that in the latter Times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils 2. Tim 3.1 This know that in the last days perillous Times shall come In the last days shall come Scoffers 2. S. Pet. 3.3 walking after their own Lusts or Desires And St. Jude tells us who they are S. Jude 18.19 They who separate themselves So far the discovery is clear it shall be in the last Days The difficulty will be to know when these last Days are these dangerous Days St. Paul intimates plainly when we are to look upon the Time as the last Days And having told us that in the latter time some should depart from the Faith he subjoynes For the time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine 1 Tim. 4.3 but after their own Lusts shall heap up to themselves Teachers having itching Ears And thus far the discovery is plain that these are those last and perillous Times which he prophesied should come and with the most remarkable Asterisk points them out to us Sure there was never any Age or Time like this for the itching of Peoples Ears nor for their heaping up to themselves Teachers after their own Desires And to satisfie himself of this a man need not take a far Journey or ride a Horse to Death for if he cannot find it true in his own Town or Parish or even at his own Door he may walk on foot to the next where he will certainly find it And so strangly do Peoples Ears itch after Novelties That let every Day in the Week a Teacher of a new Doctrine come amongst them a great Company shall run to hear him Nay should a man come cloathed with outward Profession of Sanctimony and Innocence and with confidence tell them a fine story out of the Jewish Talmud or Turkish Alcoran and pretend it is a new Revelation I question not but he would have a great many Hearers and some Disciples And for their heaping them up to themselves is it not as evident as the former When People are not contented with their Lawful Minister though never so Painful Orthodox and Pious who is set over them and appointed to watch for their Souls as he that must give an account but they must heap them up to themselves have them of their own chusing according to their own Fancies and Desires and not one but many two three four or more Itinerant and Resident in some little Towns and far more in Places of good Capacity for you must know that as this sort of People make advances in knowledge and Confidence which they call growing in Grace they are as they think all taught of God and are to be Teachers of God Though that Prophecy as he himself explains it was meant of Christ the eternal Son of God and fulfilled in him and by him who was God and therefore thought it no Robbery to be equal with God though it is a manifest and the highest piece of Sacriledge in any Mortal Man to arrogate it to himself S. Joh. 6.45 S. Joh. 14.6 And says he They shall be all taught of God Every Man therefore that hath heard and hath learn't of the Father cometh unto me for no man can come unto the Father except I draw him But this will not satisfie them for to gain the greater Authority and reputation they will apply it to themselves so that in some places where the infection has spread it self strongly every third or fourth House can afford you one or more if occasion be either Man or Woman Teacher though S. Paul gives an express Command against these Female Doctresses 8. Tim. 2.12 and tells us positively a Woman is not to be permitted to speak in the Church that is to teach For which Command I met with one of the most subtile allegorical fine-spun Evasions as far exceeding the Brains of Origen The Woman saith a Dissenter must learn in silence that is the Flesh for all Flesh must be silent before the Lord Very well repl'd I and nicely distinguish't to make us all Hermaphrodites but how will the Woman part of you by this sobriety come to be saved in Child-bearing which the Apostle adds as a good encouragement to them to keep them in silence v. 15 which you know is a hard matter and that they may not usurp Authority over the Man and here the Man and Woman were both silent wanting some of the old Fig leaves to make an Apron of or Apron-strings for an Evasion by which he might have been convinc't that his Flesh was no Woman HAVING proceeded thus far and found out the Time of their Appearance it follows that we examine these Teachers and as St. John saith Let them pretend never so much to the Spirit Try the Spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World OUR most blessed Lord has given us a Criterion an infallible Touch-stone to distinguish Gold from Brass though double gilt a certain way to know the Wolf though in Sheeps Clothing from the good Shepherd Mat. 7.19 By their Fruits ye shall know them Not by their seeming good Fruits their appearance of Holiness and profession of Godliness for in these things they transform themselves into the likeness of the Ministers of Righteousness or otherwise they could never be able to deceive It is not by their zealous and passionate ‖ v. 21. Lord Lord for not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It is not by their * The word Prophecy is used for Preaching and by them so understood in many places particularly that which they abuse so often to countenance their way Despise not Prophecying Prophecying