in Authority But for all his Exhortation in a two hours Prayer first or last you shall hear but little of that or if the King be named his Titles of Supremacy are not recited or at most but half-way and if he be faintly acknowledged the Defender of the Faith it must not be said that he is Supreme in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal for you must know a Presbyter is as great an Enemy to the Supremacy as a Papist and challenges an underivative-power in Spiritualibus from Christ himself to whom the King is but a Subject and by consequence even in all Temporals in ordine ad spiritualia to every petty Presbyter Oh rare and absolute and more than Papal Church-Tyranny O most excellent Arbitrary Spiritual Government How consistent art thou with Monarchy and with that old and true Aphorism of State Imperium non patitur Duos Empire is incompatible with Rivals and it must be aut Caesar aut nullus Sometimes they will in general terms pray for Him whom God hath set over us an Expression not without Malice according to that place in the Psalms Set thou an ungodly Man to Rule over them They might as well say Whom God has appointed or ordained to be over us which is a Scripture-Expression But I fear they do not think or believe the King and his Power to he of God's appointment for if they did they would endeavour to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty and not think it lawful to draw a Sword against him or think such an Oath unlawful as would tye their Hands from doing it though with the nice distinction betwixt the King and the Person And let them but make it their own Case I dare say they will not be willing to hang up the Presbyter for fear you should also choak the Man This they have done and that they would not be accounted Changelings is plain by their unwillingness to renounce the Devil and all his Works the Covenant and Ingagement to live without King and House of Lords AS for our most Gracious Queen Katherine James Duke of York and the rest of the Royal Family the Bishops and Clergy they never come in their Mouths or Memories so that either the Apostles general Rule to pray for all Men especially for all that are in Authority must be Iyable to an Exception if they think fit or else Queens Dukes and Bishops are No-body with them or not in Authority that is a lawful Authority and indeed that is it which they would be at THERE is nothing which has gain'd these Men that Veneration amongst the Vulgar which this Imposture has done which they endeavour to impose upon easie beliefs whilst they pretend in these Extempore Effusions to be immediately inspired by the Spirit of God which all dissenters cannot be and I am afraid none of them are 1 Cor. 14.14 The Apostle St. Paul speaks of praying with the Spirit but it is manifest that he means there that Miraculous Effusion of the Holy Ghost who for the better propagation of the Gospel gave them utterance in several Languages and let me but hear any one of these men pray in Latine with that fluency as they do in English and I will believe they pray with the Spirit though many of them it may be if they could do that neither in Latine nor English with Understanding But the truth is the Book by which they were taught is not yet made free of the City and it would puzle Cicero himself with all his long-winded Sentences to bestow the Idiom of his Language in which he was so great a Master upon some of their Prayers which are hardly tolerable true English Latine is a Language familiar enough all over Europe and some of them have been educated in it though with others it is the Mark of the Beast and if they had truly the assistance of the Spirit it were as easie for that to teach them to pray in that Tongue as well as in any other and when they can I shall willingly spare them the trial of Hebrew Greek Syriack Arabick c. mentioned Acts chap. 2. But it suffices they say it is by the Spirit and the People who believe they speak as the Oracles of God they believe it and from hence draw a Conclusion that those Persons are the best men in the World having the Spirit in such an extraordinary measure above their Brethren AND this is not the smallest Engine which they make use of to undermine the Church of England and to render the solemn Service of God contemptible All set Forms being as they say dull dead flat and spiritless though they are in a great measure the express words of Scripture and warranted by ancient usage in the Church if not from the Apostolical Times at least from the very next and immediate Age unto them Yet one of their Disciples did not long ago in the presence of several witnesses openly declare That what we call Divine Service and the Worship of God was Blasphemy and the using those Prayers blaspheming not honouring or serving God and since they are all learnt Jurare in verba we may well believe he spoke as he had heard the true sentiments and opinion of his Master NOW that we may discover the greatness of this dangerous and popular Cheat we will first make our Appeal to their own Judg the Scripture Go we then to him who is the Way the Truth and the Life and to whom should we go but to him who has the words of Eternal Life And if we will hear him he gives us an express Charge against Battologies S. Mat. 6.7 8 9. and much speaking in our Prayers and commands a short Prayer and a Form too Whatever long Prayers may be he tells us they look like Hypocrisie and Superstition But when ye Pray say Our Father c. And use not vain Repetitions as the Heathens do for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking Be not ye therefore like them but after this manner pray How well they observed this Rule we need trouble our selves no further to find out if we can but remember that it is not yet twenty years ago since the Lords-Prayer was accounted unlawful and by some scandalous and indeed was generally out of Fashion in the Pulpit and so it is still amongst many Dissenters and yet then they would have us believe they pray'd by the Spirit as well as they do now and I believe they did but it must be the same Spirit which made Saul throw his Javelin at the Musician For it taught them the same Practice not only to be angry with the Musick but to kill the Musicians and put all out of Tune I am sure it could not be the Spirit of Christ which taught them to break and despise a Command of Christ for he tells us that promised Spirit shall speak what he hath heard
well serve their Interest and cannot be Godliness unless it brings in Gain and should this Doctrine once appear unlawful down goes their Dagon and loses both his Head and Hands and will be an useless Trunk a mere Stump and no longer a God The setting up the two Golden Calves was not the least Policy of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat 1 Kings 12 26. to vers 31. who is rarely mentioned without that infamous Remarque that he made Israel sin and that Sin was Separation from the Church and Rebellion against his lawful Soveraign To go up to Jerufalem to Worship will in time bring the Kingdom back again to the House of David and therefore the Calves must be erected at Dan and Bethel Not that Jeroboam was so sottish that he did not know that Idolatry and Schism Revolting and Rebellion were unlawful but something was necessary to be done to preserve his ill-gotten Crown and the People had formerly been strangely fond of a Calf and two he thought would please them better I fear Jeroboams Policy is one end and the chief one of their Separation even to nurse the People up in Disloyalty against their lawful Prince and disobedience against the Holy Church For should the People go to the Church to Worship to hear Divine Service and receive the Holy Sacrament should they hear their lawful Ministers preach their Duty press them to Fear God and Honour the King they might in time be convinc'd of their Errors and Mistakes and then all 's lost CHAP. XIV Of their Exaltation of Preaching and the Reason why they do so Of the great Veneration people have for the Pulpit The advantages they make of it to gain the love of People for being so painful Labourers dispersing their Doctrines and procuring Benevolences Hereby they bring the Prayers