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A53135 The countermine, or, A short but true discovery of the dangerous principles and secret practices of the dissenting party, especially the Presbyterians shewing that religion is pretended but rebellion is intended : and in order thereto, the foundation of monarchy in the state and episcopacy in the church are undermined / by one who does passionately wish the prosperity of the Church, his King and country. Nalson, John, 1638?-1686. 1677 (1677) Wing N96; ESTC R7744 126,642 332

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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
evident I desire all such whose Age will give them leave to call to mind whether they have never seen or heard that Salus Populi est suprema Lex publiquely asserted in Print and abused to countenance the most Villanous Actions that the welfare of the People of which these Men are the only competent Judges is above all Laws Persons and Considerations whatsoever and that Kings whose only true Title to their Crown Contrary to Scripture By me Kings Reign Proverb The Powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13. is the Peoples Election and Approbation and neither Succession nor ordination and appointment from God and Kingly Government if prejudicial to that Fundamental Law may by the People be abolished deposed nay and punished for such Delinquencies even to the loss of Crown and Life Have we not seen all this done as well as said Have you never heard that a King is Major Singulis but Minor Vniversis a little better man than Dick or Tom or Will if you take them barely by themselves in a Frock with a Cart-whip but by your Majesties leave good Sir King you are not so good a man as Mr. Multitude Have you never known the Time when the Commons of England were white Boyes and stroak'd over the Heads with the tickling Imagination That all the good People of the Nation were a free born People and I know not how many good morrows with which they were wont in those Dayes to cologue the World with a Bait of a pretended Liberty into the Trap of a real Slavery What they then thought they boldly writ and spoke and what they dare not now Speak yet they dare as boldly think that being a freedom which they cannot be deprived of and undoubtedly they do so and it is still their Judgment their Actions speak it most distinctly and plain It is not this or that King but Monarchy in general that they are against as not being a Government for their Turn nor any kind of Government by a Single Person and I am confident they did as much hate Oliver after he took upon him to be a Single Protector as before they lov'd him whilst he was only his Excellency and their Renowned and Victorious General It is a Common-wealth that is their Darling where every one is not without hopes of his being uppermost and that it may come to his Turn to have a Share in the Government And where amongst so many Elective Heads they are sure to make a Party and it shall go hard if not the Major whereas one single Person can be but of one Perswasion at one Time and it is a thousand to one never of theirs if he consults his own Security Settlement Safety Interest or Glory which because it is Natural for all men to do they cannot believe but he will And this is the reason of their Hatred of Monarchy because they fear it and knowing how inconsistent their Principles are one with another and that they cannot both have the Government they are afraid lest Soveraign Princes awakened by their Danger should by the most Rigorous Methods ease themselves of the Jealousie they justly entertain of such desperate Rivals and Competitors and this makes them likewise so industrious and restless in their Endeavours by making a Party to overbalance the power of the Prince and if possible by force to wrest his from him by which means they think it is only possible to secure themselves from Ruine Nor will they ever quit these Persuasions so long as they hold to their Principles which for ought I see is like to be as long as they live For if they be the Elect People of God and in the Right Way of true Worship and Religion they are bound in Conscience to promote and propagate it with or without the consent of their King 't is all one As we daily see they do by all their Actions and Indeavours And they who in his Royal City and before his face are not affraid to Violate his Laws and Proclamations will never fear the sword of Justice if once they are assured that their own is longer And though the Apostles teach no such Doctrine nor the Holy Martyrs ever propagated the Christian Faith or Church-Government with any other Blood but their own or with any other Weapons but Prayers and Tears these men are of another Opinion and can fight the Lords Battels and Curse Meroz as bitterly as the Angel did if they come not to help the Lord against the Mighty And for encouragement to fight I know no Doctrine like this and that of Mahomet which whatever they may do in others agree in this point that the Terminus vitae est immobilis Every mans Fate is in unalterable Characters written in his forehead Those feeble and effeminate Asiaticks had never carried their conquering Armes so far amongst the Hardy Europeans if they had not been inspired with this Doctrine of Fatality and that if it be decree'd that they must Dye in this Battel or in that Assault it is impossible for them to prevent it and if they must escape and overlive it they shall though they run upon the Mouth of the Roaring Cannon And in which likewise they agree and have a further Harmony if they fall by the Fatal Steel or undistinguishing Bullet they do not only die in the Bed of Honour but step immediately into Paradise which is but the just Recompence of those who sacrifice their Lives to propagate the Alchoran or the Good Old Cause I do not now wonder to have heard those of the Royal Party say so often that the Rebels fought like Turks since in this Opinion they were such Besides being the Elect and fighting Gods Cause they acquire a new Courage from the hopes they entertain that he is obliged to protect them and to fight from them that the Stars in their Courses shall fight against Sisera And how far such thoughts did Encourage our English Rebels a people naturally bold enough to attempt the most hazardous Enterprises Let those Loyal Gentlemen testifie who yet wear the Honourable Scars which they purchas'd in the defence of their King Country Laws Liberties and Religion against those desperate Villains Let the many Cruel Battels and desperate storms hard marches and hot Engagements they underwent let these be Witnesses it was not all for Pay and Plunder though these were good Encouragements But the Main of the Quarrel was pro Aris in their English against Altars for Religion and Reformation the Liberty of the Subject which if any thing can will inspire a Coward with Courage and make him Valiant And that the Cause was Gods they never then made any doubt nor yet make any more scruple of it than they do of their Election And what kind thoughts they have of the present Magistracy you shall ghess if you have any skill Ex pede Herculem to take the proportion of Hercules by the print of his foot One of these and a Teacher