change indeavouring an alteration in the Establilsh't Government for such an humour the word signifies such Persons as are Sorte suâ minimè contenti a description so exactly suiting with the querulous humour of these People that all the Art in the World cannot coyn a fitter And to conclude all Emphatically These are they which separate themselves Animal having not the Spirit how highly soever they may pretend to it nor having made a further progress in Religion than what is meer Sensitive or Animal as the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies such natural attainments as without Grace men may and many Heathens have attained to unless they may be said to exceed them in the Confidence of proclaiming their own Worth and Merits Thus do they stand guilty by the Verdict of Christ and his Apostles and if we must Judge of them by their fruits and by the fore-mentioned signs whether they are False Prophets and Wolves in Sheeps clothing then here is Separation Sedition Contention Disobedience Despising of Dignities speaking evil of Dominions Wrath Strife slanderous and false accusations of their Sober Pious and Lawful Superiours and much more of the same Nature of which they stand daily convicted by their Preaching and Practice LET them now if they can shew that the Church of England does either teach or allow any of these things forbidden by Christ or the Gospel or that any one of these signs of False Prophets do agree to them And let all the World judge if the true Sons of the Church are not the true Ministers of Righteousness AS for their Impeachment against us as guilty of Idolatry and Superstition all the Art they have used for near this hundred Years has not been able to go further in the proof of it than a bare saying so and that though pronounced never so Magisterially will amount to no more than a seeble Womans Argument They are so because they are so Ergo they are guilty of Idolatry and Superstition Which may be good Logick amongst their silly Apron Disciples but will never pass muster any where else AND for their slander That our Clergy especially the Prelates are so much inclined to Popery I know not whether it has more Malice or falshhood in it For they cannot be ignorant how learnedly some former Bishops and some of the present Clergy have defended the Protestant Cause against all the Champions of Rome and have shewn the forgeries and feign'd Miracles upon which that Church has built her Usurpations how amply have they satisfied the World that we have not left Rome as anciently Christian till Rome had first left the Ancient Catholick-Apostolick Faith and Truth AND however the Men of this Party made the great and learned Arch-bishop Laud so much a Papist as for that suspicion or imputation to lose his Head they are obliged to that Head which we lost more than He And the best Arms they can employ against the Papists they must be forc'd to borrow out of his Magazine and so long as that Incomparable Piece of his against Fisher continues in the World it will be an Eternal Monument of his Learning Piety and firmness in the Protestant Doctrine and of their falsehood and Cruelty in depriving our Church and the whole Protestant cause of such an able Chief and expert Commander and for no other Crimes but his Loyalty to his Prince his Constancy to the Church and his wearing the Sacred and Venerable Miter Crimes great enough if They were Judges to take off the Heads of all the Bishops in the World THEY cannot but know how many several times before a Man comes from a Colledge to a Cathedral he must take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiaâ—â—e and renounce the Church of Rome and therefore they must suppose That all these Pious and Reverend Fathers will make no scruple of Perjury of which if ever they return to the obedience of the Pope they must be most horribly guilty but the truth is they care not how much they suppose them guilty and never think they can render them odious enough though by the most improbable slanders which their Malice can invent God forgive them for it for sure they know not what they do CHAP. XX. THE CONCLVSION AND now having found them thus guilty I know they will say I am a Man of a persecuting Spirit a Reprobate a Machiavellian a hard word they use to brand their Enemies withall and which most of their Party know not what it means whether a man or a Devil or something worse if it could be But it has been the hard measure of those whose names I do so reverence that it will be the greatest honour they can do me to put me in the Rear of them The Captain of our Salvation was said to be a Samaritan and to have a Devil and the great Apostle tells us he was by some accounted their Enemy because he told them the Truth and so long as the World indures it will be so For Obsequium Amicos Veritas odium parit Flattery will for a while procure many Friends but great is the Truth and will prevail though it raises a Man never so many Enemies And if it shall be said All Truths are not fit for all times I must make that Necessity plead for me which can do violence to Nature and which made the Son of Crassus who before was Dumb break his Silence with Regem nolite occidere And it would make the dumb Ass speak the second time if she were alive to reprove the madness of these Prophets who run on in the Wayes of Balaam to curse a Church and People whom the Lord hath Blessed and they shall be blessed when these their Enemies shall inherit the Woe and perish in the Gainsaying of Corah The very Geese will awaken the Gauls when they hear the Barbarous Gauls secretly creeping up the Hill to surprize the Capitol And the silly Curs will bark when they hear the Evening Wolf coming towards the