Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	england_n	mince_v	16	3	17.5063	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A83515	The third part of Gangræna. Or, A new and higher discovery of the errors, heresies, blasphemies, and insolent proceedings of the sectaries of these times; with some animadversions by way of confutation upon many of the errors and heresies named. ... Briefe animadversions on many of the sectaries late pamphlets, as Lilburnes and Overtons books against the House of Peeres, M. Peters his last report of the English warres, The Lord Mayors farewell from his office of maioralty, M. Goodwins thirty eight queres upon the ordinance against heresies and blasphemies, M. Burtons Conformities deformity, M. Dells sermon before the House of Commons; ... As also some few hints and briefe observations on divers pamphlets written lately against me and some of my books, ... / By Thomas Edvvards Minister of the Gospel.; Gangraena. Part 3	Edwards, Thomas, 1599-1647.	1646 (1646)	Wing E237; Thomason E368_5; ESTC R201273	294,455	360

to hasten releife for Ireland and to passe what was sent up by the House of Commons in reference to Ireland and Oh how were those Lords branded that were thought any way to delay or obstruct succours for bleeding Ireland and yet many of those men who heretofore when helpe could not so speedily nor effectually be had clamored so against the Lords in a time when all Armies in the Feild have beene sub●lued and hardly a Garrison untaken and great powerfull Armies with all provisions and necessaries for warre have beene ready though Ireland hath beene ready to be lost and in a most desperate condition have beene the great meanes of retarding releife hindring many thousands ready in a body from going speaking against the the Presbyterians for being so forward to send a great part of Army and giving out there was a plot to send away the Army and such like and indeed in this businesse of Ireland Scotland the King their labouring to keepe all things unsetled in Church and State the great wickednesse of the Sectaries plainly appeares I here remember what I heard a worthy and knowing Member of the House of Commons say upon occasion of discourse of the Sectaries How could any man think these Sectaries had any conscience when as to maintaine a party and faction they fomented and nourished jealousies and differences betweene the Kingdomes hazarded the losse of Ireland by hindring releife kept both Church and State from being settled and the great burthens of the Kingdome in takes and Armies from being taken off these men to keepe up their party caring not to let Ireland be lost the two Kingdomes of England and Scotland to be hazarded by a deadly war Gods honour and truth to su●●er and all things to lie wast as they doe 5. Their damnable hypocrisie and abominable dissimulation and I am perswaded there never was a more hypocriticall false dissembling cunning generation in England then many of the Grandees of our Sectaries Now their grosse hypocrifie plainly manifests it selfe in these particulars 1. they have covered all their practises and designes under the pretences of godlinesse honesty saintship purity of Ordinances tendernesse of Conscience a perfect thorough Reformation new glorious truths giving to themselves and their party the name of Saints Saints the godly party tender Consciences and under that covert they destory all godlinesse good Conscience truth are enemies to holy duties strict observing the Lords day humiliation c. encourage protect and cry up for Saints Saints sonnes of Beliall and the vildest of men they have pretended and talked of Reformation but are all for a Toleration and a liberty for all their party to beleeve and live as they lust they have talked of purity of Ordinances and spoke against mixed Communion as one of their grand grounds of separating from us and yet they have spoken and done all they could to keep mixt Communion among us and to hinder a more exact and full purity they talke of tender Consciences and Conscience when as they have Consciences can swallow and digest any thing Ostrich stomacks can lie grossely deceive and cozen prophane the Lords day make nothing of holy duties lay traps and snares to catch men c. they speak of new truths and new light but under those notions bring in all abominable Errors and Heresies into the Church of God pretend the spreading of the Gospel and preaching but in truth the spreading and increasing of all Heresies and Schisme Secondly they have pretended held out selfe-deniall have commended the selfe-denying Ordinance spoken much against mens inriching themselves seeking great places in these times spoken of doing all for the publick and that the Common-wealth might not suffer and yet these men pretending thus by such pretences have got into great offices and places procured great gifts as other mens estates great summes of mony great Arrears with the first and with the highest make use of their