you may see what thoughts the most moderate men heretofore had concerning the 0 way into which you are falling N. C. Truly I can scarce see for what end you have told me all these old stories C. That 's strange I was admonishing you of the care that you should take above all others not to run into these dangerous paths Who have not only heard all these things from those before us but also seen with your eyes and felt by dear experience the great swarms of Sects and Heresies that have come out of separate Congregations and the miserable havock they have made of all true Religion and Godliness Now what security I beseech you have any of you that the Congregations you begin to draw from us apart to your selves shall not break in time into as many little fractions and produce these bitter fruits which I have mentioned What charm what power have you to keep out this evil Spirit which alwayes haunted the separation All the Authority which your Ministers may think they have hath no foundation but the Passions of the common people It depends for the most part on the fancies of rude Artisans and Ignorant Mechanicks These will make their Divinity for them and they must still be inventing new conceits to entertain their Imaginations They are servants to such a world of Masters that it is evident they have reason to fear their own side as much as ours And when they have done all they can they are liable to be thought Impostors as oft as any man thinks he is taught of God and hath a new light shining into his mind Then shall you see again all those wild fancies fly about which are now in great measure fall'n to the ground Old England may become as mad as the New And such a woman as Mrs. Hutchinson that shall take upon her to repeat your Sermons as she did those of Mr. Cottons may be more cryed up than all the Ministers you have N. C. It is impossible C. That which hath been done more than once may be done again For the Wine of Separation as two New-England Ministers call it hath such a spirit in it as flyes up furiously into mens heads and works with a restless violence there It burries them head-long Mr. Allin and Mr. Shepherds Defence of nine Positions p 27. as they speak to strange distances that in separating from publick they separate from private in separating from corrupt Churches as no Churches they separate from the purest even those of their own in separating from pollutions in Gods Ordinances at last they fall to the storming of some if not the utter renouncing of all the Ordinances themselves For when rash and sudden men are grown Masters of their Consciences it troubles not them from whom they divide nor whither they run in separate wayes At the very next step they are under the Ministration of the Spirit as the Phrase was in the late times They live upon Pure and Naked God in themselves unclothed of Flesh and Form They are risen and caught up out of the Flesh into Spirit out of Form into Power out of Type into Truth out of Shadow into Substance out of the Sign into the thing Signified And so they drink wine new in the Kingdom even new in the Kingdom not in the Oldness of the Letter but in the Newness of the Spirit N. C. I remember how this Wine as you call it wrought in the late times and there are none figh more than we to think of the spiritual madness that then raged And I assure you we bewail and lament with many tears our present Divisions and have kept as many dayes as there are weeks in the year to seek the Lord for the healing of our sad breaches C. To what purpose is that as long as you keep them wide open by withdrawing your selves from the publick Assemblies of Gods people You had better spare all that breath for it is as ridiculous as if a man should cry and roar under the smart of a wound and yet would not keep himself from raking in it continually with his nailes Why do you not use the means of Union if you truly desire it What is the cause you follow not such Christian Counsel as I made bold the last time to leave with you That would be more effectual than all those Fasts and Prayers which in truth serve only to continue the Division and keep our Wounds gaping For they are the very things as you use them which make the Schism and yet they perswade the people that you are not too blame but the Bishops only N. C. O Sir that you would but lay the Saddle upon the right Horse You load us with many accusations but the Bishops are in fault who will not remove the subject of these contentions If you were not partial you would admonish them as well as us And tell them they ought not to stand so precisely upon indifferent things and alter nothing This would be a short way to remedy all our evils to take away the things which are offensive to the weak and so become inconvenient if not unlawful And you know who said that Contentious retaining of Customs is a turbulent thing as Innovations Why do you not put them in mind of these things but spend your time only in telling us our Duty C. I am not so well conceited of my self as to think I am alike able to judg what is convenient and what is lawful For it requires not only great understanding in the nature of things but also in the nature and temper of men in the state of affairs at home and abroad together with diligent and long observation and indeed all the perfections of a prudent Governor to be able to determine what is most expedient for a Church or State But every Christian may soon resolve or receive satisfaction about what is sinful or permitted to him Besides were I never so skilful I should not have the confidence to which it seems you are arrived to instruct my superiours It is enough for me to deal with my equals Though modest proposals and humble desires without any noise and stir I presume would never be disliked from any of us And had you always taken that course from the beginning it had been better for you But you were ever for assertions and positions as my Lord Bacon long ago observed and filled all the Nation as much as you could with displeasure against their Governors and taught them to esteem the compounding of controversies to savour of mans Wisdom and human Policy N. C. No we are now for an Accommodation C. You do well to put in that word now for it was ever other ways heretofore and Books were written against it as I will shew you if you desire it when you hoped to carry all before you And it is a great argument of your headiness and passion to say no more that when you had power to