of the Church to be nauseous accustom People to variety and novelty and have opportunities of displaying their Gifts and Abilities as well as in Extempore-Prayer The Abuse they put upon the Church that it is against Preaching A vindication of the Church from this aspersion Of the Primitive and Modern Preaching It is against preaching themselves and their own Interests and wicked Designs that the Church declares it self NOW to the end that they may have the better opportunity to disperse and divulge their Doctrines there is no place that can be so subservient as the Pulpit a Discourse from thence having gained the mighty Reputation of being Authentique and the generally received Opinion being that from that place men speak as the Oracles of God and that every Word that comes from their mouths is as true as the Gospel as in truth it ought to be There is therefore a Necessity that they should exalt Preaching as the chiefly necessary most excellent Christian Duty and give it the preheminence above all other Ordinances And this is the third Doctrine which for the same Design with the other with so much vehemence and earnestness they press upon the People And to satisfie you how strangely the present Age is enamoured of the Pulpit and how great an Opinion People have of what is spoken there I will relate a passage which happened to a Reverend Divine in the County of Essex Every Lords Day as he thought it was his Duty in the Afternoon he Expounded upon some part of the Nine and thirty Articles to instruct his Parishioners what was the Doctrine of the Church of England judging it a good expedient to remove the Scandal that lies upon our Religion and to prevent their falling into Sects and Factions with which that County does abound and this he did in the Reading Desk without the formality of a Prayer to usher it in or make it look like a Sermon but never met with any thing but the discouragement of a thin Audience whereby ghessing at the true Reason he gave them notice that for the future he would Preach in the Afternoons being determined to try if the same Matter would take better from the Pulpit than it had done from the Reading Desk he chose such Texts as were suitable to the Doctrines he intended to Expound upon and from them delivered the very same Words he was resolved to use in his Exposition Nor did the success at all deceive his expectation The Church is now throng'd and crowded whereas before it used to look as if the Stones and Pillars must have said Amen as 't is said they once did to the Prayers of our Venerable Bede The Discourses are extreamly approved of and the People wonderfully pleased The plain truth on 't is the Commons of England by the Disorders of the late Times and the many tickling Promises which were made them That the Burthen of Tithes should be taken away and a more Evangelical Way for the maintenance of the Clergy should be found out have lost the true sense of payment of Tithes and do not do it out of a Principle of Conscience nor consider that they are a just Right which in all Alienations passes as a reserved Rent to the use of Almighty God and it may be are one of the best Tenures in Capite of their Estates from the Great Landlord of the Vniverse and from hence it is that if they had no such esteem for Preaching yet they look upon it as a Debt their Minister ows them for what they pay him and though several of them care not how little he has yet they would be sure to have enough for their Money which makes them many times come to Church to see that the Parson does his Duty rather than from him to learn their own or perform what they know by joyning with him in humble and devout Prayers and Praises But they think they have not their Penniworths for their Penny and that a man takes no pains for what he does not speak in the Pulpit or if he does not Preach twice in a day Besides Curiosity and the desire and love of novelties and mighty Natural and the Athenian humour does but too universally prevail a certain pleasure in hearing or telling some New thing So that a Sermon though never so good and useful which was preached in the Morning would be Crambe bis costa nauseous if repeated in the Afternoon and with this humour of the World these men are so well acquainted that it is variety that makes the Feast that usually they have one Text for the Morning and another for the Evening Sermon and neither the same Prayer exactly before or after either though it is but putting Almighty before Eternal or Eternal before Almighty and it will please And I am perswaded if any man would give himself the trouble in Short-hand to write down one of their Prayers for three or four Days together he would find the great Secret of Extempore-Praying to consist in this neat and cunning transposition turning the inside outward and the foreside backward more than in any thing of New Invention at which for all
Mind of the Lord or who hath been of his Privy Counsel that is in those secret affairs the knowledg of which is his uncommunicable Prerogative and which he hath reserved within his own peculiar Jurisdiction from the knowledg of which he has excluded not only Mortal Men S. Mat. 24.26 S. Mark 13.32 but even his own Son as a Man for of that Day knows no Man not the Son but the Father Which made an Apostle who had been in the third Heavens break out into that Ecstasie of Wonder and Admiration O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God! Rom. 11.33 How unsearchable are his Judicial Proceedings and his Ways past finding out Now whether we should believe God or Men let them be Judges BUT it is no matter Let God say what he pleases they are resolved to say what they will and what may please their Party and serve their Interest and though the modest Apostle could say Let God be true and every Man a Lyar Rom. 3.4 they say what we affirm is true I dare not think much less speak the consequence though it follows most unavoidably from their confident and positive Assertion for there is but one Truth no more than one God and of a flat downright Contradiction as this is one part must of Necessity be false HAVING by their excellent Talent at Extempore Prayer left no scruple but that they have the Spirit of God and that being the Spirit which must lead all those that have it into all Truth the People are before hand prepared to swallow down this Doctrine without any chewing or Examination and in Truth as they have cookt it it is the most delicate and agreeable Repast to the Palates of those Souls who are so happy as to be treated at their Spiritual Entertainments For having first laid down as a Positive Infallible and Fundamental Truth That God from all Eternity did Elect a Determinate Number to Salvation and that this number is but small for it is but a little Flock Many are called but few are Chosen or Elected the next thing they have to do is to assure them who are their Disciples that they are of this Happy Number who have the Seal in their foreheads and whose names are written in the Book of Life Now the first step to this assurance is to use the means for Faith comes by hearing the Word of God though if this Doctrine of unconditional Decrees be pursued to the uttermost those means must be either unnecessary or nonsence by being the Decreed Conditions of an unconditional Decree Now these means that is this Soul-saving preaching is only to be found amongst them Theirs is the Land of Goshen where the Sun of Righteousness only shines whilst all others are in Spiritual Egypt and grope for the Truth amidst such Darkness as may be felt and is next to the very Region of the Shadow of Death and utter Darkness BUT they are too wary to rest here or to build so weighty a Fabrick upon such a slender Foundation they know that the impious Herod heard S. John the Baptist gladly and did many things And therefore before any one can be assured that he is of the Elect though never so diligent a Hearer that will not do unless he be able to give an account of the exact time of his Conversion and when it was that he was called of God and to God S. Mark 6.20 The Signs of this Calling are Contrition Compunction or a Trouble of Mind arising from a sight of their lost condition