were Moses after his glorious converse with God in the Mount How often have you seen a Preacher heat himself beyond the need of any vestments throwing off his Cloak nay and his Gloves too as great impediments to the holy performance squeeking and roaring beyond the example of any Lunatick Sometimes speaking in a tolerable tone and presently again crying out as if under some immediate distraction While the people with great amazement have gaped upon him and when he hath finished given him this honourable Encomium well hee 's a rare man a man mighty zealous for the Lord a powerful Preacher and one that hath taken abundance of pains that day to the cherishing and refreshing of whose wearied Spirits the female Proselytes are commonly very actively contributive If any man be so uncharitable towards me as to imagine me an Enemy to Zeal in religious performances upon the account of this period or that this discourse intends the disparaging a fervency of Spirit in serving the Lord I shall take the freedom to tell him he uncharitably mistakes both No man more heartily wisheth that all the Clergy would be grave and serious and zealous in all their publick services and you can witness for me how much I have lamented and sometimes freely blamed some mens remissness and coldness herein but this I will readily acknowledge to all such persons that as I have an Apostolick Warrant for commending of Zeal only in a good matter so I think I have the same for requiring the expressions of it in a due manner also with which I am apt to believe the theatrical ludicrous postures of some men do no way comport 3. Another thing that perhaps may be influential on this business is a very great specious seeming Sanctity in carriage and common deportment Sir the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sheeps-Cloathing hath always been worn by all the Wolves that have broke into the Church and the Spirit of Heresie and Schism hath ever been careful to appear in the garb of an Angel of Light If you should search all the Ecclesiastical Antiquities you would constantly find that allmost all the Herisiaerks that have disturbed the Church and its peace have ever been extraordinary pretenders to Sanctity sometimes in their Doctrines but allways in their carriage and under this vizard and disguise have done most mischief For though all novelties are strangely taking with the inconsiderate multitude who are even naturally new-fangled and changeable yet when they appear thus dressed and habited then they quite fascinate and strongly charm their high opinions and admiration they are quickly drawn to wonder at and extol them And truly when they are once brought into these circumstances they are then as heated wax ready to receive any impression that their admired Leaders shall please to stamp them with This our great Enemy knowing very well hath taken great care allways to send forth his Emissaries in this garb and therefore you know the great Apostle in his characterising of these Factors omits not to put this into the description that they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very great and glorious form and shew of Godliness I shall not bring my Charity in question by disputing whether these persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may not well admit the diminutive attendant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or no. I am certain then if ever this came to the notice of any of them I should be exclaimed against as a condemnor of the Saints and one that spoke against the Generation of Gods Children But this I will tell you that if it be but a Form yet 't is well trimmed if all be only personated the Actors are excellent Comicks if it be not castè yet cautè it is if it be only a paint 't is very lively It would go near the puzling of you I think to instance in any pharisaick nicety in outward Conversation which I should not be able to match in these men No men ever were better studied in all the little things that make a fair shew in the sight of the vulgar and carry with them any appearance of piety no men ever were exacter at Oral or gestural Sanctity than they are What their hearts are God and their own Consciences know we will not judge them Now Sir I need not tell you of what mighty advantage this is to them in this instance of gaining respect from their followers I wish that some of our own Clergy would consider how possible it is that some of them may be contributive here and how by their carelessness they become foils the more to set off their Adversaries glory It is a wounding spectacle to see the carelessness of some of these they little consider besides their own heavy guilt what cause they give these Enemies to blaspheme their holy Religion and what advantage those gain hereby towards the assuring their own dear reputation they greedily gape for these falls and they know how there out to suck no small advantage 4. Another Method by which these Persons attract a great veneration from their followers is the suffering a seeming Persecution and that as they endeavour to make them believe for Conscience and Righteousness sake Among all the Saints whose names are eminent and famous in the Dyptichs of the Church there are none that have more justly been honoured with the highest Eulogiums than the holy Martyrs who have attested the truth of