Presbyterian heretofore about Uniformity and Obedience to Laws pag. 248 ERRATA PAge 3. Line 16. r. Ordinances P. 4. l. 15. r. witness to any P. 11. l. 18. marg r. * Second part p. 135. P. 19. l. 14. dele almost P. 22. l. 15. r. Discipline P. 29. l. 9. r. should find P. 32. l. 18. r. packt P. 48. l. 11. dele that before you P. 56. l. antepen dele an P. 60. marg r. p. 122. P. 73. l. 1. r. persons come P. 86. l. 2. r. the Generation P. 94. l. 26. dele now P. 120. l. 26. r. insnarked P. 129. l. 20. dele and P. 149. l. 24. r. forsaker P. 152. l. 21. r. neral of all because of the graces of some Ib. l. 18.21 r. Apostle P. 177. antepen r. as well as Innovations P. 180. l. 8. r. inconvenient P. 183. l. 19. r. objected P. 188. l. 7. r. that it is P. 215. l. 31. for abused r. devised P. 217. l. penult r. suspense P. 221. l. 7. r. that are Gods under God P. 222. l. 21. r. Friends P. 223. l. 6. r. a Book P. 228. l. 1. r. A great P. 229. l. 32. r. things are P. 232. l. 28. r. their sincerity P. 236. l. 19. r. selves challenge P. 237. l. 32. r. may justify A CONTINUATION of the Friendly Debate C. YOU are well met Neighbor How do you N. C. Very well through Mercy Why do you sigh C. To see you so far from mending your Schism that you proceed to make it wider and divide our very language Why cannot you speak as the rest of your Neighbors and say Well I thank God Is it a commendable thing to be Singular without any need and to separate from us even in your words and forms of speech Or is this a part of the Language of Canaan so much talk't of in the late times to be learnt of all those that will be accounted the People of God N. C. Take heed how you speak against the Israel of God They are a peculiar people and must not do after the manner of the Nations C. What Nations Do you take us to be all Heathens Nay such Heathens from whom you are not only to separate your selves but utterly to root out N. C. You carry our meaning too far C. No farther than some of your Sect do whom you have taught in a foonsh and dangerous manner to imitate the Scripture Phrasse and to apply all that concerned Israel to Themselves and all that concern'd the seven accursed Nations or Egypt and Babylon to their Neighbors N. C. I am not one of those but I and many others when we are askt about our welfare dare not speak as you do lest we should take Gods name in Vain of which you know Israel was to be very careful C. Is it to no purpose then to thank God for our own and our Families health Or to pray God would be with our Friend when we meet or part with him Perhaps you think that Boaz took Gods name in vain when according to the Custome in Israel he said to his Reapers the Lord be with you and that they were Offenders for replying the Lord bless thee I doubt ere long you will refuse to say upon occasion GOD SAVE THE KING for fear of taking Gods name in Vain N. C. Not so We can use such words when we are very serious but not commonly C. You made me believe the last time we talk't together that you were commonly if not alwayes Serious But now it seems the world is altered with you N. C. We are afraid you are not Serious but use these words so carelesly that you break the Third Commandment upon which account we would teach you to refrain them C. You are excellent Interpreters of Holy Scripture What a rare Comment should we have upon it if all your Expositions were but gathered and put together As you find words now used in common talk so they sound to your fancy there And this makes you take it so oft into your mouths in vain I mean besides its purpose and intention Alas that you should be no better instructed than generally to entertain this conceit that a man breaks the third Commandment if he mention the Name of God without lifting up his Eyes clapping his Hand on his Breast or some signification of Devotion This absurd Fancy I have heard some alledge as a Reason why they would not let their Children ask them Blessing i. e. desire them to pray to God for them And others have made this the cause why they would not teach them their Catechism nor any Prayers lest they should take Gods Name in vain that is in their sense make mention of it and not mind what they say N. C. I do not approve of such Opinions as these C. If you did you would condemn your self many hundred times in a Day For how oft do you tell us in common discourse of the People of God and the things of God and the Ordinance of God not minding that you mention his Name Nay how many times have we heard you say in your Prayers O LORD O GOD sometimes thrice in one sentence when we have great reason to think you did not know whether you used it so oft or no. Now which will you say That you sinned in this or that it is sufficient to have an habitual Reverence toward Almighty God and never to use his Name in an irreverent manner though we do not alwayes actually attend when we use it N. C. I have not considered this but was alway bred in a Belief that we break the Third Commandment when we use Gods name in common talk and that 's the Reason I did not answer you after the usual manner C. It 's well if you be not more careful to keep the Commandment in the Phrase-sense than in its proper and Principal meaning N. C. How now must we be beholden to you to invent a new word for us C. It cannot be new to you sure who are so well versed in a Divinity that consists in a manner wholly of Phrases and setting them aside hath little or nothing in it upon which account it may well be called Phrase-Divinity N. C. You will never leave your Pleasantness Pray talk more gravely and explain your self C. I 'le tell you then what I mean There are many I observe who have been very scrupulous about the Third Commandment and careful to keep it as the words are vulgarly used in our language now a-dayes who have made no Conscience at all of it at least notoriously broken it according to the true import of the Words among the Hebrews For as I have been taught when Moses said Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain c. His meaning was that no man should dare to call God to witness any thing he spoke and yet utter a falshood or not do according to his promise If he were so prophane he assures him
one of your Ministers was that he went to live under the Gospel And when they inquired of the welfare of their Friends the current Phrase was How do the Christians of such a Town According to the import of which language Mr. Bridge takes the boldness to call us Gentiles in the eares of the House of Commons * Fast Serm. Nov. 29. 1643. telling them that the Horns the Kings party may push and scatter for a time but the Carpenters viz. the Parliament shall fray them away and cast out these Gentiles And another bold Writer * Paraenetick to the Parl. and Assembly for Liberty 1644. tells them that the Army had often put the Armies of the Aliens to flight and therefore must be considered Nay he is so profane as to say take heed of resisting the Holy-Ghost for that mighty works have been done by these men you cannot deny p. 12. Miracles it seems were revived again to convince us who were either poor Legalists or Heathen Idolaters Yea God did by a continued series of Miracles and wonders if you will believe the Rump of the Parliament * Declar. of 27. Sept. 1649. exalt his name in the eyes of this and neighbor Nations by their means But alas we were the most reprobate and hard hearted of all other Aliens that could not be converted Vncircumcised Philistines in Mr. Case's language Nay Amalekites with whom the Lord would have war for ever N. C. Now you grosly abuse them C. Read the Preface to Mr. W. Bridges his Sermon * Preacht before the House of Com. Febr. 22. 