as they phrase it And they who are able to inform them of the time of this Call at such a Sermon or such a Night after my first sleep though they did but dream so it is enough the Lord was pleased to call me All those who can do this are pronounced from the Infallible Chair to be in a certain estate of Election the Children and People of God and after a time of probation which were needless since they cannot fall away they are solemnly initiated into their Church and enter into a promise never to return back again to the Tents of the Ungodly which might as well be spared if the rest of their Doctrine be true THIS alone were enough to ravish the hearts of those who do as firmly believe it as the Gospel and to fill them with joy unspeakable and full of glory But they have a Disert behind which closes the Banquet far better than the Egyptian Deaths-Head and that is this That they who are once thus elected can never finally and totally fall away from Grace so as to be in danger of Hell and Damnation Rom. 11.29 for the Calling and Gifts of God are without Repentance Could they prove this and that their Comment upon it were the true and genuine meaning of the Text this would be a happiness not inferior to the joys of Heaven and which for my part I think is only reserved to compleat the Felicities of that blest place where and not before we arrive there all fears tears and dangers shall be wip't away THIS is their great Diana not the Image which fell down from Heaven but the Image of Heaven it self which they all worship and which brings them in such fair Revenues both Temporal and Spiritual as they think as outdoes not only the poor hopes of Demetrius and all his Fellow-Craftsmen but the Riches of both the India's which are Dung and Dross in comparison of being thus certainly found in Christ And no wonder then if it raises such Tumults when it is opposed or in danger of being lost THERE can be no Doctrine more pleasing to credulous and fanciful people as most of their Disciples are and indeed so luscious is the high relish of it that those who have once gotten a say of it are difficultly if ever perswaded to abandon it or in comparison of it not to contemn and despise all others But as it is thus infinitely pleasing above all the Fruits in the Garden so like that treacherous Apple it is for that very Reason of all others the most pernicious both to the Souls of men the quiet of any Society and the safety of any Government that dare oppose it I DO not intend to attempt a long and solemn Confutation of every particular in regard it has already been sufficiently done by the Pens of many great and learned Names I will only therefore use a little of their own method undermine the Foundation and leave the rest of their prodigious Babel to ruine it self by the weight and stress they have laid upon it AND if we can but break these counterfeit Seals and erase these Marks we shall cancel this false Pass-port to Heaven and all those feigned Evidences to the blessed Inheritance of the Saints in Light and all those ill-grounded Joys which are built upon the Hopes of that glorious Reversion will in an instant vanish if once we
Warranty of Truth and no further to the best of my knowledg Neither will I be tedious but dispatch what I have to say in as few words as is possible and as near as I can I will calculate it for the Meridian of all Capacities so as neither to endanger the weakest Brains nor if possible to displease the strongest And herein I shall act like a Physician of which Profession or an Apothecary they may guess me if they please and since the Dose I am preparing is like to be very strong I will give it in the lesser quantity I know it will work briskly and be apt movere Bilem make some persons vomit abundance of Choler and it may be that which is blackest upon their Stomachs in others it will strongly stir the Splene not so much to Laughter as Revenge If it does but in any measure contribute to the purging out that Epidemick Scurvy in the Body Politick which betrays it self by those dangerous symptomes of foul Mouths stinking Breaths and the loosness of the Tongue more than the Teeth in many persons I shall be abundantly satisfied And if I may but see any good Effects I am so little sollicitous for any private or particular advantage more than my share in the Publick Good that I care not whether the Cause be ever known THERE is no Science so true as the Mathematicks one of its infallible Demonstrations is Maximum posse moveri a minimo and upon that Basis I will lay the foundation of my hopes and how contemptible soever the first Mover may appear I will not despair but that this little Wheel may give a Motion to those which are far greater and more powerful A single hair if rightly applied may set that Engine at work which will want nothing besides Archimedes his convenient place to fix it upon to remove the Terrestrial Globe from off its Centre CHAP. II. Of the Policy of the Enemies of the Church and State to amuse us with the old Stratagem of Fears and Jealousies of the danger of Popery Hereby they ingratiate themselves with the Common People The improbability that the Romish Perswasion and Government should ever be established again in these Nations if it has of late increased amongst us we are obliged for it to Dissenters who have made those breaches by which those Enemies enter By these Fears and Jealousies which they sow in the minds of the People they endeavour to make them hate the present Government and Governours both in Church and State perswading them they are Popishly inclined and Antichristian and thus secretly undermine the foundation of Monarchy and Episcopacy IT is no uncommon Stratagem in War to make false Assaults against a besieged Place thereby to call away the perplexed Defendants from that place where the Storm is intended in good earnest It were well if this were not our case and truly the present face and posture of our Affairs does not look much unlike it for though there seems to be the greatest distance betwixt Rome and Geneva yet herein they both agree that they are our common Enemies and whilst the bolder Roman openly threatens us with an Assault the crafty Presbyterian with his Confederate Separatists are busie at the Mine and I believe it is not my single Opinion That more places otherways impregnable have submitted to the Will of the Conquerour by that Artifice than by the open fury of the Cannon And so dangerous is the practice of that invention in a Politick sense that how contemptible soever an Enemy may appear if in that Design they make an undiscovered progress there will never want some desperate Faux's to spring their Mines which if they succeed will blow up all from the very Foundations and bury the best built Government in the World in its own Ashes and Ruines I have read of a City whose Walls were overthrown without any other Enemies or Engines than the undermining Moles Whether true or fabulous it matters not sure I am if it be meerly a Fable the Moral may not be unuseful to us and though the Comparison may be odious yet it is but too agreeable to a sort of men whose restless and mischievous Tempers and Opinions hurry them blindly on to the accomplishment of their ill Designs by secret and underhand Practices so long as they are out of hopes to effect them by open Force and Violence BUT they must know they are not so secret or secure as they imagine and there are a great many amongst themselves who contribute not a little to our assistance in Countermining of them And if I might advise them they should not only be extreamly cautelous how they intrust one another with the GRAND DESIGN and SECRET but even how they trust themselves for Treachery and Baseness are so natural to them that they cannot forbear betraying themselves and let them Swear or Forswear Protest and Verily as often as they please yet at one time or another their speeches will discover them to be Galileans and I fear just such as he was before he obeyed the summons of the Cock to go out and weep bitterly S. Peter Mat. 26.75 which they have likewise need to do ONE of the greatest Arts by which they secure themselves whilst they amuse us is to perswade the