way to Heaven fill their poor heads with nothing but sound and noise and whining and feigned words and partly do they continue unconvinc'd and unconverted by reason they think they are converted already yet have as little reason to think so as if they were Turks Jews or Heathens nay I 'le maintain it and avouch to be true before God and men that I have by my own experience found more goodness more kindness more truth more honesty more sincerity among man-eaters or Cannibals in India and Turks in Arabia than amongst the best of these Professors Read Jam. 2. 14 15 16 17 20 21 22 24. Mat. 16. 27. Eph. 2. 10. Tit. 3. 8 Phil. 1. 27. Nay put in their Preachers and all into a sack together and the first that comes out shall have incomparably more pride malice wrath lying slandering and evil speaking and rejoycing in iniquity when they can hear of any faults or judgments with which any are overtaken that are not of their gang than any Turk Jew or Indian Man-eater that ever I converst with and I have converst with thousands and if these be the people of God the Lord in his mercy deliver me from them and the evil way they walk in by Companies running headlong to the bottom and end of that way eternal destruction and striving who should first come there and run the fastest as if they were afraid they should not come at the Divel in good time Whereas my Religion namely this of my Saviour in Mat. 7. 12. like the Sun in his full strength and light carryes its own evidence and speaks sufficiently for it self leading men into unerring paths bringing quietness and peace and light to mankind nor can any man walk in darkness or do any thing of the works of darkness that walks by this rule but peace must be upon them as upon the only true Israel of God no canting no hypocrisie no feigned words needs here but Righteousness and Peace embrace each other both here and to Eternity In which Religion I doubt not by Gods grace to continue all the dayes of my life for of all the Idols of the Heathens there is but one true God and of all Religions there is but one true one one Christ one way one truth one life one light and this is it Would God think you leave men a way to Heaven revealed by his Son if it were not to be found without a great many Fathers decrees of Councils Glosses Homilies Sermons infinite and as large and of as little purpose the most of them as the writings of Mr. Prin Whereas this way of Christ is soon found soon got my heart easily remembred readily applyed And if no other Text had been preacht upon this 30 years and practised England had seen no warrs nor bloodshed ruine nor rapine murder and rebellion that had almost quite destroyed us neither had the war been carryed on with a few canting words and misapplyed scriptures prating and praying seeking of God as Cromwel called it when he went to prayer with the Officers of the Army to seek God and know his mind whether he should murder the King or no whereas he had resolv'd it long before like Jezabel seeking God by prayer and fasting when the bottom and design of all is nothing but rapine and covetousness to take Naboth's life that thereby she might get the better footing in Naboth's vineyard But if this little Rule be practis'd down goes Diana of the Ephesians and the Idols fictions and imaginations of the heart of man No man could steal nor covet nor be a rebel nor disobedient to his superiors if he keep to this Rule Why because he would be loth to be so serv'd himself loth men should take away his goods his servant his daughter his wife or his lands or good name No man would be a rebel or disobedient to his superiors that is of this Religion Why because he would not endure that his servants his children and family should be disobedient unto him there would be no living no keeping house with them if they did not obey for if he command one son in seed-time to go plow and another to sow and his son or servant say nay but it is better to thrash or fan and more needful this disobedience will make them all smart for it in a little time a house thus divided cannot stand long Nay in spiritual things the master of the family calling his servants children to prayers in the morning at noon or night he will not permit a servant or a child to be hallowing and playing abroad whilst he is praying nor to lie lolling upon a couch or chair laughing and jearing with his hat on whilst he is praying and kneeling or singing of Psalms there is not a Phanatick in England will suffer this but will reprove rebuke exhort and chastise such a jearing irreverent son or servant thinks God requires it at his hands and would send judgements upon him and his family with a grievous curse if when his sons are vile he restrain them not though they tell him it is their conscience to be vile and irreverent And tell them moreover how God punish'd old Eli for neglecting to restrain his sons let them pretend what conscience they will he will likewise have the