1642. and judge whether I be guilty of that fault or no. N. C. What doth he say C. He tells you that the business of Christs Kingdom is lookt upon by the squint-eyed multitude under an Hexapla of considerations N. C. What 's an Hexapla C. Nay you must not trouble your self about his phrase for he tells you in the conclusion of that preface It is such as I can speak and I desire to be thankful it is no worse considering my deserts N. C. Well then let 's hear it as bad as it is C. After he hath done with the Theological the Historical and the Legal he comes to the fourth consideration which is Critical And what 's that think you N. C. You would not let me ask Questions and therefore I 'le make no answer to yours C. You would never guess if you did nor can the most Critical of you all tell why he gave it that name for it is only this My money shall never help to kill men To which he Answers well if you hinder the killing quelling of those who would both kill and quell us ours our Religion Kingdom you become friends of Gods enemies and ours and resolve to make peace with them with whom God hath resolved to have war Exod. 17. ult What think you now did not this man look upon us as Amalekites and wish the Servants of the living God to whom he addresses his Hexapla of considerations would have war with us eternally Do you not see what is like to become of us if men of this Spirit have Power again proportionable to their Will must not our name be blotted out and must not he be accursed that doth the work of the Lord negligently N. C. I pray no more Questions C. And then all your Victories will be called once more the return of prayers which you take to be as powerful as the lifting up of Moses his hands And all the Miseries which befal us the day of the Lords vengeance for the blood of his faithful servants For I must tell you another effect of your Pride is N. C. Do not put me among that number C. Their pride then is to think every favour that is done them to be their due and so they are bound to thank no body for it God they fancy makes the wicked serve them and causes them to do that for their sake which they had no intention to do And on the contrary if any justice be done upon any of themselves presently it is voted persecution cruelty enmity to the People of God and hatred of his Truth and Ways But let them exercise never so great oppression tyranny and cruelty upon their Neighbors it shall be cryed up as zeal for God and his cause Love to justice and pure Religion at least excused as a fulfilling the Decrees of the Almighty spoiling the Egyptians and acting for the Lord in the day of Vengeance N. C. This is your time and so you may say what you will against Christ's witness-bearing people while they are in their sackcloth condition It is now only their witnessing time but C. But what Why do you make a stop N. C. The times will mend and the Witnessing time they say will be over C. You would have me think then that you speak their sense not your own But I perceive you are a little taken with those new Phrases of the Witnessing time and witnessing work As indeed it was alway the humor of your party if a noted man invented an unusual Phrase presently to form their mouths to that new mode of speaking Just like a pack of Hounds that when one begins to open immediately all sollow and almost deafen one with the noise When a Preacher for instance from that text David served his Generation by the will of God raised this impertinent Observation That it is our duty to mind Generation-work instantly all Pulpits sounded with this Doctrine of Generation-work That was the phrase in those days In so much that you should hear both Minister and people bewailing it in their prayers that they had not minded Generation-work more Which made some good innocent souls that were not acquainted with the secret blush when they first heard it and wonder what they meant And to say the truth that was a hard matter to tell For the Presbyterians I think meant nothing but reforming according to the Covenant the Lord having given them such an Opportunity as the General Assembly speak in their Answer * Presented 25. Aug. 1642. to the Declaration of the Parliament of England Where they tell them that when the Supreme Providence gives opportunity of the accepted time and the Day of Salvation no other work can prosper in the hands of his servants if it be not apprehended and with all reverence and faithfulness improved And withall they add This Kirk when the Lord gave them the calling considered not their own deadness nor staggered at the promise through unbelief but gave glory to God And who knows but the Lord hath now some controversie with England which will not be removed till first and before all the Worship of his name and the Government of his house be setled according to his will This was their Generation-work But others meant by this Phrase the pulling down every thing that they imagin'd Antichristian Presbytery and all And some went so far as to
are from it N. C. What shall a man do then C. He must observe these Rules of that Good man 1. Keep all main Truths which are most plainly set down in the Word or by the Law of Nature ingraven on every mans heart 2. Believe every thing truly and necessarily gathered by an immediate consequence from the Text. 3. Follow evident examples fit for him either as a Christian or his special calling requires 4. Avoid that which is plainly forbidden or follows necessarily by an immediate consequence 5. Follow true Antiquity and the General practice of the Church of God in all ages where they have not erred from the evident Truth of God 6. If thou sufferest saith he let it be for known Truth and against known wickedness for which thou hast example in Gods word or of the holy Martyrs in Church story But beware of far fetcht consequences or of suffering for new devices and for things formerly unto all Ages unknown seem they never so holy and just unto man N. C. But what if the thing commanded seem to me a sin C. He answers some things sinfully commanded may be obeyed without sin as Joab obeyed David in numbring the People Secondly Consider how dost thou conceive it to be sin Is it simply so Shew me the prohibition else where no Law is there is no Transgression Or is it so accidentally that is in the abuse which may be removed or in respect of the Ignorance of the Lawfulness making thee to doubt and fear to offend Use all diligence for resolution And if it be not a known sin to thee certainly but only by probability consider whether probability of sinning may give thee a sufficient discharge for not obeying a plain Precept and to neglect necessary Duties otherwise both to God and man N. C. Would you have me do things while I am full of scruples whether I may or no Doth not the Scripture say whatsoever is not of Faith is sin Rom. 14.23 C. He takes no notice of that place But since you mention it I 'le give you an Answer not from my self Mr. John Geree Resolution of 10. Cases Licensed by Mr. Cranford 1644. whose judgment you value not much but from a Divine who we are told suffered much under the Bishops Things wherein doubts arise saith he are of a double Nature First Such as are meerly arbritary and at mine own dispose These may be left undone without scruple but not done with it because the inconvenience of Omission is but a little self-suffering Such are the things the Apostle speaks off forbearing the use of our Liberty in eating flesh or the like case If a man doubt whether he may do that or whether he may play at Tables or Cards the omission here being no more but only denying our selves a little content the doubt should make a man forbear But then there are other things that are not arbitrary but under a command as coming