Christ who is already come to judgement with whom his Saints are now risen and dayly rising seeing him not as in a glasse of means darkly but by immediate Visions glorious Manifestations speciall Inspirations plenary Inhabitations thus fitting on Thrones and Reigning with Christ in his Kingdom Whom would not these Trumpets awake and these alarms call forth if we were not forewarned by Christ and if we had not seen such follies formerly acted and manifested to all the Christian world and sufficiently confuted in all ages which never amounted to more than Religious Tragedies Gâ—miâ—a deformitas at nocumentum tragicum miserorum religiosa delicta for when the masks of personated Prophets and necessâ—tous Saints and hungry Enthusiasts and idle Seraphicks were taken off which they put on either by the power or presumptions they had among the Vulgar presently there appeared the horns of the Beast in pride ambition luxury polygamy cruelty Cyp. Ep. 2. Sleidan Com. l. 4. tyranny confusion That those who seemed to have come down from heaven in the shews of the Spirit and pretentions of Sanctity were but Satans lightnings falling down from heaven and his most abominable eructations out of the bottomelesse pit If we other poor Christians who still remain on the other side of this Jordan which those Spiritosoes pretend to have passed if wee who creep on the ground as worms and no men who have dayly cause to abhor our selves in dust and ashes who are forced dayly to strengthen our faith to renew our repentance to poure forth our souls oft in sighs tears prayers with broken hearts and contrite spirits contending with corruptions wresting with temptations having enough to doe to fortifie our selves with the compleat armour of Gods Word in Precepts and Promises and of his Spirit in gracious habits excitations to and assistances in duties 2 Pet. 1.10 Thus giving all diligence to make our calling and election sure not counting our selves to have comprehended but pressing on to the mark of the price of the high calling in Christ Jesus Glorying in nothing but in the crosse of Jesus Christ Phil. 3.14 Gal. 6.14 by which we are crucified to the honours riches policies successes flatteries and glories of this inglorious world yea to the Liberties Religions Devotions Sanctities new Churches new Reformations and new Ministers of this world who forsaking the wayes of Christ and the holy Apostles and the ancient Churches and the true succession of Ministers and all Power have turned grace into wantonnesse liberty into licentiousnesse godlinesse into gain and very much embraced the present world falling down before Mammon and worshipping the false gods of this world If we who when we have suffered much and done something in our endeavours and purposes of holinesse yet find cause to cry out Wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from this body of death Rom. 7.24 if we could indeed believe or find by experience that the exaltations and Raptures of these new pretenders to the Spirit were more comfortable than the bufferings of those good old Christians That their triumphs in the world were beyond the others sufferings from the world that there were more of Christ in their new Crowns of glory which they boast of than in the others Crosses which they patiently bare If we could discern a more self-denying Spirit a more Christ-enjoying Sanctity That they were Saints that is Not crucifiers of the world but crucified to the world If we could see the wounds of Christ in these glorious apparitions these Christ-like phantasms as Antony the Hermite required Non credam esse Christum nisi vulnera videam crucifixi in vita Anâ— when Satan appeared to him like Christ in glory If that Purity Chastity Justice Honesty Contentednesse Patience Charity Meeknesse Humility Peaceablenesse Fidelity Constancy and Orderlinesse shined in them wherein those holy men and women of old the Professors Confessors and Martyrs not getting but loosing Saints imitated the holy Lord Jesus and the most holy God according to the lively characters of true holinesse set down in the Scriptures If we saw such fruits of reall holinesse in their words pens and actions in their Doctrines and duties in their self-denials and Mortifications in their meetings and Fraternities in their Church Orders and Ministrations as might convince us that these pretenders to the Spirit and despisers of the Ministers have indeed more oâ— that light life and power of the holy Spirit of God than either true Christians or godly Ministers formerly had or now have in this or any other true Church of Christ How should we envy their blessednesse with an holy emulation How should we as Saint John to the Angell whom it may be he took for Jesus Christ be even ready to fall at their feet Revel 19 10. to kisse their footsteps to attend their directions to imitate their examples to partake of their raptures to pry into their third heavens to rise