in his Name their often and painful Preaching of Christ of Strife and Envy No nor by their wonderful and miraculous Works done as they say in his Name Their converting so many poor Souls from Superstition Heathenism and Idolatry who were better Christians before For Christ tells us for all this be will not know them for his Many will say unto me in that Day Lord Lord have we not Prophesied or Preached in thy name and tit thy name cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful Works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you Depart from me yon that work Iniquity By their ill Fruits therefore it is by their working Iniquity that we must distinguish them and without a careful observation of this it is impossible to know them from the true Prophets the Preachers and Ministers of Righteousness NOW whether the Church of England and her Prophets or these Prophets are the false let their Fruits determine Certainly they who both in Doctrine and Discipline not only Teach but practice in their Lives Actions and Intentions a true departing from all Iniquity quity from whatsoever is contrary to the Commands of the Gospel These are the
all that little good Opinion which before he had of Religion and this together with his own loose inclinations and the fashionable humour of being irreligious easily perswade him that it is nothing but a fine Device of Politicians to keep the lower part of the World in awe Or if he has read the Poet he believes him more than the Gospel when he tells him Primus in Orbe Deos Timor fecit The Foundation of all Religion was either Fear or Fancy And are not these glorious discoveries occasion'd and found out by this New Gospel-Light BUT to proceed these persons are always curious and inquisitive to find out the most secret Crimes of others amongst whom they live and will never fail to publish that in the open street and upon the house top S. Mat. 1â— 15 which was done in a corner and they are so far from the true Christian Way of private admonition directed by our Saviour that without waiting for Reformation by those Degrees they proceed immediately to a Dic Ecclesiae and tell it to their Church upon the first discovery LIKE the wily Serpent they do commonly begin the Temptation with the Woman as being the weaker Vessel yet having a strong Ascendant and influence upon the Husband and hereby do not rarely Verifie the Apostles prediction when they creep into houses and lead Captive silly Women laden with Sins led away with divers Lusts and it is the common opinion that it is not impossible to find amongst their Converts more Women who either are or have been of ill or at least suspected Fame than in many other places which go under a harder Censure But the good Woman becoming a New Creature religiously cheats her husband to help to maintain the Speaker the Man first suspects and after a little Time discovers the Intrigue of his Wifes paying for this new invented Leachery of her Ears and as well he may is not a little angry or displeased at it She tires him with perpetual Lectures Repetitions Admonitions and Importunities which makes his House or Shop uneasie to him and either does or very probably may induce him to seek more agreeable Conversation abroad and whilst he indeavours to avoid her continual dropping in a rainy day as the wise man calls the Persections of a Contentious Woman by chusing such places and persons for his Divertisement he may endanger the Ruine of his Soul Body and Estate And surely next to the debauching a Woman into forbidden Embraces I think this alienating of those two whom God hath made one and no person has power to put asunder either in Body or Mind is a displeasure that must needs be the most sensible Affliction to both Parties and so much the more if formerly there has been an entire Love and kindness when they shall come to be so far estranged as to live in perpetual jars and discords and whilest they both strive to save the others Soul run a manifest hazzard of losing both and do most certainly lose one of the greatest designs and satisfactions of Marriage which is that they may be mutual helps and comforts one to another The Heathen Poet could have taught them better Doctrine where he tells them Foelices ter amplius Queis irrupta tenet Copula Nec malis divulsa Querimoniis And St. Peter tells the good Women the way to convert their Heathen Husbands is by their chaste Conversation coupled with fear to offend them and not by perpetual ingrateful Curtain-Lectures THE wise King tells us ATale-bearer maketh strife Prov. 26.20.16 c. 28. and a Whisperer separateth chiefest Friends And with these Talents they do so abound that the Coffee-Houses are not better stor'd with News especially what may advance the Defamation of all those from the highest to the lowest that are not of their Way or do oppose them But above all their aspersions are thrown upon their Lawful Minister if possible to make him odious to the People which they know if they can effect it will be no hard matter to bring them into their Confederacy And having left him because he will not leave the Church and his Duty nor forswear himself to please them that they may appear to have some Reason too for their deserting of him they will not stick to vilifie contemn