Fold to worry the Sheep Danger opens every Eye and Fear will open any Mouth I do not question but to run through various Censures and am ever since I was at School acquainted with the Fate of Books Pro captu Lectoris habent sua fata Libelli And though it is uncommon yet give me leave to close this Discourse with what is usually the begining of others something to the Reader which I do not because I love innovations but because I hate long Prefaces and will not be a Pimp to my own Pen or Court the coy to cast their Eyes upon the following Sheets with Epistolary Rhetorick I had rather have People read if they think good and then judge than judge by the Elaborate Front and after read what it may be they will not like and meet with Eger Wine after all the Promises of the Carved and Gilded Bush All I have to say for my self is That if I have not done so well as I should I have done as well as I could and am sure I shall deceive no expectation because nothing was ever expected from me IF the judicious shall tax me of two much Levity there is to entertain the greatest Sobriety even under those little lightnesses serious truths and it was the humour of the Age which has violenc'd my Inclinations with which even Truth is hardly palatable without the Ragoust of Droll and Burlesque AS for the Aiery and pleasant they will think it too serious and so it is to play withall and if it may not by diverting advantage them I shall not be offended if they chuse what they like better AS for my Friends in which Number I reckon all those that love their Country Prince Laws Liberty and Religion they will certainly pardon the Defective Effects of that Zeal and Passion I have for them and their Interests though in some things to the severity of Criticks especially the prejudiced I may appear to have been so far transported as to seem blind AND for my Enemies to shew them I am a Church of England Man I will forgive them and pray for them though for speaking out too plain they hate me persecute my Fame or despightfully use my Reputation and it may be I am too intent upon Affairs of greater concern than to turn again and pelt Stones at the Dogs that bark at me or to be angry because I am dasht and bespatter'd in dirty Ways which whoever travels in the same Road of Truth that I have must of necessity expect and though a great Man tells us Of Writing Books there is no End I will hope there will be such an End as proceeds from there being no necessity of such Books because no occasion for them Dabit Deus his quoque Finem FINIS A Catalogue of some Books printed for Jonathan Edwin at the three Roses in Ludgate-street THE True Liberty and Dominion of Conscience vindicated from the usurpations and abuses of Opinion and Perswasion in Octavo Christian Ethicks or Divine Morality opening the way to Blessedness by the rules of Virtue and Reason by Tho. Traherne B.D. Octavo Roman Forgeries or A true Account of False Records discovering the Impostures and counterfeit Antiquities of the Church of Rome by the same Author Octavo Daily Devotions consisting of Thanksgiving Confessions and Prayers in two parts by an humble Penitent in 120. The Causes and Remedies of the Distempers of the Times in certain Discourses of Obedience and Disobedience Octavo
S. John 16.13 and I hope they dare not say but this Command of our Saviours was one of those things he had head and was one of those Truths into which he was to lead them FURTHER if we examine what are the Fruits of the Spirit they are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness Gal. 5.22 23 24. Eph 5.5 faith meekness temperance righteousness and truth but not the least mention of Extempore Prayer If we search what are the Gifts of the Spirit or the Gifts of God we shall find the Gift of Continency 1 Cor. 7.7 1 Cor. 3.5 Rom. 12.6 1 Cor. 12.1 the Gifts of Prophecie of working Miracles c. but no Gift of Prayer And where the particular Gifts are enumerated there is not one syllable of the Gift of Prayer Certainly if it had been a spiritual Gift or a fruit of the Spirit it would not have been omitted BUT secondly let us appeal to Example For if this be a fruit of the Spirit then all they who can or could thus pray Extempore have the Spirit of God and are the Sons of God This is as much a Demonstration as any in Euclid Now will I bring you such an Army of Saints with Old Noll in the head of them as shall fight and pray with all Nations Either these Saints S. Oliver S. Ireton S. Bradshaw c. pray'd by the Spirit and so were real Saints or what they pray'd was not by the Spirit and so they were no Saints nor Extempore Prayer any Evidence of the Spirit of God Now let them take which of these they will I dare say they had rather Canonize Oliver and his praying Legions than not only as Affairs now stand it is not altogether safe And if they shall refuse both the Hornes of the Dilemma as being sure to be in their sides and too sharp to be handled they must teach us to distinguish and know that they are not just such Saints as the others who had the knack exactly prayed the same Language almost Verbatim made the same boasts of and pretensions to the Spirit and I am afraid had the same Spirit the same Uses to make of it and the self-same Ends and Designs I might bring many instances but I will only add one which is so remarkable that it will be sufficient to convince all those who are not resolved against Conviction and whereby it will appear that this way of Extempore Prayer is so far from being a Gift of God or proceeding from the Spirit of God that it may be a Gift of the Devil and that such who are almost under an irreversible Necessity of Damnation may have it even in Perfection The story is thus At St. Ives in