except this single one I will in requital freely grant him all his other Nine if that will do him any service though for what use he intends them in our present Enquiry I confess I am not able to divine however I am not at all concern'd in them and therefore if he can make any advantage of their service much good may they do him And now having driven the Nail thus home with hard Notions out of the School-men he clincheth it with Testimonies out of the Fathers and if I will not be born down by strength of Reason no nor Confidence he resolves to sweep me away with the Torrent of Authority But though he argues very ill yet he quotes much worse For you know it has been an old and beaten Controversie between us and the Church of Rome whether the written Word of God be the adequate Rule of Faith and in this both sides have hotly engaged with all sorts of Weapons viz. Reason Scripture and the Opinion of the Ancients to which last purpose many Protestant Writers have collected a vast variety of express Assertions out of their VVritings in behalf of the Protestant Opinion Now some of these our Author gravely transcribes for my Confutation and what they plainly affirm'd of necessary Articles of Faith he confidently applies to Ceremonies of outward VVorship Out of what particular Author he made bold to borrow them they are so common and trivial it is impossible to determine you may meet them all together with some other Company out of which he has cunningly drawn these to escape discovery in Chamier tom 1. Lib. 10. where he maintains the perfection and sufficiency of the Canon of Scripture for a Rule of Faith And the passages themselves do so plainly limit their own sense to this subject that they are utterly uncapable of any other Application and if you can prevail with your self barely to run them over that without any farther trouble will satisfie you of their wretched and palpable Impertinency for my own part I have neither leisure nor patience to waste precious time and good Paper upon such woful Trash Let him take his liberty in his own wild Rangings whilst he roves aloof off from my Concerns and therefore I am resolved without regard to his unnecessary digressions to confine my discourse only to those things that pretend a direct and immediate attempt upon my former Treatise § 9. In the Prosecution of this Argument I shewed this Principle to be so perpetually pregnant with mischiefs and disturbances that 't is impossible any Church should establish any Rules of Decency or Laws of Discipline or any setled frame of things appertaining to the Offices of external Religion that it will not of necessity contradict and abrogate in that there never was nor ever can be any Form of Worship as to all Circumstances prescribed in the Word of God because that has actually determined no exteriour parts of Religion beyond the two Sacraments and therefore as long as men lie under the power of a Principle so equally false and troublesom they can never want what themselves may apprehend a just Pretence to warrant Disturbance and Disobedience So that we found by experience that when once it was let loose upon the Institutions of the Church of England it worried every thing that stood in its way and turn'd its fury alike upon every Party that pretended to peace and setlement it was merciless as some bodies rage and lust and spared nothing that Sacriledge could devour And as by this the Puritans assaulted and ruin'd the Church of England so when they subdivided among themselves and mouldred into new Churches and Factions it was still the Offensive Weapon of every aspiring Party with it the Independents vanquish'd the Presbyterians with it the Anabaptists attempted the Independents and with it all the little Under-sects set up against the Anabaptists and with it as soon as they were born like the Dragons Teeth they fell foul upon each other and had they crumbled into a thousand farther divisions and subdivisions for nothing so endless as Phanatick Innovations it would equally have served both for and against all because whatever particular Customs and Rules of Decency they should have agreed upon in the Worship of God it was apparently enough impossible they should ever vouch and warrant their Prescription out of the Word of God the Reason is evident because that has prescribed and determined none at all And therefore after the Liturgy it sent the Directory with Church musick it silenced Sternholds Rhimes with the Cross it cashier'd sprinkling in Baptism and when it had at least in design pluckt down Cathedral Churches it fell upon Steeple-houses And what could ever stop the fury of so endless and so unreasonable a Principle for when it had wandred as far as Tom of Odcomb through a numberless variety of Changes and Reformations it would ever have been at as great a distance from its intended End as the foolish Traveller when he had compassed the Top of Olympus was from touching the Sun For how should men with all their search and travel be ever able to discover that in the Word of God which the