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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	word_n	write_v	writing_n	735	4	9.0744	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43841	Fasciculus literarium, or, Letters on several occasions I. Betwixt Mr. Baxter, and the author of the Perswasive to conformity, wherein many things are discussed, which are repeated in Mr. Baxters late plea for the nonconformists, II. A letter to an Oxford friend, concerning the indulgence Anno 1671/2, III. A letter from a minister in a country to a minister in London, IV. An epistle written in Latin to the Triers before the Kings most happy restauration / by John Hinckley ...	Hinckley, John, 1617?-1695.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1680 (1680)	Wing H2046; ESTC R20043	157,608	354

it and not excepting unless the King command me to endeavour it then I shall better consider of your security Till then you do but suppose me to see no difference between things most different § 54. Who is it that hath done most to drive People from the Parish Churches I am satisfied by experience And whether all such Dissenters are such Children of Hell as you describe I shall leave to a more wise and righteous Judge § 55. To write a full and just defence of that Non-conformity which I own according to the importunity of your Book would take up much time and the Volume would be great and I have not so much time to spare unless I saw a probability of some better effect than is like to arise from my putting it into your Hands as now you motion If my Stile suited to your Matter be displeasing review your Book and retract the culpable part which is the cause and you will have less cause to repent of your Repentance than of your Impenitency If as you say you are under affliction I hope it will help you to do as my long afflictions have partly done by me even to judge of Persons Things and Causes as one that daily waiteth for the time when he and all shall be judged of God I rest though your plain and faithful Monitor yet a true desirer of your well-fare July 4. 1671. AN ANSWER TO Mr. Baxter's third Letter SIR YOu lay a very sandy Foundation in your very first words you foretell say you how little good my writing will do you yet the Vindication of Truth is an End sufficient to invite me to bestow a few Lines upon you Do you call five Sheets a few Lines Are these written to vindicate the Truth Yet I must tell a Man of your gravity though with blushing that Truth has no communion with Falshood nor Light with Darkness Where did I foretell you that your writing should do me but little good I have told you to the contrary that if you could evince your Hypothesis that Conformity is absolutely sinful I would quit my station and come over into your Camp Nay when you had inform'd me as to some Passages in the Savoy Conference I return'd you my thanks Is not this an inauspicious and ominous Presage what is like to follow A Line crook'd at hand will never be straight though drawn if possible in infinitum Speak the truth your self before you accuse me for an unworthy Opposer of the Truth What delight had I think you to rush into the midst of your Pikes and to put my Hand into an Hornets Nest But only to extricate Truth and redeem it as those Argonauts did the Golden Fleece from the midst of waking Dragons that it may be try'd whether I and others do sin in Conforming by the dint of Scripture and sound Reason Some would call this a generous Enterprize proceeding from tenderness but you call it an unworthy opposing of Truth coming from Calumny and an hardened Front One Grain or Filing of Truth is more precious to me than all the Gold of Ophir if it lay in the bottom of the Sea I had rather fetch it thence than all the Pearls and Coral which the slavish Indians venture for with so much hazard No Man can do me a greater favour than to reduce me from any by-way of Errour Et Officium meum implisse arbitror si labor meus aliquos homines ab erroribus liberatos ad Iter Coeleste direxerit Who would have thought but that you who affirm that Conformity is simply sinful should have brought some clear Texts of Scripture to prove this or shewn some express divine Law which is violated hereby So you might have brought the Controversie to an Issue This had been the most dexterous course to have overthrown the very fundamental Principle whereon I stand which is That I owe submission to the Ordinances and Constitutions of my lawful Governours so far as they are suitable to or not repugnant or contrariant to the Word of God But instead hereof you write large Encomiums and Panegyricks on the Non-conformists reproach the present Preachers stumble at Diocesan Bishops Lay-Chancellors and the Oath of not taking up Arms yet in