world of a strange growth and encrease of Popery amongst us and that they are the only persons who stand in the Breach and by their Long Prayers by their sound and Evangelical Doctrine give a check to that threatning Deluge and Inundation This does extremely ingratiate them with the Common People to whom the Name of Popery is far more terrible than that of Mahumetanism and to make these Fears and Jealousies appear something more probable and not only conjectural they do not scruple the lowdest Calumnies and plainly enough to intimate that all things are in the greatest forwardness to entertain this dreadful Revolution All the eminent Prelates and Doctors of the Church being as they affirm favourably inclined to that Faith and some of them already suspected to be secretly of that Perswasion All our Prayers Ceremonies Altars Bowings Vestments and the other Decencies of Religious Worship are already Popish and Antichristian and hereby they do not only establish these Fears and Jealousies Hinc spargere voces In vulgum ambiguas quaerere conscius arma the Prologues to greater Mischiefs but render all the Publick Service of God suspected if not odious amongst the Populace AND I doubt not but if a late Act of Parliament against Treasonable Language and some little Love they have for their Lives and Estates did not repress their Insolence they would fix their Calumnies and Slanders upon the Persons of the highest Character in the Nation And it is neither Duty nor Allegiance nor Modesty but fear and self-love which does prohibit them from proceeding so high NOW to my apprehension there is nothing does more plainly manifest the Vanity of these Fears and
S. John 16.13 and I hope they dare not say but this Command of our Saviours was one of those things he had head and was one of those Truths into which he was to lead them FURTHER if we examine what are the Fruits of the Spirit they are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness Gal. 5.22 23 24. Eph 5.5 faith meekness temperance righteousness and truth but not the least mention of Extempore Prayer If we search what are the Gifts of the Spirit or the Gifts of God we shall find the Gift of Continency 1 Cor. 7.7 1 Cor. 3.5 Rom. 12.6 1 Cor. 12.1 the Gifts of Prophecie of working Miracles c. but no Gift of Prayer And where the particular Gifts are enumerated there is not one syllable of the Gift of Prayer Certainly if it had been a spiritual Gift or a fruit of the Spirit it would not have been omitted BUT secondly let us appeal to Example For if this be a fruit of the Spirit then all they who can or could thus pray Extempore have the Spirit of God and are the Sons of God This is as much a Demonstration as any in Euclid Now will I bring you such an Army of Saints with Old Noll in the head of them as shall fight and pray with all Nations Either these Saints S. Oliver S. Ireton S. Bradshaw c. pray'd by the Spirit and so were real Saints or what they pray'd was not by the Spirit and so they were no Saints nor Extempore Prayer any Evidence of the Spirit of God Now let them take which of these they will I dare say they had rather Canonize Oliver and his praying Legions than not only as Affairs now stand it is not altogether safe And if they shall refuse both the Hornes of the Dilemma as being sure to be in their sides and too sharp to be handled they must teach us to distinguish and know that they are not just such Saints as the others who had the knack exactly prayed the same Language almost Verbatim made the same boasts of and pretensions to the Spirit and I am afraid had the same Spirit the same Uses to make of it and the self-same Ends and Designs I might bring many instances but I will only add one which is so remarkable that it will be sufficient to convince all those who are not resolved against Conviction and whereby it will appear that this way of Extempore Prayer is so far from being a Gift of God or proceeding from the Spirit of God that it may be a Gift of the Devil and that such who are almost under an irreversible Necessity of Damnation may have it even in Perfection The story is thus At St. Ives in the County of Huntington within the Memory of many Persons yet alive there was a Woman whose name I do not very well remember though many in that place very well do She was one of those who for distinction were then by themselves called Professors by other Puritans she was a great follower of the upholders of the Presbyterian-Tenents a constant frequenter of Godly Meetings and Religious Exercises This Woman came to be so eminent especially in this Gift of Prayer that she was generally admired and look't upon as a Saint of the first Magnitude the noise of her Fame and the boasts of her Party brought many Neighbouring-Ministers in the adjacent Counties of Cambridge and Huntington to hear her pray which she did in that ravishing manner that they never parted from her without an Excess of Admiration and astonishment After some time for what reason I am not able to determine this Holy Sister went over into New-England as about the same time many others did for Liberty of Conscience for a while she was there in the greatest Esteem and height of Reputation but the Devil ow'd her a shame and she him a Soul she was at last suspected and accused to be a Witch was brought to a tryal confeâ—â— her guilt and that her contract with the Devil was That in lieu of her Soul which she did consign unto him he should assist her with the Gift of Extempore Prayer after which confession sentence past upon her and she was accordingly executed as a most abominable Witch Either now we must believe that this Extempore Way is not an infallible sign of the Spirit of God or that the Devil has the Power of disposing of the Gifts of the Spirit BUT thirdly I will appeal to these very men let them speak the Truth and shame the Devil Is not this Way of Praying an acquisition did not the fore-mentioned Book or some Collections of their own of that nature out of Scripture often hearing of others and many secret Trials and Exercises therein bring them by degrees to these perfections or could they from the first Moment of their Conversion pray thus and they do as punctually remember that time as what they did Yesterday and then if ever they had the Spirit of God and it was then as well able to help their infirmities as now and they stood more in need of it and it would have been more visible and apparent that it was not they but the Spirit that taught them how and what to pray Did they not with much pains and industry attain this which they call a Gift let them deny it if they dare for if they will say they never used any of the aforesaid means to help their Weaknesses I will undertake to prove them the most impudent affirmers of a Notorious Untruth for many of their expressions are sentence pickt out of the Bible which they read often over with as much respect to the getting praying Phrases out of it and a great deal more than to be informed of their Duty towards God and Men and it were well if it were no worse but there is such a blend of phantastical particular and uncommon words of their own Mintage and such a medley of singularity of Incomes and Outgoings and In-dwellings and I know not what which like the Wild Gourds spoil all the Pottage and I doubt they will find there is Death too in the Pot. I AM the most deceived if for this purpose they do not stuff their Heads and Memories with Notions how to express themselves upon any sudden Occasion or Emergency and as I am informed by those who have tried both and therefore have reason to know it is a far greater Ease if a Man has the general Notions of what he intends to speak not to be tied to Numerical or Identical Words but to have a Liberty to express those thoughts and Notions according to his present Pleasure and Fancy Which if his Tongue be naturally smooth and voluble will make it less difficult for him to do it even to admiration the charge of Generals being less burdensome to the Memory than that of Particulars and besides it leaves the conceptions an unlimited freedome for choice and variation and affords many sudden