liberty of his own conscience which tells him if it be their conscience to be thus disorderly vile irreverent and disobedient it is also his conscience to restrain their vileness irreverence and disobedience and will further ask them if they were in his condition and were masters of a family whether they would be content that their servants and sons should do what they list and what was right in their own eyes and whether it is possible a house so divided can stand long This every Phanatick in England pleads to his family and brings the fifth Commandment to confirm and warrant all that he saith to them adding that it is the first Commandment with promise as the Apostle calls it that is with promise of present reward in this life even length of days whereas men by disobedience to their natural fathers or spiritual or temporal fathers in Church or State shorten their lives as the rebels Baanah and Rechab Achitophel Absalom Sheba and the rest of them in all ages Now apply this that I have said examine thine own heart call it to account seriously before thou come before Gods Tribunal to receive thine eternal Doom when it is too late to amend and try in any particular where thou disobeyest thy superiours in Church or State whether thou wouldst suffer such disobedience in thine own family First as to Ceremonies which are but the outskirts the suburbs of true Religion this one true Religion I am speaking of yet it is a sign that thou art an enemy to the City of God and holy hill of Sion if thou burn plunder or pull down the Suburbs not because the Suburbs are the City or
Manichees and Severians Trithem de Eccles. Scrip. Bulling contr Arnab l. 2. c. 14. Did they not learn that the Jewish Sabbath was none of the Ceremonies abrogated by the Apostles of Christ but moral and perpetual from the Sabbatharians Doc. Sab. l. 1. Did not some lie and say they had no sin as did the Adamites Pelagians and Donatists Aug. Cont. Petil. l. 2. c. 14. c. 19. and also the Carpocratians Iren. l. 1. c. 24. Who taught them to cry up the Pulpit and Sermons only and decry Sacraments and Prayers and Charity but the Eutichites Theodoret Did they not deny Infant Baptism and some the Baptism of those Infants whose Parents would not be examin'd by the lay-Elders nor take the Covenant I mean such as were not of their fraternity and Gang as did the Heraclians Henricians and Pelagians Magd. Eccles. Hist. Cent. 12. c. 5. Aug. de verb. Apost de bapt parv Did they not declare that private men have Authority to order and reform the Church call Assemblies and Councels and need not tarry for the Prince and Magistrate as did the Monetarians Test. Rhem. Annot. Hebr. 13. 17. and the Cresconians Aug. cont Cresc gra l. 3. c. 51. Did they not declare it unlawful for the Magistrate to punish hainous offences with Death or to go to War whether offensive or defensive as did the Manichees Aug. cont Manich. l. 22. c. 74. Did they not declare that no man has proprietary in Goods Lands or Wife but all should lie common and without Inclosure as did the Pelagians and Apostolicks Magd. Eccles. Hist. Cent. 5. fol. 586. and the Manichees Aug. de mor. Eccl. Cath. l. 1. Would they afford either an Alms or Charity or so much as a good word or look to any but their own Sect and Faction so neither would the Manichees Aug. de mor. Manich l. 2. Were they not pure in their own eyes but abominated as Dogs all but themselves and their friends so called in Enmity to all others as did the Pharisees Luk. 18. 11. Is. 65. 5. Prov. 30. 12 13 And the Donatists Optat. de schism Donatist l. 4. Did they not count it unlawful to swear though in truth in righteousness and in judgment As did the Essenes the Jewish Puritans Philo Judaeus Thus old Heresies long ago condemned and dead and buried by the Indulgence of our late licentious times have found an unhappy Resurrection And cannot these evil spirits be bound down again to the infernal Pit from whence they came to deceive the Nations as formerly they were by the wisdome of our Ancestors when Hell broke lose Simon Magus and his followers the Gnosticks which in English signifies the People of light as they proudly enough call'd themselves came at last from one errour to another indifferenter utendi foeminis And do not our Gnosticks that pretend to all the light fall away from one delusion and Enthusiasme to another till they come to be Ranters Atheists and what not Is there no eye to pity these nor house of Correction to be found words are lost upon them they are possest and prepossest We we have liv'd to see that all this noise for the Gospel Reformation modern Orthodoxy liberty primitive simplicity and abatement of Episcopal Grandeur does but bluster on purpose to blow down Church and State upon pretence to new-build them better and more fashionable after the Geneva-frame Thus the Kite flies up to Heaven but her design and eye is upon the Prey and but that the Buzzards like thieves fell out amongst