none of these will you take up your standing by saying this or the other is absolutely sinful So that you are still widing the Breach cutting out new Work and putting up new Game which is nothing else but a rambling from the first Subject of the Dispute Yet I must follow you or rather be drag'd and hail'd after you as the Serpents Head in the Fable when the Tail had the leading and conduct of it Only let me tell you whereas you complain of my Rhetorical Diversions I wish you were liable to the same Guilt for then you would not write so much with so much ease if you did but slick and polish your Lines as you go § 1. What a wonder of self-ignorance is it that the Author of the Perswasive should draw up the Flood-gates of Sarcastical scorn upon so many and such Men and yet be so sensible of a drop of just reproof Had you been train'd up in Alexanders Army you might have felt his discipline for railing rather than fighting for giving a Book hard words when you should have confuted it with convincing Arguments or had you been brought up at the feet of some Gamaliel you might have learn'd that a general Charge is no sufficient Answer and that a Book cannot be faulty as you make it when the Pages are not so as a Man is not leprous when all his Members are whole and sound I should not fear to lay Bellarmine himself on his back if it were enough to nick-name his Writings with some unmanly taunt I am not a little confirm'd that my Book is innocent in that you though you speak big deal as kindly with it as Jonathan did with David when he hid himself by the Stone Ezel you shoot your Arrows on this side and on that but you have taken more care than to hit it I might well complain of your Drops as you call them for they made me to smart as if there had been Poison in them Can you blame me for laying them before you that you may see if not blush at their malignant Aspect and if one drop be so painful what if you should pour one of your spoonfuls as big as a Church upon me As for the Title of Self-ignorance which you apply to me I have taken that up and put it into my Pocket We 'l raise no dust about that only I must observe 't is hard to be Head of a Party and to be humble and forbear contemptuous scorn towards those that stand in their way and do not vail their Bonnets to such Popular Rabbies § 2. After such a Book you would not be said to traduce the Presbyterians as if you wrote you know not what I well knew what I wrote for I never

to be truth which you call so When I see Scripture and reason for them let me be accounted stabborn or stupid if I either shut my Eyes or cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hold them steddy enough to discern them in their genuine Colours Before this be done you cannot be assured that you are a true Prophet in judging and condemning me afore-hand Are you Secretary to him who at one glance sees them who have Eyes and see not or else see but perceive not You know who it was that boasted that his Eyes were open Numb 24. 3. I wish you knew me better and then you might have abated these severities How can you hope to heal our Divisions and to wooe our English World into mutual love when your own Gall runs over with such large Effluviums and your thoughts are so over-weening as if you did comprehend all Knowledge Truth and Light and we poor Wretches were groping in Cimmerian darkness or grovelling in some narrow Ditch But if you will not hold up your Taper and help us forth reserving your Antidote against our sin and error in your own Breast take heed you meet not with the same doom as he in Cardan who knew how to cure the Stone and dyed without revealing it It is well that you are pleas'd to prolong your Answer until I procure you a License for so you may spare your own trouble usque ad Cal. Graec. For who would unmuzzle a fierce Panther that would worry him that sets his Chops at liberty Although another Man would tell you Herein you deal like the Papists who tell us they can prove us all Hereticks if they might have liberty to dispute and write without the hazard of the Law Yet when it pleases them they take liberty more than enough Sir if ever you comply with my sober Request you need not direct it to me but to the Common-wealth of the English Clergy As for those four Lines 2. Part. Pag. 8. spend your second thoughts upon them and see whether you can make sense of them There you serve in again the same Dish of Coleworts but you leave out the Author and name the Book yet in your Grammar the Book is a Person This is no Solacism with you who can make one Disparatum to predicate of another for in the same Part Pag. 92. you categorically affirm that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Verb. These are but trifles yet if a Man be put to sencing