ascend reign and triumph to enjoy the holy Spirit and Christ and God with them to all which they in word and fancy pretend 7. Fallacies in this kind frequent among Enthusiasts But the triple Crown of meer titular and verball holinesse which is but copper gilded over moves us not further than to pity the sinner and to scorn the pride The Gnosticks Montanists Catharists of old the later rude and cruell phanaticks in Germany cryed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy holy holy to their parties and factions As if there were holy ambitions holy seditions holy covetousnesses holy sacriâ—edges holy obscenities holy cruelties holy confusions in the conversations of true Christians and spirituall men Or holy ignorances holy errours holy darknesses holy heresies holy schisms holy hypocrisies in their hearts and spirits As if no duties no Scriptures no Sacraments no Ministry or Ministers no Government or Governours of the Church were heretofore holy which were primitively and universally and constantly owned and observed in the Church of Christ as derived from him As if private fancies and solitary dreams and single imaginations of weak and silly men or women were now holyer or had more in them of the Spirit than the publique Oracles of the sure Word of God which the Catholick Church hath received from God by the hands of holy men and by a constant succession of an holy Ministry hath delivered to us with constancy and fidelity as to the main however particular branches or members of this Church may have failed and withered If these Antiministeriall Novellists have nothing whereby to set off their pretended gifts of the Spirit and singular holinesse but only novelty fancy and uncertain Inspirations nothing to cry down all former holy ways of the Church but this that they are conform to all Antiquity and Scripture regulations The least beam of whose glorious light alwayes either equalls or far exceeds their new either superfluous or dubious illuminations Truly they must give all learned and godly Ministers together
with all judicious and sober Christians leave Potius vetera tuta quam periculosa nova sectemur Tac. to passe by the Idoll of their new dressed Spiritually and Sanctity without any admiration devotion or the least salutation Nor can we at all consider private spirits warped from and bent against the publique Spirit of Christ in the Scripture in the practise of the Catholick Church and in the most eminent Christians both ancient and modern We shall content our selves with that plain and pristine holynesse and manifestations of the Spirit True holinesse and true Saints Sanctitas est scientia colendorum deorun Tul. de Nat. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Eutyp which are expressed in the Word deposited in the Church preserved in an holy Ministry exemplified in all true Christians and most eminently in Jesus Christ and his Apostles the great and famous Founders Teachers and Establishers of holy Truths holy Duties holy Sacraments holy Orders and holy Ministry in the Church And this with divine Power and Authority not onely personall but successionall without which the instituted Service and Worship of Christ had ere this failed These being ever since Christs time in all the world imployed in Teaching Gathering Baptizing Governing Feeding Preserving and Perfecting the Body of Christ which is his Church We know not and so we cannot desire other holinesse than that by which we beleived the Truths obeyed the Commands feared the Threatnings observed the Duties preserved the Institutions continued the Orders reverenced the Embassadors joyed in the Graces hoped in the Promises and were led conformably to Christ by that Spirit which Jesus Christ had given to his Church long before these new coyners had graven the stamps or set up their Mintâ— We are glad and blesse God when we attain unfaignedly to that Spirit of Holynesse which hears the Word of God with fear and trembling from the mouth of those able and godly Ministers which are the Messengers or Angels sent from Christ by the Churches Ordination Which teacheth us to pray with understanding constancy fervently and comelinesse to receive the pledges of Gods love in Christ from their hands duly consecrating the holy mysteries with reverence preparednesse and thankfulnesse That holinesse which loves with sincerity gives with cheerfulnesse rejoyceth in well doing suffers with patience lives by Faith acts by Charity is holy with order contentednesse and humility without any fury faction or confusion That holinesse which hath nothing in it novell or praeterscripturall nothing fancifull verball tumultuary violent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Euâ—yph Sâ—nctum est quod deo gratum schismaticall disorderly partiall pernicious or injurious to any which chuseth to be a Martyr for Charity and Unity as well as Verity in the Church rather suffering much than giving scandall