times in their places as much as ever any men did both for themselves and their kindred sonnes brothers cosens freinds and many of them before being beggars and meane men are now fat shining and growne great There is hardly a noted Sectary in the Kingdome or lately come out of New-England Holland c. who is in any kind capable of an office place gift or respect but he is in some one or other and hath beene the better for these times 3. The Sectaries have pretended the liberty of the Subject the publick liberties of the Kingdome this they have much held out and this they have fought for they say and not Religon and this is much spoken of in all their Pamphlets and Speeches whereas Sectaries have for the advancing of their owne way and opinions done the highest acts against the liberties of the people that ever were and indeed make nothing of trampling upon the subjects liberties and making them slaves being men that where they are in place and have power carry things arbi●rarily making their wills lawes making nothing of going against Charters liberties of the peoples elections c. There are many sad stories in this kind too large to be now related What enemies many of the Sectaries have beene to the peoples petitioning the Parliament to make knowne their greivances what obstructions and blocks they have laid in their way in that kind by printing of and wriring against their Petitions before delivered by branding the Petitioners for then ill-affected refined Malignants driving on the Kings designe and I know not what by preaching against their Petitions by endeavouring to get Votes and Orders against Petitions by labouring to molest the Petitioners to have them sent for to attend Committees to be put to charges kept in safe custody c. is wel known to the Kingdom and sure that 's a great part of the liberty and priviledge of the subject and if they may not be free to Petition what 's become of the liberty of the subject Such Princes in all ages as have been looked upon most for advancing their Prerogative oppressing the people and been a gainst al defensive Arms and other wayes of the peoples seeking their right yet still granted them the liberty of petitioning and would not prejudge that they have allowed preces lachrymae to be the weapons of Christian subjects though not Swords and Guns Whether many Sectaries are not very forward to keep on foot all burdens and greivances of the Kingdomes all payments in their heights great Armies Committees complained of c. I leave to ●hose who know-affairs to determine and if these things be for the liberty of the subject then are the Sectaries for the subjects liberty It will bee found that the Sectaries though they have pretended liberty yet if they should come to have the upper hand they would make the people of England the greatest slaves that ever they were in any time and indeed rule them by an Army and force instead of Lawes

and idely by going from Country to Country preaching And indeed instead of any Ministers or people opposing the Sectaries out of Policy worldly Interests t is evident t is the high way to some gainfull Place or other to become a Sectarie or to favour them hundreds turning Independents and Sectaries meerly for preferments and Places as heretofore men turned Prelatical and Arminians because of great Livings and how the Independent party have feathered their nests got well for themselves above other men the Reader shall find more spoken of it in this Book 7. As for that which is said I write so against the Sectaries out of a spirit of persecution and hatred of peaceable consciencious men I can say truly if I persecute consciencious peaceable men whom do I then love my love delight and interest is in such and I am so far from a spirit of persecution that I would be glad but to find the same measure from Independents Brownists Anabaptists and others which I would measure unto them if it were in my power namely I would not imprison banish them and such like only hinder them from all places of power and trust in the Kingdome and from spreading their Errors and Opinions to the hurting of others keep the unsound from the sound which if I differed in judgement from what was established in a Church and had nothing else done to me I should never conplaine of persecution and violence for that for t is absolutely necessary for the peace and welfare of the civill State besides what t is for the honor of God in the preventing the spreading of all Errors and Heresies And for a conclusion of this I have the clear and full testimony of my conscience that my appearing against the Sectaries hath not risen from any such base and poore grounds as the Sectaries alledge but from a sense of my duty that I might witnesse to the truth of God in this sinfull and adulterous generation And now to draw to a conclusion of this Preface nothing that hath yet befallen me of scandals reproaches and other sufferings or that shall further befall me in this way of Books set out