he will take all advantages As for the bulk and scope of your Book concerning healing Church Divisions Cum sis mortalis c. The Scene is laid in Heaven and the design is Generous Noble and Christian It is great pity that you should Ausis excidere tam magnis Yet consider whether the aim and level be both right If you would have us joyn together with one Heart and Shoulder in the Worship of God as now constituted which you allow P. 38. me thinks you should not I will use as much softness as I can have spoken so sleightly of Conformity As if you should conform it would neither be a little or single sin Pag. 26. This must needs weaken our Hands prejudice our Ministry and make the People cold in joyning with us Will those words of Mr. Dod hold weight in the Ballance of the Sanctuary who thanked God for the Churches sake that some Men conform'd and for the Truth sake that some conform'd not Can that be for the advantage of the Church which is not according to the Truth Does God stand in need of our Lies should we speak wickedly for God or talk deceitfully for him Job 13. 7. 2. Though in some places you speak honourably of our Liturgy Pag. 38. 59. 88. yet you dash all again by complaining of its imperfect mode and fashion of words Pag. 59. And that you joyn with us meerly by force for want of a better for were you in New-England you would not joyn with our Prayers 2. Part P. 176. Is this your Balm of Gilead for our Wounds Are you like to prove a good Samaritan to our bleeding Church What lowring and longing must there be after another mode of Worship if ours be so imperfect and that of other Churches so far beyond it You do well Go on that you joyn with the Prayers of the Liturgy and in the Celebration of the Sacrament P. 34. 40. yet you will not touch either as to an active Administration of them with the least of your Fingers And herein you resemble the present Jews who hire Christian Servants to kindle their Fires and to dress their Meat on the Sabbath-day They care not what is done so they do it not themselves 3. Was it a right course to cement us and cure our Divisions by alienating the Minds of Men from their Governours and that Government which is established by Law amongst us As if it were not lawful by your Doctrine to own Diocesan Bishops and to hold Communion with a Diocesan Church P. 75. Nay we must not communicate with a Parish Minister who concurreth with the Bishops P. 77 The Government is such as God will not accept Part 2. P. 3. And to take off the Stomachs of Subjects the more from their present Governours you have found out a Forreign Government for them though not in Rome yet in Bohemia Pag. 46. which in your Judgment does far surpass ours Sir I thought it had been far better for you and I to obey old Establishments than to invent or prescribe new ones If we set the People a gadding after Innovations we neither perform our own Duties nor go the right way to cure the Peoples Divisions Now Sir I have given you these Strictures not out of any desire to reciprocate the same with you any farther than a private Letter but only to prepare you for what you may expect from your Antagonist and to shew you how dangerous it is to recede from the good old Paths and allowed Principles and to bewilder our selves and others with new and rash contrivances of our own Heads As for any thing which upon just and proper Grounds shall have a tendency to the advancing of Love and Peace I shall always be your Second and your Fidus Achates whilst I am John Hinckley Northfield April 11. In Worcester-shire Mr. BAXTER'S Third Letter SIR THough you foretel me how little good my writing will do you in which I presume not to contradict you yet the vindication of Truth is an end sufficient to invite me to bestow a few more Lines in detecting your unworthy opposition against that Object of the intellectual Nature Truth and Repentance are the things which you vehemently militate against under pretence of skirmishing with my words and that by no better Weapons than a wrangling Wit Rhetorical diversions which you use like one unwilling to understand the truth or to confess an Error or injurious Deed. § 1. You tell me I am a treacherous Watchman if I suffer sin

