETTER IV. SIR I Shew'd in my last how serviceable a pretence of greater Holiness is to increase a Party and create Divisions together with the vanity and mischief of that Artifice I proceed in this to a Third Artifice used by Dissenters to that end and that is A pretence to purer Ordinances and a more Spiritual way of Worship and herein they are the Successors of the Cathari and the Donatists of old who pretended to a better and purer way of serving God than other Men and so Separated from them as Saints of a higher Form and Men of a more rais'd and elevated Devotion And herein they are exactly imitated by our Dissenters who talk of nothing more than pure Worship pure Ordinances and pure Administrations all which they confine to themselves and will not allow others any share in them yea they speak contemptuously of others as serving God after an old dead and dull way of Forms whereas They Pray in a more lively manner by their own Gifts and have a more Pure Spiritual and Evangelical way of Worship They revile the Church of England as Popish and stile its Worship Antichristian Our excellent Liturgy passeth with them for Mass-service and all its decent Ceremonies for Idolatry and Superstition the Surplice is a Rag of the Whore of Babylon Bowing at the Name of Jesus is no better than Bowing to an Idol and Kneeling at the Holy Sacrament as bad as falling down to a Graven Image they interpret the form of godliness mentioned by the Apostle to be a Form of Prayer and the Power of Godliness to be Praying Extempore One of them tells us That the reason why the world hates the Saints is because they are a Praying People Now lest you should take this Malignity to be directed against Forms he tells you no Forms of Prayer they can bear well enough but 't is the Power of Prayer that is Extempore Prayer that they can't endure as if this were a flight of Devotion above the reach of Worldly and Carnal Minds and only suited to the more Heavenly and Seraphical Spirit of the Saints Now how serviceable this Device is to promote the Party is easy to conceive for it mightily gratifies the vanity of Men's Minds to think that they are not only more Holy than other Men but that they serve God in a higher and better manner than they for this makes them believe with the Pharisees that God rejoices in them and is mightily pleas'd with them that they are infinitely dear to him and that God is highly-delighted both with their Persons and their Prayers And who that had these thoughts would not gladly enter into the Class of such Worshippers Again This makes them think well of themselves and creates no small pleasure and confidence in their ways though never so False and Erroneous to think their Prayers are better and more acceptable to God than other Mens This makes them infinitely pleased with their Service and endears to them such a Way of Worship Yea it not only tends to invite many into this way but to make them obstinate and pertinacious in it to harden them in their Schism and render it very difficult to reclaim them from it But what is that great Purity our Dissenters thus boast of Is it a greater Purity of Doctrine No for herein they acknowledge we agree and embrace the same Faith Is it a greater Purity of Life This is indeed pretended but experience hath abundantly consuted this pretence and discovered the Hypocrisy Is it then a greater Purity of Worship Yes this is the great Thing for Ours say they is clogg'd with Ceremonies and mix'd and blended with the Inventions of Men. But are not their Prayers the Inventions of Men Yea Do they not proceed from the present and sudden Conceptions of their own Brain Which sure cannot be half so Wise or Pure as more deliberate and well-weigh'd Composures And as for Ceremonies Are not their various and Antick Gestures in Prayer which serve but to expose the Worship of God far more Improper and Impure too than the decent Ceremonies of the Church which help to make it more Uniform and Solemn Is not hasty Speech delivered in Mimical Postures and Actions much more unbecoming Divine Service than a Grave and well-order'd Devotion But their Worship is more Spiritual than others for they Pray more by the Spirit How so Do their Prayers come more from the Heart