against me of persecutions and troubles to bonds imprisonments losse of estate shall the grace of God assisting me turn me out of my way of constantly opposing the Sectaries so long as they go on in their way but when they for my writing against them shall speak against me as most vile and abominable I shall answer them as David It was for the Lord that I have done it and I will be yet more vile then thus and though every day naybour in the yeer should bring forth some book against me as bad as Balthazar Paeimontanus writ against Zuingl and Bolsecu● against Calvin yet for my part I shall be so far from being troubled that I shall take all those books as Job speaks and bind them as a crown to my head nay if all the Sectaries in England were combined against me and there were as many of them as tiles upon the houses in the City and every one of these Sectaries were a Devill yea had a legion of Devils as I beleeve some of them are possessed with many yet I would go on against them and if the Sectaries should be able out of this Book or any other to take advantage of my zeale faithfulnesse and plainnesse of spirit to make something of some words to stir up the Civil powers to trouble me yet for all that I shall not give them ever but write so much the more p●int them 〈◊〉 pray speak against their Errors and if God should give me so into their hands as to be able to deale with me as the Papists did with some of the ●itnesses of the truth yet I am confident they should have no cause to rejoyce but I should overcome even in that like Sampson kill more Philistims by my death then by my life and many Brethren would waxe more ●old to preach and write against them and out of my ashes should arise those who should further discover them I know the Sectarian faction must be destroyed and fall Babell must come downe as well as Babylon and the making of them naked is a preparatory work to the making of them desolate and eating their flesh But O that God would rather give them to see what they have done and make them to confesse give him glory and returne helping to build his House with both hands which they have so laid waste and hindred all this while and O that they would take well this Book look into it and observe Gods hand in finding them out accept of it as it was indeed intended for their good and not cast it away with saying t is sharp and bitter but rather remember that of the Apostle that men must be sometimes sharply rebuked That they may be sound in the ●aith Erasmus often said of the Papacit in his time that it was so corrupt that it weede● acrem medicum a sharp Physitian a gentle would have done no good and therefore he raised up Luther a man of a free and hot spirit that cared not for gold and that feared not great men but went on in the cure of the Church strong and rough humors needing strong phisick to purge them out The foulnesse and strength of the disease of Sectarisme at this time call'd and calls for a strong P●tion and may justly plead against the offence of any acrimonie and quicknesse that may be found in it Jesus Christ himselfe that meeke Lamb of whom it was written he should not strive no● cry neither should any man heare his voice in the streets yet his zeale of his Fathers House made him as t is in the second of John to make a 〈…〉 rge of cords and drive all that sold Ox●n Sheepe and Doves and the ch●●gers of money out of the Temple and overthrow the Tables saying unto them that sold Doves take these things hence make not my Fathers House ●n house of merchandise and I remember not that ever I re●d of the like sharpnesse and quicknesse of Christ as this in any other case that against the Scribes Pharisees and S 〈…〉 es false Teachers was the likest and certainly the servants of Christ in a 〈◊〉 when the Church of God and Religion is bought and sold and made merchandise of by false Teachers as Saint Peter speaks the precious truths of God and the immortall souls of them for whom Christ died prestituted and sold to the base lusts and selfe ends of men when there are not found in the House of God so good intruders as th●se that sell Oxen Sheepe and Doves such profitable creatures but those that sell T 〈…〉 Crocodiles Pipers Serpents and all kind of Monst●rs they may and ought at such times and in such cases to imitate Christ and to doe something more then ordinary for the purging of the Church and that may show their zeale for