Hooker and tells us That by the Law of Nature Legislation belongeth to the Body and that the King is dependent and subject to the Body and such like And many Divines took up those Opinions and Dr. Ferne and others were against them But what of all this Are not these Controversies in Law and Politicks though handled by Divines § 39. Your next say That Dr. Manton wrote on Jude and note my in-advertency that take no more notice of his Labours And I marvel more than you can do that I never heard of that Book before Nor could hear of it from any one till he told me himself that he had long ago published some Sermons which he preached very young c. on Jude And that I was hereof ignorant I confess § 40. You say of your Citation of Dr. Burges That the Book is in the Hand of a Friend and you add Are you such a Helluo Liborum and yet had you no acquaintance with these Answ I have read I think all Dr. John Burges's Writings except those against Conformity before he turned And I read Dr. Cornelius Burges Book of Baptismal Regeneration about 36 years ago and I after wrote somewhat against it and Dr. Ward and Mr. Bedford on that Subject and since I was familiar with the Author till near his death therefore I believe not that it was John Burges that wrote that Book but suppose you to be much liker to be mistaken than I. And unless Dr. John Burges wrote another Book of the same Subject which I shall also wonder that I never heard of I am as sure you are mistaken as my Eyes and Acquaintance can make me § 41. I told you I knew not one of the Ministers that was not ready to swear that which you feign the Discipline of the Chorus to refuse And you ask me Why then did they flit their Habitations Answ Did I not expresly tell you why and was your disingenuity at leisure to fill your Paper with the recital of an answered Question that you might have opportunity to vent your Latet aliquid And here you begin to dispute the Case Platonically But I cannot perswade my self to dispute it with one that no better understandeth it or careth what he saith only I answer your Questions Q. 1. What was the sum of that Oath was it not plainly and directly against taking up Arms Answ 1. And is that all the Oath or is there not a Clause for our Church-Government 2. If so why is the first Clause the Sum of the whole 3. Or need my Conscience stick at nothing in an Oath but what you will call the Sum O happy quieter of Consciences that fear an Oath Q. 2. Did it any way hinder Parliament Mens speaking or others peaceably petitioning for such reformation as is necessary Answ 1. You shall not draw me to say that an alteration of Diocesanes or Lay-Chancellors is necessary no not ad bene esse Ecclesiae for I know the Law is against it But if I thought so is Petitioning no Endeavouring Say so and shew that you care not what you say to draw down an Oath And must not I swear That I will not any time endeavour any alteration And shall I swear universally against all endeavour and mentally reserve excepting petitioning speaking c. Are Oaths things to be swallowed thus in sport And will wiping my Mouth thus make me innocent Q. 3. Were not those who were commissioned to administer it ready to declare the sense of it Answ 1. Where did the King and Parliament give them power to declare the sense 2. Is it not all the Justices in England that are authorized two at once to administer it And do you know what all the Justices in England are ready to do 3. Are you sure they will all agree in the sense or must we take it in several senses if several Men severally expound it 4. What Law or Divinity teacheth you to take an Oath in the sense of an inferior Magistrate that offereth it you who is not by the Law impowered to interpret it nor is so much as made a Judge of the sense but of my Fact of taking or refusing it If this way be lawful what if a Papist could find a Justice that would expound the Oath of Supremacy for the Pope May he therefore take it Is not the Law-maker the universal Expositor of his own Law except for the Judicial decision of a particular Case which he committeth to his Judges or can a Justice dispense with equivocation in Oaths and not a Pope 5. I was but once yet sent to Goal for refusing that Oath and then I told them that I refused it not but desired the Justices to tell me the sense of it which they refused and said I must take it according to the plain words or importance of the Phrase which is the truth And yet you say Are they not ready c. What wonder if Oaths go smoothly down where there are such Resolvers and it Books revile them that will not swear But here ensueth as confident a Rhetorical Invective against those that scruple this kind of swearing as if Logick first had done its part or at least one word of sense had been spoken to satisfie the Conscience of a Man that would not be stigmatized with PER. And we must swear without any smoother Oyl to get it down than such talk as this or else we must go with you for Men of hot and feavourish Brains But Swearers we find have a Heat of their own kind transcending others Such as your Book and other Mens Actions have declared § 42. I told you If you would put out the other Clauses of the Oath c. you should see how few would stick at that of taking Arms against the King Here you say Why do I lay this on you c. Answ But Sir you might have understood my Inference Why then do you pretend a false Reason of our refusal when we tell you the true Reason If you cannot put out the Clause which we refuse you could forbear to Calumniate us of Traiterous Meanings as if we stuck at another Clause § 43. When I desired the imposing of no other Oaths on us to Prelates or Chancellors than were imposed or used for many hundred years in the Church you tell us That it may be schismatical to stand up too stifly for immediate Dispensations as to the Modes of External Policy c. Answ 1. As some things not commanded in Modes of Church Policy are lawful so some things are unlawful or else you may swear to the Pope as well as to Diocesanes And is it lawful to swear to the unlawful part think you what that is I will not dispute with you 2. All that is lawful to be done is not to be sworn to and made so necessary as that a Church or Nation shall swear never to endeavour any alteration of it when a Change of Divine Providence can turn

it is the best and most wonderful effect it is like to work for I perceive by sad Experience That it is as difficult a work thorowly to Convert one of these Dissenters as to carry Mount Caucasus upon one's back I will assure you I have laboured much in convincing and perswading some of them to be true Members of our English Church The work was done in appearance They seem'd to be not only Proselytes of the Gate but of Justice too In every thing submitting to and approving our orders Yet when liberty of Meetings was proclaim'd off flies these Demases like a company of Ducklings hatch'd under an Hen They follow her and she Hives them under her wings but if they come near their own Element the water the Hen may cluck her heart out They are turned Renegado's and will have none of her company And no wonder for one of the Bel-weathers of this Flock bleated formerly like an harmless Sheep as if he intended Unity and the healing Church-Divisions But when there was tidings of an Indulgence He turns his style and strikes up an Alarm for Separation and Schism His word is As you were He pushes again with his old Horns which had been hid for a time under wool as the Viper covers his teeth under soft flesh Sir I fear this melancholick Discourse has made you sad And indeed who can be otherwise that sees the sad fate of Religion How it is gone backward more degrees than ever the Sun did in the Dial of Ahaz Not only the disguised Sectaries who were perswaded to be almost Christians have returned to their former Vomit They are as busie as ever in undermining our Walls widening our closing wounds and pouring in Wine without any Oyle into them But the prophane Gallio's have their Conventicles too The Ale-houses strut with these Companions why say they may not we meet and have our liberty as well as every Faction has leave to bandy together and gratifie the Itch of th●ir several humours The very Peasants can tell us if we give a check to their Extravagancies That now they have liberty of Conscience And this is not strange in them when some Lawyers have mooted the Case Whether there be any Penalties remaining for Drunkards and Whoremasters Thus the meer Moralist and Natural man who is inclin'd to Atheism is hardened against all Religion And that Sect amongst us who seem to be most Zealous for Religion in observing the Christian Sabbath as if on a sudden they were become Ranters do's most scandalously prophane it I know this word will be swallow'd with much Kecking and reluctancy yet let the best of their Casuists state and determine it otherwise if they dare After they have considered with themselves impartially Whether it be not a breach of the Sabbath to Run or Ride six or seven miles on that Day to hear a gifted Preacher when they might have heard the word of Truth and Salvation rightly divided and applied at home Is not this to play the Wantons with those things which are most Sacred Is not this to slight contemn reproach and discourage their own painful Ministers who watch for their Souls and to teach others to do so by their example when God himself has Commanded to reverence and honour him with double honour Nay let them say it close to their hearts Whether these Transactions do not savour of the Mystery of Iniquity I know they are forward enough to lay this Brat at the doors of Rome And for me let it lye there yet 't is worth their second thoughts Whether such dealings are not Iniquity yet a Mysterie because they are crusted and cover'd over with a pretence of Piety and Devotion I know you will wonder that they are so forward to leave wholsom and solid meat to run after Kickshaws Will you give me leave to divine They are in pain and do Penance in keeping off their hats and kneeling in the publick They are