the Necessity and Usefulness of Human Learning to qualifie for the Ministry and therefore fearing lest their Conventicles might fall through the gross Ignorance of those that must uphold them something must be taken care of this way to fit them for this great Work at least some smattering of Learning must be had or pretended to to give some Countenance to the Cause And indeed a little of it with a great deal of Confidence will go a great way to deceive the Vulgar They know moreover that the present Heads of the Party are all mortal and going off the Stage and therefore lest the Faction should die with them care must be taken to raise up more to preserve the Succession and derive the Imposture to future Ages Besides the breeding up of these Emissaries affords no small Gain to the present Crafts-men and the Leaders are like to get more by their Learning than the People to whom they are sent who are in danger to be mis-led by them and merely beguil'd by their vain Philosophy Thus do they erect private Seminaries against the most renowned Universities merely to qualifie them to keep up private Conventicles against the best establish'd Church in the Christian World Which is a very serviceable Stratagem to uphold the Party and propagate the Schism But for the better understanding of this Device let us enquire into the Masters and Scholars of these separate Academies together with the Learning profess'd and taught in them And First For the Heads and Masters in these Seminaries They are busie not only in sowing Divisions themselves but in planting of Tares and watering of Weeds that may spring up when they are gone to infest the Church and choak the good Seed of sound Doctrine preach'd in it A Noble Employment indeed and worthy the Ambassadors of Christ to be Teachers of Schism and Promoters of Faction and not to be content only to divide the Church and rend the Body of Christ for their own time but to breed up others to succeed them in this great Work and raise a new Race of Disturbers for the Edification of Posterity They are unwilling the Church should be ever settled in Unity and Peace and therefore are hard at work to propagate Dissentions to instill their Sophistry into their Disciples and to lay a foundation for Discord on future times But if any of these grand Teachers of Philosophy in private Schools have been Graduates in the Universities as we are told some of them are How shall we excuse them from Perjury in violating the Oaths taken by them to the contrary And if any of them have been Episcopally Ordain'd according to the Rites and Orders of the Church of England as 't is well known some of them have been What can they say for acting thus contrary to the Declarations and Subscriptions required in it and training up others in Nonconformity and opposition to it I think it will not be a miss for these Men to consider whether that tenderness of Conscience they so much pretend to can consist with the Violation of those Engagements or whether it be not either the Weakness of their Heads or the Falseness of their Hearts that gives them so easy a Dispensation from observing of them As for the Scholars thus train'd up by them they are plainly nurs'd up in a Schism and not only taught to go themselves but lead others in the ways of Separation whereby they are bred up Enemies to the Government both in Church and State mis-led from the ways of truth and Peace and so unhappily directed out of the way that they should go But what are the Arts and Methods of instruction made use of in these Seminaries to this purpose Why First They are taught all the little Scruples and Cavils that have been raised against the Liturgy and Discipline of the Church to beget in them the greater aversion from both Next They are furnished with Seditious Books written against them to heighten and increase this aversion Then they are taught not only to prefer but to learn the Art of Extemporary Effusions in Prayer the great Idol and Support of all separate Meetings to this end they are sometimes put upon the practice and trying their skill in this Excercise with Directions to assist their Invention and help their Fluency After this they are taught to modulate the Tone of the Voice sometimes raising it to such a key or degree of Vehemence at other times falling to such a Cadence as may best take and work upon the fancies of the People These and such like Arts apt to deceive are the great things that are taught in these Seminaries Devices never heard of or learn'd in any well-established Church and utterly destructive of all Order and Sobriety in Religion But what is it that moves the Dissenters thus to draw from the Two Famous Universities of this Land and to set up and encourage these private Nurseries against them Why First They know that the Education and good Literature of those Places breed up Youth in a due Conformity to the Discipline and good Orders of the Church and all that are admitted to them are by Oaths and all manner of Obligation tied to a firm adherence and observance of them the wise Instructions and Examples of those Places train them up in the way that they should go which keeps them ever after from departing from it So that they whose design it is to promote and propagate Divisions must keep as many as they can from those places where they are so well taught and arm'd against them Those Famous Seminaries of Learning and sound Religion have ever brought forth the stoutest Champions to defend the Truth and