their holy Faith by their own blood He that can have the valour to suffer for his Religion is in the sure way to Fame and Renown amongst his Party Now Sir these persons appear evidently on the suffering side and providence hath cast them upon acting the sadder Scene the Laws are something smart against them and they may thank themselves for it I wish they would thank the goodness of a merciful Prince who hath been pleased to suspend the Execution of these Laws against them and keep off the penalties which they threaten to them However this act of Grace hath now rob'd them of this Plea they cannot now sure call themselves the persecuted Saints But I must tell you Sir you are deceived if you think so Alas they are sufferers and the persecuted party still Are they not branded with the odious name of Phanaticks of Schismaticks and is it not as good allmost to take away their lives as their reputation have they not many of them parted with good Livings to preserve their Consciences pure and untainted Yes and more of them than would we know had they not been trapan'd by the rich Cabal at London that could live without these Livings and call you not this a suffering now yes and a great one too here 's silence in Heaven upon it or at least they hoped there would have been Alas the Ark is gone and do not they suffer in its Captivity This is a sore Persecution such as the Revelation tells you was to befal the Witnesses and all that adored and
of their Leaders in a wonderful admiration But Sir before I enter immediately upon this task I have thought it might not be wholly impertinent to vindicate this enquiry from those Censures which it will be most sure to meet with from others when it is once discovered And two there are that perhaps it may be assaulted withal Either first that such an enquiry is useless and the expence of precious time though I 'll assure you this hath not taken up much will lye heavy on him that pursues it Or else secondly that it is allready obvious and plain and he will but hold a Candle to the Sun that endeavours to account for it These are the principal I am apt to fancy of any that we need fear as for any other little petty objections or clamours that its like these concerned persons would raise against it we will wholly disclaim and relinquish our Philosophy if we be much concerned at them Now for the assoiling the first of these I will take liberty to assert that certainly he is either a deeply interested person or a very superficial Speculator that can have the confidence to owne it For first a man without pretending any great spirit of prophecy may easily foretel that while they possess this great esteem they will most easily influence their people how they please Sir it is a great truth That the people generally judge by their affections rather than their judgments and those whom they admire and reverence they commonly pay an implicite Faith to all their placits they will seldom be at the pains or leisure of examining things in their naked garbs but usually go some nearer and easier way and pass sentence upon them as they comply with or dissent from their passions and humours and inclinations or some external interests And nothing is more easie to observe than this viz. what a mighty influence the reputation of a speaker hath in raising a ready admittance for what he delivers into the minds of men whilst he that labours under prejudices and encounters with a prepossessing disrespect shall be little or not at all regarded in what he speaks though he were as Eloquent as Tully The same things delivered by different persons are very differently resented Nay many times a jejune and flat discourse from one men love shall be mightily cryed up before the most excellent compositions of one whom they value not And indeed Sir it requires no mean stock of Philosophy for a man to free himself from such prepossessions and to be able to receive a truth equally from all men Even the Spartan Lords as wise and as grave as they were yet if an useful truth were delivered by any of an ill repute would have it repeated by one of a better esteem as if truth were not equally so from any men but owed it's acceptableness to the reputation and credit of him that spake it And therefore secondly one of the surest ways and methods to reclaim their followers will be by taking of them off from this high esteem of their Leaders and while that remains fixed there will be little hopes of success by any other endeavour In vain shall you endeavour to perswade men to disbelieve or abandon those whom they have so dear an esteem and respect for it will be too difficult a task to bring them to believe that those they so highly reverence will ever be so basely unworthy as to teach them untruths or lead them into perdition No No their love expects and hopes for other returns and better usage from them And this I am apt to believe will be sufficient to secure this undertaking from this imputation at least in all sober and unprejudiced persons esteem I doubt not but these men will cry out we might have been better employed and have exercised our deep reasonings for in such terms I expect their Sarcasms in more profitable and useful Theories But so have I heard malefactors condemn and rail at the activeness of their pursuers and assert they might have been more profitably employed than