to the Sacrament obedience to the higher powers in things lawful Now if scruples arise about these and a man doubts he sins if he act and he also doubts he sins if he forbear it is neither clear that the thing to be done is sinful and so to be forborn nor perfectly clear that it is a duty and so to be done In this case he must weigh the Scales and where the Soul apprehends most weight of reason that way he must incline though the other scale be not altogether empty And this done after humble and diligent search with bewailing our infirmity that we are no more discerning will be accepted of God God puts not his people on necessity of sinning nor can our scruples dispense with his commands N. C. Sometime I think this is clear and solid Reason but many Friends think otherwise and I am loth to offend them by doing these things which our Governors require C. But consider First they may take offence when none is given Bern. Counsels of Peace and then the fault is their own and you not chargeable therewith Secondly the Question is whether they be offended in respect of what themselves know or but led by affection disliking of other mens dislike Intreat the former to let thee abound for such things in thy own sense and shew them that herein you may Brotherly disagree for the latter inform their judgment if they will yield to reason If not then consider Thirdly whether thou art bound to nourish up such men in their folly and to respect their partial affection being more carried away with an overweening of some mens persons than any thing at all with the right understanding of the cause And then Fourthly consider the power of the Magistrate and whether his Authority commanding do not take away the offence which might otherwise be given by a voluntary Act. And Lastly that a man should not stand more upon avoiding dislike in private persons than offence to publick Authority as I said before But alas as he saith at the end of his Book †Separatis Schism adjoyn'd to the other p. 161. Charity and such like graces are far to seek now adaies Men on all hands judge of things perversly This they will allow and that again humourously they will not like That which maybe justly done well without offence thereat will others be unjustly offended Things doubtful men take sinisterly yea they dare censure what they never saw condemn as ill what they knew not suspect where they have no cause gain-say where there ought to be no contradiction partial to themselves and rigorous towards others Authority will rule thus and so Subjects will obey with Exceptions Judgment from the word is not so much a Guide as will and affection in too many are made Masters These be ill dayes and contentious unhappy times in which men either will do that they will do of themselves or else fall to humour parties not simply receiving a love of the truth for the truths sake and so come to pertakings which doth but increase contention till all come to confusion except the Lord in his great mercy prevent the same N. C. And turn us all to a more moderate course and there keep us C. You have read the Book for those are the words that follow N.C. No. But I think there is much of truth in what he sayes and it had been well if his Counsels had been then followed C. Alas they who were chiefly concern'd in them were so far from following them that they took no farther notice of them than only to revile him that wrote them N. C. Methinks none should be so brutish C. It is as I tell you Mr. Ainsworth making an answer to this Book wholly omitted these Counsels of Peace save only that he once mention'd them with this haughty censure that perhaps the Author knew no more than Caiphas what he said Such men will not grant us able to say any good thing N. C. But his was an acknowledgment the
tell us p. 10. That some are faln from the Truth which they saw so much despised and back slidden to Popery as the only Religion in their opinion wherein Vnity and Order is maintained And a little after p. 16. they say they are afraid lest too many may be too well conceited of that Religion finding Rome justified by Englands Confusion as Sodom was by Israels sin You may say perhaps according to your usual manner that all these were wicked But this is not so easily proved as peremptorily said And there want not good reasons to make us think that several well disposed persons by occasion of this Schism and the Scorn cast upon our Governors and Divine Service which accompanies it have forsaken our Communion and gone thither where they heard there was more Unity Order and reverence to Authority N. C. Our Ministers are as much against those who revile your Worship and Service or do not reverence Authority as you can be C. How doth that appear There is nothing more frequent with such as Mr. Bridge than to teach the people that our way of Worship and Church Government is Antichristian Read but the 5. of his Ten Sermons p. 370. and you will see I do not bely him Or for more full satisfaction I refer you to another Book of his called Seasonable Truths in Evil Times * Newly Princed 1668. where you may find him instructing them too plainly p. 118. that such as he have their Orders to preach or prophesy from Jesus Christ himself but Others by whom he can mean none but our Ministers have their Orders and power from Men from Prelates from the Beast for these are all one in his language Nay more than this he teaches the poorest weakest man or woman to go to Jesus Christ for a power to Prophesy remembring them what one Alice Driver said in Queen Mary's daies I 'le set my foot against the foot of the proudest Prelate of them all in the cause of Jesus Christ And therefore why should you not go to Christ says he and lay your selves flat upon the Promise and say to him O Lord I am a poor weak creature I fear I shall never be able to bear my Testimony but thou hast said I will give power to my two witnesses and I am one of thy witnesses Now then O Lord give power to me c. By which you may judge what he thinks of those Magistrates that uphold our Worship and Orders and allow no such weak creatures as his silly credulous followers to commence Prophets and Prophetesses when ever they shall fancy that Jesus Christ himself hath given them Power and Orders to preach and whether they be the Godly Magistrates or no Gods anointedones whom he speaks of p. 110. N. C. Those that I am acquainted withal dislike his boldness as much as your self C. If the rest of your Ministers have such an hearty abhorrence as I have of those that cast dirt even in the face of Authority it self let them shew it by some means or other Why do they not petition his Majesty now as some of your Churches did the late Protector not many years ago that he would chastise such Persons as these N. C. I remember no such thing C. But I do and you shall find it in the address presented to Richard Cromwel from the County of Northampton There after many high commendations of his Father whom they call the light of their eyes and the breath of their Nostrils and great expressions of joy that he had left him to them as a most choise Legacy they desire he would shew tenderness toward the name of God against the bold Blasphemers of his Magistracy Defamers of his sacred Ordinances Seducers from Truth Corrupters of his Worship And