offend in Doctrine than in Discipline Sure much Learning or Haughty Pride and Ambition Self-ends and Interest hath made these Men mad And so fulfilled the Prophecy of Hosea 9.7 The Prophet is a fool and the Spiritual man mad Sure God hath turned these wise Ecclesiastical Polititians backwards and made their knowledge foollish Isai 44.25 However I will say thus much to them That Liberty of Conscience is undeniably the right of every true Believer viz. to judge of such things as belong chiefly to the knowledge and service of God whether they are above the reach and light of Nature and therefore liable to be variously understood by human Reason or enjoyned or forbidden by Divine Precept and to follow that full perswasion whereby every one is assured that his Belief and Practice as far as he is able to apprehend is according to the Will of God and his Holy Spirit within him which undoubtedly we ought to follow much rather than any publick Conscience or Law of Man Magistrate or not Magistrate as both the Word of God bids us and the very dictate of Reason tells us Acts 4.19 Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye And we have no other outward Divine Rule to judge by than the Scriptures nor no other within us but the illumination of the Spirit so interpreting that Scripture as warrantably only unto our selves which commands us to search the Scriptures daily whether those things are so Acts 17.11 and gives us Reason also let every man prove his own not his Magistrates work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another tho' publick Conscience for every man shall bear his own burden Gal. 6.4 5. Is it not false Doctrine in the Papists to teach that Believers only as the Church believes are discharged in God's Account Is it not the general consent of sound Protestants that neither Traditions Councils nor Canons of any visible Church much less any Edicts of any Magistrate or Civil Session but the Scripture only can be the final Judge or Rule in matrers of Religion and that only in the Conscience of every Christian to himself For if the Church be not sufficient to be implicitly and blindly believed as certain it is not what can there else be named of more Authority than the Church but the Conscience than which God only is greater 1 John 3.20 But if any shall pretend that the Scripture judges to his Conscience for other Men as this proud and saucy Politician doth he makes himself greater than the Church Scripture or Consciences of other Men a presumption too high for any mortal since every true Christian able to give a reason of his Faith hath the word of God before him the promised holy Spirit and the mind of Christ within him 1 Cor. 2.16 A much better and safer guide of Conscience than this Polititian in publick Conscience who in this is no less a Pope than the Pope at Rome The Spiritual man judgeth all things but himself is judged of no man 1 Cor. 2.15 And is not the Pope deservedly esteemed Antichristian for appropriating to himself such Infallibity over both Conscience and Scripture Whether tends all this but to make themselves to have Dominion over our Faith and Lords over God's Heritage which the Aposties utterly disclaimed and accounted themselves only helpers of cur joy and to be feeders of the flock not by constraint but willingly 1 Pet. 5.2 3. 2 Cor. 1.24 If Bishop Saunderson can judge The Word of God doth expresly forbid us to subject our Consciences to the Judgment of any other or to usurp Dominion over the Consciences of any other Saunderson's 10 Lectures 1660. v. 3. Lect. 30. § p. 103. None but God alone hath Power to impose a Law upon the Conscience of any Man to which it ought to be subjected as obliging by it self For there is but one Law-giver who can both save and destroy James 4.12 not one picked out amongst many not one above many but one exclusively i. e. one and but one onely who art thou that dost judge another It doth not belong to thee to thrust thy sawcy Sickle into the Harvest of another Man much less to fling thy self into the Throne of Almighty God to him it belongeth alone to judge of the Consciences of Men to whom alone it doth belong to impose Laws on the Consciences of men which none can do but God alone Conscientiis Dominari velle est Arcem Coeli invadere said Maximilian the first To exercise a Domination over Consciences is to invade the Power of Heaven He is a plunderer of the Glory of God and an usurper of that Tower that is due unto him that claims a right to the Consciences of Men or practise an usurpation over them v. Lect. 4. § 9 10 11. He tells us moreover That if Princes will be Resolute and if they will Govern so they must be they may easily make the most stubborn Consciences to bend to their Resolutions pag. 271. Princes must be sure to bind on at first their Ecclesiastical Laws with the straitest knot and afterwards keep them in force by the severity of their execution pag. 221. So easie is it for Men to deserve to be punished for their Consciences that there is no Nation in the World in which were Government rightly understood