in their discovery and apprehension while others have applauded and commended it as hugely conducive to the weal-publick And certainly those that consider this to be one great cause and Origine of our present distempers will think the endeavouring to obstruct it a very charitable design and hugely contributive to the Peace of the Church And I can sincerely witness that a sense of this was the only reason of this enquiry Nor Secondly Is it any so very obvious and palpable a thing as some would perhaps be apt to perswade us but may very well require the pains of a close Enquiror rightly to state the reasons of it And truly among the Ordinary Occurrences of things that we commonly converse withal very few seem more odd and strange For let us a little while if you please stay to examine the reasons that in such cases are commonly obvious and which the Patrons of this second objection doubtless would readily fix upon and assign as the reasons of what we enquire now about I will examine some of the principal ones and endeavour to let you see how wide they are in assigning any of them 1. The first shall be the great learning of these dissenting persons these great men This you know Sir is naturally accounted a very great adornment to any person and consequently renders him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great one in the esteem and thoughts of others If we should narrowly search into the artifices and methods by which men have attain'd to honour and renown in the World we should quickly be able to assert that Valour and Learning have been the chief these have been the two great Engines by which men of brisker mettle have lifted up themselves above the rest of their brethren and attained to shine in higher Orbs than they I am not concerned either to discourse of the first of these though perhaps some would say that they approved themselves good at the Sword or to arbitrate on which side the degree of merit seems to remain whether the Cedant arma togae may be a Text authentick Or whether the Sword be not of solid and lasting metal while the Pen is but the excrescence of a rude Soul It will be more pertinent to remember you how successful a reputation for the latter hath been to the Heathen Priests of old in conciliating a reverence for them from their poor blind ignorant Proselytes and how very sensible those men were that this alone was the secure way to confirm them in this gainful veneration Therefore were the Heathen abdyta so industriously concealed from vulgar notice and not a man admitted into their mysteries till after several years probation and study As if no mean stock of Learning were needful for a Priest And those few that we read of admitted into these arcana in any other method were yet all of them persons whom common fame reported for
this cure shall be wrought for them Leave but the return unto their generosity and I dare secure you the odds shall still continue and for one civil and grateful Samaritane there shall allways be at least nine unthankful Jews And no very great matter if there be so for in these mens Opinions even this ingratitude shall fix no great guilt upon the man nor at all hazard his damnation And what do you think the reason is why a goodly one truly God seeth no fins in his people and this is maintained from the words of the Eastern Conjurer he hath not beheld Iniquity in Jacob nor perverseness in Israel And upon this account it cometh to pass that the grossest acts of wickedness such as in another man deserves no favourabler a Character than damning impieties yet when committed by those that can by this Faith believe themselves Saints shall pass under the fine name of the Saints infirmities unavoidable slips and such as the lap of Christs merciful Mantle will easily cover and conceal from the eyes of his Heavenly Father And here I cannot forbear transcribing to you one passage out of the lately mention'd Book You shall find the good Evangelista instructing his Neophytus in these words In case you be at any time by reason of the weakness of your Faith and strength of your temptations drawn aside and prevailed with to transgress any of Christs Commandments beware you do not thereupon take occasion to call Christs love to you into question but believe as firmly that he loveth you as dearly as he did before you thus transgressed for this is a certain Truth As no good in you or done by you did or can move Christ to love you the more so no evil in you or done by you can move him to love you the less I pray Sir tell me is not here an excellent Evangelist I dare assure you none of all the four in our Bibles are like him indeed these words need no Comment it will puzle the Devil to invent plainer or those that shall more strongly nourish profaneness and presumption These will easily reconcile Saintship and the grossest impieties and render men prone to believe that the most detestable Crimes cannot blot their evidences for Heaven seeing these may be but the stains of beloved Sons And Sir if you consult the 39 th page of the Evangelium Armatum you 'll find the Author quoting the words of a greater person among these men than ever the Author of that Book was whose assertions there can by no art whatever be construed to any better sense than the former Where Drunkenness nay this often repeated Lying rash Unchristian Rayling