or making a schism according to the pious and excellent couâ—sâ—ll of Dionysius to Novatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Epâ—st Auâ—ea apud Eusch l. 6. hist c. 38. That holinesse which is old as the Ancient of dayes reall rationall demonstrative from the Word of God and exemplified in the lives of former Saints Which is meek courteous charitable humble just to all men abounding with all righteousnesse and the fruits of righteousnesse peace and establishment both to private consciences and publique Churches That holinesse which hath nothing in it supercilious calumniating defamatory insolent bitter or burthensome to any true Christians true Churches and true Ministers which know how to reprove what is amisse without rejecting all that is well to reform the crooked without ruining what is right That holinesse which as the Sun-beams is always like it self like the Father of spirituall light uniform and constant in all true Saints in all ages and in all administrations Divine either immediate or mediate as to its rule the Will and Word of God as to its end the glory of God in Gods way as to its Epitome or sum the love of God and its neighbour as to its happy fruits and effects the good of mankinde chiefly of the Church of Christ These have ever been the same for kind however differing in degrees according to the measure which God hath given to his true Saints and servants who never differed from God or the Word or one another as they were holy and spirituall however as men and carnall in part they had their crookednesse unevennesses and dissentings These are the fruits of Gods Spirit this that true Holinesse for which we pray of which we dare not boast These are the Saints whose shadows we count Soveraign whose presence a blessing whose wayes unblameable whose joyes unspeakable whose works most imitable whose conversation most amiable heavenly and divine who chuse rather to suffer than any way to act in cases dubious as to secular dissensions which have much of the Beast somewhat of the Man and little of the true Christian The worth of these Pearls is infinitely beyond some mens counterfeit forgeries whose lustre is chiefly from worldly glory and secular advantages who out of ashes are melted up to the shining and bricklenesse of glasse by the fervour of some spirits who think it enough to glister with novelties and to boast of Inspirations fancying all is reformed which is but changed though much to the worse who are forced to set off themselves by the soil of severe censuring of others Fearing nothing so much as a true light and those discoveries which are made of them by serious and judicious Christians who judge not by mens lips and appearances but by their lives and practises compared to the Word of God For which true Ministers most eminently and impartially holding forth to the discovery of all mens deformities are of all men most abhorred by these pretenders who at a true and full view will not onely not appear to other such gifted men and spirituall as they pretend but they will be ashamed of their arrogance and despite against those good Christians and those true Minisers whom they have so much vilified and contemned The common mistake of proud weak or fancifull men 8. Vulgar mistakes of spirituall influences Luk. 9.55 Impudentiam pâ—o pietate jactitant quasi eo sanctiores essent quo verbosiores Bern. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucid. hist l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas de Sp. s. whose tongues are onely tipt with Sanctity and the name of the Spirit is this That they know not indeed of what Spirit they are as to Profession Nor consider of what Spirit they ought to be as to temper if they will be truly Christs Disciples Contenting themselves with light and airy presumptions in stead of serious and searching examinations of truth comparing themselves with themselves they fancy they grow holyer as they grow bolder in their opinions or actions Hence they are easily flattered into high Imaginations and cheated with strong Presumptions as if some common gifts of knowledge some Scepticall quicknesse some volubility of utterance
persons countries or Churches It is hard to discerne the Star of Prophecy so over any one man or place or time as that was over the house where Christ was in Bethlehem Hence many meteors falling Stars and fatuous fires are frequently discovered in the writings of fancifull and factious men as if all they did or desired or approved were evidently foretold and commended in the Revelation In whose Visions one sees this Princess another sees that learned man a third that State or Kingdome a fourth that Commander and Conqueror c. according as men list to fancy themselves or flatter others whose sparks are far extinct and their glory presently vanisheth as no way proportionable to that fixed light and ample glory which the spirit of prophecy holds forth chiefly to the