Word of God has no where discover'd in it self But 't is no matter for that our Author appeals to all mankind whether an issue and setled stability be not likelier to be effected by all mens consenting unto one common Rule whereby these differences may be tried and examined than that every Party should be left at Liberty to indulge to their own Affections and Imaginations about them In plain troth Sir I must take some severer course with this man if nothing else will reclaim him from this lazy Trade of Begging I had taken pains to prove both from the Nature of the Thing and the Experience of the World that this Principle carries disquiet and disturbance in its bare supposition because it stands upon demands impossible to be satisfied But this man without taking any notice of my Arguments replies like himself i. e. boldly and impertinently to my Assertion and gravely supposes there is or ought to be a common Rule established in the World whereby differences concerning outward Worship may be tried and examined which is the very thing in Question between us and all my Proofs to which this is intended for a satisfactory Answer are directly levell'd against the very supposition it self in that it invites and engages men to remonstrate to any setled Form of Worship upon such unreasonable grounds of Exception as it is impossible for any Church in the World either to avoid or to redress If indeed there were any such common Rule prescribed in the Gospel it would no doubt be a certain and admirable way to determine Controversies but in the mean while to suppose it against flat experience because we apprehend it convenient for our own Ends and Interests is just such another way of arguing as the Romanists insist upon to prove the
rather than betray or forsake so excellent an Institution and therefore its peculiar excellency consisting in the goodness of its Moral Precepts to continue faithful to that is the same thing as to be constant and upright to the best Principles of Vertue And lastly as for Mortification 't is an exercise of Moral Philosophy and the very formality of Moral Vertue and 't is nothing else but to subdue our sensual appetites and affections to our superiour faculties in the methods of Reason and prudent Discipline But the main instance of defect is that dear and darling Article of the Religion of Sinners as our Author words it Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And here I must confess as they have mistaken the Nature and Notion of this Grace 't is neither Vertue nor Vertues Friend though in its plain and primitive account 't is evidently both For I know but two acceptations of it in the Scripture 1. Either as it signifies a serious and an hearty assent to the Divine Authority of the Doctrine of the Gospel and so it has a mighty force to engage as serious and hearty obedience to all its Precepts For what more effectual and irresistible Inducements can Men have to an Holy Life than a firm Belief of the Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel This then is the peculiar excellency of the Christian Faith viz. it s mighty Influence upon a Christian Life 2. Or else as it signifies a Trust and Reliance upon the Goodness of God and the Merits of Christ for the expiation of our sins and the acceptance of our Persons upon the Performance of the Conditions of the new Covenant And thus it is an act of that Moral Worship of God of which we have already discoursed For though the Object of it be particular and relates to our Saviours Death and Passion yet the Reason of it is Natural and relates to the Essential Truth and Goodness of God upon his Declaration and Engagement to accept the Sufferings of his Son as an Atonement and Satisfaction for the Sins of the World And therefore into this we must resolve the Vertue and Morality of the Grace of Faith viz. it s worthy Opinion of and strong Confidence in Gods Essential Truth and Goodness And our Author himself though upon what grounds I know not esteems it a part of the Natural and Moral Worship of God and so I remember does I. O. in that notable Treatise of distinct Communion with each Person of the Trinity distinctly And now I hope from all these Premises you are sufficiently satisfied that the supposition of sin does not bring in any new Religion but onely makes new Circumstances and Names of old Things and requires new helps and advantages to improve our Powers and to encourage our Endeavours And thus is the Law of Grace nothing but the Restitution of the Law of Nature all the prime Duties it prescribes are but Results and Pursuances of our Natural Obligations and all its additional Institutions are but Helps and Assistances to encourage and secure their Performance To conclude had this Man been a Pharisee in our Saviours time how pertly would he have taunted him for reducing the whole Duty of Man to two Heads Love the Lord with all thy Heart and Love thy Neighbour as thy self What Sir have we not six hundred and thirteen Precepts in our Law are there not twelve Houses of Affirmative and as many of Negative Commandments and are there not large Catalogues of particular Laws ranged under each of these general Heads and must all saving onely two be revers't for your pleasure If this be all to what purpose are our Phylacteries Once I remember you reproved us for making them so large now you had best quarrel us for making them at all Is this to fill up the Law of Moses as you pretend to abridge his whole Volume into a single Text I must needs say that I look upon this as the rudest most imperfect and weakest Scheme of the Iewish Religion that ever yet I saw so far from comprising an Induction of all Particulars belonging to it that there is nothing in it that is constitutive of the Iewish Religion as such at all c. Now if we could suppose our Saviour would have vouchsafed to reply to such a prating and impertinent Rabbi what other answer can we suppose he would have return'd than that all the other Commandments how numerous soever are but so many Instances of these under various Denominations arising from emergent Respects and Circumstances of things And how infinite soever the particular Laws of Life may be they are but Prosecutions of these general Laws of Nature and result from those Obligations we lie under from our natural Relation to God and to Man and 't is for this reason that I define Love to be the fulfilling of the whole Law because all other Commands are but several Instruments or Expressions of this Duty and love to your Neighbour signifies every thing whereby you may be useful and beneficial to Mankind But having in his own Fancy for there he does wondrous feats demolish't my frame of Religion he proceeds to erect a new Model of his own but whether coherent or not concerns not my Enquiry my business is to defend my own Discourse and not to run after every Bubble of his blowing Onely you may observe that whereas I design'd to represent the shortest and most comprehensive Scheme of the practical Duties of Religion that I could contrive the greatest part of his Hypothesis is made up of Articles of meer Belief which I purposely omitted as wholly impertinent to the matter and design of my Enquiry and the other Materials that he has cast in relating to practice are so crudely and confusedly hudled together that they rather make a heap of Rubbish than any consistent Fabrick of things insomuch that one single Branch of his Analysis comprehends all the rest viz. An universal Observance of the whole Will and all the Commands of God It would be an admirable way no doubt to represent an exact Anatomy of all the parts of an Humane Body to lay the Body it self before you and onely tell you that is it No Man doubts whether Religion consists in an universal Obedience to all the Commands of God and yet should I assert it I know who would contradict it and object its being impossible but what these particular Commands are and what the manner of their dependence upon and connexion to each other Some men you see cannot avoid running into Absurdities when it does them no service § 4. My third Heresie is no less than that there is no actual Concurrence of present Grace enabling men to perform the duties or to exercise the vertues of moral goodness And now he returns to his old Vomit of Calumny and Falsification here he is upon his own dunghil and therefore here he crows and insults and I am catechised like any
take it ill in good earnest if we only deny them the Liberty and free Exercise of their Religion till they are willing to give us some security of their being governable § 12. The second part of Protestancy is the Reformation of Doctrine and here the design was to abolish the Corruptions and unwarrantable Innovations of the Church of Rome and to retrieve the pure and primitive Christianity It was not their aim to exchange Thomas Aquinas his Sums for Calvin's Institutions or Bodies of School-Divinity for Dutch Systems but to reduce Christianity to the prescript of the Word of God and the practice of the first and uncorrupted Ages of the Church to clear the Foundations of our Faith from all false and groundless Superstructures and once more recover into the Christian World a pure and Apostolical Religion And therefore the only Rule of our Churches Reformation were the Scriptures and four first general Councils She admits not of any upstart Doctrines and new Models of Orthodoxy but all the Articles of her Belief are ancient and Apostolical and if she her self should teach any other Propositions she protests against their being matters of Faith and of necessity to Salvation And for this reason she imposes not her own Articles as Articles of Faith but of Peace and Communion Nor does she censure other Churches for their different Confessions but allows them the Liberty she takes to establish more or less Conditions of Communion as the Governours of the Church shall deem most expedient for peace and unity And she only requires of such as are admitted to any Office Imployment in the Church subscription to them as certain Theological Verities not repugnant to the Word of God which