example preferring these to close worldly interests and carnall ends of pride vain-glory strife covetousnesse and desire of preheminence above your brethren yea what hopes might we yet conceive of peace and happinesse after our hot and bloudy contentions about that which hath not been hitherto fully determined what it is and the wasting calamities of unnaturall war were there a true affection with faithfull and univer sall endeavour in you towards the composure of your owne and of popular differences in judgement according to the minde and will of Christ Jesus But alas it is greatly to be feared the breaches are so wide that it passeth humane industry or skill to make them up again this being a worke of his wisdome who knoweth all things and of his power who doth all things as seemeth best to his godly will For that which most hindereth this desired union doth still stand in the way Namely the unwearied practice of powerfull subtile and secret Agents to continue and enlarge your divisions even to the utter confusion and desolation of the Church And would to God your owne disaffection unto peace errour from the Truth and unequall conversation in respect of Evangelicall parenesse and perfection did not too much further the hellish designes and attempts of these men For doth not the same fire of distempered zeal still burn in the breasts and flash sometimes in the mouths of those who did heretofore set all on a flame is not your power rather restrained then your will reformed and if there be a change is it not because of your present condition not from your inward disposition and affection Jude 11. to preserve the fruit of falsehood and the reward of unrighteousnesse after which yee have greedily ran with Balaam and I pray God ye perish not in the gainsaying of Core Can you be so vaine as to imagin that the specious pretenses and plausible excuses wherewith yee have smoothed the eares of men to make way for their good conceit of your bad proceedings will finde like acceptance with God the searcher of the heart Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed in his sight as the potters clay Is 29.16 with 15. Now such as these as well as others have risen of your own selves in the last and worst age of the world speaking perverse things against the Doctrine Discipline government and Governours of the Church to draw away Disciples after them as it is Act. 20. handling the word of Christ deceitfully and forming their Doctrine not according to the impartiall rule of Truth but after their own fancy and as it might best suit with the present humour and passion of the giddy multitude preaching or rather crying up one point of doctrine to the disparagement of another Faith to the vilifying of charity and good workes of repentance and mortification as though there was no necessity of these in order to salvation because not concurring with Faith in the businesse of justification Insomuch as some have been traduced by their followers as Popishly affected for no other reason but for that they did inculcate and presse upon the consciences of men in their homilies or Sermons the duties and workes of sanctification as necessary in our Christian practice both in respect of Gods command and mans obedience due unto it and also of the heavenly reward notwithstanding nothing can be more consonant thenthis doctrine to the precepts of Christ Jesus In like manner they limited the gracious Act of Divine Predestination to those of their own sect or faction onely as if they alone had been the truly called of God the rest of men no better then castawayes for some of their disciples and those not weakly principled according to their fashion have in our hearing accounted of others who did not adhere to their way as of carnall or at the best but meer civill and morall men who were perchance partakers of common grace but aliens from that which they term Speciall and is of a saving virtue Neither have there been wanting those who have proceeded yet farther like the false Prophets of old false teachers among the people now under the Gospell foretold by the Apostle S. Peter privily bringing in damnable heresies 2 Pet. 2.1 even denying the Lord that bought them as it is to be feared bringing upon themselves swift destruction the which because unfit to be mentioned I shall passe by at the present and the rather for that many have already more then enough enlarged themselves upon this subject As for the universality of Redemption and liberty of humane will to accept or to reject divine grace offered to the choice thereof with such like doctrines agreeable to these or directly thwarting the same not to be comprehended perchance by mans understanding at least not to be clearly evidenced or proved unto either opposite party by any deductions of reason from the word of God so far as to satisfie all objections and to reconcile all seeming repugnances of controverted places the which both adversaries hold forth as their bestweapons whether for defence or for offence in this fight what fierce contentions and hot disputes to say no more have some raised about these as if Salus ecclesiae did wholly depend upon them and not rest upon a sure foundation of evidence and truth enlarging the power of mans will or freedome thereof to a morall capacity of admitting or resusing grace tendred unto it according to its pleasure while others did as much contract and limit it or rather indeed utterly deny it this pretended liberty as inconsistent with primigeniall corruption and privation of originall righteousnesse common to all who naturally descended from the loyns of our first Parents and being in truth nothing lesse then a spirituall death of that living soul which God first breathed into mortall flesh one part maintaining the divine decree concerning mans salvation or damnation to be absolute in God the other