Christian world in opposition to Heathens Jews or Antichrists After the way of these Prophetick fancies and passionate methods of some mens misinterpreting and misapplying Prophecies great Religion we see hath been placed by small mindes in pulling down and extirpating the ancient order and government of Episcopacy which was in all Churches as here in England from the first plantation of Christianity Also in setting up the supremacy of an headlesse Eldership and Presbytery or in dashing both of them into sheards and small pieces by the little stone of Independency How doe some glory in their dividing and destroying the ancient goodly frames of Churches that they may new modell them to their popular way of calling chusing and ordaining of Ministers Many boast much in their forsaking the calling and communion of all former Ministers and religious assemblies in their despising and demolishing the very places of publique meeting to serve God which not conscience of any divine particular precept but common reason and civility have presented Christian Religion withall for its honour and its professors conveniency Some here with us in England a place whose Genius much disposeth people to prophecies novelties and varieties are as Pygmalion with his Image so inamoured with their Corpusculo's the little new bodies of their gathered Churches that they deny any Nationall Church in any larger associatings of Christians by harmonies of confession and peaceable subordinations yea and many will allow no Catholick Church nor any religious sense to that article of our Creed denying any true Church at all to be now in the world Some place all Church power in paucities in parities in popular levellings and Independencies others contemn all those broken bodies as schismaticall slips having nothing in them of that goodly beauty stature strength and integrity to which the Church of Christ was wont to grow and wherein it flourished and continued conspicuous so many hundred of years before these novelties were broached or brewed either in England or any other countrey The height of some mens Religion and Reformation is to have neither Bishops nor Ministers of the ancient authority succession and ordination Others refuse these also of the new Presbyterian stamp which is not much older here in England than the figure and superscription of the last coin A third will have no Minister but such as the common people shall try chuse consecrate and judge Some will have no Minister at all by office or divine mission others will have any man a Minister or Prophet that lists to make or call himself one In like manner some will allow Baptism to no Infants others to none but such whose parents they judge to be Saints a third baptize the children of all that professe they beleive the truth of the Gospell a fourth sort deny the use of any water Baptism at all By a Catabaptisticall boldnesse or blindenesse magisterially contradicting and sophistically disputing against the expresse letter of the Scripture against the command of Jesus Christ against the practise of all the Apostles and against the custom of all Christian Churches Pretending as a rare and warm invention that the Baptisme of fire and of the Spirit which they now at last hold forth will both supply and explode that colder ceremony of sprinkling or dipping in water It is strange these Rabbies and Masters in Israel should be so silly as not to know that long before their brain brought forth any such blasphemous brood against baptizing by water all judicious Christians ever esteemed baptism by water to be an extern sign and meanes by which the wisedome of Christ thought fit to administer to his Church on earth not onely that distinctive mark of being his Disciples but also the representation of his bloud shed for their redemption and the obsignation of that Baptismall grace which his Spirit confers on those that are his by the cleansing of the conscience and renewing of the inward man 1 Pet. 3.21 Christians must not after the short and more compendious methods of their fancies therefore neglect the sign or ceremony because they presume of the thing signified but rather with humble obedience doe the duty and use the meanes divinely instituted that they may obtain the grace offered On the same grounds all outward Ministrations among Christians may be despised and abolished by those that pretend to the Spirits inward efficacy which is never in any man that doth not obey the Gospell in its outward mandates as well as the Spirit in its inward motions Proud idle and ignorant fancies are dayly finding shorter wayes to heaven than the wisdome of Christ hath laid out to his Church in following of which no good Christian can judge that there is either piety peace or safety Some boast much of their popular and plausible gifts for knowledge utterance prayer c. others slight all but inward grace and the Spirits dwelling in them Some dote much upon