despise defame and scandalize by all the ways they can invent true or false it matters not and herein their cunning is not less than their malice one blow at the Root being worth a hundred at the Leaves or Branches and rather than fail where nothing else is to be had they will content themselves with ridiculous Improbabilities A Clergy-man of my acquaintance being call'd up to London upon the dispatch of some emergent and important affairs of his having it seems nothing to fix upon him besides they reported that during his stay there he had his Pocket pickt at the Play-house of a considerable Sum of Money which was as they would have people believe a most remarkable Judgment upon him for his Vanity but a far greater Untruth he having as he solemnly protested to me never had that common piece of ill Fortune at London or any where else in all his Life nor for seven years before having seen a Play though he thinks it far better and more lawful than one of their Conventicles where the Teacher picks the Money out of their Pockets all their Duty Loyalty and Allegiance out of their Hearts and if they do not in time repent they are in the greatest danger of having the Devil pick their Souls out of their Bodies IT were endless to recount all the disturbances they make where-ever they come and this being but the Prologue to greater Mischiefs and Inconveniences we will proceed to them though to keep their hands in ure they are like the Gentlemans Servant who being observed by his Master to be so light-finger'd that he never went any whither but he stole something before he came away he gave him a strict charge not to meddle with any thing at a House whither he was going to make a Visit at his coming away the Fellow took up a handful of the Rushes with which the Hall was strow'd and put into his Pocket and his Master demanding why he did so he made answer it was to keep his hand in ure So these men will play at small Games Heads and Points in their own Parish rather than stand out and first grow well acquainted with making Parties Divisions and little Mutinies in the Town where they live that so they may be perfect at the Trade and fit to set up and Act their parts of the Tragedy their Masters are composing as soon as it is ready to appear upon the Publick Theater of the World In a word they are intimately acquainted with the Jesuites Maxim which they use against the Protestants Fortiter calumniare aliquid haerebit thus Englisht by a certain Lady who was wont to use and give this devillish Counsel to
Backbitings Whisperings Slanders condemning censuring all who are not of their Way to be Reprobates as these Separatists Vncharitableness and Atheism hereby extreamly propagated they separate the dearest Friends and by creeping into Houses and beguiling silly Women divide those whom God hath joined together they are curious and busie-bodies in espying out the faults of all others which they publish to make themselves appear the Elect and all others Reprobates All this is done to fit them to act upon the publick Theater of the World which they practice in private Villages or where ever they dwell 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 Vnlawful and Antichristian This Doctrine contrary to Gods Promise to be with his Church to the end of the World and derogatory to his Honour Of the false aspersions they secretly cast upon the Church and the Publick Service of God Of the Inconveniences of arguing with them and the Advantages they make thereof their Impudence in boasting Themselves and Arguments invincible Of their Dislike of Places of Publick Worship Of the treatment they met with in the time of their Power The House of Prayer made a Den of Thieves Of their inveterate Hatred against Bishops and the Liturgie Of the dangerous Tenent they maintain That all People Princes and Magistrates are bound to pull down Antichrist which with them is Episcopacy and that if Princes will not the People may if they can get Power into their hands which makes them continually grasp at Dominion 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 Commonwealth Of the little kindness they have for Monarchy Salus Populi suprema Lex their Fundamental Principle of Government abused to perswade men that the Peoples Election and Approbation are necessary Titles to a Crown That a King is Major singulis minor universis and may be deposed and punished by the People Proved from their Practice The great Encouragement it gives to Rebellion The same Doctrine of Fatality taught by Mahomet to inspire the Turks with courage against the Christians CHAP. XIII Of their Doctrine of the Necessity of Separation from the Wicked which they teach in private and by their Example in publick The Vses they make of it to know their Strength and Numbers which they always boast of if possible to bring Authority to comply with their Desires Hereby they ingross a trade amongst themselves Of their undermining Authority by making it Contemptible by their daily affronting it Of the Vnlawfulness of Separation from the Example of our Saviour and from Scripture Separation by S. Jude made a Mark of Reprobation Jeroboam's Policy the end of their Separation 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 the 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 