and duly managed mistakes and abuses of Religion would not supply the Gallies with vastly greater Numbers than Villanies pag. 223. Brave Doctrines for a Tory Church of England Man to Preach impuné Sure this Anonimus Ecclesiastical Polititian would make a brave Mufty or Inquisitor General or a Compito with a Dog-whip in his Hand which would affright worse than the Inquisition and make many much honester Men than himself know sorrow in abundance These and many more Positions of the same complexion are the Farci of that Pestilent Book which well becomes a thorough-paced Church of England Priest such Positions and Doctrines brings contempt on such of the Clergy as being a reproach to any Church and which the Church of England doth not Teach and which are so vile that they much more deserve Fire and Faggot than those burnt in Oxford July 1683. but instead thereof he was made a Bishop Whether tends all this treacherous dealings with the People of God Whilst like the Ministers of Jeroboam ye lay such Snares in Mispah and spread such Nets upon Tabor teaching and perswading Kings to use Laws Menaces and Subtilties to force and confine the People to Regal and State Religion be it true or false or at least to force them to dissemble or to walk in a neutrality or indifferency between God and Baal or else to make the Souls of Men and God's Glory subordinate to the Lusts and Risings of Kings and Priests who Balaam-like for the hope of Honour or Preferments or like Micha's Levite for a little better reward crouch and cringe and
Psalm hath a Dodrine ver 26. If any Man speak ver 27. let the Prophets speak two or three and let the other judge ver 29. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first bold his peace ver 30. for ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and all be comforted v. 31. and the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets v. 32. let the women keep silence ver 31. wherefore bretheren covet to prophesie ver 39. Now if the words or terms of the whole Church all every one any Man the other another Bretheren be words and terms of universality and differencing then certainly the Words Prophets and Prophecying in this Chapter are most especially applicable to the Bretheren to the Auditors In this Chapter also are Instructions given that Women in these Conventicles do hold their peace ver 31. let all prophesie one by one that all may learn and be comforted and all things be done decently and in order all which are Commandments of the Lord ver 37. If these be no Divine Oracles and Precepts to all the Faithful to congregate for the ends and purposes aforesaid then I understand neither plain Scripture nor plain English But if any Men will understand God otherwise than he will be understood and distinguish Scriptures and model them to their own humour and accept or reject his truth as will best consist with their own resolutions and by oblique Arts think to trick us out of our just Rights I leave them to the just Judgment of God who will judge Righteously The Primitive and puest Churches were so gathered and so propagated Moreover the same Apostle re-inforceth the same Doctrine in his Epistle to the Hebrews ch 10. ver 23 24 25. to hold fast the profession of Faith without wavering to consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works not forsaking the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is Heb. 10.23 24 25. who fearing the Breath of Fools and that thereby their designs of Honours and Preferments and other wretched Ends would be defeated dare not assemble to husband the precious moments of thier lives to the advantage of their Master what is this else but to bespatter and to have scornful and mean conceits of the humility of the ways of Christ and of the simplicity of his Gospel Do they not rather betray much luke-warmness and indifferency and walk in a Neutrality and Adiaphorism between God and Baal nay much hellishness and devillish Antipathy to Christ and his strictest service For in truth it is unbeseeming nor Priest nor Prelate but a duty incumbent upon them to counenance and encourage Conventicles or Assemblies guilty of nothing maugre all the false Aspersions and Calumnies laid upon them by Men carried away with the stream of this wicked World and the common prejudices and presumptions of foolish Men but of great Zeal to worship God and save their own Souls by besieging and besetting the Throne of heaven with more ardent and retired Prayers and Conferences Why do they thus mock God as one mocketh another Job 13.9 Certainly it would better become them to be zealous son Piety and good Lives because vicious Habits are worse than false Opinions And it is not only a duty incumbent on Prelate Priest and People but their glory also to countenance every thing that is done to gain Souls to Christ whether in pretence or in truth Phil. 1.15 16 17 18. and nothing is unseemly but vice Christians indeed ought to abstain from those things which are repugnant to Christian Profession which are Sins but whatsoever may be done without sin is lawful