the County of Huntington within the Memory of many Persons yet alive there was a Woman whose name I do not very well remember though many in that place very well do She was one of those who for distinction were then by themselves called Professors by other Puritans she was a great follower of the upholders of the Presbyterian-Tenents a constant frequenter of Godly Meetings and Religious Exercises This Woman came to be so eminent especially in this Gift of Prayer that she was generally admired and look't upon as a Saint of the first Magnitude the noise of her Fame and the boasts of her Party brought many Neighbouring-Ministers in the adjacent Counties of Cambridge and Huntington to hear her pray which she did in that ravishing manner that they never parted from her without an Excess of Admiration and astonishment After some time for what reason I am not able to determine this Holy Sister went over into New-England as about the same time many others did for Liberty of Conscience for a while she was there in the greatest Esteem and height of Reputation but the Devil ow'd her a shame and she him a Soul she was at last suspected and accused to be a Witch was brought to a tryal confeâ—â— her guilt and that her contract with the Devil was That in lieu of her Soul which she did consign unto him he should assist her with the Gift of Extempore Prayer after which confession sentence past upon her and she was accordingly executed as a most abominable Witch Either now we must believe that this Extempore Way is not an infallible sign of the Spirit of God or that the Devil has the Power of disposing of the Gifts of the Spirit BUT thirdly I will appeal to these very men let them speak the Truth and shame the Devil Is not this Way of Praying an acquisition did not the fore-mentioned Book or some Collections of their own of that nature out of Scripture often hearing of others and many secret Trials and Exercises therein bring them by degrees to these perfections or could they from the first Moment of their Conversion pray thus and they do as punctually remember that time as what they did Yesterday and then if ever they had the Spirit of God and it was then as well able to help their infirmities as now and they stood more in need of it and it would have been more visible and apparent that it was not they but the Spirit that taught them how and what to pray Did they not with much pains and industry attain this which they call a Gift let them deny it if they dare for if they will say they never used any of the aforesaid means to help their Weaknesses I will undertake to prove them the most impudent affirmers of a Notorious Untruth for many of their expressions are sentence pickt out of the Bible which they read often over with as much respect to the getting praying Phrases out of it and a great deal more than to be informed of their Duty towards God and Men and it were well if it were no worse but there is such a blend of phantastical particular and uncommon words of their own Mintage and such a medley of singularity of Incomes and Outgoings and In-dwellings and I know not what which like the Wild Gourds spoil all the Pottage and I doubt they will find there is Death too in the Pot. I AM the most deceived if for this purpose they do not stuff their Heads and Memories with Notions how to express themselves upon any sudden Occasion or Emergency and as I am informed by those who have tried both and therefore have reason to know it is a far greater Ease if a Man has the general Notions of what he intends to speak not to be tied to Numerical or Identical Words but to have a Liberty to express those thoughts and Notions according to his present Pleasure and Fancy Which if his Tongue be naturally smooth and voluble will make it less difficult for him to do it even to admiration the charge of Generals being less burdensome to the Memory than that of Particulars and besides it leaves the conceptions an unlimited freedome for choice and variation and affords many sudden
hints which by being followed and improved with advantage do many times infinitely surprize both the Speakers and Hearers with a pleasing Novelty and agreeableness that Pleasure begets a secret Joy and that Joy dilates and expands the Animal Spirits which are the true Spirit of Extempore Prayer and these having a strange Mechanism and unexpressible Influence upon the Soul do sometimes put it into such strange and vigorous heats and raptures as even makes a Man out-do himself and his own expectations I am perswaded that the want of understanding this piece of Philosophy which is none of that which the Apostle calls vain and bids beware of lest it spoil us though it might and I hope will spoil some of their ill Designes is the true Reason why they believe themselves to be acted in these Heats and Transports by the immediate Influence and Inspiration of the Spirit of God AND this is the very Art of Prayer and a meer Art it is and no Gift nor Fruit of the Spirit an Art which with a common Industry provided a Man have a competent stock of Confidence any Person may arrive at and grow prodigious in and the sooner the more ignorant he is because he will be proportionably more impudent and conceited of himself his abilities and performances which is the true Reason why so many silly Mechanicks who can hardly speak sense in common Discourse by hearing others pray at this rate will steal their Expressions and with some small Instructions and Directions with Time and many private Tryals grow such strange proficients in the Trade Nay and I will engage he shall have the Pride or it may be it is the Arcanum of the Craft which they are bound not to divulge not to confess how he came by it or to