and the man who preached upon the coming in of the Parliament forces to the Town And I beleeve he and others of his followes were of the Councell to get Colonell RSpan● to be sent to take Worcester when that gallant Colonell Waley had done the deed that so a Presbyterian might neither enjoy the honour nor the fruit of his labours And though I have never been at Worcester yet upon report of credible persons I can make another observation then Master Peters upon his preaching at Worcester and the ●a●●i●on and Government there viz. instead of a door open to the Gospel a doore is opened at Worcester to Independency and to all kind of Sects a doore opened for ●lemen● Wrigh●e● that Antiscrip●urist Sceptick spoken so much of in my first part of Gangraena to be ●here and to 〈…〉 i● Heresies and Blasphemies And I am certainly informed 〈◊〉 Sectaries are already publike Preachers in the City of Worcester o● Master 〈◊〉 who was before at Wa●wick and ●he Master M 〈…〉 And so page 6. Master P●ters gives 〈…〉 ll he ●●s 〈…〉 he Army may be as hardly di 〈…〉 as it was go 〈…〉 ●e ●●ates the disease of our pre 〈…〉 di 〈…〉 and prescribes the ●u●e● he 〈…〉 directions about sending to forraigne States page 8. 9. about the ordering of our Counsells and affaires page 10. 11. 12. and then in page 13. 14. he comes to a formall discourse concerning himself where he tells the Reader fine stories of himself And if my different judgement offend any my Answer is that with much expence of money and time with diligent inquiry into Reformed Churches I have taken paines to satisfie my self and remaine now where I was for substance ●ifte●● years since resolving by that experience to keep a window open to more light and truth though scoffed and slighted my care hath been to acquaint my self with the most learned and godly in the Country where I travell First I lived about six years neer that famous Scotchman Master John Forbs with whom I travelled into Germany and enjoyed him in much love and sweetnesse constantly from whom I never had but incouragement though we differed in the way of our Churches Learned Amesius●reathed ●reathed his last breath into my bosome who left his Professorship in Freisland to live with me because of my Churches Independency at Roterdam and charged me often even to his death so to look to it and if there were a way of publike worship in the world that God would own it was that He was my Collegue and chosen Brother to the Church where I was an unworthy Pastor and I thank the Lord such a Church it continues to this day that truly I slightly took up nothing in that kind nor did I loose all my seven years being in New-England amongst those faithfull learned godly Brethren whose way of worship if we professe it will not be groundlesse when their wri●ings are examined And so much for Master Peters designe in his last Report of the English Wars The second maine thing in his Pamphlet is the manner and way he takes to effect his designe and aime the better which though at first view it be seemingly carried in severall phrases with a great deale of moderation to the Presbyterians and a desire of propagating the Gospel Religion Piety the name of God Religion and preaching being often spoken of and of maintaining yea inlarging the glory of the English Nation and the Rights and Liberties of the Subject Yet indeed 't is written and calculated for the Meridian of Independency and Secta●isme in every particular of it so as there is not one passage in it but I could easily reduce to that Praedicament and draw all the lines to that center clearly shewing 'tis for the advancing of that party which that he may do the man cares not what hee writes but instead of a faire full open true Relation of things he writes very partially in some things falsly in other things hypocritically and doubly in most and were I at leasure to write Animadversions on every line of this Pamphlet and give a full Answer to it laying one thing to another I could discover many mysteries of iniquity in it and shew it to be exceeding pernicious both to Church and State and very prejudiciall to the League and Union between the Kingdomes and such a peece of Politicks that in this juncture of things an Arch-Jesuite if he were imployed to write would make much such another I shall give some instances First his Relation of Worcester businesse is very partiall much wronging that gallant Gentleman Col. Whaley giving the honour of reducing Worcester to others who hath deserved better at the hand of Master Peters and some others then to be so served This Gentleman did very great service at Naseby Field this Gentleman reduced that strong Castle of Banbury besides many other gallant services that he hath done but because he is a Presbyterian and an Antilibertine therefore others who never did that worke at Worcester nor in Naseby Field c. must have the honour of his labours and must enter upon them reaping that which hee hath sowed with much faithfulnesse valour hazards The relation of this businesse of Worcester is so partiall that 's the best can be said of it that I have been informed from persons of much worth and trust that when Col. Whaley read it he went to a great Commander of the Army speaking to this purpose do you not see how Peters hath abused and wronged me and shall he be suffer'd well if I meet him I will cane him soundly and a Commander of the Army told in some company to a Lieutenant Colonell a great Sectary that he had heard Colonell Whaley wherever he met Master Peters would cane him if not cut him for his relation of Worcester