for every man to do and therefore may assemble Besides nothing ought to be condemned or spoken ill of that is capable of a good construction of which nature are our Conventicles and yet are reviled and evil spoken of by some who have the poyson of Asps under their Lips and whose Throats are as open Sepulchers because it is not only humanity but a Gospel Principle to make the most favourable and charitable construction of all Actions capable of a good and bad interpretation for charity thinketh no evil and we are commanded above all things to have fervent Charity for that shall cover a multitude of sins 1 Pet. 4.8 and envieth not is kind doth not behave it self unseemly as they do that decry Conventicles thereby giving great jealousie that in good earnest they esteem that Ordinance foolishness of Preaching desperately contemning the Purity and Simplicity of the Gospel thinketh no evil believeth all things hopeth all things 1 Cor. 13. and I fear that they that have not this Charity towards such Conventicles their Charity is but as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal and you know that Revilers are in the black Catalogue of the damned Crew mentioned 1 Cor. 6.9 10. and by so judging they prescribe for themselves and prejudge themselves Judge not that ye be not judged for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged Why beholdest thou the moat that 's in thy Brether's eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye Matth. 7.1 2 3. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth Yea he shall be holden up for God is able to make him stand Rom. 14.4 and God alone is Judge of erring Persons Besides I know no Power on Earth that hath lawful Authority to forbid any Man to Preach the Gospel or that they that are called to Preach are obliged to ask leave of any other to Preach the Gospel either publickly or privately Christ and his Apostles notwithstanding all Threatnings and Imprisonments Prohibitings Scourgings what not yet preached the Gospel o th openly in their Synagogues and in the Temple and also privately by stealth even at midnight breaking Bread from House to House till they lost their lives for so doing which they would not have done had it been unlawful so to have done For my part I am of Opinion That our love to the Bretheren is the best and most manifest evidence of our love to God and the best Rule whereby to measure our love to him and I hope I shall never eminently see the Image of Christ in any Man Conventicler or not Conventicler but shall love him more dearly for it and abhor my self for being so much unlike him Why dost thou judge thy Brother or why dost thou set at naught by Brother for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ Rom. 14.10 And God will measure us by his own Line and by his own Plummet Deus bone unto what then doth all this Gall of Asps these I breats as wide as open Sepulchers decrying Conventicles and persecuting of them tend out of Zeal to the more strict and pure ways of serving God not possible it rather gives more occasions of greater Fears and Jealousies of more rancourous constitution of Hearts against
that Christ was preached in season and out of season though out of envy and strife though not sincerely though but in pretence and not in truth were living now and here would condemn our Conventicles or would not rather be in the midst of them himself I appeal to God and your own Consciences if you your selves ought not to continue stedfast in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread from House to House and Prayers If Conventicles in our Days do endeavour to come as near as they can to continue stedfast in the Doctrine and Fellowship of the Apostles why should they be interrupted Were not Spiritual Men mad doting upon mediocrities of Grace they would never burlesque the purity and simplicity of the Gospel nor the most strict ways of Piety and by ungrounded prejudices mis-judge them as Shagreen to good Government According to my Divinity Preaching in season out of season though not sincerely though but in pretence though not in truth Crimes of which I hope our Conventicles are no ways guilty and to become all things to all men that by all means they may save some is but to do the Will of their Master but more especially when their assembling and associating in such Conventicles is only to redeem and improve precious time by endeavouring to make all moments of their life comfortable and beneficial to themselves and others sparing sufficient time to humble themselves and to keep a constant communion with their and our God Pope Pius the Fourth could say That he would humble himself to Heresie in regard what ever was done to gain Souls to Christ did become that See And shall Protestants Clergy and not Clergy be like the Saduces and be grieved at heart that the People be taught the right ways of the Lord Absit I hope the Church of England tho' there have been and still are scab'd Sheep among them is not yet so corrupted as to have that laid to her charge which Christ told the Scribes and Pharisees