themselves true men had not so soon come to their own But his Majestic promis'd Indulgence I am sure saith Father Grey-beard in his Declaration from Breda Let honour for ever wait on his Majestic and his Royal word but know that the best honestest and most learned Casuists will tell us that if Thieves and Robbers take a mans purse and rob his house and not herewith satisfied but they threaten also to kill him and every mothers son there if the honest man do not promise and vow nay swear to give them more yet when he 's got out of their clutches he 's also free of his oath In the name of God what would this people be at Is 't not enough that they got his sacred Majesties Father and all his loyal friends body and goods that they could get into their clutches and have they not done unto them whatsoever they would Is 't not enough that they rob'd him of his Kingdomes and drive him to straits that he had not where to lay his head And have they not cause to bless God and the King every day they rise that they are not hang'd drawn and quarter'd as was Baanah and Rechab But must they capitulate setting down a stool of Repentance for him to sit on whilst they expostulate the matter Oh but Indulgence and Liberty liberty of Conscience By liberty of conscience must be meant either a liberty to do what we should do or a liberty to do what we would do If they mean a liberty to do what they should do spur on up and be doing in the name of God The Reins of Government will neither check nor curb you take my yoak upon you and learn of me saith our blessed Saviour for I am meek and lowly and came not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me That 's it saith Greg. the Non-conformists would be at they desire only liberty to do the will of God not their own wills and to worship God in his own way in Gods own way though it be not the Kings high-way But what if the Kings High-way be not out of Gods way will you be so wretchedly unsociable and singular as to separate and go out of the way when it is the Kings High-way The truth is I have no great skill in Divinity my Education not designing me that way yet as the times are in a mans own defence of his Christianity for to be sure now if he walk but out as far as a Club or a Coffee-house he shall be sure to be assaulted on that side so much Divinity to defend it always in readiness becomes as necessary for a Gentleman as the little Tool behind to save reputation and much more honourable and without any great accoutrement I may soon have Divinity enough to try it out with Father Grey-beard I. O. and the rest of his friends and can easily prove that the worship of God so much prated of and contain'd in the first Table the four first Commandments is in order and made for the very nonce and for no other thing or end but that men might obey the second Table and six last Commandments Start not for I 'le prove it as clear as the Sun at Noon-day And that though sometimes comparisons are odious yet between Gods commandments to weigh and compare which is the greater and which is the lesser is of absolute necessity to every godly man
met Also I deny that it is unlawful for me but rather a duty incumbent upon me to give my servants lieve to play and recreate themselves with any honest sport upon the Sunday or any other Holy-day at convenient times for I ought in mercy and charity to be merciful to my beasts my oxe or my ass in watering them which is not necessary but only expedient for life Much more ought I to be merciful to my poor Prentice my servant my Hand-maiden that have drudg'd and trudg'd to slave and work for me on working days when Sunday or any other Holy-day comes if I be of Christs true Religion and do as I would be done by Nay I ought if I am able to let them drink better liquor and eat better meat eat the fat and drink the sweet as Nehemiah speaks and send portions thereof to the poor according to my ability on those festivals at least give them what I give my beast ease and rest on those vacation-days a penny-worth of ease is worth a penny And the contrary opinion is hypocritical pharisaical hard-hearted apocryphal and prophane and contrary to the great Law of charity and mercy and contrary to those infallible and unanswerable reasons rendred excellently in that proclamation for lawful sports on Sundays and all other Holy-days published by the Command and well setled judgment of King James King Charles I. to that purpose And agreeable with the opinion and practice of all Christians Nations and Kingdoms in the world and even of Geneva it self and contradicted by none but our senceless hypocritical modern orthodox Rebels that write in this particular after nobody but Knox that grand Rebel and Innovator Oh but did not these fellows arm the rabble against the King and Bishops upon this very account They did so the more prophane wretches they by laying a yoke upon the necks of the disciples which God never imposed through their