of Judas his mind that all is wasted which is spent in an outward Reverence and a bodily honour upon their Maker They must be more familiar with God sit cheek by Jole with him and be hale fellow well met with the Almighty that they may reason the Case with him if need be upon even terms As when they said Lord why did'st thou leave us in the West Why did'st thou forsake us at Leicester But whil'st our Religioso's are thus traversing their ways it is pretty to observe how the Presbyterians and Independents do salute and embrace each other who could scarce agree together in our Remembrance in the same College City or Kingdom yet now they throng together into the same Parlour Hall or more ignoble Apartment Herod and Pilate Manasses and Ephraim have joyn'd hands against Christ and Juda. And that you may see what Wonders this Indulgence worketh Those that pretended weakness and disability of Body to go a stones throw to their own Churches They would sigh as if they were ready to expire if we desired their Company there yet now they can rise early in the morning and Gallop several Miles to a Meeting The King you see is a most Sovereign Physitian He can heal all Maladies and Distempers He can make an old decrepit Sectary to find new legs and new strength and to grow young again all over Before you lay down your Admiration concerning these Aenigmatical men tell me if you can how those that have lifted up their hands to Heaven in the solemn League and Covenant against a toleration of other Religions can kiss the golden Calf of a Vniversal Indulgence and yet tell us we go about to wound their Consciences and perswade them to be perjur'd If we perswade them to declare There is no Obligation in the Covenant let the next Age expound these prevaricating Riddles I know they say we value our Reputations so much that we are loth that others should share with us And have we not a Cause If our Credit be stain'd our Preaching will be of little moment Alexander got most Victories by the glory of his Name Did not St. Paul complain of those who would exclude him out of the Affections of the People Therefore to keep our names intemerate and free from the sullying breath of calumniating Traducers 't is not a vain affectation of Honour but a necessary means to make our Ministery effectual They tell us too that we have our Tithes allow'd us still we may gnaw our Crust in a corner without snarling at others True if our aims in taking on us this Angelical Office were so low as only to look after the Loaves and the Milk without any care of the Flock As if a man should marry a Wife meerly for Portion and then suffer her to be prostituted to the Lusts of other Men. Nay It is the ready way to expose us to the Scorns and Affronts of our People to give us their Tithes and yet to allow them liberty to choose their Ministery for the

that these hot and busie Factionists will be no better Friends at last to Magistrates themselves than they are to us and our Ministery They begin already to Muster up their Companies and with David to number their People Some of them are Captains of Thousands and some are Captains of Hundreds And there are not those wanting among them who are too well acquainted with Military Discipline as not to have their Field Officers abroad to Marshal their whole Body and to give the Word If another General should start up The Peoples Darling And Heir to his own Disappointments and swelling with his own Discontents Especially if he should weave the Covenant into his Colours and Ingrave Reformation upon his Standard I even Tremble to think what Thunder and Lightning may break out again from our Clouds Herrings they say when they come in Sholes may destroy a whale And a Town in Thessaly was undermin'd with Moles Small Distempers in the Body Politick as well as in the Natural must be disarm'd and prevented in time we read of a Cloud but of a Span long the breadth of a man's hand yet in a short time it dyed the whole Heavens black These are no Panick Fears nor Groundless Surmises for I have heard some of them glory in their Multitudes and others gave me no other Reason of their Riotous Assemblies than thereby to Counterpoise the Papists He spake like a Royal Prophet That pretensions to Reformation of Religion are the best and most Auspicious beginnings of the worst designs for the Devil of Rebellion doth commonly turn himself into an Angel of Reformation When the Puritans Petition'd King James for the like Toleration and said Many Thousands would be discontented if it was not granted This was accounted by the King and his Council to tend to Sedition and Rebellion Where is the Good then that is to be expected from these Assistants Confusion is their Advantage I had almost said Their Design They value not Kingdoms