their select fraternities and covenanting congregations others are onely for private illuminations solitary seekings sublime raptures and higher assurances Some admire themselves in their tedious strictnesses and severer rigors by which they gird up the loins of their Religion so strait that it can hardly take civill breath or the air of common courtesie others joy as much in the Liberty they fancy themselves to have attained both of opinions and actions Some make every thing a sin and errour which they like not others count nothing a sin to which they have an impulse and are free as they call it Some tolerate all wayes of Religion in all men till it comes to be private Atheisme and publique confusion others crack all strings which will not be wound up to their pitch damning and destroying all that are not of their particular mode and heresie though never so novel and differing not onely from the Catholick practise of the primitive Churches but also from the expresse rule of the Scriptures Whom would not these monsters of novelties varieties and contradictions among Christians in their Religion as it is Christian and reformed too even amaze and greatly astonish ready to scare all men from any thing that wee in England call Religion Reformation Church or Conscience
Religion and of the true Ministry of this Church which is almost overborn and oppressed by the cunning and clownish clamours and not by any true valour worth or virtue of their enemies As the Bohemian Nobility and Gentry did with great earnestnesse intercede for Jerom of Prague to the Councell of Constance by their petion subscribed with their names An. 1415. Nothing would be more worthy of that ancient honour which the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation hath gained and enjoyed in all the world than to see now the Christian zeal and gallantry of their spirits therefore the more forward to bear up the dignity of Christs holy Ministry by how much they see so many set to oppose it seeking by contempt to debase it and by poverty to oppresse it presuming that the present Ministers though never so learned godly and faithfull once over burthened with secular necessities will not long be able to assert the honour of their calling nor will any after generation succeed to inherit their poverty and paines but onely such as shall further debase the dignity of the function How glorious were it for honourable and worthy gentlemen Math. 27.57 Joh. 19 38. Mark 15.43 Luk. 23.50 Joseph of Arimathea A rich man an honorable counsellourâ— a good man a just also a Disciple of Christ c. owned Christ dead and begged his body of Pilate c. like Joseph of Arimathea whom good education and experience of true Religion have matured to pious wisdome and sober zeal now to own Jesus Christ when the world is stripping scourging mocking and crucifying of him when he is so much forsaken of those men whose feares dare not own him or whose lusts aim to make a prey of him Now to give the more honour and respect to the true Ministery of this Church by which they have beene baptized and educated in Christian Religion when they see so many vile and illiterate spirits studying to debase the persons striving to destroy the very function This were worthy of a true gentleman whom vertue and grace more then birth and relations make such to stand by the forsaken to countenance the dejected to pity the oppressed and at least to Petition and intercede for the preservation of the true Ministry and worthy Ministers of whom they and the whole Nation have had so great and good experience I doe not think it seasonable now to invite Gentlemen where their estates and expenses may bear it to follow those patterns of extraordinary munificence which some of their rank have heretofore given them by restoring the Impropriate Tithes and alienated glebes to the Church either freely or at an easie price This were now to give sacrilegious rapine a greater temptation which dayly gapes to devour all the remains of the Churches Patrimony and Dowry To adde any bloud now to the Churches veins were but more to provoke the thirst of greedy and unsatisfied horseleeches of this age Prov. 30.15 who cry Give give till they have quite exhausted the very life and spirits of all true Religion This motion and bounty will be more seasonable in better times Rom. 2.22 when Sacriledge shall be accounted as it is a most damnable sin and not a trade or a fruit of zeal or a flower of reformation which by the Apostles arguing is a more heynous sin than that of Idolatry in as much as this owns a god though false this robs God though true 1 Cor. 12 31. But behold I shew your noblenesse a more excellent way my ambition is to propound an higher degree of Christian glory to you the learned and religious Gentry which is to follow the steps of that noble Prince Phil. Melanct. Camerarius highly commend him for his piety and zeal he died 1553. George Duke of Anhalt