hints which by being followed and improved with advantage do many times infinitely surprize both the Speakers and Hearers with a pleasing Novelty and agreeableness that Pleasure begets a secret Joy and that Joy dilates and expands the Animal Spirits which are the true Spirit of Extempore Prayer and these having a strange Mechanism and unexpressible Influence upon the Soul do sometimes put it into such strange and vigorous heats and raptures as even makes a Man out-do himself and his own expectations I am perswaded that the want of understanding this piece of Philosophy which is none of that which the Apostle calls vain and bids beware of lest it spoil us though it might and I hope will spoil some of their ill Designes is the true Reason why they believe themselves to be acted in these Heats and Transports by the immediate Influence and Inspiration of the Spirit of God AND this is the very Art of Prayer and a meer Art it is and no Gift nor Fruit of the Spirit an Art which with a common Industry provided a Man have a competent stock of Confidence any Person may arrive at and grow prodigious in and the sooner the more ignorant he is because he will be proportionably more impudent and conceited of himself his abilities and performances which is the true Reason why so many silly Mechanicks who can hardly speak sense in common Discourse by hearing others pray at this rate will steal their Expressions and with some small Instructions and Directions with Time and many private Tryals grow such strange proficients in the Trade Nay and I will engage he shall have the Pride or it may be it is the Arcanum of the Craft which they are bound not to divulge not to confess how he came by it or to undeceive those who shall wonder to hear so unlearned a Fellow pray so fluently and fervently And this adds not a little amongst those who understand not the Intrigue to the common received Opinion that it is a Fruit of the actings of the Spirit of God And the pulling of this Spiritual Inkle out of their Throats which they would perswade us came thither by a Miracle is one of the greatest and neatest as well as dangerous pieces of Legerdemain with which these Juglers Hocus the vulgar and incautelous of the present Age. CHAP. VIII Of the Doctrines they chiefly insist upon and in which they first instruct their Hearers And first of the Doctrine of absolute and irrespective Decrees of Election and Reprobation Of their Way of trial of their Followers whether they he the Elect by knowing the punctual time of their Call Repentance sorrow for sin c. The agreeableness of this Doctrine to their Followers whom for being such they perswade that they are certainly the Elect and that they cannot fall totally and finally from Grace Their signs of Election proved false from Judas the Son of Perdition who had all they make the infallible Marks of Election and something more viz. Restitution which they will not be be perswaded to HAVING now done with the Prayer let us proceed to the Sermon and see what their Doctrines are for I do not intend to dwell upon their Texts or trouble them more than they usually do As for the Reasons though they pretend to raise many yet we shall see they have very little The Use is what they most generally insist upon and it is the ill Use and Application of these Doctrines that we come now to examine This is their Form so that I find they are for a Form of Preaching though against a Form of Prayer THE first Doctrine upon which they build their Foundation and by which they establish a perpetual Empire over all those who come to be of their Perswasion and which is of the most universal use unto them is the Doctrine of absolute and irrespective Decrees of Predestination about Election and Reprobation A piece of Divinity so hard and knotty that the sharpest Wits and soundest Judgments have not hitherto been able in any tolerable measure to hew smooth or polish And to me it appears that Almighty God did design no great encouragement to our curiosity having afforded us so little light either from Nature Reason or Scripture to make a full and perfect discovery of it COULD they be contented with it as the Scriptures leave it and as the Church of England in her 17 Article has most prudently and modestly left it in general terms S. Mark 1.15 Acts 2. â—5 Acts 3. â— That all those Persons who by Faith true Repentance and an Universal Obedience at least in Intention Will and Endeavour to Christ and the Commands of the Gospel do perform their part of the Condition of the New Covenant of Grace shall through the Merits and Mediation of the Son of God the Saviour of the world receive Eternal Salvation But that all those who wilfully 2 Thess 1. â— â— obstinately and to the last refuse to know God and to obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord S. Mark â— 44 46 â—â— Mat. â—â— 41 〈…〉 and from the glory of his Power and shall suffer those endless and intolerable Torments where the Worm dyeth not and the Fire is not quenched which were originally prepared for the Devil and his Angels Then we should agree with them in the Common Faith of the Holy Catholick or Universal Church in all Ages BUT this would not serve their turn nor at all answer those Necessary Ends which they have to employ this Doctrine about 2 Tim. 2.4 5 6 7. 〈…〉 God himself says he would have all men to be saved by coming to the knowledg of these Truths That there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransome for All the Apostle tells us he was ordained a Preacher of this Doctrine and that he spake the truth in Christ and did not lye but was a Teacher of the Gentiles in this Faith and Verity But say these new Doctors no such matter By his revealed Will it may be God says so but for all that by his secret Will he intended otherwise and that it should never be so I cannot but wonder how they came to be so well acquainted with it Besides this is a plain contradiction in Adjecto for how is it secret if it be revealed to them and if it be a secret which he has reserved as his own purpose from Eternity how dare they so openly proclaim it Were it never so great an Arcanum Imperii I am sure it ceases to be so after they once come to make a discovery of it or but to surmise that they have and they are but too prodigal in divulging of it far and wide Known to God are all his Works from the foundation of the World Acts 15.18 But as the Apostle says Rom. 11.34 Who hath known the
such as complain'd to her of any affront or injury they knew not well how to revenge Defame 'em Defame 'em some Body will believe it and whose Disciples and Followers they are and what designs they have we may soon know if we call to mind that it was the advice of their great Masters when they were to draw up a Charge against the most innocent King Charles the First Let us blacken him by all means let us blacken him which they did to purpose till their Cruelty gave him the Coronation Robes for Heaven dy'd in the pure Scarlet of his own Blood Nor do these of the Nursery ever fail to put the Doctrine in practice and all this they think they may do and that it is good and justifiable being only against the Wicked who are God's because their Enemies And that hereby they may make them appear such and manifest that they only are the Godly and Elect and all other Reprobates BUT these are but slender attempts and only in order to their Grand Design of Religiously subverting both the Church and State which let them protest never so much against and pretend themselves never so innocent of any such Intentions I shall never be able to believe but they do design Others may do as they think fit But if I meet a Man at Ware going towards London I shall conclude that to be the Place whither he designs his Journey though he tells me he is travelling towards York which if I were not well acquainted with the Roads I might otherwise be apt enough to credit especially if I tell him he is mistaken and must turn back again and I find he intends to deceive me telling me I am mistaken and that he is in the Right way and his Wits too and knows better than I can direct him whither he is going which is the exact humour of all these Barge-Saints who tugg so hard at the Oars of Reformation and constantly Row one Way and look another