That in vain they worshipped God teaching for Doctrines Mens Commandments and of which St. Austin complained in the Church wherein he lived which was so corrupted that the Commandments of God are laid aside teaching for Doctrines Mens Commandments and those exacted with such Severity nay with Tyranny that they were more severely censured who transgressed them than those who transgressed the Laws of God It is certainly so in Rome I will I could say it had never been so in England It is absurd to cry The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord boasting of the Priviledges that the Gospel doth afford us and at the same time to prevaricate with God and the Redeemed of his own Blood to give them stones instead of bread and serpents instead of fish by such their destructive Doctrines and punish more for Non-conforming than for not Preaching and as by Excommunication to deny and abridge the excommunicate the participation of Sermons Sacraments Sabbaths c. all outward means of Grace and Repentance Did St. Paul and the Corinthians forbid him whom they had delivered to Satan to come to their Assemblies or partake of the Sacraments Did Christ ever forbid Publicans and Sinners to come unto him Did he not eat the Passover with Judas the greatest of Sinners When the Pharisees objected his eating and drinking with Sinners as a crime did not he tell him That they that are whole need not a Physician but they that are sick Matth. 9.11 12. Did he not converse daily with them Did he not cast out unclean Spirits nay Devils out of them And yet our excommunicates tho' but for Niff-Naffs must not approach the Temple of the Lord nor assemble in the Holy Congregations This hath been the practise of some Centuries of Years both of the Popish and Protestant Churches when in truth there 's no such thing in Holy Writ as it hath been and still is used in both Churches And that Excommunication that is mentioned in Scripture if any at all is in the body of the Church and not in the Officers thereof and which the Laity have as much Authority to exercise against the Clergy as the Clergy against the Laity it cannot be denied Is it recorded in any Scripture Old or New that the Church doors were to be shut against the vilest Sinners or Sacraments or Communion denied unto them and yet the use of Excommunication hath been and still is such in both Churches I should account it a marvellous happiness if any thing that I have written might so far prevail with our Clergy as seriously to take into their consideration their interessing and intermedling with Civil Affairs and Imployments and also Excommunication which bring so much odium and contempt upon them and lay to Heart how many hundreds of Years the Church hath been imposed upon and abused by them The abuse of which by the Roman Pontiffs hath been abominable even against Emperors Kings Princes and States that all Histories swell therewith and stinks in the Nostrils of God and Man But not so much abused by any Protestant Churches By Excommunication as now used they have done as much as in them lay to frustrate the whole design of the Gospel by debaring the Excommunicates the use and enjoyment of the outward means of Grace and Repentance What strange kind of Sacriledge is this that when Christ hath appointed Sabbaths Sermons Sacraments c. for the conversion of Sinners to him and for establishing and confirming them when converted our Priests out of self-Ends and Interests preach up another Doctrine viz. Excommunication which debars the benefit of them all and so by a new Gospel of their own do as much as in them lieth send People to the Devil instead of allowing them the means of Salvation How contrary how unlike were the Gospel-censures of old to this now in vogue they were for Edification not for Destruction as this knack or spell of Excommunication is Besides the Spiritual prejudices to the Salvation of Souls by Priests-craft it is extended also unto Temporals as that the Excommunicate cannot sue at Law for any Debts Land or for redress of injuries done unto him nor at his Death dispose of his Goods or Estate If this be Gospel I understand not Gospel-truths It 's a shame that Religion should be thus made use of and used so dirtily as to make it serve turns and Godliness to wait upon Gain Pride and Domination of Priests It would be a marvellous happiness to these Nations if the Church of England Men would yet be so wise and considerate in these evil and confounding times as to fettle among themselves the distracting Doubts of taking our New Oaths of Passive Obedience of Non-resistance of Allegiance of Praying for our KING For whilst they are of such different Opinions among themselves what would they have us sid Mortals the Laicks to do A separation if not worse must ensue and that of the highest nature and