then that he would exercise just severity against despisers of Dignities and revilers of Authority Whose unhallowed Tongues set on fire from hell spare not to flash out their insolent reproaches and impious execrations against his Fathers Sepulchre and his own throne But I consider that in those daies it was their concernment to have despisers and revilers punisht Now they serve the Cause and help to disgrace the present establishment which is the reason I suppose that all the Churches are so mute in this matter N. C. You take the Liberty to say what you list but let me say little or nothing And when you have done you write a Dialogue between Your self and a Non-conformist in which you make him speak just what you think good and no more Is this fair dealing C. Where did you get the sole privilege of writing Dialogues You imagine perhaps we have forgot those that you entertain'd the people withal some years ago but our memories are not yet so slippery I call to mind for instance the Dialogue between a Countrey-Gentleman and a minister of the Word about the Common-Prayer answered by Authority 1641. And another between a Loyalist and a Royalist about our Civil Liberties an 1644. The first of these I can scarce forget if I would the Author of it Mr. Lowes Hughes imparting to me such an extraordinary piece of Learning as this that Kyrieleeson is a word compounded of Hebrew and Greek signifying in English Lord have mercy upon us He furnisht me also with a memorable reason why the Mass-Book leaves out the Dexology at the end of the Lords Prayer because the Pope saies he will have none of his Church neither Priest nor People to give so much honour and glory to God Which he was so well conceited of that he repeats it twice within the compass of a few leaves This good man I sometimes fancy would have been a chosen instrument and done marvelous well to write a RATIONALE of the Directory In which he might have told us that RATIONALE was a word compounded of Latin and English signifying All Reason And inform'd us in particular that the cause why the Assembly left it to mens liberty to leave out the whole Lords Prayer if they pleased was only this that all their Church might give all honour and glory to Jesus Christ So I suppose his Affection would have made him say though if he had followed his Reason it would have led him to this that as the Pope left out some of it because he would not do our Saviour so much honour so they permitted men to leave out all that every man might do him as little honour as he pleased N. C. You cannot for your life forbear to lead me now and then to some mirth C. I intended only to represent how your Ministers sometime abuse themselves more than any of us ever did As for my self I am not conscious of the least abuse I have put upon you nor that I have made you say any thing but what your people are wont to talk Certain I am that all the wit your Party hath shall never be able to find any such Absurdity in my Book as that Dialogue against
on all the Subjects under the Pain of being incapable of any Office if they refused it But now you will be free from all imposition of this Nature And an Oath enjoyn'd by the King and both the Houses under no severer penalty than a small Restraint is look't upon as a grievous Oppression There are those likewise that can remember when the Commons alone put out another Order about some of the affairs of Religion But now a Law enacted by the Kings Authority is thought an high invasion of Christs Prerogative and he must not meddle in matters of his Worship The reason is any thing may be done by any Body to advance your fancies but nothing against them by no creature in the World Nay we have not forgotten the time when Mr. Case used this Argument among others to perswade the People to take the Covenant * Sermons about the Covenant p. 64. because Antichrist and his faction had prosper'd so much by entring into Covenants therefore the People of God should try what this way will do which hath been so advantageous to the enemy For God said he may make use of that Stratagem to ruin their Kingdom which they used to build it But now if any of us say that the same Persons have maintain'd a great reverence in the people to their Religion by many Stately Ceremonies splendid Vestures and Pompous Rites and therefore we may hope to keep the Ordinances of God from contempt by a few solemn and grave Ceremonies by decent habits and such rites and gestures as may beseem the dignity of our Religion presently you raise an out-cry against us and the People are told that we are Popishly affected of an Antichristian spirit and imitate Idolaters For which I can assign no cause but this that then the Argument was for you and now it makes for us And you are resolved to serve your selves by all means though it be by approving and anon rejecting the very same things If a thing like you well it shall go very hard but you will find some Scripture for it And if none speak plainly you will torture and draw some or other to be on your side and labour to prove that they signifie according to your meaning But if a thing dislike you then you ask for plain Scritprue Nothing will satisfie unless we shew it you in express terms It is Superstition Will worship any thing but good unless we produce a text in so many words to confirm it Of the same shifting humour was the late Army as appears by their unparalel'd Story which in brief is this On the 20. of April 1653. they turn'd their Masters whom they had long served out of doors as a company of Self-Seekers who minded their own private more than the publick Good About six years after finding the good Spirit declining which formerly appeared among them in carrying on the great work those are their Canting expressions and the good old Cause it self become a reproach they were led to look back and examine the cause of the Lords withdrawing his wonted presence from them And among other things they remembred what Injuries they had done to the remnant of the long Parliament and that they were eminent asserters of that Cause and had a special presence of God with them and were signally blessed in that Work And therefore invited them by their Declaration of May 6. 1659. in which you may find these things to come and sit again promising to yield their uttermost Assistance for their sitting in safety Would you not imagine now that they would for ever reverence these Eminent these Blessed men and that to oppose them in their great work would be in their opinion to fight against God to drive away the good Spirit and to endeavour to destroy the Cause of God And yet it was not long before they were of another mind They held themselves for all this to be the greater Saints the Army of the living God and so immutably setled in his favour that they should not lose it do they what they would And therefore as soon as ever the Parliament refused to act according to their mind they refused to yield their obedience When they voted some of their Commissions void and resolved to govern the Army by Commissioners in stead of a Lieutenant General these late penitents could see nothing of God any longer among them The special Presence of God vanished and in a moment disappeared So that on the 13th of the next October they lockt up the doors of the House set themselves once more above their Masters and in an insolent manner declared * Declara agreed at Wallingford House Octob. 