to be conditionall in man grounded upon prevision of faith and obedience in the elect of unbelief and disobedience of the truth in those that are reprobate and from hence endeavouring to shake the others confidence and certainty of perseverance unto the end the which they did apprehend that apply unto themselves from the immutability of Gods counsell purpose and will In the mean while what shiftings and fallacies have been used of both to hold their ground and to evade or elude the force of the adversaries reason insomuch as some have taught themselves and others to say in defence of the absolute decree as just and equall in it self contrary to the expresse word of Christ himself Mat. 26.24 Mat. 26.24 that it is better to have a being though in endlosse torments under the wrath of the Almighty then not to be at all a meer speculative nicety of Metaphysicall heads and too small a wyer whereon to hang the weight of such a controversie But what did the people gain
Officers mutually conspiring together in the same work to reform a city or town as they list and proportionably a whole nation under the chief Magistrate if he interpose not against it Therefore it is reported of Queen Elizabeth that in her progresse visiting the county of Suffolk and seeing every Justice of Peace with a Minister next to his body said she had oftentimes demanded of her Councell why her County of Suffolk was better governed then any other County but never understood the reason thereof till now It must needs be so said she where the Word and the Sword goe together But what may we expect when both these comply not or jarre one with another wherefore had this one course alone been taken for the suppressing of common and odious sins there needed not to have been so loud a cry for a reformation in the midst of thy people nor so much of thy childrens bloud shed like water round about thy cities and within the gates and also on the furrowes of the field in prosecution of this specious design which can hardly be compassed if at all in any wise by means so unproportionate as these to the end for which they are appointed by those who would be master builders in this work Lastly the great and common neglect of teaching the younger sort and educating them in a Catecheticall way of doctrine and instruction as it occasioned at first the blinde ignorance open profanenesse and meer formality in this Nation so it hath still continued and fomented the same unto this present day And from hence we shall draw another instance to shew the great force which enmity and opposition do gain in the mindes of men to hinder a mutuall consent and joynt concurrence together in those waies which tend to life and godlinesse For what could more conduce to the furtherance and encrease of sacred knowledge to the effectuall planting and growth of piety in the hearts of Christian youth then this necessary and profitable means of institution so much commended by the divine Spirit of God to our imitation and practise * see Gen. 18 19. Train up or chastise a childe in the way he should goe and when he is old he will not depart from it Pro. 22 6. Neither was there wanting the advice of a prudent and learned Prince for the setting on foot this practise with us by changing the afternoon Sermons into this more usefull exercise And yet the Ministers of the opposite party could never for ought as I can learn be induced to entertain a good opinion of it at least so far as cordially to embrace the counsell and submit to the judgement of their superiors therein notwithstanding the visible and apparent benefit thereof and nothing might be reasonably said against it And what was the cause of this Surely in all probability the ill affection and hatred which they bore against the Bishops who did also commend and preferre it to their inseriour brethren in the Ministery as more needfull and profitable for the people then their claborate and painfull preaching so much magnified by their Disciples above other Ordinances and who could not be pleased without a double portion thereof every Lords day although as some object against them with too great limitation and restraint but however better thus then not at all For as a chief Ruler well observed of thy children the omission of this sundamentall way of instruction and the custome of notionall teaching in which was more plenty of words then of matter have given occasion to the Apostasie or falling back of so many from thy Communion some to Popish superstition others to Monasterian confusion while after many years groundlesse and therefore unprofitable institution they were like rasae tabulae or unsealed wax apt to receive any impression or forme of doctrine whatsoever The truth whereof hath more then enough been confirmed by the experience of succeeding time in which we meet every where with aged Infants I mean such who when for the time ought to be teachers Heb. 5.12 have need that one teach them again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat who notwithstanding have been constant hearers of Sermons for divers years together some twenty others forty and some perchance more that we may justly admire and be even astonished at their dulnesse and stupidity in learning Doe we not consider how unsutable this kinde of teaching is with the mindes of the rude and unprincipled multitude to make them skilfull in the word of righteousnesse it being all one in effect as if a man should seek to raise a frame of building where no foundation is laid before or to nourish an infant with strong meat in stead of milk which is proper for him because unable to bear the other 1 Cor. 3.2 Heb. 5.14 as belonging to them that are of full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evill Wherefore in them also is fulfilled the Prophesie of Isaiah which saith By hearing ye shall hear Mat. 13.14 