who disdained not having Ministeriall gifts to serve Christ and the Church at Marburg in the work of the Ministry taking upon him holy orders in times of the greatest contradiction against the reformed Religion and esteeming it greater honour to tread in Christs more immediate and narrowest steps than to enjoy the more spacious pathes of secular pleasures and State imployments If you know the excellency of Christ the vanity of this worlds glory Mat 19 28 29. the worth of mens soules the weight of that Crown which is prepared for those that forsake all and follow Christ you cannot think your selves disparaged by this my humble motion to you Your estates will set a greater lustre now on you in the eyes of good people than ever the great state pomp plenty and dignities of former times set upon your predecessours who of many of your families were Church men and many of them very worthy ones Where God hath given you gifts fit for so sacred a service of him and his Church no man can propound to you a more goodly province wherein gratefully to use them or a more eminent way of preferment wherewith to entertain your pious and commendable ambition which is most worth the pregnancy of your parts and g nerousnesse of your spirits No Cedar is too tall or goodly for the building of Gods Temple Nor may it disdaine to descend from Lebanon to the holy hill of Zion and no Jewell is too rich and glorious for Aarons breastplate nor for the foundations and wals of the New Jerusalem The more splendor God hath set upon you the more shall you reflect to his glory and the honor of that Religion you professe by devoting your selves to serve him and his distressed Church in times when labourers are few and those much overburthened If any religious way of life might be meritorious this would be beyond the strictest votaries in as much as it carries more paines and more benefit with it I have seen by the experience of Gods bounty The advantages of an estate with the Minâ—stry how great advantages an estate gives to any Minister if God gives him grace and wisedome with it How it addes to his just confidence and courage in serving God and guiding his people how it redeemes him not onely from vulgar depreciatings mean thoughts and worldly solicitousnesse but also from the temptation of flattery popularity and that most sordid shamefull dependance on othâ—rs frownes and favours their givings and withdrawings I know how much it addes boldnesse credit and authority to a Ministers words to his reproofs comforts monitions and examples As the expressions of those men whom not necessity of subsisting but the conscience of doing good the unfeigned love they have to Christ the firm beleif they have of the Gospell and the value they have of mens soules put upon the work of preaching Then will the country people think such Ministers of the Gospell to be in good earnest when they see hospitable relief of the poor Saepius emolliunt cleemosynarum dona quos non commovent concionum verba Adeo facta dictis sunt sonantiora 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
serve in a better Militia It matters not what our secular burdens be so as we may make the Gospell any way lesse burthensome or more welcome to our hearears We urge not that common liberty which we have and our joint interest in the publique civill welfare as men while yet we are made uncapable and the onely men of any calling that are excluded from all publique votes counsels or influence when yet any trade may invade our calling and usurp our Ministry It is well if wee may be suffered to be of Gods Counsel and permitted to acquaint others with it in order to their salvation our ambition is so to live that the diminutions contempt and poverty cast upon the Ministeriall order as to all secular priviledges or interests may be no disparagement to our function any more than it was to Primitive Bishops and Presbyters who by their constant patience and humility gave greatest Testimony to the truth of the Gospell whom their preaching moved not their patience did Yet Quos praedicatio non potuit illos vicit praedicantium patientia quos documenta Evangelica non moverunt de istis bene toleratae injuriae tandem triumphaâ—unt Hom. de Eccl. prim persec it will be little to the honour of this Nation which as yet professeth the Christian Religion to treat the Ministers of Christ after the rate that Diocletian or Maximinus or Julian did or as those primitive persecutors either heathens or hereticks or as the Mahumetans at this day doe under whom it is a favour to tolerate any Christian Bishops or Preachers or Professors among whom even the remaining Embers of Christianity are almost raked up and buried under the oppressions poverty and barbarity used against them and their Ministers Nothing hath a deeper and sharper sense upon my soule than when I see not onely the great and heavy distresses which already have and will further fall on many and