CHAP. XI Of the Wicked Design they have by the strength of this Doctrine to overthrow the present Church and its Government Which by their pretending to be the Elect who Worship God in Spirit and Truth they endeavour to make unlawful and Antichristian This Doctrine contrary to Gods promise to be with his Church to the End of the World and derogatorie to his Honour Of the false aspersions they secretly cast upon the Church and the publique Service of God Of the inconvenience of arguing with them and the advantages they make thereof Their impudence in boasting themselves and arguments invincible Of their dislike of Places of publique Worship of the treatment they met with in the times of their Power the house of Prayer made a Den of Theeves Of their inveterate Hatred against Bishops and the Liturgie Of the dangerous Tenent they maintain that all People Princes and Magistrats are bound to pull down Antichrist which with them is Episcopacy and that if Princes will not the People may if they can get the Power into their hands Which makes them grasp continually at Dominion LET us now come to examine the dangerous effects this Doctrine has upon the Church and how industriously secretly and with an unwearied and restless constancy they undermine its Foundations and with all their Power mightily endeavour to overturn it And wisely they do like their Predecessors make their attaque upon that quarter of the Government which is most defenceless and unarmed and by Ruining which they formerly gain'd the Town Now that they do really design this is apparent from the New Model of Church-Government which they should introduce and impose upon the Christian World as the only true and Evangelical way warranted by the Word of God and for the Establishment of which they have so often drawn the Sword in Scotland and England For the very design of building a new house in the same Place necessarily implyes the pulling down of the Old one as being decayed useless and inconvenient Does not this new invention of theirs extreamly conduce to the Glory of the only Wise God and confirm the Truth of his Promises that he would be with his Church to the End of the World and that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it When from the very time of his Ascension if we will believe them for fifteen hundred years and upwards he never thought more of it For sure if he had he would never have suffered Antichrist to rule in it so long and in all that time never reveal what was his Positive Will and Pleasure in the way of his publique Worship and Service till this new Apostle Fisherman found it out in the Lake of Geneva or in that other Lake which has no Bottom which by the fire and Brimstone with which it has set the World in Flames one would be apt to Guess and that it came from the Angel of the bottomless Pit whose name is in the Hebrew Abaddon Rev. 9.11 but in the Greek Tongue hath his name Apollyon and in the English the Destroyer and some will be ready to interpret it the Presbyterian They may talk what they will of the Mystery of Iniquity which with them is Episcopal Government and the Church-Hierarchy which begun they say to work so Early I am sure the woful Experience of the greatest part of Europe especially England can sadly testifie that their way is the Abomination of Desolation or that which makes Desolate wherever it comes which they would set up in the Holy Place or in the Place of the Holy Church But the thing is certain for they are the Elect People of God who were predestinated from all Eternity to be so and therefore the true Church and if so all others must be False And to make this manifest and apparent having neither * unless a stat prorâ—tione Voluntas Reason Antiquity nor Scripture to assist them they are resolved to be their own Friends and since Fathers Councels and Scriptures are all Prrtial because the writings of Bishops in their own Cause they can do the Work without them And though St. Peter tells them no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation St. Pet. 2. Ep. 1 Cap. 20 v. and they are yet but Private men and I hope will never be other Yet will they put them upon the Rack of their private Interpretations and the prophecy of the Revelations for all the Curse at the End of it more than any other till they wrest and Extort a confession from them that Episcopacy is Babylon c. that is such a sence as may advance their own Designs and it is to be feared Damnation since the same Apostle tells all those do who are unlearned unstable 2 Ep. St. Pet. 1. v. 12. or unfixed in the truth as he uses the Word which does exactly correspond with the humor of these people who after they have once left the Church roul from one Opinion to another and
are driven about with every new Wind of Doctrine and truly let them but alone and they want neither Skill nor Will to accomplish these and far more difficult Enterprises In General therefore they perswade all Men every where that the present visible Church is Antichristian and Popish a thing strangely made up of outward Pomp and Splendor Formality Ceremonies and Will-worship the Inventions Traditions and Commandments of Men not at all agreeable to the Word of God or the naked and Primitive Purity and simplicity of the Gospel and the Truth as it is in Jesus These Controversies have been so learnedly debated and they have been so often baffled in all they could say for themselves that I know no Plea that has been left them except Conscience which they will not part with though most people from their Actions Judge if they have any it is an Evil conscience and of the largest size in the World Though the plain truth is the thing which they call Conscience is commonly known and called by the name of Wilfulness in Opinion And is just like the Mother Viper which when her young Brood are hunted and in Danger opens her mouth and there secures them and it may be mortally stings the pursuers I will not therefore repeat the Combate since they can never be so often thrown to the ground but like the Gyant Antaens they rise again and gather strength by their frequent foils And though I would not have any one think I have an intention by what I say to put my self into the number of those Worthies I am perswaded by the repeated victories which the Champions of Truth have so often gained over them these vanquished become victors and the great Condescensions of so many Famous and Learned Cheiftians as have undertaken to confute them and have really done it has rendred them more considerable amongst the Vulgar than all their own Abilities put together could have done For Ignorant and credulous People must of necessity believe that they are some body and that there is something more than Ordinary of truth in their Opinions which emboldens them to affront Authority and to have the Courage to measure their Weapons with the most Famous and Learned Persons of the Age. And by these Comabtes these Triflers purchase a real Victory Honour and Reputation and triumph in their being defeated by such glorious Armes And here it will not be amiss to inform all people of one of their Stratagems which never fails them Vide their Reports of the Conferences at Hampton Court before King James nor they to make use of it amongst the credulous Company of their fiends Followers and Disciples they alwayes boast themselves Invincible and tell them that such and such with whom they disputed were not able to resist the Wisdome and Spirit by which they spake and though they will own their Weaknesses yet will they glory in the pretended Victory of the Truth And by disclaiming their own Interest in these great Atchievements and ascribing it all to God who hath chosen the Weak and contemptible things to confound the Great and Wise they still advance their Reputation as being the particular Favourites of Heaven and the only Instruments which God is pleased to make use of to carry on his Work his great Work which appears so much the more his own wonderful doing by how much the Means he imployes in it are despicable and unlikely to Effect it And hereby they insinuate and wind themselves into the esteem and admiration of their Party though others who observe them thus