businesse Secondly speaking of Schismaticks and Opinionists he instances in Anabaptists and calls them the harmelesse Anabaptists which is a false Epithite given to them for what Sect or fort of men since the Reformation this hundred years have been more harmfull surely Master Peters cannot but have read or at lest heard of the Tumults Wars Tragedies Out-rages Rapes raised and committed by the Anabaptists in severall parts of Christendome especially in Germany and M●●ster Sl●idan Bullinger Schluselburgius Horlensius Guido de Bres with many others have laid these open to the world And if we look upon our Anabaptists at home and consider what many of them have done and do dayly how can we call them harmlesse Are they harmlesse who in contempt of Baptisme have pissed in the Font have fecht a horse into the Church and baptiz'd it Who assault with violence godly Ministers put them out of their Pulpits by force openly affront them and invade their Pulpits whether they will or no Who make tumults and riots in Countries Who kill tender young persons and ancient with dipping them all over in Rivers in the depth of Winter Who

the Inhabitants of London page 7. saith the Assembly are only to advise the House of Commons when they requi●r them and have not dealt fairely to side with the Scots or to sway with the City or to 〈…〉 ge the Parliament in the least Twelfthly the Sectaries have carried themselves wickedly and insolently toward the whole Ministry in this Kingdome and that both in City and Country reproaching them and 〈◊〉 against them in Pulpits Presses and in all places threatning them to send them packing to Rome that they will leave never a Preist in England distu●bing them in their owne Churches and Pulpits in giving them the lie calling them by disgracefull names as foole knave false Prophet Antichrist Frog in the Revelation pulling them out of the Pulpits keeping them by force from preaching invading their Pulpits against their wills drawing swords against them assaulting them in their houses with weapons of war and driving them from their habitations and laying their Churches wast A large book would not containe all the stories of the Sectaries misusing the godly Ministers in this kind I have many instances with the proofes by me of the Sectaries insolent carriages in these kinds in Oxfordshire Glostershire Summersetshire Wiltshire Bedfordshire Northamptonshire Warwickeshire Lestershire Devonshire it would be too much to particularize all the wicked facts done in this kind by Col. Heuson Major Axton Leiut Webb Capt. Paul Hobson and divers others as also to repeat all the wicked reproachfull names given the godly Ministers of the Kingdom in the printed pamphlets of the Sectaries as the Devils Agents The professed ●nemies of Christ The sworne enemies of Christ Persecuting Presbyters Croaking Fr●gs and twenty such names and worse Thirteenthly the Sectaries have spoken wickedly against all the Reformed Churches scoffing at their Synods Classes Ordination c. Let their books be looked into and they will be found to have written more scoffingly and reproachfully aganst those Churches then ever the Papists or Prelates did yea they have blasphemed those Churches the eminent servants of God among them and the truth of Christ taught in them What should I speak of the Arraignment of Persecution and his fellowes belching out blasphemies against the reformed Churches many other pamphlets besides that sort are extremely faulty as The compassionate S 〈…〉 ri●●ne Divine Light c. The Reformed Churches are ranged by some of the Sectaries with Papists and Turks and Calvin that worthy Instrument of Reformation and one of the Stars of the first magnitude is evill spoken of and ●ancked with the Romanists Fourteenthly The Sectaries have inveighed against inferior Magistrates Courts as Judges Justices of peace Majors of Cities Committees and all sorts of Officers of Justice and have offered severall affronts unto these and t is no wonder that they who with so high a hand dare affront heaven and earth God his truth Ministers and Ordinances the higher powers and the supremest Court of Judicature as I have showed the Sectaries have done should not be afraid of speaking against and carrying themselves uncivilly towards Magistrates in lower places The Courts of Justice in Westminster Hall and all their proceedings have been reviled by Lilburne and other Sectarian pamphlets All the Lawyers have beene cryed downe and reproached in Englands Birth-right and other pamphlets some of the Judges have beene affronted in their Circuits at the last Assizes by some Sectaries as at Hartford and other places Some Justices of Peace for executing Ordinances of Parliament upon Sectaries as that of Tyths and Committing upon blasphemies have beene arrested and sued by Sectaries as on Southwark ●ide as also abused and reproached to their faces and books written against them for discharge of their office besides Constables and Officers who have distrained