own superstition or rather perverseness Wheedling the silly rabble with pretence of Religion and Gods-day which is not a day that the Lord has made more than any other day nor more holy than so far forth as the King and Parliament have made it and set it apart for holy uses as they have done other Holy-days namely vacation-days from servile and worldly toil that men might be now at leisure for Gods worship merciful and charitable works to our selves our neighbours our servants our handmaidens our Ox and our Ass and the like which are the proper duties for a Sunday and other holy-days And because we are a trading covetous having worldly minded people if the King and Parliament think fit to allow us no other Holy-days but Sundays and half a dozen more in a year I am content And the late wrethced Rebels might with more right and good reason have taken occasion to rebel as Massinâ—…lla and his mutineers in Naples did by the spilling and overturning of a basket of Apples than from that honest Proclamation for sports published by King James and King Charles I. of blessed memory for lawful refreshments and recreations on Sundays and Holy-days after Divine service So consonant to the doctrine and practice of all Christendom and so agreeable with the great Law of doing as we would be done by And there is never a one of these spleenatick peevâ—…sh morose unsociable and hypocritical Pharisees but in their practice do as much contradict their own doctrine for the Sabbath as that so much talk'd of Proclamation has done every Sunday when they leave their maid at home carefully to look to the pot and the spit that all be ready piping hot precisely against the time that Lungs comes home when his Auditory is tyr'd perhaps more than himself Binding heavy burdens and grievous to be born and laying them on other mens shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers and saying as John of Leyden did upon the rack confessing the true cause of his Fanaticism and Impostures The people love to he cheated with Superstition and love them hâ—…st that gull them most Thus have I as briefly and as fast as my pen could write given an honest and down-right account why and how true Christians should keep a Sunday or other day holy though not according to the hypocritical and modern orthodox but consentaneous with all the truly Orthodox Christians in the world And in answer to what Father Grey-beard in a different character sets down as the Apocryphal opinion of the Reverend Bishop Bramhall but is an infallible truth p. 38. namely he maintains the publick Sports on the Lords day by the Proclamation to that purpose and the example of the Reformed Churches beyond Sea and for the publick dances of our youth upon Countrey-Greens on Sundays after the duties of the day he sees nothing in them but innocent and agreeable to that under-sort of people And he takes the promiscuous License to unqualified persons to read the Scriptures far more prejudicial nay more pernicious than the over-rigorous restraint of the Romanists And he took it well in so taking it For though no man can have a more sacred esteem and value for the holy Scripture and Gods word than I have knowing that it is profitable for instruction and to make the man of God perfect throughly furnished unto every good work Yet this good work of instructing out of it properly belongs to the man of God it is his province not incumbent upon every man nor possible to be undertaken by every man Because our English Bibles are not in every particular the word of God nor in any one thing the words of the Prophets of Christ and the Apostles who not one of them spoke English except perhaps S. Bartholomew and the modern Orthodox have no great kindness for that Apostle because of a certain Reason But chiefly because neither he nor any other Apostle delivered the mind of God and holy writ in the English tongue The English Bibles in the Translation at best being but a paraphrase or Homily of the word of God nor all that neither for these reasons that are unanswerable and infallible First because the English Bibles are in some places erroneous Secondly They are in some places scarce sence and of dangerous consequences when every pert bold and conceited fellow that only understands English takes upon himself to raise doctrines and opinions thence contrary to the sence and meaning of God in his holy word contrary to the mind and meaning of the Holy-Ghost as well as contrary to the sence of the Church and truly Orthodox I love not this discourse and could wish it were any bodies task and employment rather than mine it is so ungrateful and generally displeasing yet since this bold Greg. has given the occasion by reflecting upon the honest words of the most Reverend and learned Bishop Bramhall in these odde animadversions in things far above his shallow pate apprehension and reach Therefore now my hand is in