cunningly crawling upon their bellies with a seeming humility think it discovers in them more of the subtile Serpent than of the innocent Dove But to go on they will not be contented with Generals but their attempts descend to particulars and therefore as if they meant to fulfill the prediction of our Saviour against the Jewish Temple upon the present Church there is not one stone from the Foundation to the highest Pinacle which they would leave upon another or do not endeavour to throw down Not the Porch that is called Beautiful nor the Altar sacred in all places Ages and amongst all Nations and Religions except the Turks can escape their Zealous Rage and Holy fury Their secret practices and aims are levell'd at All Root and Branch is the Word of Ecclesiastical Places Persons and Performances As to their dislike of Places that is not so General and I question not but if they and their Appennages were converted to their use and sanctified by the Word and Prayer for they must not be Consecrated because that is a Popish word and Ceremony they could dispense with any of them except the Cathedrals which so long as they stand will put the World in mind of Bishops their true and Ancient Possessors But yet some Dissenters who are no Steeple-house Quakers will speak most contemptuously of the Church of God which is the House of God 1 Tim. 3.15 Nor indeed do any of them believe there is any such thing in them as a Relative Holiness though God tells them there is when he commanded Moses to put off his Shoes from off his Feet Ex. 3 5. for the Place whereon he stood was Holy Ground And many Ornaments and Vestments dedicated to his service are called Holy Ex. 29.6 As the Holy Crown or Mitre for the High-Priest Lev 16.4 Ezech. 4.14 the holy Linnen Coat and holy Chambers where they laid these Holy things But these Men are not under Law but under Grace As if the great Obligations of the Gospel were intended to set us free from that respect we owe unto Almighty God Whereas common reason will tell us they ought rather to increase and augment it And I know not what is if this be not as St. Peter sayes an abusing of Christian freedom 1 St. Pet. 2. Chap. 13.14 15 16. and using it for a Cloak of Maliciousness As all those persons do who will not submit themselves to Government and by Obedience Honour the King which is the way to shew that they fear God How little fear or respect they have for either is but too plain What will they say to you of the houses of God are they any more than other Places Heaps of Wood and Stones they are sorry that they are not heaps of Rubbish too Were they not all built by Papists in the times of Superstition Blindness and Ignorance But some of them will yet go further and can afford them no better Title they are the High Places the * A pretty witty new name for a Church it is to be thought from the Publicans and Sinners that resort to it Oh the happy Inventions of some Men Publick and the Places of Idolatry One of these Venerable Men riding not long ago near a Cathedral of this Nation took occasion at the next Meeting whither he was going to hold forth to speak to this Effect if not these Words
Sence of our Ecclesiastical Performances for which we shall find they have as little kindness or Charity as for the former All the Ceremonies of the Church which they tell tell the People are with us the greatest part if not the All of our Worship are far from that Spirit and Truth which God seeks for in all those Worshippers that he approves That they are no where Warranted in the Word of God and therefore unlawful The Surplice and other Vestments badges of Innocence and distinctions of Degrees or Office are Rags of Rome Bowing at the Name of Jesus flat Idolatry kneeling at the Sacrament the same The Cross after Baptism a vain and foolish piece of Superstition and a Relique of the Popish Crossing In short the whole Book of Common Prayer c. a dull dead Letter formal having not the Power or Spirit of Devotion nothing but a translation of the Mass-book into English Full of Thank Calvin for his Tolerabiles ineptiae frivolous stuff mere Porredge and I know not what for there is nothing that may render the Service of the Church contemptible or Odious which they will stick to say of it and in so doing perswade us they do their Duty and God good Service How far they have successfully advanced in this Wicked Design is but too Evident by the General neglect of People in repairing to the Church on the Holy Fasts and Festival Dayes Though they are enjoyned by the Statute Laws of the Land to be kept Holy Ann. quarto quinto Ed. Sexti st 3. as well as by the Command of the Church And by which all people are enjoyned to resort to their Parish-Churches to hear Divine Service Anno. 1. Eliz. st 2. and to joyn in an unanimous and Vniform Worship of God Anno 23. Eliz. st 1. Nor will they come to Church on the Lords Day in the afternoons when they have no pretence of the hindrance of their Secular Affairs if there be only Prayers and Catechizing but not a Sermon which as hereafter shall be shewn is made the Essential part of all Religion Now all these Waters of Marah spring from the same Fountain The Doctrine of their being the Elect and only people of God For if they be theirs is the right way of worship and all others false and vain But that they are the Elect you have already heard and what infallible Marks their Teachers have given them and more than all that have told them that undoubtedly they are which likewise has been confirmed unto them by the Testimony of the Spirit helping them to pray and filling them with Love and Joy in believing And if ours be false wayes and Will-worship such as keep men in Error and Ignorance Blindness Formality and Superstition such as will certainly bring them to Hell ought they not think you to promote Gods Glory and their own by pulling down the Kingdom of Antichrist and destroying the Brazen Serpent when it is abused to Idolatry Undoubtedly they think it is their Duty and not only theirs but the Duty of all Magistrates Kings and Princes of the Earth who are bound to endeavour it to hate the great Whore of Babylon and to burn her with fire and if they will not be so wise to receive this Instruction from them and so learned as to put this in Execution the people may if they can get power nay must endeavour it with or against their Wills for the Work is the Lords and Cursed be he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48.10 and Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from Blood which is the true Chain of their desperate Opinions and Practices A most admirable Sorites to prove Rebellions not only Lawful but Necessary and which you see is forcibly back't with abused Scripture Thus one Error in the Foundation multiplies into a thousand and contrary to the Rules of Architecture is like an inverted Pyramid the higher it rises the wider it spreads and one mistake in a Principle is the Parent of innumerable in the Practice I will conclude this particular with the following Apologue and leave the Application of it to every mans pleasure A certain Husbandman having in his Plantation a Vine it grew wonderfully and did produce great plenty of incomparable Clusters and of a most delicate tast some of his wise neighbours coming to see his Plantation and perceiving the Shoots and Branches so Luxuriant they gave him advice to crop and prune it and to take off most of the largest and fairest leaves telling him that the Plant spent it self too much that way and that all the good they did was but to make a little unnecessary Flourish which might well be spared that they Beauty or Shade could not make a recompence for the injury they did in drawing away such abundance of the sapp and moisture from the Root whereby they hindred its Fruit robbing it in great measure of they juicy nourishment Upon tryal the Experiment does not succede the Fruit proves neither so fair plentiful nor of that greateful flavour as formerly it used to do But to give him assistance in his design the following Yeaâ— he spies upon one of the Branches a fine wrought webb charged only with a few little tender Eggs his Curiosity and Ignorance of what it was tempted him