command was to have peace one with another Mark 9.50 and the unity of the spirit is preserved by the bond of peace Ephes 4.3 But the little self-ends of Earth and Interest of the Preferments Ambition and Domination is the cause of Controversies Animosities and Contentions to which Priests are as subject as others 2. I say There were false Prophets among the Jews and was foretold that as there were false Prophets among them so there should be false teachers among us 2 Pet. 2.1 And St. Paul forewarned the Bishop of Ephesus That out of your own selves should arise men speaking perverse things Acts 20.30 and Christ himself when he cautioneth us to beware of false Prophets by calling which shall be found false by their teaching St. Paul also granteth many to be ministers of Christ by profession and yet in words and deeds the ministers of Satan 2 Cor. 11.13 14 15. such false Apostles saith he are deceitful workers and transform themselves into the Apostles of Christ and for certain these Priests of such different Perswasions Principles and Doctrines cannot both be in the right and therefore good Reason that if poor Laicks are to live and die Eternally according to the Doctrines our Pastors pulpit to us it is but just and right that we should try the Spirits as commanded John 1.41 and judg of Doctrine as directed Cor. 10.15 for certainly we are not to live by the deputy Faith of our Officers but by our own Faith and must stand and fall accordingly Now seeing our Teachers cannot agree Doctrines as in point of Resistance and Passive Obedience taking and refusing new Oaths Ceremonies Conformity as well as in many others they do not and both cannot be in the right then are their Flocks in a very sad condition Pulpit-rebels both to the one and to the other as the one or the other prevails for neither are Infallible so that we are clearly left to be our own Judges and both Priest and People have no other Divine Rule or Authority without them warrantable to one another as a common Ground or Rule either for Holy living or decision of Controversies in Matters of Religion unto which all ought to submit but the Scriptures nor any other within either Priest or People But the Illumination of the Spirit so interpreting the same Scriptures as warrantable both to Priests and People and to such whose Consciences they can so perswade can have no other ground in matters of Religion but only from the same Scriptures and these not being possible to be understood without Divine Illumination which no man can know at all times to be in himself much less to be at any time for certain in another and therefore the Scriptures being the only infallible Rule of life and of judging Controversies and the Light within us no farther Light than wherein it agrees with this Word if it do not it is Darkness not Light Now these things considered will justifie our taking up the Cudgels for our own Defence and Justification in these great and dangerous Disputes having Souls Lives Fortunes Liberties to save and enjoy as well as Ecclesiasticks Though the Church of England be the best constituted Church in the World wherein the lively Oracles of God are purely Preached and full fraught with many very worthy pious and learned Priests and Prelates yet there are amongst them many false Prophets and no wonder was not there a Judas among the Twelve and false Teachers nay very many time-servers that pimp for Domination Honors Preferments and other vile and base ends and like Micha's Levite for a little better reward swallow any thing stick at nothing by School-quirks and false Reasonings perverting Scriptures to rob whole Kingdoms of their Laws Liberties and Religion that daub with untempered Mortar flatter Profaneness court and allure Royalties to Perjury and Robbery whilst they Preach Quod libet licet and Sovereignty absolutely Absolute to be in Kings and their unaccountableness betray Truths smothering and dissembling the Strictness and Purity of holy Ways I contend not here against the lazy Drones that suck the Hony from the Bees by their Non-residency nor against the Dammees Euphoniae gratia these are personal Sins and hurt others only by Example and such there are but my contest is against those Ecclesiasticks who living and had interest at the upper end of the World not only usurped more Powers than they had right unto but abused those Powers and that Interest they had at Court from which abuse of Power pulpiting Divine Prerogatives of Kings beyond measure their unaccountableness misconstruing and extending Passive Obedience beyond its just Bounds Which have been the Harrangues of Prints and Pulpits till their own Copiholds came to be concerned come all the disturbances of Government in Church and State to whole Kingdoms No wonder then if contempt be poured on such of the Clergy and on such of them only as Preach such destructive Doctrines as deserve the severe Reprimand of whole Kingdoms for thereby all Laws Liberty Property Religion and Honesty would be trampled under foot Therefore it 's no Crime in the Laity to stand up in the defence of their own Rights and Concerns As it is the duty of Priests Ministers of the Gospel to teach us with Wisdom and Knowledge so it is our duty to esteem them highly in love if they do so for their Works sake and they that labour in the Word and Doctrine