27. all their Orders Acts pretended Acts or Declarations and all proceedings thereupon had or done on Munday the 10. of that Month and on Tuesday and Wednesday following null and void to all intents and purposes in as full and ample a manner as if they had been never done And immediately after they pact the Men away after these Acts and Orders Nay this they did notwithstanding that they had stiled themselves several times but five dayes before this 10. of October Your faithful Servants the Army and professed that having diligently inquired into their hearts and wayes Humble Represent and Petit. Octob. 5. they found nothing among them but faithfulness and integrity to the Parliament concluding their address in this manner that notwithstanding all endeavours to the contrary they would by the help of God be found faithful to them Were not these gallant fellows Wonderful constant to their Principles and Professions Mightily overawed by the presence of God Single-hearted and faithful to their word Yes by all means you must needs say for of such as these a great part of the Churches of the Saints is now composed And faithful they were to themselves and that was enough Constant to this principle that they were alway in the right and what would you have more They could Cant still in Scripture language and therefore God was not withdrawn from them They could fast and pray still and had a power to turn even the Lords-day into a day of Humiliation and therefore the Good Spirit had not forsaken them They hated Antichrist that is us and were resolved to burn the flesh of the Whore with fire so still remained the Army of the Lord of Hosts For as if they had some such work in hand as the Apostles had they call upon all the Godly in the nation to say on their behalf who are sufficient for these things and to cry aloud for them before the Throne of Grace that the Lord himself would appear and carry on his work in their hand And great reason there was to expect it since they had once more injur'd those who asserted his cause and done that very thing for which as they said he had before withdrawn his wonted presence from them O the Impudent foreheads of these Men O the
the bondage of the Church the straightning of the Spirit the limiting of Christ Edw. Gangr 1 part p. 212. and the ecclipsing of the glory of the Father Nay it is pretty to observe how the very Mystery of Iniquity you had so long complain'd on was now found working among you Vniformity Mr. Saltmarsh said was a piece of it And Mr. Dell in his Epistle before his Sermon of Right Reformation preached before the Parliament calls Presbytery a new form of that mystery of iniquity which had been so long a working The Beast they held had only chang'd its shape and taken another name and so they baited it most fiercely as you had taught them And told you in effect what the Proverb says that Goose and Gander and Gosling are three sounds but one thing But they would not part with you thus for after they had done with this then they fell upon your darling the Solemn League and Covenant This became a brand of infamy a Cains mark almost as Mr. Case tells us * Thanksg Serm. for taking of Chester p. 26. so that if they would stigmatize a man to purpose they would say He He is a Covenanter As you had told us that we made an Idol of the Common-Prayer so Mr. Peters told you publickly in a Sermon at the three Cranes that you kept such a stir about the Covenant as if you would have the people make an Idol of it Mr. Feak also called it the great Idol of the two Kingdoms And so fit had this word been found to do service that at last one told us that you had got two Idols for on one For the Parliament and the Pulpit said an * Letter to Card. Barber Outlandish Gentleman imitating the language of the times are the two great Idols of the people the greatest that ever were For it 's held a kind of blasphemy to speak against the one and the whole Body of Religion is nail'd to the other It comes to my mind also how you who joyn'd in the outcryes against Malignants were numbred in conclusion among them and said to be grown indeed to a more refined Malignancy but that there was no greater difference between a Presbyter and a Prelate than between a half Crown piece and two shillings and six pence And as your good friend Mr. Vicars had told us that God had made us to be the very drudges and Scul-boyes of his Church and children So Mr. Peters in good time told you in a Pamphlet of his that the Presbyterians were no better than Gibeonites who might help to hew stone and square Timber for a more glorious building N. C. Will you never have done C. You must let me remember you what a mighty clamor you raised against the Bishops as if they had been so many Ishmaels that persecuted Gods Isaacs and you have not forgot sure how oft you were called your selves the Carnal seed the fleshly children the persecuters of the children of the free woman For your Ministers that accused the Bishops and made it a main part of their Remonstrance to the house of Commons in the beginning of the Wars that they had put some who were but Serving-men into Orders and made them Ministers saw in a little time a whole swarm of vile creatures nothing so good as Serving-men making themselves Ministers and setting up for the most Gospel-preachers And there was no remedy but all their preaching and printing and petitioning against it was despised These taught the people to call them blind Guides as they had taught them to call our Priests Nay their Masters at last incouraged and rewarded the scoffs of those that said These blind Guides travailing as they thought to Sion are faln into the ditch in the Isle of Wight Insatiable hirelings Gehazi's cheaters pulpited Divines and a great lurry of such like names were liberally dealt to them as you may see if you will not believe me in their own complaint called A Seasonable Exhortation p. 11. Nay the Army it self which had been so instrumental in all this wickedness and magnified by these revilers as the Army of the Lamb at last heard themselvs called the Abomination of Desolation All which I mention only for this end to shew what your Ministers got by instructing the people in this easie Art of disgracing all they dislik'd with the names of Antichristian Babylonish and such like As they had done so they were requited And while the Episcopal Clergy silently bore the punishment of their sins they that had cast out their names as abominable were whipt with their own rods When they thought to reign as kings without us immediately they were assaulted as Egyptian Tyrants when they expected all should bow to the Scepter of Christ in their hand they saw men rising up against them as Antichristian Those that had heard their Invectives against us imploy'd them against themselves And all the Dung they had laid at our doors was flung by those that had been their followers in their own faces If I were indued with the Spirit of Mr. Vicars or Mr. Case I should have said upon this occasion Behold the finger of God! the Work of him that created the Spirit of man See how the Lord over-ruled mens hearts and ordered their Spirits to terrifie these