and served their Warrants have beene molested and sued Majors of Cities Sheriffs Aldermen have beene branded for arbitrary tyrannicall prerogative Aldermen Sheriffs and miscalled at pleasure as in Lilburnes late pamphlets The Lord Majors farewell to his Maioralty Committees in the Countries have beene affronted by Sectaries putting on their hats when brought before them as in Bedfordshire and in one word all sorts of officers of Justice have one way or other by word or deed beene abused by Sectaries either by disobeying the Warrants they have brought or by miscalling them or by branding them in print as Lilburn hath done in severall pamphlets severall officers the Sergeant at Arms of the House of Commons the Keepers of Newgate he being more insolent and clomineering in prison over all kind of officers then his Keepers over him but above all the Sectaries insolencies towards that faithfull Gentleman Colonel Francis West and other officers under him appears by Lilburnes late libellous pamphlets and by the threatning speeches of some Sectaries comming to see Lilburn in the Tower who being by the Warders spoken unto to give their names and where they dwelt told them they should answer the prohibiting of them from going to Leiutenant Colonel Lilburne and that the time was at hand when they would come in whether the Leiutenant of the Tower would or no. And thus I have given a touch upon severall heads of the Sectaries tumultuous insolent unsufferable carriages but among all their wickednesses and abomiuable courses which may make them justly abhorred of all good men and of these Kingdomes the Reader may observe these following 1. That they make it their work and businesse to corrupt destroy and overthrow all Religion and godlinesse to lay all wast and to set open a wide gate to all error and licentiousnesse of living for the effecting of which they doe not only use all means and wayes for a Universall Toleration of all Heresies Blasphemies Atheisme which may happen to arise that there being such they may be tolerated go unpunished which Toleration alone would cause growth of Heresies fast enough and the ruine of Religion and godlinesse but they plot all wayes and take all courses under heaven that all Heresies and Errors may grow and increase that there may be both abundance of Errors and persons holding them and therefore they use all their power and interest to hinder all things which might prevent the growth of Heresies a●d Errors as the settling of Church-government and peace in Church and Common-wealth as the bringing in of Orthodox godly zealous Ministers into places with the establishing of maintenance upon them as the publishing of such Books as might keep men from Errors having suppressed some Books so which have come from New-England as a Tractate against Toleration c. And on the contrary doe any thing though never so unreasonable though never so much against their owne principles though never so wicked and abominable so it will but advance Errors hence they suffer many Emissaries to go from Country to Country from place to place to broach and vent among people all kinds of Errors and that by force of Arms against the will of the Ministers and people

contention an evill conscience and when some lust though secret hath brought forth an errour this and that false doctrine then those Doctrines fully received daily strengthen and nourish those lusts yea daily increase unto more ungodlinesse as the not being liable to be questioned by superiour Assemblies as Classes Synods emboldens men to broach and spred such errors as holding that God sees no sinne in his Children that all our sinnes cannot hurt us nor all our good workes further our salvation encourages men to sinne more freely as believing that the soules dye with the bodies or else sleep till the resurrection yea that there is no resurrection makes men say let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye that is since the soule dyes with the body and the body shall rise no more therefore let us take what we find here enjoy our pleasures and satisfie our lusts whilest we may 3. Coroll Hence then we may clearly see from many of the principles and practises laid open in this booke that many of the Sectaries of our times Anabaptists Libertines Independents are not onely against Government in the Church all Authoritative power of Classes Synods but against Civill Government too Monarchie and Aristocracie both Kings and Lords have been cryed downe in many Books Speeches yea and in Sermons of the Sectaries and for Democracie though in divers Pamphlets they seem to contend for that as in opposition to all Kingly and Lordly Government yet in pleading for it they have laid downe such positions as are not consistent with any Civill Government at all but what necessarily would bring any Common wealth the most popular into a chaos and confusion and had they any reason or wisdome they could not but see the weaknesse of their owne Principles and the