are worthy of double Honour and double Revenue they cannot have too much but they that do not Teach us with Knowledge and Understanding are worthy of neither but when they abuse and usurp Powers they have no right unto and claim them as their due by the most Potent Claim in the World Jure Divino monstrum horrendum Witness Excommunication because there hath as of old so of more late Days so much ill use made thereof of which I shall only say with Erastus de Excommunicatione that there is no such thing as it is now used in all the Scripture in Sanctis Scripturâ—s nullum extat mandatum sed commentum est pure humanum p. 67. Which renders the Execution thereof abominable To wrest Scripture to maintain such unlawful Powers doth very ill become the Priests of the most High God As it is their Duty to Teach so it is our Priviledge and Right to judge of their Doctrines yea and to put them in mind and admonish them also of their duty Coloss 4.17 Mistake me not as if this were bent against the Bishops only no no Papist Presbyter Independant are all to blame in this Point and it 's no excuse to us if we are deceived by the cunning Crastiness of our Ghostly Fathers whereby they lie in wait to deceive Let us look a little back no farther than our own Times and Memories and let them stand or fall in the good Graces of the Kingdom according to their Merits or Demerits Rushworth 644 1628. In the time of
in Parliament 4 Car. for that they tended to alter and subvert the whole Frame and Fabrick of this State and Commonwealth that they tended to infuse into the Conscience of his Majesty the perswasion of a Power not bounding it self with Laws which King James in his Speech March 21. 1609. to the Parliament calls Tyranny with Perjury he endeavours to perswade the Conscience of the Subjects that they are bound to obey commands illegal yea he damns them for not obeying them he robs the Subject of the Property of their Goods and seeks like Faux and his fellows to blow up Parliaments and Parliamentary Power c. That they hold it a great presumption for a private Divine to debate the Right and Power of the King which is a matter of such high Consequence as to be handled only in Parliament and that with moderation therefore upon the whole matter he was censured to be Imprisoned during the pleasure of the House Fined 1000 l. to make his submission at both Bars suspended three Years from the exercise of his Ministry disabled to have any Ecclesiastical Government or Secular Office for ever disabled to Preach at Court his Book to be burnt in London and in both Universities and the re-printing thereof to be inhibited by his Majesties Proclamation Notwithstanding all these Censures Reprimands and Judgment of Parliament yet such Juglers were the mighty Church of England Priests and Prelates and such was the Prevalency Potency and Impudency of the then Court Clergy no Nathaniels that they procured their Royal Pardons of all Errors heretofore committed by them either in Speaking Writing or Printing and Manwaring was immediately presented to the Rectory of Stampford Rivers in Essex and had a Dispensation to hold it together with the Rectory of St. Giles's in the Fields Rushwerth's Collect. when as the justness of the Nation required their severe Reprimands nay their Punishments nay the Muzling of their Mouths These and their Abettors no Nathaniels Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford and others being of the same Quire and Chorus sung the same Tune and boasted themselves to be the true Church of England Men but the Archbishop-Abbot though Primate and Metropolitan of all England and multitudes of others both Bishops Priests and Lay much more Loyal and more True Church of England Men than themselves were branded for not being right Church of England Men and reviled as Puritanical Factious what not Under which Notion the Archbishop Abbot suffered being disgraced at Court commanded to withdraw into the Country Sequestred c. Whoever will seriously consider how Industriously Active and Instrumental the Bishops then in Vogue who were the Bishops of London and his Complices viz. Durham Rochester Oxon. St. Davids and others were to procure Dr. Alexander Leighton a learned Scotch-man Mr. Burton B. D. Mr. Pryn Barrister and Dr. Bastwick to be so inhumanly censured in the Star-Chamber and High Commission viz. Imprisoned Fined Whipt Pillored Ears cut off Cheeks branded with other Severities fitter for Infidels nay for Brutes rather than Christians and for what not truly for Crimes scarce Peccadilloes but rather for Rebukes of Sin as their Works do testifie in respect of what abominable Doctrines their own Priests preached countenancing and preferring those that Preached them espousing their Cause as their own and so became participes criminis tho' against the Interest and Sense of the whole Kingdom assembled in Parliament whereby and by their being a constant dead wait for the Court against the Kingdom they brought so great a Disdain and Contempt on their Hierarchy and those Courts that the Nation was not able to bear