abuses 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 Interest and wicked Designs that the Church declares it self CHAP. XV. A short View of some other of their Doctrines Of their Judaizing the Lords Day Of their censuring all their Ancestors and even their own Children to Damnation Their subtilty in deriding all these Accusations and disowning the Actions of the late Rebels when yet they tread in the very same steps That they have the same designs manifested from their great industry in all New Elections of Members of this present Parliament to get Voices for such as will be favourable to their Interest A probable conjecture that they have had a principal hand in the late unhappy differences between the two Houses and of the great desire they have of a New Parliament and their Hopes when that shall happen CHAP. XVI Of the Artifices which these men use to render all Applications ineffectual by their tiring out the Inferiour Magistracy with their obstinacy The Advantages they make of the suspension of Laws to fortifie their followers and perswading them it is a particular effect of the care which God takes of them and the Cause That place in the Acts of Gamaliel's counsel If this work be of God it will stand by which they frighten some and endeavour to discourage all people from medling with them considered and proved to be the word of Gamaliel a Doctor of the Law but not the word of God because not universally true CHAP. XVII A more particular Survey of their Policy in rendring all Expedients useless which have been applied to reclaim them from that place in Ezra 7.26 Of Capital Punishments Of Imprisonment how they make it of advantage to them to confirm their Cause and Followers and to bring a general odium upon the Laws and Government their Evasions to escape Forfeitures Of their Complaints of the Injustice and Oppression of the Penal Laws Of Banishment A Coffee-house Dialogue about it betwixt Mr. Kinglove of and a Grandchild of Martin Marprelate CHAP. XVIII The Heads of Separation brought to Trial by the Scripture proved to be false Prophets by their fruits by the description of them by the time of their appearance the signs given to know them by Wolves in Sheeps clothing Their pretence to be the Ministers of Righteousness the way they would evade these Signs Their Plea of Not guilty because not guilty of all manifested to be vain and such as if admitted will clear all even Mahomet from the guilt of being a false Prophet CHAP. XIX A further pursuance of the Discovery and that these men are false Prophets from the Description of St. Peter and St. Paul St. Peter's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and St. Judes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 considered as particularly designed to shew their infectious contagious Doctrines Of their despising Dominions querulous unsatisfied and complaining humour A short Vindication of the Church from their malicious Aspersion of being guilty of Idolatry CHAP. XX. THE CONCLVSION THE COVNTERMINE Or a short but true DISCOVERY c. CHAP. I. The Reasons and Occasion of the following Discourse The imminent danger of the Church and State by reason of the restless Endeavours industrious Malice and secret Contrivances of dissenting Separatists THERE never was any Age in which the Holy Church of God was more
truly Militant than in the present The envious Dragon Rev. 12.12 13. knowing that he hath but a short time has summoned up all his Infernal Militia to make one great and vigorous attempt upon the persecuted Woman having forcibly driven her into the Wilderness he throws out of his mouth water as a flood that if it be possible he may cause her to be carried away by those Deluges and Inundations of Errours IN a danger so eminent every good Soldier of Christ Jesus is bound by the Sacramentum Militare of his Baptism to do the utmost of his endeavours and earnestly to contend for the Faith Jude v. 3. which was once delivered to the Saints and not only be contented to stand fast in that Faith 1 Cor. 16.13 but to quit himself like a man and be strong THAT Son must needs have little Courage and less Duty who can see a most beautiful tender and indulgent Mother prostituted to the barbarous rage of her most implacable Enemies and the murdering Steel ready to be plunged into her innocent Bosom and all that while stand gazing on or spending that time in childish and fruitless Laments which he ought to employ towards her present rescue and speedy assistance I am not ignorant that whoever concerns himself with the present Enemies of the Church puts his hand into a Nest of Hornets and had need to be well guarded both with Law and Innocence if he hopes to scape their stings and possibly that Consideration together with the natural inclination of my Genius above all other things to quiet and repose might have been powerful enough to divert me from this design if some stronger Reasons had not put me upon it BUT lest by some in this scribling Age I might be thought infected with the common Malady Scribendi Cacoethes I do here enter my solemn Protest against it and that I had no other intentions in making my thoughts publick but to satisfie the importunities of my own mind by discharging that Duty I owe to God and the Holy