and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive For this cause so many of the Nation at present being children in understanding Eph. 4.14 are tossed to and fro and carryed about with every winde of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lye in wait to deceive fixing on nothing long through the weaknesse of their judgement to discern what they hear and want of reason to maintain what they embrace as truth although upon tryall we have found some of their deceivers or false teachers like those 2 Pet. 2 Pet. 3.16 3.16 Vnlearned and unstable themselves while they boldly took upon them to instruct and guide others wresting the Scriptures both to the destruction of their Disciples and of themselves or like them of whom the Apostle S. Paul speaketh 1 Tim. 1.7 1 Tim. 1.7 Desiring to be teachers of the Gospell as they then did to be teachers of the Law and yet understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm But indeed their pretence of an immediate calling from God by the motion of his Spirit to the work of the Ministery and gathering of Churches here on earth like that in heaven glorious not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish Eph 5.27 together with their strange outward considence and presumptuous ostentation of themselves in a businesse of this high nature far exceeding the measure of their inward parts or gifts of minde easily begat in the weaker sighted and unsetled brethren an answerable opinion or erroncous belief of them that they were such in truth as they were in shew or professed themselves to be who therefore received them as Angels of God Gal. 4.14 even as Christ Jesus When as they were indeed no
judging them most averse from faction who were least conscious of preaching to the people and fuirest friends to the present government who were loose enough God knoweth in respect both of their office and also of their conversation whence it came to passe that very many who professed themselves for you in the time of triall were ignorant and dissolute men dishonourable to your party and Indeed to Christian Religion the which they did continually profane by their words and works so unsuteable is humane policy with Evangelicall simplicity and unsuccessefull when it is used at any time to support and uphold the regiment thereof And in stead of sending forth meet Labourers into the Lords harvest fit Pastors into his flock you dismissed those who were idle shepheards loving to slumber given to sleep altogether like your selves carelesse of the Lords heritage either unwilling if able or if willing unable or neither willing nor able rightly to divide the Word of Truth giving them their portion in due season As for those to whom God had given both ability and will to preach the Word ye permitted them not the free use and exercise of their gifts but forbade them to teach the people as often as they saw it convenient or necessary for their edification and though yee did at first commend unto them the way of catechising the younger sort as best beseeming their want of yeares and experience in the word of righteousnesse allowing them some liberty latitude herein yet afterward I know not upon what grounds or for what reason ye so far limited and restrained the Minister in this pious and profitable practise that ye did in a manner take away the key of Knowledg from the people Luk. 〈◊〉 52. or make it uselesse for them so that they could not enter in thereby And herein remarkable is the judgement of the Almighty towards you in that he hath made some of those unworthy members instrumentall to your downfall whom contrary to reason and conscience yee authorised for a work to which God never called them promoted to that honour of which they were uncapable either for your own gain or to gratifie your Officers and domestick servants or your friends and favorites or for other ends as bad as these best known unto your selves For who have more raised and maintained a party against you then such as these or have been more subservient to the ring-leaders of faction then they or more diligently scattered abroad the seeds of schism and opposition against government in the Church of Christ of which they have seen plentifull increase and have found successe of this their labour if not above their desire yet surely beyond their expectation notwithstanding it be hard to say whether their indigency of parts or want of subsistence was the greater which no doubt at first made them so plyable as they were to popular will and humor But ye will reply that the Canons of the Church were not strict or straight enough to debar unworthy persons especially in point of learning from the Office of the Ministry besides that you admitted none unto the work but those who were commended unto you for their sufficiency and ability in all respects for this service by letters Testimoniall from the University or from Ministers well reputed and reported of in the Diocese from whence they came or where they lived in former time But who knew not and your selves more then any how invalid and weake this testimony was being now reduced to a meer formality by the custom and manners of the times as corrupt in this particular practice as in any other whatsoever Again did â—ye ever apply your selves to the Supreme Power of the Nation for the rectifying of these Canons or at any time sought to reverse or alter them in your solemn Convocations Whether ye did thus or no I cannot well tell but of this I am assured that nothing was reformed afterward in your Ordinations it being as free and indifferent for all who came as ever And supposing that those testimonies might probably cary with them some right and credit were ye therefore to forbear your own search into the parts and gifts of those men whom they did commend to your approbation and not rather to enquire more narrowly into the