Presbyters Or Mr. Brightman would have taught me to say The Lord hath made your Priests contemptible to the whole people because they have broken their Covenant But I dare not imitate their boldness nor talk as if I was infallible I will let them enjoy this particular gift to themselves of knowing what God doth upon the spirits of men For my part I think they might be able to say all this even without any extraordinary help of the Devil There was no need that Beelzebub should come to inspire them with this fury For they were already possessed with a mighty Rage That Spirit which spoke out of the Press and Pulpit had abundantly furnish't them with this powerful and taking Rhetorick And if Mr. Brightman had lived to that day he would have wondred to see how near of kin his Heat was to this Fire Nay he would have been ashamed of his rare way of reasoning against our Church when he had heard some retort his words against us upon the Philadelphians I mean Disciplinarians saying Truly the Lord hath powred contempt upon Princes Those that honour him doth he honour and those that despise him shall be despised And thus I have at last opened this rotten Vlcer I hope you will not be angry if I use his words * In 3. Rev. 17. latter end If my labour shall be acceptable and the sore being purged be healed again how great thanks shall I return to God But if the evil shall be only stirred up and the handling of it shall offend the sick and sore parties I will yet comfort my self with the conscience of the good discharge of my Duty and with the ordinary
superfluous thing upon another No set Form can content it no limits or bounds can hold it but it is still inventing something new to please your selves and others and then you fancy God is pleased because you are I know you have a conceit that you keep your selves within the limits of the Word and that you dare not for a world stir beyond the confines which God prescribes But this only makes your Ignorance appear the more gross as I will plainly shew you N. C. I guess by what you said the last time whereabouts you will be but it will turn us too much out of our way to enter into that discourse at this time C. Well then I l'e let it alone till you give another occasion And the rather because I would have you go as soon as may be and ask what Will-worship is That 's another word in these Witnesses mouths of as much efficacy and as little sense as all the rest for when they are angry they charge one another with it as well as us The Independents were wont to say that it was Will-worship to set up the office of Ruling Elders in the Church And I can shew you one that calls the Church-Covenant requiring men to give some signs of grace and all the way of Admission of Members into Independent Congregations by the very same Name And therefore I believe you will soon leave such to wrangle it out and go and ask some others what they mean to bawl so against Forms But I believe there is not one of a thousand can give a reason why he may not as well accuse the whole frame of Nature as our Liturgy upon this account Especially if you tell him that there is nothing in Heaven or Earth but hath a Form That when we understand it is by forming some conceptions in our Mind and that we form our Speech or words to make our conceptions understood by others And therefore even your Prayers must be in a Form or else they are sensless stuff a meer noise and sound that no body can understand N. C. We are only against set Forms C. And so many of your Prayers have none at all but are then thought most heavenly when they are most confused and to have much of God in them when they have nothing of Man For the common word is I like not Forms c. He still sticks in Forms He is a dull formal man Which are Phrases as set and stinted as our Prayers They are never out of use but repeated an hundred times a day No repetitions they think are bad but only of the same Prayers nor any other constant Forms unlawful no not of railing and reviling but only those of Divine Service These they leave to the wicked and take the other to themselves N. C. Pray do not say so C. I must say more than that They hate a Form of Prayer but love to pray in these reviling forms of speech For they tell God how a Superstitious and Antichristian way of worship hath justled out his own Institutions That men worship the Graven Images of their own inventions That Gebal Ammon and Amalek are risen up against them And the people are taught to go and spread their anger and threatnings before the Lord And to tell him that it is an angry time a persecuting time a day of great wrath abundance of anger and wrath Seasonable Truths p. 180 182 184. and hatred and malice in the bearts of men against the people of God at this day Or as Mr. B. * Now his language is in another place Popish men have laid their net privily for us and we may go to Christ and say * Fulness of Christ p. 37. Lord pull us out of the net that they have laid for us for thou art our strength And for any thing I can see much of that they call the Power of Prayer consists in such Forms as these N. C. Alas You know not what that power is C. I know it is just such another word as Form which they use without any certain-sense as they are wont to do the Apostles words concerning a Form of Godliness without the Power of it This Form of Godliness if you will believe some is Praying by a set Form * Answer of the Ministers of New Engl. to the first Position p. 2. and then the Power of Godliness must be praying without one N. C. It cannot be C. It is as I tell you And this is one of the reasons that the world hate the Saints for that the Saints are a praying people You must not mistake Forms of Prayer they can indure Seasona Truths p. 168. but the Power of Prayer they cannot bear They are Mr. B. his words N. C. No indeed not if it consist of such railing language as you speak of But neither you nor I it 's like apprehend his meaning C. Do you know what he means when he gives this for another reason of the hatred of the world to the Saints that they destroy their Gods destroy their Idols Men of all things cannot endure to have their Gods destroyed now the people of God do destroy the Gods of the wicked no wonder therefore that they are so provok't against the Saints and people of God Ib. p. 167. N. C. Not I. C. Then you are very dull He means our Worship which they are wont to rail upon in those terms also calling it Idolatry worshipping the Golden Calves and setting up new Gods which are such rude and beastly Clamours that I am loth to foul my mouth with naming them They are only vile and abominable Phrases which every Ignorant wretch can serve himself of when he lists to reproach his Neighbours At first the Presbyterians called Conformity to the Innovations as they were stiled by them Worshipping the Golden Calves Afterward the Independents called the Directory the Golden Calves of Jeroboam Edw. Gangr 1 part p. 36.52 and affirm'd that this order to help in the way of Worship was a breach of the second Commandment Nay Mr. Burton one of the Witnesses said that to make a Law about Religion was to set up the Golden Calves or Nebuch adnezzar's Image Or if you will have another Phrase for it to chuse new Gods and then was war in the Gates Ib. p. 25. as an Independent Preacher said at Chester when they were about to chuse Lay-Elders But to be even with them the Presbyterians threw those Phrases back again in their faces and askt the five Brethren Is the Golden Calf of Independency and Democracy come out of it self without Aarons making it And in conclusion one Web as the same man tells us called the Scripture it self that Golden Calf and Brazen Antapologia p. 188. Serpent which set at variance King and Parliament and Kingdom against Kingdom and said Things would never do well till the Golden Calf and Brazen Serpènt were beaten in pieces * No wonder therefore