Church And if I cannot prevent the common and by consequence my particular danger I shall yet have the satisfaction that I have not by my silence consented to it nay further that it may be even beyond my Province I have attempted to do it THE goodness of actions is not to be measured by their prosperous successes and if that fails to answer the expectation of my wishes and desires I shall yet have avoided the imputation of their folly of whom the Historian tells us who were known silendo periisse to have perisht by either their imprudent or wilful silence THE knowledg I have of the disproportion there is betwixt the Design and the Undertaker might also it may be discourage me from the Enterprize if I did not remember that once a contemptlble Sling and ordinary Pebble prostrated the prodigious man of Gath 1 Sam. 17.49 50 51. and overthrew an Army not less numerous or insolent than this with which I am to encounter I cannot tell whether some mens prevailing Fears and the desire of that security which they vainly hope to establish by what they call temper and moderation or the over tender Charity of others towards their (a) Who yet scorn that Epithete farther than it serves their interest and are Giants in their own opinion though in other mens and in truth more wilful than weak weak Brethren have hindred them from speaking plain But I have observed that most of those Prints which have of late days past the Press concerning them have been handled with as much niceness and caution as men with naked hands would treat the peevish Nettles or armed Brambles MUCH has been said written and printed in Vindication of the Church of England her Rites and Ceremonies But I find that these Apologies have always been rendred suspected of partiality and so made useless by the Heads of the Separation amongst their credulous Followers and being usually Books of a greater Price than every mans Pocket could easily reach and of a larger content than either that or their capacity could without trouble contain the ordinary sort of people being willing to spare both the expence of their Money and Time never come to a clear understanding of the Controversies but determine their Judgments according to the opinions and censures of their Heads to whom they have wholly resigned themselves and their Faith Now it is most undoubted that the Character which they will give of all such Writings is never free from partiality or ever favourable to any thing that is against their own Practice or Interest AND if at any time some of the more curious or inquisitive startled with the common Vogue demand of their infallible Rabbi what is his sense of the Learned and Judicious Mr. Hooker the pious Mr. Comber or the late incomparable both learned and mostest Mr. Falkner or of any other Pieces of that kind so highly cryed up by the Church of England-men he will not fail to do all he can to perswade them not to lose so much time in reading such frothy stuff which is nothing but untemper'd Mortar to dawb over the Temple of Antichrist which notwithstanding all that can be done to support it must down must fall very suddenly and that they may much better spend their precious time in reading the godly Works of such or such a man of his own Opinion with which Seditious Sermons the world is abominably pestered But that he may say something in answer to their Question Hooker of whom one may by his actions probably conjecture he never read more than the Title Page he will tell them writ against some factious spirits in Queen Elizabeth's days but that concerns not them And for the rest they will not want something to say against them which though it cannot enervate their masculine Arguments yet shall infallibly prejudice and sully either their reputation or intention in writing The Friendly Debate is an extravagant Droll Libertas Ecclesiastica was penn'd in hopes of Preferment the Companion to the Altar is no Companion fit for them the Rationale upon the Common-Prayer has no more Reason than what it wears upon the Frontispiece And though I do purposely conceal both my Name and Capacity and will not tell them whether I am a Lay-man or an Ecclesiastick nor shall all their industry find it out if I can prevent it yet I do expect the same or worse treatment and measure from them and to hear their Random-shot whistle about my Ears LET them say or think who I am or what they please of me and were that all the Liberty of Conscience they would desire or demand they should not fail of a willing and speedy gratification and I cannot therefore be thought unjust if I expect the same liberty which I would grant to others My intentions are to deal plainly with them and to proceed without favour or affection so far as I have the