Truth and see how far the commendation did agree with the Person of whom it was made or how well it did sute with his learning and life Considering that the account hereof was chiefly to rest on you when the generall Day of reckoning did come before chief Shepheard and Bishop of our souls 1 Tim. 5.22 The like excuse some frame for the grosse corruptions of your Pâ—erogative Courts for commutations unjust partiall and unreasonable censures of excommunication issuing forth from thence upon offenders for unlawfull to say no more suspension of the meaner and poorer sort from the Ordinances of Christ Jesus for non-payment or rather disability of paying pecuniary mulcts and fees imposed on them and without equity exacted of them by your profane and greedy Officers They pretend the power of the Chancellour to be distinct and separate from that of the Bishop in many points of spirituall jurisdiction and therefore exempt from it or uncontroulable by it however proving illegall and exorbitant in the proceedings thereof whether use and custome had thus determined of the matter or no I am as yet to seek but this I take for certain Truth that the Chancellors power at the first was in every respect derived from the Bishop and afterward wholly depended on his will notwithstanding it is otherwise come to passe in following ages by the negligence or absence of the Bishop from the seat of his Diocese And in case they had in process of time thus incroached upon the Episcopal Sea it had been an easie matter for you the Bishops to have reduced again confined them to their ancient legal bounds upon complaint thereof made unto the Prince shewing the great necessity and common benefit of such a change and also in your Synods as occasion served and so have freed the Church from this iniquity and oppression of men And surely it may seem strange to any considerate person that yee who did so much strain your authority for the introducing of new ceremonies into the Church of Christ savouring of superstition and begetting jealousies in mens mindes of Popish innovations intended by you without prudence or conscience and used it so rigorously rously for the enforcing of the old upon many ill-affected to the observation of them absolutely requiring conformity to the Church Liturgy in every point of al men notwithstanding rebus sie stantibus profligata Disciplina some forms thereof were not applyable to diverse persons would not extend it to the utmost measure for the ratifying of those great abuses which had by the insensible degrees crept in corrupted the true primitive Discipline that every transgressor might have bin censured according to
the desert and scandal of his crime without respect had to his person or place in the Commonwealth as it is in other reformed Churches of different government from this under which we live But Court-employment State-flattery sinful complyances with great Persons were the main lets which hindred you from the due discharge of your Office both in Preaching the Word and exercising the the Rod of Christ according to his minde and will while ye thought in carnall reason such means as these most effectuall for the acquiring and retaining of your greatnesse and despised those which the prudent simplicity of the Gospell did offer and commend unto you Wherefore it is no wonder if vice did reign there where flattery did abound and that in the chiefe Ministers and messengers of Truth if injustice and oppression did bear sway where one and al were taught not what they should and ought to doe according to their duty and conscience towards God but what they could or might doe by power without controule from man If men were secure in their sins where peace was proclaimed and war to be denounced against them where a profane company heard nothing for the most part decryed in the Pulpit but faction from which perchance they were alone free And what could be expected from the common people but blinde ignorance love of pleasures more then of God greater regard of this world then of the world to come when ye their chief Leaders caused them to erre not onely through your negligence but also by your example falling farre short of that integrity and holinesse which was conspicuous in the actions and sufferings of those who were not long before you resident in the same places of dignity and preheminence For although they lived upon earth they had their conversation in heaven and shone as the stars of heaven for brightnesse not onely in their life but in their death also which was precious in the sight of their Redeemer As for you their successours ye appeared in comparison of them but dim and earthy lights and I would to God some of you had not proved false likewise and deceitfull to your brethren whom ye perverted from the way of Truth and Peace by your own departing from it doing quite contrary to what your selves taught and professed before the people preaching contempt and hatred of the world to others your selves continuing in the mean while fast friends of the world exhorting them to become spirituall and as Angels when ye were carnall your selves and walked as men shewing them the way to heaven with hearts and eyes fixed on the earth For who more immoderate in their eares for the things of this life then you who more eager in the pursuit of riches and honour more tenacious in withholding good from the owners thereof then your selves who were more set upon the usuall course of inâ—iching above measure and raising your families on high If a dignity or office worth the having sel within the compass of your Diocese who was presently judged of you more worthy to possesse and manage it then a son or a nephew or a kinsman or an Allye although they were many times altogether uncapable of the honor and trust to which ye preferred them in the house of God either because they wanted ability