she has particularly selected from among many other to be publickly taught and maintain'd within her Communion as necessary or highly conducive to the preservation of Truth and prevention of Schism and for this reason she passes no other censure upon the Impugners of her Articles than what she has provided against the Impugners of the Publick Liturgy Episcopal Government and the Rites Ceremonies of Worship because they are all intended to the same end the avoiding Disorders and Confusions These then are the conditional Articles of the Communion of the Church of England and they are necessary and excellent provisions for peace and unity For among all the Disputes and Divisions of Christendom it is but reasonable she should take security of those Mens Doctrines and Opinions whom she intrusts in publick Imployments to prevent her being embroil'd in perpetual Quarrels and Controversies So that Subscriptions to the Articles is required chiefly upon the same account as the Oath of Supremacy whose Penalty is That such who refuse it shall be excluded such places of Honour and Profit as they hold in the Church or Commonwealth And 't is very reasonable that Princes should be particularly secured of the Fidelity of those Subjects that they entrust with their publick Offices And thus all the punishment that the Church of England is willing to have inflicted upon Dissenters from her Articles is to deprive them of their Ecclesiastical Preferments as being unfit for Ecclesiastical Imployments For though she is not so careless of her own peace as to impower Men in the exercise of her publick Offices at all adventure so neither is she so rigorous as to make Inquisition into their private Thoughts And therefore we are not so harsh and unmerciful as somebody you wot of who would be thought a warm Bigot for Toleration and yet has sometime profest he would give his Vote to banish any Man the Kingdom that should refuse their Subscription But as for the absolute Articles of the Faith of the Church of England they are of a more ancient date they were not of her own contriving but such as she found establish't in the purest and most uncorrupted Ages of the Church and in the times nearest to the primitive and Apostolical simplicity That is the measure of her Faith and the standard of her Reformation here she fixes the bounds of her Belief and seals up the Symbol of her Creed to prevent the danger of endless Additions and Innovations But as for all other matters I say with the late Learned Archbishop as he discourses against Fisher If any Errour which might fall into this as any other Reformation can be found then I say and 't is most true Reformation especially in cases of Religion is so difficult a work and subject to so many Pretensions that 't is almost impossible but the Reformers should step too far or fall too short in some smaller things or other which in regard of the far greater benefit coming by the Reformation it self may well be passed over and born withal And withal by virtue of this Fundamental Maxim may in due time and manner be redrest By the wisdom and moderation of this Principle the Church secures her self against the Prescription of Errour So that if she should at any time hereafter discover any defect in any particular instance of her Laws and Constitutions and in a work so great so various and so difficult 't is not impossible as the Archbishop observes for the greatest caution and prudence to be overseen in some smaller things she has reserved a just power in her self to reform and amend it This in brief is a true and honest account of the Protestancy of the Church of England But so it hapned that beyond the Seas there arose another Generation of pert and forward Men the vehemence of whose Zeal and Passion transported them from extream to extream so that they immediately began to measure Truth not by its agreement with the Scriptures and the purest Ages of the Church but by its distance from the See of Rome and the Apostacy of latter times whereby it so came to pass that they did but barter Errours in stead of reforming Corruptions and in lieu of the old Popish Tenets only set up some of their own new-fangled conceits But above all the rest there sprung up a mighty Bramble on the South-bank of the Lake Lemane that such is the rankness of the Soil spred and flourish't with such a sudden growth that in a few days partly by the industry of its Agents abroad and partly by its own indefatigable pains and pragmaticalness it quite over run the whole Reformation and in a short time the right Protestant Cause was almost irrecoverably lost under the more prevailing Power and Interest of Calvinism That proud and busie Man had erected a new Chair of Infallibility and enthroned himself in it and had he been acknowledged their Supreme Pastour he could not have obtruded his Decrees in a more peremptory and definitive way upon the Reformed Churches Nothing can be rightly done in any Foreign Church or State but by his Counsels and Directions He must thrust himself in for the Master-workman where-ever they were hammering Reformation He must be privy to all the Counsels