Disobedience to Superiours Schism Sacriledge i. e. wronging the Church are asserted to be consistent with true grace and competent to a truly godly person Nay a man must exceed Peter's Perjury Lot's Drunkenness and repeated Incest Solomon's gross Idolatries and strange uncleanness with 700. Wives and 300. Concubines or else not merit the name of a notorious ungodly person And now Sir if these things be true the Daughters of Gath may well dance no Philistine needs fear the divine vengeance These things are evidences too clear of what I contend for and yet if you 'll promise to have patience I 'll cast in some others more And what say you to this Doctrine in the first place That a man may safely follow Providence contrary to some known Precepts and that God many times calls his people by some signal acts of his Providence to follow him in untrodden ways nay prohibited paths No consequence was ever safelier drawn from any position than this may from this Doctrine viz. that it is lawful and just to venture upon a forbidden action when Providence offers a fair and safe opportunity and a promising success What is this but even the old Pagan Maxim that even Tully himself detests Prosperum scelus vocatur virtus and God must needs be thought to approve that which in his wise Providence he is pleased to permit to attain success How often have we been told in some solemn Sermons of Thanksgiving before the late long Parliament by those great Masters in Israel for none else ever preached before them at such times that now God had plainly decided the controversie and all might see but the obstinately blind who had the juster part of the quarrel You will find the Learned Hammond purposely writing a Treatise against this fancy and all men might see that there was a cause the Doctor did not feign an Antagonist to combat withal for this Goliah had challenged all the Armies of Israel Now certainly Sir it must needs appear very strange that those men who had not only renounced Heathenism but undertook to reform the very best reformation of Christian Religion should yet so plainly discover themselves to be Turks and Pagans as they did in this instance Who by vertue of this Doctrine may not warrantably undertake any thing that he hath any tollerable hopes of being able to perform this will secure and justifie the violation of all Law all Justice all Equity where a great advantage seems to encourage Neither need any of these mens Proselytes doubt whether he may make this illation or no for even these his Leaders have made it for him and warranted his Logick in it You have heard of one of them encouraging the Parliament and City to those facinorious barbarities in these words Let no Law hinder you si jus violandum if Law be broken it is for a Crown and therefore for Religion As if success in that would hallow any immoralities done for it and that it was but weakly said of Job that men might not lye and speak wickedly for God And again That which is best though Evil will be counted good after Reformation as he is counted innocent who escapes at tryal No matter though the action be never so evil now yet when it hath attained it's designed end it will be allowed and praised Give me leave Sir to acquaint you with another pretty invention of these Casuists than which the mystery of Jesuitism never invented a neater to warrant any vice it 's a distinction of the great Marshall's before the House of Peers The question proposed is about the legality of taking up Arms i. e. against the King for that 's the intent of it He had been acquainting them with the successfulness of the Churches Weapons of old Prayers and Tears c. from which he brings in the doubting Christian as taking advantage to argue against the lawfulness of using any other Weapons now To which he very gravely with a profound dexterity answers That Christian men might be considered in a double capacity as Christians or as Men. Now as Christians he grants it unlawful to use any other arms but as men they might safely do so We use no other Weapons than these we have told you of as we are Christians These only are proper and peculiar to
would certainly cover a multitude of the greatest Sins It will be needless and troublesom to you to refer you to all the places in which this is laid down as a sure mark of a Saint I will only tell you time was when no less persons than the great Mr. Love and Mr. Calamy pleaded it as marks the one of his integrity at his Tryal and the other of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his Apology against Mr. Burton And the Author of the Debate you know offers to make it evident and if he did not another easily might that the taking the solemn League and Covenant was made generally a sign of holiness and those looked upon as the Dogs of the World not worthy of the ordinary Crums the common benefit of the Law that refused to swear to it I am apt to imagine you will look upon this as an extra-canonical rule to judge Saintship by and such as our great Master no where gives the least warrant for or intimation of And indeed 't were very strange if he should Pride and Covetousness and a greedy Revenge might as safely be put into the Saints evidences for Heaven as this For I dare assert it no impossible thing to demonstrate that some one or all of those have been the common causes and Parents of this