of parts requisite thereunto or had not as yet attained to maturity of years being not much past their nonage as we have known some of them to be or in all respects undeserving persons And yet men of age and experience eminent also for learning and piety must stand unveiled before such as these to receive directions and commands from them to whom they were able and sit to give the same who through the just judgement of the Almighty have been since as much and more scorned of the meanest and most abject of their inferiours then they did now scorn others every way their superiours but in place onely Now what was this in effect but to honour your sons above the Lord as Eli did while ye did thus prefer naturall affection to spirituall duty and the care for a child before the welfare of the Church Satis vos vobis attendere rei vestrae populi vox est sat is vos strenue ditandis filiis dotandis filiabus attendere tam vero vos hac ex parte attentos esse ut haeredum magna vobis attentio successorum exigua si quae exigua est aliqua est ut prae haeredum attentione nulla sit successorum Thus a Prophet of your own Lancel Andr. conc ad cler and in this respect much more a Prophet that he forewarned you so long agoe of the present calamity which is now come upon you in these words Enim ve oâ—nisi vos vobis hae parte caveatis optimae Principis gratia Proce um favor Legâ—m terror diu vobis eavere non poterâ—nt Si doctrina ludibrium est si vita scandalum fortasse non momento uno non ictu oculi sed sensim tamen senefcet evanescet tendet ad interium Ordo vester 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How far different the Apostles carriage in the work of the Ministry was from yours whose successours notwithstanding ye were let one speak or themal and hear ye him 1 Thes 2.3 c. Our exhortation was not of deceit c. not as pleasing men c. For neither at any time vsed we flattering words c. nor of men c. But we were gentle c. so being affectionately c. wherefore God hath profaned the Princes of the sanctuary or holy Princes and have given Jacob to the curse and Israel to reproaches And what hee threatned of old is brought to pass this day upon you that they who despise him shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2.30 Hov. 4 6 7. And because his people were destroyed for lack of knowledge ye also rejected knowledge the Lord hath rejected you that ye should be no Priests to kim seeing ye have forgotten the Law of your God he also hath forgotten your children As ye were increased so ye sinned against him therefore hath he changed your glory into shame Iob 14.9 Who is wise and he shall understand these things prudent and he shall know them for the wayes of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them but the transgressours shall fall therein To the inferiour Ministers of the Gospell HOw great in all likelyhood had the happinesse and glory of the Church been unto this day and not the Churches onely but yours also had ye all spoken the same thing still as at the first and that there had beene no divisions amongst you 1 Cor. 1.10 but that ye had been perfectly joined together in the same minde and in the same judgement according to the Apostolicall precept 1 Cor. 1.10 Mutually conspiring with one consent to promote the Truth and Peace of the Gospell by the purity of doctrine and holinesse of
speech unto you as to one rank and order of men in the State yet not as a flattering Chaplain or domestick servitour of your greatnesse who wait at your tables whom necessity or hope of benefit from you or else some other by-interest have taught seemingly at least to admire your persons and to praise you in every thing ye speak or do how mean soever it be and many times worthy of sharpest reproof but as a true and faithfull friend who have no dependence on your favour and fear not your frown commend that truth unto you without partiality or dissimulation which doth more concern you then the free enjoyment of your large possessions were the compasse and extent of them according to your desire much more vast then now it is Neither do I assume unto my self this liberty because of your present low condition This I pity and bewail being my self perchance by a long series anciently descended from the best of you however now a mean and obscure person but with due respect of love and reverence to your selves and families Ye are or should be very eminent in the body politick and far above the other members as in dignity of place so likewise of desert But alas with grief and shame I mention it many that I may not say the most part of you have not been so high above them in respect of your birth and externall honour annexed thereunto as ye have been beneath them for reall inward worth of goodnesse and vertue by which alone ye can approve your selves unto God and become truly honourable in the judgement of men Ye may happily much pride your selves in the antiquity and splendor of your families heretofore in the valour and exploits of your progenitors but do these tend to your glory and not rather to your infamy and reproach who have so far degenerated from your ancesters that ye retain nothing of them now but their name with the outward badges or ensigns of their gentility besides the sins and vices of their persons which partly pleasure partly profit and partly ambition have made as hereditary to your houses as the lands which ye do possesse And are not these so many spots of your nobility as well as of your Christian profession I mean your sacriledge contempt of religion and of the religious open profanenesse and scoffing both at the simplicity of godlinesse and at the iniquity of sin swearing pride of life voluptuousnesse excesse of riot unsatiate lust oppression of your olients boundlesse covetousnesse with others of the like nature the which I shall not stir at this time