them and was forced to take away both these Courts and their Priviledge of Sitting in the House of Lords On which I shall only Remark thus much viz. That those Ecclesiasticks that preached Prerogative highest tho' to the ruine of the Nation and tho' condemned by the whole Kingdom in Parliament and that severely and with high Resentments yet when the Parliament was up Bishop Laud and his Complices no true but Mungril Church of England Men so improved their Interest at Court that they were preferred and others that did but Write and Preach against their violent and unconscionable Proceedings were barbarously censured and used which the Parliament so laid to Heart that they took away both these Courts And when those Three viz. Prin Bastwick and Burton returned from their designed perpetual Imprisonment they were met and caressed all along the Road and received by the City with great Joy and Acclamations And some while after Bishop Laud came to his unhappy Doom how deservedly I judge not If so to countenance and prefer those that Preach Doctrines so destructive to whole Nations and to Persecute learned and pious Men by the Character of a right Church of England Man I must confess that I cannot distinguish between Nathaniels and those that can swear by the Lord and Melcom I Appeal to the whole World whether of those two Contemporaries Archbishop Abbot or Bishop Laud were the Nathaniel the truest Church of England Man Abbot refusing and Laud granting an Imprimatur to Sibthorp's Sermon which was condemned to be burnt and yet Abbot Discountenanced Sequestred sent into the Country c. and Laud advanced Besides I verily believe that it cannot be proved by any plain place of Scripture that there is any Power under Heaven Ecclesiastick or Civil that hath lawful Authority to forbid any Man lawfully qualified to Preach the Gospel or to Prosecute any Man for denying submission to the use of Ceremonies no ways Essential to the Salvation of Souls If so what are we modestly to think of those Ecclesiasticks and their Adherents that ever since the Reformation Persecuted our Dissenters for Non-conforming to such commands What made so many of our Learned Pious Conscientious Clergy and Laiety Orthodox both in Life and Doctrine cry Migremus hinc and plant themselves in Foreign Barbarous Countries but Persecutions for their Consciences and for Rebukes of Sin rather than for any Crimes or Sins And yet their Persecutors had the Impudency of Abab the son of Omri who did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that went before him to tax them for Troublers of Israel when themselves Abab-like troubled it for they medled not with the Conformist but the Conformist with them not considering that Christ came to take away the heavy Yoke of Jewish Ceremonies and he and his Apostles never used nor prescribed any other and why any other Authority should impose any other Ceremonies and compel Obedience to them whereby they require other Conditions of Gospel-Communion than ever Christ himself did or his Apostles after him is past all Understanding They would oblige us to shew us by any one plain place of Scripture that Christ hath given any Charter to his Church or to any Officers thereof to require more Ceremonies to be admitted into his Fellowship and Worship than he himself hath done or to
deny their Communinn that are as capable of Heaven without the use of them as themselves with the use of them To the Council met at Jerusalem Acts 15. consisting of Apostles and all the faithful in the Church and to the Holy Ghost it seemed good to lay upon them no greater burthen than things necessary yet some of our Mungril Church of England Men taking themselves to be wiser than either the Apostles or the Holy Ghost have dared to impose Ceremonies and Observances no way necessary nor conducing to the Saving of Souls or Edification yea and more strictly requiring Conformity unto them punishing more severely the breach of them than the breach of Gods Precepts Tho' to err manifestly against the Scriptures be the most dangerous and greatest blindness that can possibly befal any Christian and the greatest Chastisement that God can impose in punishment of them whoever shall make use of the Divine Authority to serve their own turns in any worldly Interests yet so active is the Zeal of Priests of enlarging their own Phylacteries their Greatness and Impery that they make no Bones of wresting and perverting any Scripture Old or New to make it serve their turns which in plain English is to make Godliness wait upon Gain Pride and Ambition Let us now also add and consider the grand Pique these Priestly Court Parasites pure Church of England Men have had against Puritans the sober and thinking part of the Nation and Puritanism of old and the same under the names of Whigs and Phanaticks the Arts and Tricks they have used to suppress the Purity and Power of Religion by reviling their Persons decrying and suppressing Lectures on the Week-days Sermons on Sundays in the Afternoon and Conventicles and giving encouragement to Idleness Looseness and