Reputations of the greatest Worthies and Ornaments of the English Nation Whitgift and Bancroft and Laud empty Pretenders Know Wretch their Works shall live to remote and distant Ages Monuments of their own Glories and the Churches Triumphs when thy Spiritual Bombast shall never survive to be devoured by Famine or the Teeth of Time but shall in a few days be reduced to the shameful and dishonourable condition of Waste-paper and when thy wretched Pamphlets shall be expell'd Libraries and banish't the Company of Learned Authors and be entertain'd no where but in the Corners of old Womens Closets and Cooks Shops But the Rashness of this bold and busie Man has since been justly and I think sufficiently chastised by some of these Empty Pretenders whom he would continue to affront and challenge till he forced them to expose him to the scorn and pity of all Learned Men For certainly there is not a more bafled Person upon Record then the Considerator upon the Biblia Polyglotta Sir you may think this blunt Work but what other way have we to check and take down the Confidence of such bold and abusive Scriblers then to discover them to themselves and to the World However such Insolencies against the most Reverend Fathers of the Church are not to be endured from every pert and conceited Fellow and proud Men must not be suffer'd to raise their own petty Names upon the Ruines of the greatest Reputations Indeed as for the Ignorance of the Bishops and the Episcopal Clergy in Ecclesiastical Antiquities 't is so notorious to all the Christian World that I confess I should think him a very strange Man that should undertake their defence And how piteously have they in their Treatises against the Church of Rome exposed both their Cause and themselves to the scorn of Papists and what is more shameful to the grief of Puritans 'T is evident no doubt by Archbishop Laud's Book against Fisher he had never so much as look't into any of the Fathers or Primitive Writers yet however methinks it is not manners for every Vicar in his Province to upbraid his Grace with Ignorance and want of Letters But suppose this dishonourable Brand should have been clapt upon the Memory of that great and immortal Prelate by one that was then so far from having any thorough insight into Church-Antiquities that after that he was forced to put himself upon no small pains in the first Rudiments of Literature to enable him to deal with the Boys at Westminster-School would you not have set up this Man for a Pillar of Modesty and Bashfulness to all future Ages But whatever sort of Learning we may pretend to yet as for skill in solid Divinity they are the onely able Men. And in this lies the difference between your empty Pretender and your true substantial Divine But what is this Dainty Thing they value at so dear a Rate Why 't is a sort of Opinionative Knowledge or rather Learned Ignorance that makes Men confident and talkative 't is a skill in Schemes and Systemes of New Opinions and a power in Talk and Disputation And to wrangle for a Scholastick Hypothesis is to contend for the Faith once deliver'd to the Saints and to rend their Throats in Scolding for the Calvinian Rigours is to spend themselves for the Lord Jesus Christ. They are a sort of Men that first submit their Understandings to the Opinions of some haughty and imperious Dictator and stuff themselves with uncertain and vulgar Prejudices before they attain the very first Rudiments of Knowledge and so never arrive at freedom of Judgment enough to examine the folly of their Proleptick Absurdities and but to question their undoubted Truth is an Injection of Satan and a Temptation to Infidelity And therefore ever after this they expound all Articles of Faith by Analogy to their own Prejudices and fond Perswasions and they either wrack or suborn the Holy Scriptures till they force them in spight of their plainest and most unquestionable Intendment to give in their suffrage to their own wild and unwarrantable Tenets and here they set bounds to their Zeal and to their Knowledge and all their after-industry is swallowed up in vain Endeavours to make out the Reasonableness and Divine Authority of their own Dreams and Subtilties And what indefatigable Pains will they take to distinguish rank Blasphemy into Orthodox Divinity With what Zeal will they justifie the Equity and Good-Nature of a fatal and irrespective Decree of Reprobation With what assurance will they excuse its seeming Horrour and Cruelty with a more horrid Injustice when they plead in behalf of the Almighty that at the same time he devoted so many Myriads of his Creatures to Eternal Anguish he also resolved to take care they should commit those Sins that might deserve it that so he might not want a fair and plausible pretence to wreak his Indignation upon them With what Evidence of Demonstration will they make out from the Tenour of the Covenant of Grace the Believers Title to Heaven and Everlasting Happiness by a naked Faith in