in wording it they did not nor could not fore-see such as this of the Anabaptists mistake and misconstruction in this particular Yet the word bearing two significations and Lay-men in those times not so audacious and impudent nor the reading Scriptures so promiscuous and frequent as of late of which sad consequences we have too much experience But does not our Saviour bid men search the Scriptures Jo. 5. 39. I answer no he does not he said only to them that were learned in the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to whomsoever of his auditors that were conversant in Scriptures in the Indicative Mood ye do search the Scriptures because in them ye think to have eternal life and they are they that testifie of me yet ye will not come unto me that ye might have life As if our Blessed Saviour should say as he does in another place seeing you see and yet you do not perceive and hearing you hear and do not understand ye search the Scriptures thinking to find this eternal bread that I am preaching of namely eternal life by Christ and there you may see me for they testify of me yet ye will not come for so is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred Jo. 1. 10. tamen sometimes sed unto me that ye might have life I know the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be taken in the Imperative Mood but that it is not so agreeable with the context nor signifies any thing if it were so to prove this promiscuous use and license of reading the Gospel and New Testament of which not one word was then writ Indeed no man in the world can desire more than I do that all people did understand the Scriptures the mind and will of God by reading and searching into the Scriptures themselves and also into the English Bible so they read and search with the spirit of meekness for instruction and not for cavil and disputes raising controversies and horrid new opinions out of difficult places of Scripture not knowing what they say nor whereof they affirm Those controversies should be left to those of greater abilities and of more sober spirits than themselves There are plain places of Scripture enow for edification and to direct us in the way to Heaven by living soberly righteously and godly in this present world And he answered smartly and well to a Fanatick but a light heel'd Gentlewoman that was mightily perplex'd with finding out the meaning of Daniel Ezekiel and the Revelations that she had been better employed if she had consider'd the meaning of those plain Scriptures Thou shalt not commit adultery and Fear God and Honour the King I wonder what rational account any man that understands only the English Translation can give why the Pharisees should find fault Luke 6. 1 2. with Christs Disciples for plucking the ears of corn as they pass'd through the corn fields and did eat rubbing them in their hands did not the Pharisees eat on the Sabbath days yes surely and if they eat any thing could not eat less nor more easily made ready than rubbing the Corn out with their hands and eating some of the grains meat ready dress'd in and to their hands And though some Sabbath days were kept with more abstinence than others and more solemnity yet the English Translation help us to no discovery calling that Sabbath only The second Sabbath after the first The second Sabbath after the first what 's that If the Jews had a Sabbath that was called the first Sabbath as indeed they had namely the Feast of the Passover when the first day thereof fell on a Sabbath day then by this translation this Sabbath day when the Disciples plucked the ears of Corn and did eat must be the second and next following Sabbath to it But that is not true because it is not the meaning of the original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither helps at all to solve the doubt as being but an ordinary Sabbath on which it was lawful to eat a Break-fast but it was not lawful to eat a Break-fast or drink any thing by the Jewish Canon until the sixth hour which we call Noon or twelve a Clock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 6. 1. which our English Translation renders very imperâ—…ectly and untruly the second Sabbath after the first and Beza renders it much worse namely Sabbato altero primo And not at all to the purpose The incomparable Grotius renders it best and gives the best reason for that reddition namely the second Prime-Sabbath that is the day of Pentecost on which it was not lawful to eat a break-fast or eat or drink till twelve a clock and therefore did the Pharisees find fault with the Disciples not for eating upon a Sabbath day as every body did as well as their beasts but for eating upon the second Prime Sabbath the day of Pentecost And this thus explain'd gives a very good account of the strength of S. Peter's argument to prove that the Disciples were not drunk as some did suppose when they spoke with new tongues upon the day of Pentecost Acts 2. 1. 