For how many servants and messengers of the Lord have with their whole families been reduced by your means to worse extremities then I am willing to expresse and could obtain no relief from you without base flattery and unfaithfull compliance with your lewd and sinfull courses of life a thing every way dishonourable to the calling of a Minister so near approaching unto God himself as this doth In the mean while what use ye made of the Lords portion forced from the right owner thereof is sufficiently known to the world For did ye not like those Amos 6.4 Amos 6.4 c. lie upon beds of Ivory or of such choice and precious matter as this and stretch your selves upon your couches or abound with superfluities and eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall Did ye not chant to the sound of the violl drink wine out of bouls and were not at all grieved for the afflictions of Joseph And all this sometimes of the most part upon the Churches patrimony Besides this which is as bad yea much worse how many poor souls by this withholding of good from the owners thereof have perished in the land through famine and thirst not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water but of hearing the words of the Lord which have been either altogether destitute of a teaching priest or committed to the charge of one as ignorant as themselves to save your purses though with the losse of their most precious souls the guilt of which will one day lie more heavie upon your conscience then thought is now able to conceive much lesse tongue to expresse And although the large and ample revenue that some of you enjoyed over and above the lot of Christ might well have prompted to you a better minde towards his worship and the Ministers thereof yet neither this consideration nor the improsperity of your families with those strange remarkable judgements observed by many from the Almighty upon your houses have been in the least measure prevalent with you for repentance and restitution of what ye have thus gotten or detained from his Church unto this present day Neither will prescription or time bear you out in this matter for Nullum tempus occurrit Regum Regi and if the King had this prerogative in times past much more doth it belong to God for ever As for your profanenesse and contempt of Divine Worship besides the apparent and notorious wickednesse of your lives your coniving at sin in places of authority and publique Trust or indeed secret at least maintaining and incouraging thereof in the more loose and vicious sort of people at the best but weak and faint opposition made by you against it And in truth with what face could ye punish or controule those enormities in other men whereof your selves were more guilty then they in your own conscience Besides these I say let your irreverent and irreligious carriage in the Church of God at the time of solemn service on his day attest the truth of this charge the which generally was far more vain and light then did become Saints at any time especially in the more immediate presence of the most holy and indeed then that which your selves would expect from your servants or inseriours in your private houses or can with patience endure from them For what whispering smiling want on passages of gesture discourse and other not sit to be named did fill up the measure of that houre and of your owne iniquity which the Minister did bestow on praying and preaching of the Word whereas if ye at any time came into the Congregation your poore Tenants must intermit their devotions and stand up to honour you though with the dishonour of their Maker a respect not to be required of any at such a time as this no nor to be received from any if offered or admitted by any person how great soever because displeasing unto him who is a God jealous of his honor and will not give his glory to another Now had it not been much better for you in respect of your owne soules the which ye did so foully stain by this ungodly behaviour and of the soules of your brethren whom ye did offend and grieve or corrupt by your lewd example and lesse hatefull to the Lord not to have been present at all
with sins And thy sins have not been more pernicious to thy self then hurtfull to this whole Nation by exeraplary contagion much like thy plagues in former times For thy pride deceit hypocrisie faction and other spirituall maladies have breathed forth that poison from thee the which hath transused it self through the politick Body leaving no part thereof free from infection and sicknesse thy heresies and schisms have corrupted and divided or rather torn in pieces this Church which was once pure in Doctrine sound in the Faith entire in it self and at peace with all her neighbours Micah 1.13 Thou wert the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion for the transgressions of Israel England were found in thee as it is said of Lachish for how lofty is thy pride notwithstanding all thy sufferings unto this present Day Isa 9.9 10. yea the pride and stoutnesse of thy heart hath been like that of Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria encreasing in thine affliction and arising yet higher from thy fall forasmuch as thy vain but costly garments instead of those of widowhood are still upon thee and thy children are become more gorgeous in their apparell and loose in their behaviour then in preceding times thy daughters also like those of Sion Isa 3.16 are haughly and walk with stretched forth neeks and wanton eyes walking and mineing as they goe Likewise disfiguring their countenance with spots of immodesty and impudence thereby publishing their own shame Yea thy servants and handmaids do now challenge the Nobles of the more remote Countrey for pride of clothing and bravery of attire if not out-strip many of them And what will ye doe in the end thereof Now touching