Gods absolute Promises without any Conditional Obligations to an Holy Life This is the Imployment of their Wit and these the Objects of their Studies And now when such gross Errours lie at the bottom of all their Endeavours I leave it to you to judge whether all that Knowledge that is built upon such Principles be not a more laborious and improved Duncery i. e. a greater Confidence and Ability to Talk Nonsense This is that profound Theology in which these Gospellers so much excel the Regular Clergy and they never make their People more gaze and admire then when they discourse to them of the Order of Gods Eternal Decrees of the Conditional Obligation of Absolute Promises and of the Fatal Determination of Free-Will These are their Abilities in the Schools but in the Pulpit their Subtilty improves into down-right Impertinency And it were not unpleasant did not the Cause of Religion suffer by their folly to observe in their Practical Discourses what Mysteries they will descry and what Oracles they will extract out of every obscure Text. With what Curiosity will they strain for knackish and extravagant Applications of Holy Writ With what labour will they beat about into the most secret corners of the old Prophets for Articles of Faith and find them out among their Rods and Pots and Trees and Wheels and Lamps and Axes and Vessels and Rams and Goats And with what dexterity will they fetch about a Prophetick Parable and draw the Fundamentals of Christianity out of Ezekiel's Wheels So that if the sense of Scripture were as clancular and Mystical as 't is made by their uncouth way of applying it the Spirit of God has left us rather Hieroglyphicks then Articles of Religion and our Faith is lockt up in Cabalistick Schemes and no Man is able to unriddle the Secret but by the Helps and Rules of Mythology and the Scripture is written with the
will not so far submit my self to the power of his Malice as to make Protestations to the World or Appeals to Heaven as some tender Constitutions would have done But I defie all the weak Attempts of malevolent Tongues False Slanders as they spread so they vanish like Lightning and to Men wise and honest the flash appears and dis-appears at once and he that is concerned for the good Opinion of such as are neither puts himself upon an harder Game then I am willing to play or able to manage And though in three Lines I could not onely answer but shame his base and proofless Surmises of the Unworthiness of my Aims by making it appear that so far I was from having any ill design that I was not in a Capacity of having any at all yet I will rather chuse utterly to neglect this and all his other mean and unworthy Arts of Malice as being satisfied that when Men would discredit their Adversaries by such unhandsom Reflections upon their Persons and private Affairs as are altogether impertinent to the Matters in debate they prove nothing but the strength of their Malice and weakness of their Cause Nay so outragious is our Author that when he comes to reflect upon my Satyr against Atheism he blows upon it with as much scorn and rancour as upon the sharpest and most pointed Invectives against themselves As if no Man could write against their Party but he must immediately be stricken with a Spirit of Infatuation and forfeit all use of his Reason and his Understanding and were not able to discourse pertinently upon the most pregnant and most noble Argument in the World But so it is though you speak with the Tongues of Men and Angels and though you understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge yet if you have not Charity for them you are no better then sounding Brass and a tinkling Cymbal And yet had he onely slighted and scorn'd my weak Essay upon this Theme it would have been none of the most remarkable Instances of his Incivility but to spit his rankest Venom at it is unexemplified Candour and Ingenuity And among all the ugly Suggestions he has darted at me he has not aimed any with more malice and bitterness of spirit then those he has bolted upon this occasion but whatsoever foul Language I may deserve upon other accounts I appeal to the hottest Zealot of his own Dispensation whether it were discreetly or civilly done to cast Reproaches at me whilst I was exposing Prophaneness and Irreligion to publick shame A man that had not been utterly transported with Rage and Envy would have had the discretion to have vented his Choler upon more seasonable opportunities for now alas he effectually defeats his own Malice by treating me with the same rudeness when I deserve well as when I deserve ill from which way of procedure what else can the World conclude but that the Man raves and cares not what he says so he may abuse and defame me But upon this occasion he has intimated a considerable Truth viz. That there is less danger in this kind of Atheism that vents its self in little Efforts of Wit and Drollery then in those Attempts that under Pretences of sober Reason propagate such Opinions and Principles as have a direct Tendency to the Subversion of the