confute the Errors of all times 't is no wonder if Hereticks and Schismaticks bear no good will to those Places and Persons that so expose and frustrate their evil Designs But the better to countenance these private Schools the upholders of them endeavour to fasten the blackest Calumnies upon our Renowned Seats of Learning and Education though for their Order and Discipline together with all other advantages and encouragements of good Literature they far excel all the Universities in the World and are therefore resorted to and admired by all Strangers yet these Sons of Slander seek not only to lessen but to blacken them too by their foul and Unjust Aspersions they delight to talk of the Vices and Looseness of those Places and call those Schools of the Prophets by no better name than Schools of Lewdness and Debauchery which is done meerly to beget an ill Opinion of them and to exalt their little Nurseries of Schism and Sedition above them Thus do they serve the Universities as they do the Church throwing all the dirt they can upon them the better to serve their own ends on both Now the mischeif of this Device may be easily guess'd from its pernicious influence both in Church and State for if the Happiness of a Nation depends upon
the good Education and Wisdom of its Members and the hopes of future times are founded upon the well Training up of those that live to them what unspeakable evils must ensue from these private nurseries of Ignorance and Disorder Which is a matter well worthy the Care and Wisdom of Superiors to prevent For Ever since the Foundation of the Church hath been shaken things in the State have been out of course and 't is in vain to hope for Settlement in the Latter whilst the Former remains loose and unsettled And therefore Christ's Vineyard should be fenc'd and guarded not only against the Wild Boar of the Forest that would lay it waste but against all the little Foxes that would undermine it To Conclude all May the Church of England ever Continue in the Purity of its Doctrine Worship and Discipline May the Two Famous Universities of this Kingdom still flourish to supply it with Able Faithful and Learned Pastors And may Both be so Favoured with the Providence of God and the Protection of Princes that the Gates of Hell may never prevail against Either Which are the hearty Wishes and Prayer of SIR Your Cordial Friend A. B. A POSTSCRIPT SIR THERE is another serviceable Device of Dissenters that must not be omitted and that is Their settling and maintaining a secret Correspondence between their Brethren in all Parts of this and the Neighbouring Kingdom whereby they communicate to each other the Designs of the Party and join in secret Methods and Confederacies to promote them By this they give and take-Measures in Electing Members for Parliament and preparing Addresses and Petitions to them hereby they learn and agree in the same Arts of weakening the Church and strengthening the Conventicle together with all other means of forming and advancing their Designs And these are the more dangerous because they are carried on in the dark and like invisible Darts wound without being seen as also because they are coloured over with a seeming Zeal for Religion and Reformation of Manners and carried on with Prayer and a great shew of Piety and Devotion These things are evident not only by many former Intrigues managed and promoted this way but more plainly by a late Letter written to a Nonconformist Teacher Superscribed thus To Mr. Saunders Minister of the Gospel in Oxford which by a mistake fell into the hands of another Person of the same Name a true Copy whereof is as followeth Newbury June 7. 98. Reverend Sir IHad a Letter last Week by the Direction of the Committee of Ministers and Gentlemen appointed at London for settling a Correspondence of the Protestant Dissenting Ministers and Congregations throughout this Kingdom for the Advancement of the Interest of Religion and Reformation of Manners with the Articles there agreed upon in order thereunto and a desire to Communicate them speedily to the Brethren in these Parts that if possible a general Meeting might be had this Summer in London Pursuant whereunto 't is desired that you would not fail to come your self and bring with you one Prudent Person of your Congregation chosen for that end according to the Method resolv'd on at London to meet several of your Brethren and the Members of their respective Congregations here at Newbury on Wednesday the 22d Instant to consider of the said Proposals which shall be laid before you and the proper Method to obtain so desirable an end You are desired to be here on Tuesday in the Evening that we may enter on our work on Wednesday Morning resolving God willing to spend some time in Prayer before we begin I am SIR Your Affectionate Brother and Servant in the Lord William Taylor FINIS