by forbearance all this while they have fretted like a Gangrene into the Bowels both of City and Country And I fear we have kept their Counsels so long that many of them are already past cure and we almost remediless in our rents tending unto Ruin Narration of some Church Courses in New England by W. R. p. 51. Nay do not frown as if I were too sharp and severe They are not my words but some of your own against the Independent Brethren and may with as much or more justice be now applied to you all N. C. I think there are other courses more dangerous than those that ought to be lookt after Prophaneness I mean is the great thing which both you and we ought to set our selves against and that I must tell you abounds more among you than any where else C. I cannot tell N. C. What cannot you tell Whether prophaneness should be opposed by both with the greatest Vigour C. Be not so fierce First I cannot tell whether Prophaneness abound more now than it did in the days when you reigned I told you the last time what the Assembly told the Parliament of the sudden growth of wickedness since they began to sit And I am sure it was not checkt in the following years but the seasonable exhortation of the greatest part of the London Ministers complained no longer ago than 1660. of the great Wickedness broken loose among us which it seems was chained and bound up while the Bishops governed and as a great instance of it tell us in the conclusion of that sad Lamentation that some as we are credibly inform'd are grown to that height of wickedness as to worship the Devil himself p. 10. And then secondly I cannot tell whether the Wickedness that hath so much abounded beyond that in Elder days be not in great part to be imputed to your selves For all the time you declaimed against the Ignorance and blindness of the people you cast many fearful stumbling-blocks before them as an honest Suffolk-man told you some years agone while they could not but see or hear your scornful censuring and condemning others greedy panting after and gasping at the Riches Honors Mournfull Complaint to the Knights and Burgesses of that County 1656. and Preferments of this World fraudulent circumventing and over-reaching your Neighbours cruel revenge upon those you judged your Enemies when you had power bitter quarrelling and contending one against another and yet notwithstanding all those sins which might have justly caused you to lye in the Dust they saw you lifted up boasting of the glorious times you had made proudly appropriating to your selves the honourable name of Christians Saints and the godly Party Nay the people were not so blind but they could see how you measured the Saint-ship of your selves and others rather by some private opinions or small punctilio's of worship than by the great things of Faith Righteousness and Mercy For they found some men whose profession of Christianity was attended with these accounted no better than civil men while others were cryed up for Saints and Godly who were much deficient in them Besides your Ministers took no care to Catechise the youth in the Country Nay brought that Ordinance into such Contempt that to this very day a man is not thought to do his Duty who spends the afternoons of the Lords day in that instruction They heard nothing but Orations in the Pulpit morning and evening and those God knows very sorry ones in most places As for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper a great many honest-hearted people were frighted from it You made such lofty Rails as he observes about the Table that few or none of the poor people could come at it As if you thought it a matter of great piety to confine the Members of Christs Body to a little room and cause his Death and Passion to be known and remembred only by a few As if it were an honour to Christ and an advantage to the world that his name and memorial should perish from the hearts and mouths of a great part of the people professing his Name and ingaged in Covenant to him Nay in many places they never saw it administred to any at all for many years Your Ministers chusing rather to deprive themselves and others of whom they had a good opinion of this Heavenly Banquet than afford it to many well-meaning though no talking people And so while they complained of their living in known sins they themselves lived many years in a notorious omission of this Duty Sometimes indeed they would invite men to this feast but then by their preaching they hindred and discourag'd the most if not all in a Country-congregation as if they were too forward to acknowledg the benefits of Christ and keep up his remembrance In short many of them accounted the people no better than Heathens and upon that score would not baptize their children and thereby indeavoured to make them so and quite thrust them out of the flock of Christ O that you would all search your hearts as that honest man said to find out the true root of this Spirit of Separation and observe narrowly whether under other specious pretences or with some pious intentions there were not a bitter root of pride and haughtiness causing you to affect singularity and desire to appear alone to the view of men thinking it below your worth to be found in Communion with those whom in opinion you have laid so much below your selves But let that be as it will Thirdly I cannot readily tell which are worse the Publicans and Harlots or the Scribes and Pharisees This I know that there have a long time been a great many of the last who justified themselves and lookt upon all others as abominable Dr. Burges * Fire of the Sanct. uncov an 1625. in the preface I remember tells us with a great confidence that those who kept heretofore such a frantick coyle about ceremonies and thought they never took their level right but when at every bolt they shot they struck a Bishops cap sheire off his head were more fantastical Ignorant Proud self-willed negligent and deceitful in their particular callings than many whom they despised and condemn'd to hell for Carnal men As any observing Eye might easily discern Now what to think of these men in compare with the other let honest Martin Bucer tell you who was one of the first Reformers and whose name I know you cannot but reverence as well as I on many accounts N. C. How do you know what Martin Bucer saith C. I understand a little Latin and besides I have seen the latter part of his Comments on the Prophet Zephaniah translated into our tongue where he tells us towards the Conclusion That there were some among them under a pernicious Mistake abhorring only these gross things to wear brave clothes to fare deliciously to drink and swill to whore to heap up riches carefully to