most of my betters and brethren who as learned godly and ingenuous men merit something at least of compassion but chiefly when by foresight of future times I consider not without grief and horrour the great decayes if not utter vastations of the reformed Religion and of that true piety which such hath heretofore so flourished in England through the want of true able and authoritative Ministers all those inundations of ignorance error superstition and confusion will certainly flow in which all good Christians would most deprecate both from God and man my own and other mens serious sense of all which I shall much grieve to finde either unacceptably * Fructus est laboris finis operis placere melioribus Sym. Ep. or unsuccessefully expressed in this Apologetick defence which is humbly presented to the Christian candor and submitted to the judgement of all those excellent Christians whom it most concerns and to whom it is directed the least of whom I would not willingly offend 20. Deprecation of offence Non laudes sed laudanda quaeâ—â— Beseeching them in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to accept in the spirit of meeknesse and love what I have written I hope as becomes a Christian and a Minister of the Gospell in this reformed Church of England Also to cover with the vail of charity what ever infirmities may appeare as in a frail and sinfull man who knowing that I had chiefly to contest with some men that are wise in their own conceit Prov. 26.4 thought it a part of wisdome in its season to answer them according to their folly And when I considered that these Antiministeriall spirits if they fear God yet they seeme little to reverence men either in the hoary heads of pious antiquity declaring its judgement in the writings of the Fathers Canons of Councels and histories of the Church or in the learned judgement of those excellent Authours of later edition who are all against them It hath made me the more sparing in so clear and confessed a cause to cite their infinite Testimonies My intent being neither to make this Apology a flag of ostentation for great reading nor yet to crowd up and smother these men meerly with numbers of names and quotations which is very easie but rather to breath upon them with the breath of life and to convince them with Scripture and right reason which may serve to meet with any in the ordinary rodes of rigid Separatists Papists and Socinians as for Seekers Enthusiasts Seraphicks and Ranters they commonly fly like Night-ravens and Scrichowles so much in obscurities that I can hardly see them though I oft hear their ominous voices portending utter darknesse after their evening fulguratings and flashes when I meet with any of these I thought it my duty and honour not to give them way though indeed I know nothing probable to conquer such obstinate passions to confute such proud ignorance or to curb such wanton liberties as these unruly spirits pretend to but onely the hand of God in sicknesse poverty terrour and improsperity A little winter of affliction will easily kill all those vermine of opinions which are bred in a summers toleration through health plenty successes preferments and which seise at length the very heads and hearts of men If any Christian through meer simplicity and honest credulity have erred not daring to take the hundred part of that confidence to maintain Truth or to assert worthy Ministers and the right way of the reformed and Christian Religion which others doe to broach and abet their desperate errors and calumnies I hope I have as my purpose is offered to those well meaning Soules in all plainnesse and charity what may redeem them from those many false and erratick fires which seek to seduce them from their true Ministers whom the light of right reason and Scripture and experience will shew them are as much to be loved honoured and estâ—emed as ever any Ministers of the Gospel were to any Christians in any Church since the Apostles time If any rude and injurious detractors being over grown with proud and presumptuous flesh instead of healing rise to insolent humors and intolerable inflummations rayling defaming decrying and speaking all manner of evill falsely against worthy Ministers and their calling being resolved and having vowed Act. 23.14 as the forty men against Saint Paul quite to destroy them The corrasives or burnt alum here and there sprinkled on the plaister of this Apology is purposely to meet with and to eat out that proud and dead flesh which may be in their corrupted minds and benummed consciences The sober Christian must not think that every one that makes a sowre face or wry mouth or wincheth at this Apology or passeth a severe slight or scurrilous answer upon it or its author is presently hurt or injured by me or it further than he whose bones are broken is hurt by one that strives to set them or he that hath ulcerated sores is by him that seeks to search and heal them These