Prophaness in the People Witness the Book allowing Sports on the Lord's Day Printed 1633. and the Countenance given thereto by the then Court Prelates and Prelatical Priests who procured a Royal Proclamation to justifie the same And Archbishop Laud sequestred Mr. Wilson four Years for not Reading that Book and prosecuted him in the High Commission Court for not Reading the Prayers of the last Edition commanded by the Archbishop Nalson 571. Who yet Countenanced Publick Sports on the Lord's-Day by the Examples of the Reformed Churches beyond Sea and for the Publick Dances of our Youth upon Country Greens on Sundays after the Duties of the Day so Bishop Bramhall otherwise a pious Person and stout assertor of the Protestant Religion against Popery who sees nothing in them but innocent and agreeable to that under sort of People who likewise takes the promiscuous License to unqualified Persons to read the Scripture to be far more prejudicial nay more pernicious than the over rigorous restraint of the Romanists p. 641 642 643. This may be the Court Dialect and Prelatical Gospel but certainly not Apostolical for the same Equity for keeping the Sabbath strictly yea very strictly not Jewishly Ceremonious is as incumbent and obliging unto us under the Gospel at this Day as to the Jews under the Law I cannot understand such Liberty to be keeping of the Sabbath but rather a polluting of it Isai 56.2 6. Keeping of the Sabbath is not to rest only from bodily Labour but to abstain from doing our own pleasures and our own ways and not speaking our own words Isai 58.13 14. and abstaining from the delights of Sin as well as from the Works of our ordinary Callings What! weary of strict keeping the Sabbaths here and yet presume on the expectation of an Eternity which shall be nothing else but Sabbaths Certainly our Sabbaths here are but an Earnest and a Pledge of that Eternal Sabbath which we desire to Celebrate with Saints and Angels in Heavenly Places I wonder how so Pious a Prince and of such mighty Insight and Understanding could be so imposed upon by his Prelates and to Countenance such a Book by his Proclamation I wonder also how Bishop Bramball could shew such dislike of unqualified Persons Reading the Scriptures when to search them is a Precept Universal and to judge of Doctrines also and whereas there 's nothing in them of absolute necessity to Salvation to be believed but what is very obvious and intelligible to every indifferent capacity Bold Church of England Men that dare to be wiser than Almighty God by taking upon them to foresee Dangers that God never did foresee and to prevent them by such Methods as thwart God's own Appointments Beyond all peradventure such Doctrines such Practices such Methods can never conduce to the Benefit and Service of God's Holy Church and Chosen or to the Putity or Propagation of the Gospel but are rather a muzling of their Mouths who should tread out their Corn which should bring forth the food of Life Everlasting unto the People However tho' there have been such Priests and Prelates that have so acted yet I am not of their Opinion who therefore deemed them Papists in Heart No no some of them have given abundant Testimony to the contrary by their worthy Works as of Archbishop Laud Bramball and others But it is too plain that they improved what Interest they had at the upper end of the World towards tho Setting up and Advancing the Power Impery and Grandeur of the Church Men and to keep the Laiety under and did not improve their Interest towards advancing the Purity and Simplicity of the Gospel or towards the making of a high way of Holiness through out the Land that way-fairing men though fools might not err therein Isai 35.8 that being certainly their greater Duty to have bestowed themselves and their Interest on the benefit and Service of the Church rather than of the Pride and Ambition of Church Men. Thus much by way of Caution to prevent the like for the future being of Opinion that the Persecuting Dissenters and Conventicles is as National a Sin as Drinking Drabbing and Swearing and ought to be as nationally to be lamented both by Clergy and Laiety For I must confess my self absolutely ignorant of any one thing or signal Constitution from the very beginning of the Reformation to this very day to which the Dissenters were required to conform and submit that was essentially necessary either to the Salvation of Souls or to the more pure and sincere Preaching of the Gospel unto which they deenid their Conformity or Submission They would yet very much oblige us if they would make known unto us such Constitutions if any such there be for if in truth they have not been such then the Imposers not the Dissenters are the Separatists and Schismaticks for tho very self same Reasons that the Papists are Schismaticks not Protestants And I am afraid that it is not Conscience but finister ends that makes Prelates contend so out of measure for things no way Essential to Salvation According to St. Cyprian In sinu sacerdorum ambitio dormit ibi sub umbrâ recubat in Secreto Tholami