undeceive those who shall wonder to hear so unlearned a Fellow pray so fluently and fervently And this adds not a little amongst those who understand not the Intrigue to the common received Opinion that it is a Fruit of the actings of the Spirit of God And the pulling of this Spiritual Inkle out of their Throats which they would perswade us came thither by a Miracle is one of the greatest and neatest as well as dangerous pieces of Legerdemain with which these Juglers Hocus the vulgar and incautelous of the present Age. CHAP. VIII Of the Doctrines they chiefly insist upon and in which they first instruct their Hearers And first of the Doctrine of absolute and irrespective Decrees of Election and Reprobation Of their Way of trial of their Followers whether they he the Elect by knowing the punctual time of their Call Repentance sorrow for sin c. The agreeableness of this Doctrine to their Followers whom for being such they perswade that they are certainly the Elect and that they cannot fall totally and finally from Grace Their signs of Election proved false from Judas the Son of Perdition who had all they make the infallible Marks of Election and something more viz. Restitution which they will not be be perswaded to HAVING now done with the Prayer let us proceed to the Sermon and see what their Doctrines are for I do not intend to dwell upon their Texts or trouble them more than they usually do As for the Reasons though they pretend to raise many yet we shall see they have very little The Use is what they most generally insist upon and it is the ill Use and Application of these Doctrines that we come now to examine This is their Form so that I find they are for a Form of Preaching though against a Form of Prayer THE first Doctrine upon which they build their Foundation and by which they establish a perpetual Empire over all those who come to be of their Perswasion and which is of the most universal use unto them is the Doctrine of absolute and irrespective Decrees of Predestination about Election and Reprobation A piece of Divinity so hard and knotty that the sharpest Wits and soundest Judgments have not hitherto been able in any tolerable measure to hew smooth or polish And to me it appears that Almighty God did design no great encouragement to our curiosity having afforded us so little light either from Nature Reason or Scripture to make a full and perfect discovery of it COULD they be contented with it as the Scriptures leave it and as the Church of England in her 17 Article has most prudently and modestly left it in general terms S. Mark 1.15 Acts 2. â—5 Acts 3. â— That all those Persons who by Faith true Repentance and an Universal Obedience at least in Intention Will and Endeavour to Christ and the Commands of the Gospel do perform their part of the Condition of the New Covenant of Grace shall through the Merits and Mediation of the Son of God the Saviour of the world receive Eternal Salvation But that all those who wilfully 2 Thess 1. â— â— obstinately and to the last refuse to know God and to obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord S. Mark â— 44 46 â—â— Mat. â—â— 41 〈…〉 and from the glory of his Power and shall suffer those endless and intolerable Torments where the Worm dyeth not and the Fire is not quenched which were originally prepared for the Devil and his Angels Then we should agree with them in the Common Faith of the Holy Catholick or Universal Church in all Ages BUT this would not serve their turn nor at all answer those Necessary Ends which they have to employ this Doctrine about 2 Tim. 2.4 5 6 7. 〈…〉 God himself says he would have all men to be saved by coming to the knowledg of these Truths That there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransome for All the Apostle tells us he was ordained a Preacher of this Doctrine and that he spake the truth in Christ and did not lye but was a Teacher of the Gentiles in this Faith and Verity But say these new Doctors no such matter By his revealed Will it may be God says so but for all that by his secret Will he intended otherwise and that it should never be so I cannot but wonder how they came to be so well acquainted with it Besides this is a plain contradiction in Adjecto for how is it secret if it be revealed to them and if it be a secret which he has reserved as his own purpose from Eternity how dare they so openly proclaim it Were it never so great an Arcanum Imperii I am sure it ceases to be so after they once come to make a discovery of it or but to surmise that they have and they are but too prodigal in divulging of it far and wide Known to God are all his Works from the foundation of the World Acts 15.18 But as the Apostle says Rom. 11.34 Who hath known the
season and most certainly out of season with which place they do so frequently scratch this Itch of the Ears An Itch the more it is scratched the more it may and the more it pleases especially the courser the Stuff is the more delightfully it rubs and is still desired until at last the blood and smart follows the busie Fingers and poyson'd Nails and from their scratching us till we bleed again Libera nos Domine A third advantage they make of Preaching is that hereby as well as in their Prayer they have many opportunities of displaying their own Excellencies and manifesting their great Abilities Gifts and Parts of which whatever men of sober Judgements may have They have no small Opinion as is most evident by their obstinate persisting in their own Ways and Wills not only against lawful Authority and the wise safe and prudent Determinations of their Superiors but against Scripture and Reason which must certainly speak them Wise in their own Conceit though thereby