Grounds of Religion It is well advised and they would do well to consider it that invalidate the Rational Accounts of the Christian Faith and destroy all sober Grounds of the Divine Authority of the holy Scriptures that undermine the Evidence of Miracles and Universal Tradition and resolve the Motives of its Credibility into vain and frivolous Pretences What greater Advantage can any Man give to the Enemies of Religion then to inform them That the Alcoran may vie Miracles and Traditions with the Scripture and then in their stead produce no other proof of its Divine Authority then what the Alcoran may as well plead without their concurrence and such is the Testimony of the Spirit if it convince not in a rational way and by the use of Motives and Arguments for remove their Evidence and then all pretences to Inspiration become uncertain and unaccountable and there remains no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to distinguish between a true and a false Testimony And what greater disservice can any man do to the Interest of Religion then to draw bold and horrid Consequences in behalf of Atheists Papists and Antiscripturists from every petty Controversie Does not he effectually invite Men to a neglect of the holy Scriptures that tells them they can have neither Truth nor Certainty if there be various Readings in the Original Texts and yet confesseth that Ocular Inspection makes it manifest that there are various Readings both in the Old Testament and the New and it 's confessed there have been failings in the Transcribers who have often mistaken and that it is impossible it should be otherwise I must acknowledge my self a little surprised to hear our Author question whether there be such a thing as speculative Atheism in the World and yet himself can discover a wide door to it in every Proposition even in the Lords Prayer it self It is somewhat prodigious that when so many Men in all Ages have made so many Attempts to enter at this Door they should never be able to light upon such an easie and such an open passage § 9. Another passage that he chides and cavils at is the account I gave why I instill'd so much tartness and severity into some Expressions from the Example of our Saviours behaviour in the Temple where I observed that there was but one single instance in which Zeal or an high Indignation might be just and warrantable and that is when it vents its self against the Arrogance of haughty peevish and sullen Religionists The Rashness of this Assertion he checks and controuls with authentick Precedents and Examples out of the old Testament though every illiterate Peasant could have inform'd him of the vast difference between the Jewish and the Christian Oeconomy theirs was a more harsh and severe institution the temper of their Zeal was more fierce and warlike and in some Cases to kill a Brother out of hatred to Idolatry was a commendable Action and at some times Swords and Daggers were the means of Grace as they lately were of Reformation Their Zealots were priviledged to execute any more notorious Offender without the Forms and Solemnities of Legal Process But their Examples are no warrantable Precedents for our Practice and our Author might as pertinently have prescribed to my imitation the Act of Elias for a blameless and a justifiable instance of Zeal as that of Phinehas And as for the Example of our blessed Saviour he pretends grievous Resentments for the Irreverence of my Expressions towards him such as hot fit of Zeal seeming Fury and transport of Passion though I know not how I could have expressed my self in more
though it cost him the making his Bow quite naked Thus were all the Promises in the Bible engaged in the Parliament Service and not a Text left to attend his Majesty beside Threatnings and Judgments And there is not a remarkable Prophesie relating to the Jewish Nation or the adjacent Kingdoms that they have not accommodated by faith and boldness for both together can do much to the posture of Affairs in our late Troubles Thus were the Essex Committee delivered from the Cavaliers at Colchester It was foretold i. e. after their deliverance Hab. 3.3 7. God came from Teman and the Holy One from mount Paran Selah i. e. from Naseby and Marston-moor I saw the Tents of Cushan in Affliction and the Curtains of the Land of Midian did tremble i. e. the Enemy gathered at Chelmsford upon the coming of Fairfax his Army abated their Confidence Were the Parishioners of Coggeshal once in great danger of the Enemy The snares of death compassed us and the flouds of ungodly men made us afraid But the Lord thundred from Heaven the Highest gave his voice hailstones and coles of Fire yea he sent out his Arrows and scattered them and he shot out lightning and discomfited them he sent from above he took us he drew us out of many waters he delivered us from our strong Enemy and from them which hated us for they were too strong for us Do any Professours doubt the Event of the War Fear not thou worm Iacob and ye few men of Israel behold I will make thee a new sharp