15. These are not drunk seeing it is but the third hour of the day or nine a clock Why Is 't not probable men may be drunk by nine a clock yes on other days but not on that day the day of Pentecost or second Prime Sabbath when none were suffered to sell any wine or meat or drink nor tast any thing till twelve a clock or the sixth hour A great many more imperfections there are in our English Bibles which I had rather were mended than discover'd these Instances are sufficient to abate the confidence of those bold companions that instead of being teachers of others had need learn more humility and modesty themselves and not be so desperately devoted to a new opinion built upon false grounds whose foundation is not laid upon the rock of ages Christ and his word but upon the sandy bottoms of self conceit and the English Bible I hope therefore that without any Paralogism I have evidenc'd that what the Reverend Bishop Bramhall has asserted concerning the promiscuous License of unqualified persons reading the Sciptures is though a Paradox in this hypocritical age where the appearance and profession of piety is more priz'd than the truth yet not Apocryphal nor Popish as Father Grey-beard maliciously insinuates p. 30. rendring him thereby an enemy to the Laity Whereas indeed and in truth he is the best friend to them that wishing them well and desiring their good more than their good will would not willingly have them take that in their hands which through unskilfulness they cannot mannage and through weakness they cannot weild name 〈◊〉 Scriptures sharper than a two 〈◊〉 Sword But is the Good Old Cause which 〈◊〉 thought had taken its last sleep awake again Does not Greg. revive the Good Old Cause again under the name of modern Orthodoxy and give it strength as well as life by the
comfortably But let J. O. and R. B. that writ Oliver's Maxims of Policy and damnable Treason and the poyson to the Antidote of his Saints Everlasting Rest together with all the Modern Orthodox and your self in the first place I should have said Mr. Greg. alleviate and take off the weight of this interpretation of Curse ye Meroz which I impose upon you and all of you put together have not Art enough to shake it off Though thus you are bereav'd of your Darling-Text that sent so many poor souls to the Devil so many thousands to an untimely and desperate end and so many millions of blood and treasure cast away and lost by your leasings and lies told so speciously upon this Text. I know I had better have stirr'd in a Hornets nest than thus to fret and anger the Modern Orthodox the Leven of whose Religion makes them waspish peevish touchy clamorous and malicious slanderers and backbiters But I am as much above the reach of their malice as above their low and base Principles and unmanlike as well as ignoble and effeminate Practices Answering a man's Arguments with a Libel upon his Person and clapping upon him such a beastly character as did the Heathens when they arrayed the Christians in Bear-skins on purpose to set their dogs at them according to their keeness either to bite or barke Let them oppose the strength of my Arguments and reasonings with answerable skill and force and then the danger is over as soon as it appears though the Cabala club for the shot as the whole Assembly of Divines did six years together with joynt and united forces to make only at last a Catechism for little children when Ball 's Catechism new printed had done the feat much better These are brave fellows for whose sakes the Government and Laws must give place and bow which way they please I know wise men know them well enough but because some look upon these Demagogues and Incendiaries as the great Lights and Luminaries against Ignorance and Atheism as Greg. suggests p. 313. I 'le but draw the picture of one of them in the pulpit and barely represent the words that a thousand witnesses yet alive are ready to depose unto as the very language of the Pulpit of Hugh Peters particularly when they gull'd the people of their souls bodies money arms and plate by their damnable doctrine from that blessed Text Judg. 5. 23. Curse ye Meroz It had been happy for England the King Parliament people and themselves too if they never had preach'd nor ever should be suffer'd to preach on any other Text than Matt. 7. 