when they stand in their way And if the Cedars are not safe it is no wonder that some of them have said to my face that had they Liberty they would soon Preach us down Is this the Assistance they will give us Are they so purely Spiritual as to labour for the wind Is this the way to keep up and maintain all their Softnesses Will they not grudge if they be not satisfy'd And will not the People murmure if what they get by their hard Labours must be divided into so many Channels and feed so many mouths besides their own And what Must the People do nothing but hear Must there be nothing else but sowing of Seeds Nothing but Preaching In some places four in some six Sermons a day No time for the settling the Seed of the Word in the furrows of their hearts for ruminating and digesting what is heard Superfoetation is monstrous in Nature and the turning all Religion into Hearing is as if you should see a man all Belly or all Ear. Do these Men grow more than others in the dimensions of Religion by their gadding up and down I have seen Sheep kept within their bounds in a Barren and hard Pasture yet by resting quietly in their own Limits they have gathered Wool and Flesh upon their Backs when those that have crept Hedges and have gone from one ground to another have lost their Fleeces and have been little better than Carrion so many plain honest Countreymen who live contentedly under the droppings of that Ministery which God hath providentially set over them thrive more in real goodness than these Disputers of this World who are hurried up and down with an Oestrum of Curiosity and devour innumerable Sermons yet at last are like Pharaoh's lean Kine They have pass'd thorow so many brakes that their Consciences are torn and become as peel'd and Schismatical as themselves The Mothers Milk is most kindly for the Child Several Nurses will put the little one into a disorder and trouble him with a fret in his Belly He that is the Rightful Pastor the Sheep know his voice and a Stranger they will not follow This is as true as Scripture But where there is one sort of Prayer in Private Meetings Another in the Publick Congregation One way of Preaching and Discipline here Another there This may puzzle and distract it cannot edifie Charles le Bon and Charles le Grand spake like himself when he said The Company of Ministers obtruded upon him in his Confinement were more sad than his Solitude for he could not conceive How they could be proper Physicians who had so great an Influence in occasioning his Calamity and inflicting his wounds upon him May not we say the same Are they like to be our Assistants in promoting the work of Peace Piety to God Loyalty to the King And mutual kindness towards all Men who have been so Industrious formerly in subverting all these and still continue in the same Sin without any open Repentance who are to this day thorns in our sides and keep our wounds from closing who buzze the People in their Ears that our way of Worship is Superstitious bordering upon Idolatry That our Conformity is absolutely sinful And that we are no less than guilty of Ungodly Oaths in Subscribing and Declaring Thus they have been as Serpents in our way and Adders in our paths Some of our People who would seem the only Hasidaei or Holy Men in their Age whom they have not yet thorowly perverted into Separation will out of formality some are formalists who would not be thought so come to our Sermons Yet they sit in their Seats gaping and yawning though very attentive formerly As if they had not slept the Night before or rather as if they were weary of their present station i. e. thought long e're they were in their own Meeting-house As I have seen Cows impatient until they return to their Calves Nestorius the Heretick was called a Snake for this very Reason because he lurk'd in Holes to do mischief secretly by his venom and his sting The Donatists also were call'd Clancularii and the Valentinians were compar'd to Grashoppers In that they sculk'd here and there and hopp'd up and down to intoxicate Men with their sly Inchantments and keep them from Imbracing the Truth in the love of it So it is with our whispering transcendent Beau-Clerks let the Publick Minister if by Mr. Med's leave that title may be allowed be never so Learned and Pious never so dextrous at the Dividing and Applying the Word of Truth yet when they meet with their Partizans and Comrades in Separation they will find out or invent something concerning his Person or Doctrine that they will shake their heads list up their eyes bless themselves and pity the poor wretch before they part It may be they may allow him to have some unsanctify'd Wit or prophane Learning But not one scrap of Grace He was never acquainted with the turnings and windings of