thy deceit let the subtle contrivance of thy shops or dark situation of them for the delusion of all eyes that behold the baits of thy profit and gain witnesse against thee and thy children who generally and with one consent say concerning evill it is good put darknesse for light Isa 5.20 and bitter for sweet though never perchance guilty of inverting the practise as the Jews then were unlesse the scene be altered and in stead of selling to others they buy of others those commodities whereof they may make advantage for the suture for then as it is Prov. 20.14 they say of every thing Pro. 20.14 It is naught it is nuaght but when they are gone their way then they boast Thus they bend their tongues like their bow for lies Jer. 9.3 or as it is v. 8. Jer. 9.3 Their tongue is an arrow shot out it speaketh deceit each one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth but in heart hee layeth his wait vers 8. Take ye heed therefore every one of his neighbour and trusi ye not in any brother for every brother will utterly supplant And they will deceive every one his neighbour and will not speak the truth they have taught their tongues to speak lies and weary themselves to commit iniquity v. 4.5 And not content herewith themselves they also train up others after the same manner from their tender years Zophan cap. 1.9 who like those in Zephan cap. 1.9 leap on the threshold and fill their masters houses if not with violence yet surely with deceit abusing the ignorance and credulity of the simple and unexperienced in their fallacious wayes of dealing to the sinfull advantage of those whom they serve and cannot please without iniquity And all this they fairly disguise with the mask of seeming sanctity in profession in word in gesture in conversation in pretences promises asseverations Oathes every way But more especially and solemnly is this appearance made on the Lords Day wherein the dresse of their apparel and the shew of their devotion are both alike the former above their outward rank and quality the later exceeding their inward affection For what eager concourse then of all sorts to the Church what thronging and thrusting for places and seates approximate to the Preacher what earnest attention to the Sermon what demure carriage all the while is seen in the Assembly how many diligent notaries are present to receive whatsoever droppeth from the Ministers lips what sighing may you hear oftentimes and groaning of the Auditours what expressions may we behold almost in every countenance of sorrow and remorse what elevation of the eyes to heaven And yet alas how soone is all this vanished and forgotten For after one nights sleep notwithstanding repetition in private houses of what was publiquely delivered in the Church and other acts of duty proper for the season there performed by them they return with all greedinesse to their wonted courses of unjust dealing and unlawfull gaine by lying falshood perjury deceit equivocations mentall reservations meerly Jesuiticall and almost to as bad a purpose though not upon so great necessity Thus like the Gallant they seem at the Church porch to bid Religion stay there for them untill they come thither again as often as they depart from the house of God or at the most retain but a weak and faint relish thereof untill the day be over past so little doe they practise of what they learn in their life all the week after as if the whole business of Christianity did consist in nothing else then in hearing or talking of what we ought to doe and not in obedience of the Truth But they will be ready to say we have private and constant devotions at home as well as those we use in the Lords house and therefore all our Religion doth not rest on publique duty I answer That which they alleadge in their own defence doth make the more against them for what is this your daily exercise of devotion but an hypocriticall profanation of holy duties when you use it for a pretence onely of Religion for a shew of piety or rather for a veil of iniquity Surely such seigned holinesseas this is as distast full to the Almighty as open profanenesse Mat. 23.14 And indeed no service of God can profit us or stand us in the least stead without justice and mercy towards man as appeareth from Prov. 15.8 Isa 1.15 and from many places more of holy writ which plainly tell us that where innocence and integrity are wanting in the Person there can be no acceptance of the Action before God whatsoever it be for the naure and quality thereof In a word the substance of our Christian Profession consisteth in obeying the practicall precepts of the Gospell from faith unseigned 2 Tim. 1.5 And this to obey is much better then any sacrifice and oblation of prayer or praise we can offer to the Divine Majesty Now concerning the faction of thy children proceding from thy pride and aboundance of all things to which some impute the common sufferings of thy Nation it is strange to consider by what slender wiers and subtill motions it hath been conveyed through thy whole corporation and though it be more then