12. And because their Pulpit Buffonery on so sacred a Text as Curse ye Meroz was all drolling stuffe I have suffered my Muse to make use of her Rhime but not her Fancy in this Pourtraicture in which I can plead no propriety other than the Chronologer does in the villanies of Wat Tyler or Jack Straw the bare Historical relation I neither have nor can claim any right or share to this representation and interpretation of that sacred Text nor this following Seâ—…mon of Hugh Peters thereupon more than he that writ Sermon-notes after him to which I have added only the Rhime and abridg'd Hugh Peters idle Tautologies and some slovenly as well as prophaner expressions unworthy my pen. The Historical relation and dress is mine own but the Buffoonery is well known to be the Pulpit stuffe of Hugh Peters in many Congregations thwack'd full all the Kingdome over to listen to that prophane Hocus and paid him well for his pains They shall have it therefore as freely as ever it was mine they have bought it and paid dear for it therefore do I give it them put it in print for them that keeping it by them they may yet have something for all the Plate Thimbles and Bodkins the poor fools gave him with such a liberal hand I am sure I deserve more for representing it in Droll but they 'l be far enough before they 'l give me so much as one silver spoon for my pains or perhaps so much as thanks which is all I look for or need I thank God though my design is purely for their good and to show them their folly and madness in so desperate a cause to throw away their estates body and soul for such foppery as Hugh Peters's Sermon upon Judg. 5. 23. Curse ye Meroz Represented like it self in this Drolling Pulpit-stuff HId in these words it plain appears Lie men and arms 'gainst Cavaliers I see them clear as any thing Both Foot and Horse against the King Couchant I grant Perdue they lie Nor seen indeed by Carnal eye Because they lie in Ambuscade But ready are for a Parade Arm'd Cap-a-pee and One and All To come when we do beat a Call Drum-Major I on Pulpit Drum Am therefore now beloved come With Bible in Geneva Print To turn up All this Text has in 't In which two Parts at least I câ—…unt Here 's Gerazim there 's Ebal Mount Here lies the Blessing there the Curse Take you the better parâ—… the worse Is good enough for Cavaliers And such as dare not shew their eares As Round-heads do in good Old Cause For Liberty Religion Laws For which who dies is cursed never From which who flies is cursed ever For which who dyes is blessed ever From which who flyes is blessed never Since I was with you last I 've been To tell you Truth in Hell and Heaven You 'l say perhaps it is a great way Yet to the first it is a neat way And to be found out very easie And down-hill all way to 't an 't please ye Nor is 't far off ye may come to 't In one day though you go on foot And Bare-foot withâ—…ut shooes or hose Of all days in the week I chose The Sabbath taught by Master Gurney To speed the better in my Journey For one may preach and cant and pray Yet never be out of the way When I came there who do you think I spi'd as I stood at Pit's brink Except the Cavaliers not one And only one Committee-man With Sequestrators three at th' door Only condemn'd for being poor And baâ—…king of a Bishop's land Sentenc'd for ever there to stand My foot stood just at brink of pit A little more I 'd been in it Truly I durst not come too near As I good reason had to fear Long Prayers there are no assistance I therefore still did keep my distance And loth to stay the fiends to shun Like Hâ—…re before the Hounds I run And I though fat away did hie To see what I in Heaven could spie And to that purpose I did gather In Arabs a great Phoenix feather To fly withall a pretty thing Daedalus ne're imp'd such a wing Resolving with my self to flie Above the Clouds and starry skie Hoping the better to get in Because my name-sake is in Heaven St. Peter at the door yet I Thinking
Acts 4. I wish the Modern Orthodox would shew us how they can answer this with all their cavils cheats evasions and tricks that we might have another occasion to render them as ridiculous as they are already in themselves to all the ingenuous of Christendom And that which makes devout men own the Common-prayers of our English above others is that a great many prayers are taken out of the Mass book englished that we might not pray as many Papists do in an unknown Tongue taking out of it only the Jewels which are for ought I know or any body else alive Apostolical and almost as old prayers as the Lord's Prayer 't is an unanswerable Schism to depart from the Church of Rome Antioch or Greek Church in any thing but wherein they depart from Christ and the Apostles But these fiery headstrong and wicked Modern Orthodox instead of sweeping a house pull it down and consequently make more work as well as more bad work 'till they have quite erazed the very foundations of the House of God Nor did the Race or Religion of these Modern Orthodox ever come into any Kingdom but they fill'd it with blood and ruine sad instances whereof we have at home in Scotland in France and Germany c. desolated by their means a hundred leagues together in more places than about Munster their desolations and depopulations to be seen at this day a sad spectacle whereof I have often had which makes me the more loath their abominations And every good man as well as every worthy man that has either honour or estate to leave to his Children and Posterity had need be careful not only to leave his Lands and fields to his children and posterity but likewise use his utmost care and diligence that those fields be