they render themselves more hopeless than Fools if we may take King Solomons word And they are so far from condescending to men of Low degree that they will not do it to those Persons who are of the Highest and whilest they thus preach Christ of strife and envy if they would impartially examine their Hearts they would find a great measure of Pride Conceit and Self-love at the bottom of them for as the abovementioned Royal Writer tells us Only by pride comes contention and it is very evident that in all their Preaching they have a great respect to advance their own Fame Interest and Design by the Authentick recommendation of their Doctrine and Discipline from the adored Pulpit which by successful Experience they find do all thereby receive the most considerable Advantage And how great an Estimate they set upon themselves is apparent by their Intrusion into other mens Parishes by which procedure they necessarily suppose themselves more fit and qualified than those who are by Law stated in those Places to do the work of an Evangelist One of these Men being about to set up for himself in another mans Parish was pressed with several Arguments to desist but more particularly with that golden Rule of Christs Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri nê feceris to do as he would be done by but either it was to him a leaden Argument or he had a leaden Head for he would make no other Reply to it But that it was fit the People should be instructed I will not trouble my self to explain that that spoke his Sense of himself and of the Minister of the place because it is easie to be read without the help of Spectacles It will now appear no Wonder that they do so highly magnifie Preaching and look upon it as the only Means of Grace so that in all their Discourses of it it passes amongst them with the Prerogative Emphasis of The Means and even their own Extempore Prayer which they pretend to be the immediate product of the Spirit to which I never heard preaching did pretend yet is but a handmaid to wait upon it and must lower the Top-sail to this All-powerful this only Soul-saving-Ordinance Good very Good and if the Spirit must truckle to the Flesh and Humane Invention be preferred before Divine Inspiration guess of the rest of them by this And in truth to hear them exalt it as they never fail to do upon the least hint that offers it self in their way a man would believe that they think it more essentially necessary to Salvation than Faith Hope or Charity of which last and greatest of the three you shall rarely hear them Discourse the true reason being because all their Preaching and Actings are directly contrary to it and by St. Paul's rule their golden Language is no better than sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbals worth nothing without Charity but the pretended Reason is to take men off from their Settlement upon the Lees and Dregs of Popery and the Opinion of the Meritoriousness of Good Works to which they say all men are but too naturally prone and inclined and I am very apt to believe it and that by the high value they set upon Preaching a great many of their Followers think that to go to hear a Sermon is a thing wonderfully Meritorious so that it is but changing the Work and not the Opinion of Merit which they bring men to by all their Pains Now do I know as well as if I were of the Secret Cabal and so I may be under a disguise for any thing they know purposely to discover their dangerous Intrigues that this one place will if possible keep this Book from ever being read by any of their Disciples and will heed no other Sentence for its Condemnation Oh 't is a most abominable Book it is against Preaching Oh what sad times should we have if every body were of this Persuasion It is against The Means Oh sad and in regard they sow this aspersion amongst the other Tares of Dissention and endeavour by it to make the Bishops and Church of England as odious as it is possible by telling their Disciples the most abominable falshood That the present Governors of the Church are all against Preaching I will endeavour to ward off the desperate blow with the Shield of Truth and wash off the Dirt which these Calumniators throw upon the face of the most beautiful Church in the Christian World I must therefore let them know that the Church of England has as great a Veneration and Esteem for that Duty as it can challenge It is not the truely ancient and Apostolical Way of Preaching nor the new Way neither that the Church is against It is the gross abuse of Preaching which these Men have put upon it and the Ill Vses they dayly make of it to countenance disperse and insinuate their wicked Designs to disturb and ruine all Government against which with very good Reason the Church declares it self St. Peters Sermon with which he converted three thousand Souls was not one quarter of an hours Discourse nor attended with the Prologue of a long-winded Extempore-Prayer nor indeed is that preaching which is so strongly prest and commanded any thing of affinity or kindred with this which they call Preaching as will appear to any who considers That the great Commission of our Saviour to his Disciples to go and teach all Nations St. Matth. 28. ult was as the Word plainly imports to go and make Disciples of them That is to Baptize them into the Faith of Christ by turning them from their former Vanities of Idolatry worshipping Stocks and Stones Act. 14.15 Gold Silver four-footed Beasts Creeping Things to know and serve the only true and Living God and Jesus Christ whom he had sent To certifie unto the Gentiles as well as the Jews Heb. 1.3 that Christ the only begotten Son of God the express Image of his Person and brightness of