dreadfull consequences that must necessarily follow thereupon but as the Apostles Peter and Jude speake of the Hereticks of their times upon occasion of speaking evill of Dignities and despising Dominion so may we of ours These as naturall bruit beasts made to be taken and destroyed speake evill of the things they understand not In a word nothing pleases them not the Government nor any part of it not the Lawes their designe is to have all pull'd downe to have a totall change made that being abrasa tabula they might write in it what they pleased and might come to have the new modelling of Church and Common-wealth O how like are our Sectaries to the old Anabaptists of Munster and Germany their very spirit having entred into our men O how like is John Lilburne to John of Leyden as if he had beene spit out of his mouth M. Dell to Thomas Muntzer and so others of them to severall great Sectaries that I could name I dare be bold to say and can prove it that the old Anabaptists never delivered or held principles more destructive to humane society to all kind of Government both Politicall Ecclestasticall and O economicall to all godlinesse and Religion then many of our Sectaries nay I believe no instance can be given of them whilst they were under command and in the hands and power of the civill Magistrate that ever they carried themselves so scornfully and contemptuously to the supremest Courts and Judicatures of Kingdomes and States and committed such outragious actions publikely even in the worship of God against the Religion established the faithfull friends of the States as our have done 4. Corol. Hence then we may plainely see by what 's laid down in this Book our evills are not taken away but onely changed or rather some persons and instruments removed not the evills There are other men now under other habits and names do the same things and farre worse for instance one of the great complaints against some Bishops was the putting men into the Ministry and to preach who had been Serving-men Barbers and such like behold it is now in fashion worse are now suffered and that in such a way as the Bishops Lay-preachers never attempted viz. to put by painfull Orthodox men from their places whilst they with their ignorance and errours starve and poyson the peoples souls Another great evill under the Biships was the corrupting of Religion and destroying it in time by countenancing corrupt men and discountenancing the zealous Orthodox under the name of turbulent violent men who made divisions c. and is no● the same in use among us now Is it not more apparent by many Bookes written Speeches and Actions which hundreds and thousands are witnesses of that a Toleration and the ruine of the Protestant Religion is intended and designed now then that the Bishops intended to bring in Popery Another great evill was the speaking against and reproaching the Reformed Churches and speaking evill of some of the great Reformers as Calvin Beza Knox c. which some of the Prelates and their Chaplains in some of their Books Sermons Discourses or Disputations in the Universities as Canterbury Wren Pocklington Martin Cosens Duncombe Mountague had done and O how were these cried out on for so doing but alas now the Reformed Churches particularly Scotland whom we have covenanted to defend and according to the example of the best of them to reforme yet after such a Covenant both Churches and the prime Reformers as Calvin Knox c. have been a thousand times worse reproached And so I could go over all the rest and that not onely in Religion but in the matters of Justice and the Liberty of the Subject but I must take off manum de tabula 5. Coroll Hence we may see by all the Errours Heresies strange Practises discovered in this booke into what a condition we are fallen and from what fallen that we can do and suffer such things as we do I knew the time when it might have been said of us as of the Angell in the 2. Revel 2. we could not have borne them that were evill and this we had when we were at worst we hated the doctrine of the Nicolaitans but now wee have left our first love zeale are become a people that can suffer any thing the twentieth part of what we now make nothing of but have pretences excuses and pleas for seven yeares agoe would have made us cry out bitterly kept daies of fasting and prayer for though with the hazard of our lives and Liberties made complaints and spoken one to another looked for the judgments of God to have come upon us but now we beare all nay what was most evill in the Bishops and their Chaplains for which they wicked men as they were commonly cal'd have been cast out as Popery Arminianisme prophaning the Lords day countenancing Papists Arminians c. is new light and new truth in Sectaries and Independents prophanenesse ahd ungodlinesse in them is now become conscience godlinesse Saintship Now the grossest Arminianisme without making mince meat of it can go down we can swallow without any trouble Popish Arminian