Some men were too proud to brook superiority and some were covetous and the Church was thought too rich and some had missed preferment as 't was once told the great Calamy or received as they thought some other injury from the Church and to revenge these as Arrius and Novatus of old resolved to work to their utmost her final ruin And truly the temptation was fair since that was the Charecteristick note of a Saint and true Son of Israel and the way to secure a better name than either Son or Daughter of the Church could enjoy Certainly if this evidence were real and infallible they had a mighty multitude of Saints and more than any sober man can possibly grant them And to conclude this reflexion if this be to be a Saint Sit anima mea cum Philosophis I shall not stay you longer in instancing in other pretty Doctrines of theirs as the absoluteness of the promises than which never was a fairer inlet for a bold inert presumption The Recumbency and rowling upon a naked Christ than which as the people understood it never was a Doctrine better fitted to cry down or dispense with the neglect of any great care of real holiness I am afraid I have tyred you with these instances already and given you too much cause of sorrow that ever they should find Patrons among those that called themselves of the Reformed Religion I shall therefore add no more but only two short intimations ex abundanti 1. And first of all I shall confidently dare to tell you that for one Sermon of Obedience I will shew you twenty of Faith for one Sermon that you can shew me preached by these men upon Gal. 5. 6. I will shew you ten upon that Rom. 4. 5. for one Sermon of Justice unless in that horrid Notion in which 't was cryed for and preached up against the Earl of Strafford the Archbishop Laud and at last against the best of Kings of mercy of walking humbly with God of abiding in our own Calling and doing our own work of meekness and studying to be quiet c. I will undertake to shew you forty against cursed Neutrality against Laodicean Lukewarmness about the marks of Saints about the excellency of Faith about getting into Christ c. Some of which seem to establish wickedness by a Law and none of which teach men a necessity of practical holiness but prompt them to a new formal kind of Religion and an easier and nearer way to Heaven and its bliss than ever the former Ages knew of I know these persons if any should ever chance to see these Papers will be forward to justifie some of these subjects that I seem to accuse their Sermons for treating so commonly of And so will I also but it is with this limitation provided that they dwell not thus in generals but proceed plainly to the particular ways and methods in which such duties are to be done God forbid that either you or I should be thought to be persons that condemn all preaching about Faith and all perswasions to people to endeavour to get an interest in Christ Jesus No Sir I know these are needful and wholsom theams but what I condemn is mens roving in general about these things which indeed may work upon mens Passions heat their heads but not at all rightly inform the judgment nor benefit the life of action What benefit gain I by hearing a loud Harangue about the excellency of Faith the happiness of being interested in Christ while I neither am told the true nature of the one nor directed to the right and proper means of obtaining the other And here Sir there comes into my head an Advice which the late famous Bishop of Down gave his Clergy at a publick Visitation it is printed with many others which I heartily wish all our Spiritual men would diligently peruse and Regard very pertinent to our present business Do not spend your Sermons in general and indefinite things as in Exhortations to the people to get Christ to be united unto Christ and things of the like unlimited signification But tell them in every duty what are the measures what circumstances what instruments and what is the particular minute meaning of every advice For generals not explicated do but fill the peoples heads with empty Notions and their mouths with perpetual unintelligible talk but their hearts remain empty and themselves are not edified There 's a great deal of spiritual prudence in the advice and truly as much truth in the reason to enforce it Generals affect very little and to talk of getting into Christ and rowling upon Christ c. is but like shooting at Rovers which indeed may exercise peoples eyes divert them a little while find them something to talk high of and contend about but very rarely or never hits the true mark Let them but treat of these things according to the precedent advice and they shall never find me in the number of their accusers But otherwise I shall take liberty to tell them that these being handled in the common usual method serve but to entoxicate peoples heads and divert them from the main and great business of Religion which is keeping the commands of Christ Jesus I can scarce forbear here to acquaint you with another pretty practice of these men and that is the judging mens sanctity the truth of their Regeneration by a certain mode and form of speaking I do not mean the Dramatist's twang of Nose though you cannot but have observed how modish that was once among the Saints and you know the Doctor at Oxford we once counted perfect in it but a peculiar