not Akeldama's to his children fields of blood which they must needs be if these Modern Orthodox men be not kept under and muzled as you do a curst curr for when ever and in what Kingdom soever since the first Rebel of them Calvin broach'd their Religion they have mouth'd and bit so keenly where they had liberty that the blood always followed you may see the print of their teeth yet good Lord deliver us from them and the father of lies from the Devil his children and all his works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle to Titus I. II. Speaking of unruly and vain talkers and deceivers spiritual Gypsies cheats and Juglers It is very fit that their mouths should be stopped saith St. Paul It is not fit that their mouths should be stopped saith Gregory Father Gray-beard Indulgence Liberty Breda Breda And what a rare fellow this Gray-beard is you may know by the opinon he has of Calvin p. 59. whom he calls a good Scholar and a honest Divine calling the Calvinists p. 69. our Calvinists They may be Calvinists Father Gray-beards Calvinists because they are always bloody Headsmen whereever they have room to strike and a sword in their hand But they are not our Calvinists I assure you Greg. let them be your Calvinists then it is pity you should be parted And for Calvin's being a good Scholar I doubt you would scarcely be mightily in love with the Jesuits though they should approve themselves as many of them have far better Scholars that is men of better parts and better read men and have shown more schollarship in their Works and yet I think many of their principles have been as destructive to the peace of Kingdoms even almost as Calvin himself called therefore Lucian so meritoriously anagrammatized 100 years before Father Gray-beard was born For my part I hate to undervalue any man's scholarship but I hate the folly as much of those men that argue so ridiculously that because Calvin was a good scholar therefore he could not be a Knave or as bad as a Jesuit This must be Greg's meaning or else his scholarship does not at all vouch his Divinity Perhaps Greg. is more acquainted with Calvin's scholarship than I am though I think I have seen and read all his Works the most famous the Calvinists themselves say is his Institutions designed for a Confession of Faith the Adjuster of Controversies the Oracle of his Followers and as if pronounc'd è Cathedra unerring Divinity and infallible dedicated to that purpose to his King that once was so I mean Francis the French King whom he there in his Epistle Dedicatory styles the most Christian King yet though he therein gave his own cause and his own heart the lie yet not altogether to forget himself and to show he was still John Calvin he threatens him with the strong hand of the Lord which shall without controversie come in time and extend it self armed I look'd for that both to deliver the poor out of misery and to take vengeance on the despisers which now triumph with so great confidence Sure this great Divine was a great Prophet or rather he knew well he had laid in that Book such grounds of and for sedition that his Followers would with strong hand stretch forth themselves to take vengeance and call all this The hand of the Lord and the help of the Lord. Curse ye Meroz to this is but the second part of the same tune Some men have had such a Reverence for this same Calvin especially being dead O! de mortuis nil nisi bonum that it has been thought as bad as sacriledge to tell truth of the man No man can have greater Reverence to urns than I have nay though a man die or be hang'd for his crimes yet when the law is satisfied all good men ought to be so But in haynâ—…us murtherers Parricides and Traytours the Law is not satisfied with their deaths but their horrid heads and quarters are set up as long as they 'l last not to scare crows but to scaré men from the like villanies There is as great difference therefore betwixt my speaking truth of Hugh Peters and John Calvin and betwixt Father Gray-beards speaking lies of our glorious Martyrs Charles I. and Archbishop Laud as betwixt light and darkness truth and falshood honour and infamy innocence and villany heaven and hell Except bold Greg. that assassinates the Innocence and Honour of these sacred Persons deceased do likewise say that the Law was not satisfied except they also had been quartered as well as beheaded and more I could say but that the grief of my soul is so great to think such a bold villain as this Greg. should dare now now that his Son our Gracious Soveraign is happily return'd to aspeâ—…se the sacred memory of his Father and friends and the whole Reign infamously as can be spoken in saying against them and the Reign that it was wholly deform'd and if so who is guilty of the Innocent blood which those King-killers laid to the charge of our Sovereign in that unparallel'd Indictment against him and Archbishop Laud sure Gregory Grey-beard was not far off when that