to let them alone and to see what they would come to The heat of the Sun in a short time discloses a brood of most curiously variegated Catterpillers the honest man finds them still lodged in their cunning inclosure admires their Beauty and many-colour'd nature Ammel and thus argues with himselfe Sure these Worms can do my Vine no hurt they look so finely and feel so soft which arguments prevail with him not to disturb much Iess destroy them Before he thought any more of them or look't again they had overspread his Vine and devoured all the Leaves and had left the tender fruit naked and bare which being thereby exposed to the scorching Sun the unkindness of the Winds and Weather in a little time parch'd and dwindled quite away and if he had not used much industry he had utterly lost his delicate Plant. Which for all his care and pains did not yet in several Years recover the damage it had sustained by these pretty silken Guests You need make no Question but for ever after he knew them again at first sight and assoon as ever he spied a Webb but beginning to be spun upon his Vine he gave it a speedy Dispatch CHAP. XII Of the Desperate influences this Doctrine has upon the State and Civil Government This Amazon Fury bred in Rebellion and ever since nurst up with blood proved from our own and all Europe's sad Experience This Doctrine inclines men to Aristocracy or the Government of a Common-wealth Of the little kindness they have for Monarchy Salus populi Suprema Lex their fundamental Principle of Government abused to perswade Men. that the
the Glorious City beyond hopes of a second Resurrection I am afraid he would find a Lodging more inconvenient than Bedlam and need not fear to be drowned in his new River The madness and malice of those persons who would alter the Old Channel and Stream of Government is far greater being of universal ill Consequence not only to that stately Metropolis but to all Places Persons Ranks and Degrees of men But the Miracle of Wonders is that these men who dislike and despise the present Government who tread in the same steps preach the same Doctrines use the same Arts and Methods make the very same pretences of Religion and Reformation with those desperate Rebels who so lately did overturn the Government should yet be able so successfully to employ their Talent to put the same cheat upon us a second Time and so easily again deceive People into the direct Road of those Miseries Distractions Confusions Ruines Desolations and almost Destruction which are still so fresh in Remembrance After all this do I know they will look as demurly as if Butter would not melt in their Mouthes and yet speak as if they had nothing else there Ps 55.21 their Words will be softer than Butter smoother than Oyl in pretending all imaginable Innocence and to say truth even the best of them who it may be do not penetrate into the Bottom of the Mischief are yet like Solomons Madman who cast about those Firebrands Arrows and Death with which the Engineers of the Faction furnish them who deceives his Neighbour and sayes Am I not in sport I mean no harm to any Body I know not what others may do But for my part I like no such Jesting especially with such dangerous Edge-Tools as will cut the Nerves of Government and dislimb the Body Politick They are not yet come so high as to the removing Evil Counsellors and indeed that Stratagem is too stale and has been too often made use of It were well if they were not now busie upon the other Extream and endeavouring to put such upon us It is but too easie to observe even by those who are not over Curious that something they do design which it is not yet time for them to make Publick And there is nothing more confirms the Suspicion than the great and indefatigable Industry which of late they have employed to promote their Interest in the Present Parliament in which there has rarely happened a Vacancy and by consequence a new Election but all their Forces are united and all their Friends are made if possible to set up such a person as is a Moderate Man as they call them if they can go no further that is such a one as will be so favourably inclined to them and their affairs as to let them alone and to confirm the probability of this I heard it confidently affirmed that one of the great Leaders of the Presbyterians at an Election not long since induced all his Party to give their Voyces for a Gentleman who it may be would have deceived their Hopes if he had carried it with this all-powerful Argument All you that hope for the Salvation of your Souls give your Voices for such a one So that now it is clear that Elections of Knights and Burgesses in Parliament is a necessary ingredient and sign of their Election as Saints For I am satified that they do not promise themselves much from this Parliament which is composed of so many Worthy Gentlemen eminent for their sufferings for Loyalty as well as Prudence and Wisdom All that ever they hoped for or it may be at present would desire would be only a Comprehension or Connivence that so the Gospel might have free Course that it might run and be glorified and that is in the true Sense and meaning of it That thereby they might gain the advantage of Time and Opportunity without Controllment of Laws to make their Party so strong as to have the greatest Voice and Poll in the Elections of future Parliaments which dangerous design of theirs it is the general hopes of all those who wish well to the Government the Prudence of the Present will in their Wisdom in time endeavour to obviate by that much to be desired Bill of Regulating Elections And there appears no Reason that they who will not observe Laws It is a saying of our Law Utlagatus habet Caput lupinum Intimating that they who will not be obedient to Laws which is the reason of utlawry are like Wolves and such noxious Animals and why the Wolves though in Sheeps cloathing should either chuse or be chosen a Guard for the Sheep I know no reason unless we have a mind to be worried And possibly in something of this Nature were provided to disable all Recusants it might prove a safe Expedient to secure the Government at it is now established and free us from the Fears both of Popery and Persbytery and be obedient to Government should have the Priviledges of Laws which they endeavour to destroy To have a Parliament of their Persuasion would be the most glorious thing imaginable and they know by experience that the Protection of that great Name of Parliament and colour of Law are the surest Wayes to overthrow all even the Fundamental Constitutions of the Nation and as the late Vsurper was wont to say make even Magna Charta Magna F if contrary to the Establishment of their Dominion and it is well for them if they be innocent of the guilt of which they have not without reason been suspected That those great Heats and Animosities which have of late obstructed all the publick Affairs and so much eclipsed the former Glories of this Renowned Parliament have in a great measure proceeded from this mutinous and fermenting Spirit which wherever it comes like a strong Poyson in the Blood and Humours of the Natural Body causes most violent Ebullitions Spasmes and Convulsions in the Body Politique And I think it will appear but too plainly if likewise it be considered that they have been the Party who have used all endeavours for the Dissolution of the Present Parliament and a New one to be called which being sufficiently taken notice of already has spared me the pains One thing however deserves our Observation which confirms what has before been spoken That the Confinement of some who both by Print and Words did endeavour to prove this no Parliament as it has given a great dash to the Hopes and Confidence of the Party so it is resented by them with the greatest trouble and the most sensible affliction that could have befallen them and that they may still do something when they cannot do what they would as a Noble Lord takes notice the reason of their misfortune is attributed to the prevalency of the Court-Party by which distinction they endeavour to make a Fraction in the House and set the Country against the Couit so that they are for any Tooth Good Barber