not only abstaining but abhorring from the appearance of that which is good or put on the rough garment of seeming sanctity and austerity of life to deceive the credulous part of the world by this disguise of hypocrisie in a good opinion of you the better to accomplish your ambitious or covetous ends And therefore to swear rashly without advise or cause is as common with many as their ordinary speech The neglect and contempt of Gods worship both publick and private with the Ministers thereof more notorious then ever as may appear by the following instance For the vulgar country people make it no matter of conscience on the Lords day to absent themselves from the congregation as often as they list upon the least and without any just pretence whatsoever and come thither pas a pas like their oxe slowly and tardily at the best although they will be sure to be at their markets in due season and therefore hasten to them with nimble pace and measure yea like men affrighted sometimes or pursued by their enemies with like motion doe they precipitate themselves or tumultuously depart out of the Church assoon and frequently before the Ministers blessing And during their presence at the Assembly good God what drowsinesse want of attention sporting smiling wandring of the eyes after every person that entreth in gazing upon the habit and countenance of those that are present with themselves and other irreverent gestures may we perceive in the auditory As for those who by their coming anticipate the time of divine service or tarry after it in or near the place thereof they wholly minde their worldly businesse discoursing of their land cattell corn bargains of the season weather and such like to omit worse matters though these be bad enough so little do they remember or regard for what end they came to the Church what they heard there and to whom they must one day give an account for both And in this particular as well as in many other the most professed enemies of our Religion the Turks will condemn you at the last day who at their common devotions count it no small trespasse against the Majesty and honour of God so much as to scratch the head or to use any other indecent or impertinent gesture imagining their prayers by this means to become ineffectuall and fruitlesse for them before the throne of the Almighty Busâ—equ as one long conversant among them hath observed And for this cause they will usually transgresse the bounds of a sabbath daies journey in travelling to some other remote Church there to serve God as they pretend upon any worldly occasions or concerning profane businesse of commerce and such like when they will scarce make a step out of their houses to their own congregation though the place or Church be never so neer unto them unlesse perchance they have an errand to do there of the same nature with the former Thus God is served in pretence but the world in truth or in deed or indeed the Devill who setteth them a work though upon their own businesse Now what grosse ignorance doth every where blinde the eyes of this people For many notwithstanding they have been so long accustomed to the hearing of Sermons and can yeeld you an orall confession of their faith understanding no more what they say though in their mother tongue then their sorefathers did of that which they were taught by their Priests to repeat in a strange and unknown language neither can they distinguish between a precept and a prayer but usually confound both as one in their orisons and private devotions Hence it is that they scarce look higher then to the common providence of God in all their waies giving them seasonable weather and fruitfull seasons with other common blessings of life or withholding these from them when he is displeased with them for their sins In the mean time they are altogether senslesse of his saving grace in Christ Jesus and as they seel not the want so it is to be seared that they never obtain the benefit thereof And indeed they wilfully close their eyes against the light either grossely neglecting or obstinately refusing to know more then they do at least so much as they ought For they neither respect nor make use of a minister for his gifts whereby he is able to instruct them nor consider the necessity and unspeakable benefit of his office in order to a better being then this present life but if he be a man given to hospitality no exacter of his tithes easie and willing to be deceived in matter of contract and right they more regard him for this bounty and facility of manners then for all the good he can do them in reference to their precious souls like those of whom we read Joh. 6.26 that followed Christ for his meat not for his miracles and doctrine And therefore men of the other temper have been very evilly entreated by them in these obnoxious and dangerous times In like manner the Bible is laid aside by the ruder sort as well in respect of domestick use as of publick practise and where it is received into their houses and read at certain seasons it is a shame to see how slovenly it is tossed up and down and soyled by those places where it is carelesly thrown as if it were some base utensil of the kitchin or of some other room belonging to the house not a pearl of that price whereat every sober Christian doth esteem it or at least ought to do And I would to God this were not a generall fault throughout the Nation and the Index of a greater I mean the inward slighting of that word which we outwardly thus vilifie and disgrace for although I should be loth to perswade others or allow in them a superstitious reveverence towards the Book such as the Turks use towards their Alcoran who count it an horrible crime for any man though unwittingly to sit upon it Busbiq Ep. 1. and punish the same with death in a Christian yet I cannot but minde you of that which is comely and agreeable to the nature of the thing without which we must needs bewray a kinde of irreligion or contempt of that which is holy and give occasion of scandall to those who are of different profession from us wherefore it is storied of Edward the sixth that godly young Prince and first reformer of this Church that being upon some occasion to look out at a window in a house where he was and having a Bible brought to him to stand thereon for his better conveniency of sight he utterly refused to make use thereof for this purpose but devoutly kissing it in the presence of them that stood by he laid it down on the place again a truly royall example of piety by which he shewed how great happinesse the world might have expected from his future government if God had not then judged him too good for