Instrument having Teeth thou shalt thresh the Mountains and beat them small and shalt make the hills as chaff thou shalt fan them c. Isa. 41.14 15. Are the Officers of the Kings Forces divided or irresolved in their Counsels The Princes of Zoan are become fools the Princes of Noph are deceived they have seduced the People even they that are the stay of their Tribes the Lord hath mingled a perverse Spirit in the midst of them they have caused the People to err in every work as a drunken man staggereth in his Vomit Isa. 19.13 14. Were the Rump to be encouraged in their design of altering the Government after the Murther of the late King against the Apostacy of the Presbyterians and the Attempts of the Royalists The Text was pat to the purpose Let them return to thee but return not thou to them And I will make thee unto this People a fenced brazen wall and they shall fight against thee but they shall not prevail against thee for I am with thee to save thee and deliver thee saith the Lord Jer. 15.19 20. Is Monarchy to be for ever abolish'd and the new Common-wealth establish'd Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into my mind Isa. 65.17 But the Kingdom and Dominion and Greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the People of the Saints of the most High whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and all Dominions shall serve and obey him Hitherto is the end of the matter Dan. 7.27 Do the Protestants covenanted Protestants that had sworn in the presence of the great God to extirpate Popery and Prelacy Do others that counted themselves under no less sacred bond for the maintenance of Prelates Service-book and the like as the whole Party of Ormonds Adherents it is a favour or rather a chance it was not plain Butler joyn with a mighty number that had for eight years together sealed their Vows to the Romish Religion with our bloud and their own If all these combine together against Sion shall they prosper No saith the Lord Iehovah and I. O. If Rezin and the Son of Remalia Syria and Ephraim old Adversaries combine together for a new enmity against Iudah if Covenant and Prelacy Popery and Treachery Bloud and as to that Innocency joyn hand in hand to stand in the way of the Promise yet I will not in this joyn with them says the Lord. Is the Royal Family together with the ancient Nobility to be for ever cashier'd upon his Majesties defeat at Worcester and are the Brewers and Coblers of the Army to commence new Lords All the Trees of the Field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree and have exalted the low tree have dried up the green tree drawn out its sap by sequestrations and have made the dry tree to flourish by plunder and sacriledge I the Lord have spoken it and have done it Ezek. 17.24 This was the Text to the Thanksgiving Sermon before the Parliament for their Victory at Worcester And now is it possible for these men to be at a loss for Scripture to countenance their proceedings after this rate of imposing upon the Word of God If such loose and prophane Accommodations of Prophetick passages to present Affairs be sufficient to support Faith in its expectations of success I leave it to you to judge whether it can ever want grounds and encouragements for Rebellion as long as the Prophesies against Gog and Magog the Whore and the Beast the Pope and the Man of sin are not blotted out of the Bible But this is not all Faith has other Topicks to bottom its confidence upon And therefore 2. It has right to all Gods mercies and deliverances of his People in all past and present Ages It makes all Joshuahs victories present to every true Believer so that if O. Cromwel had but boldness or Enthusiasm enough to presume that the Almighty had as great favour for his Highness as he had for Ioshuah he was bound to enable him and his Army to dispatch Kings and Canaanites with as great expedition as Ioshuah and the Children of Israel did For the Good-will Free Grace and loving Kindness of God is the same towards all his People And the infinite Fountains of the Deity can never be sunk one hairs bredth by everlastingly flowing blessings So that past blessings and deliverances of Gods People are store mercies laid up for Believers against a rainy day and when we want present Refreshments what a comfort is it to chew the Cud upon the blessings of former Ages And thus they use the Records of sacred Story just as Don Quixot used his Books of Chivalry in accommodating the Exploits of the Knights of yore to his own ridiculous Adventures And here lay the folly of his Errantry in chewing the cud upon the Prodigies of old Romances And I am sure he had as wise and reasonable a ground for his folly when he besotted himself with a conceit of vying Adventures with the famous Knight Valdovinos as they had for their faith when they expected to equal the successes of Ioshuah But however by this means it was easie to befool and inveigle the Common-people and if they represented to them any act of Bloud and Cruelty with Allusion to Scripture Language and Story