I promise you in some Company where he thought he might be bold lamenting the looseness and vitiousness of the Times and the blame being laid at the Door of the Inferiour Magistrates who were so remiss in putting the Laws in Execution Pray says he how can it be otherwise when there are none in Authority but the God-damm'ees and though no former Prince has so highly obliged them as his present Majesty by the Act of Oblivion and a General Pardon since though possibly a better Temper and milder Inclinations are not to be found amongst all Mankind yet for all that I believe the Guards about White-hall at which they grumble so oft calling them a standing Army are a greater Security for him than their Love or Allegiance And I make no dispute but if they had Power proportionable to their Desires if he would not consent to their unreasonable Demands and in Effect depose himself they would make bold in plain English to un-King him and it may be something more as well as his Glorious Father whose Caution I think therefore ought never to be forgotten * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lady Elizabeth's Relation of what the King said to her immediately before his Death To Forgive them but never Trust them For what is a King to them if he be not one of the Elect and that he can never be unless he be of their Church and resolve to Establish their true and Evangelical Ways from which he must therefore be very far so long as he suffers the Laws and his subordinate Ministers of Justice to persecute these People who are the Elect the undoubted Children of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 16. upon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer-Book And as his late Majesty of blessed memory does in the forementioned Book not improbably Conjecture Possibly that aversion they all have for the Publique Litturgy of the Church is because it does so frequently pray for the King and the Royal Family to which in their Hearts they cannot say Amen and that the Conjecture is not wide of the Mark this following Instance will in some measure make apparent One of this Gang being amongst other Company entertain'd as a neighbour at a friends house immediately as soon as Dinner was done he steps out of the Room into a by Entry and a Clergy-man who was present returning thanks and as is customary and commendable closing his Grace with a short Prayer for the Kings Majesty the Queen and Royal Family this impudent Fellow was by those who stood next the Door heard scornfully and maliciously to say when he came to that Passage Oh! by all Means if it were not for that all were worth nothing and indeed it makes me apt to think that this is one if not the only Reason why they account all the Prayers of the Church worth nothing for they are not yet arrived to that Perfection in Christian Religion to love or pray for their Enemies in which number they never fail to put all Crowned and Mitred Heads How directly contrary this Doctrine is to the Divine Philanthropy the infinite Love of God to all Mankind and indeed to the whole Current and Consent of the Sacred Scriptures how dishonourable to God and disadvantageous to Christian Religion are Subjects already largely and learnedly treated of by other Pens And if as they fell in my Way I have lightly touched upon any of them it is only so far as they were necessary to shew how pernicious this Doctrine of theirs is to themselves and the salvation of their Souls how troublesome unquiet uncharitable and unchristian it is amongst their Neighbours How destructive it is to the Church and Ecclesiastical Government Places Persons and Performances and how irreconcileable and desperately dangerous it is to the State of the present Royal Dignity and Government CHAP. XIII Of their Doctrine of the necessity of Separation from the Wicked which they teach in Private and by their Example in Publick These uses they make of it to know their strength and numbers which they always boast of if possible to bring Authority to comply with their Desires hereby they engross a Trade amongst themselves Of their undermining Authority by making it contemptible by their daily affronting it Of the unlawfulness of Separation from the example of our Saviour and from Scripture Separation by St. Jude made a mark of Reprobation Jeroboams Policy the End of their Separation LET us now proceed to a second Doctrine which is he Spawn of the first and the Daughter of such a beautiful Mother cannot chuse but must be most admirable fair Being the Elect People of God those whom from all Eternity he has out of his infinite Love predestinated to Holiness and Happiness though they are in the World yet they are not of the World and therefore they must Separate from Sinners and be a peculiar People without which they think they are not sufficiently zealous of Good Works which in plain English is That whosoever will be of the Number of the Elect People of God must have no religious commerce with the rest of the World for all other he may and that a true Title to Heaven is only to be hoped for and had in their Church and Communion and by this means they advance the so necessary Point of Separation or Distinction of a Party without which Instruments their Spiritual Carnes and Engines to draw up the Stones after they have hew'd and fitted them by the former Doctrine they cannot go on with or ever hope to finish the New Model of their Church so as to set up the Corner-Stone and with joy and shouting cry Grace Grace unto it for they would only change his Grace of Canterbury into his Grace of Presbytery And this they manage with as little noise as possible and with the same Secrecy and Subtilty as the rest though some people say they can plainly hear the Axes and Hammers go perpetually Psal 77.6 which they lift up to break down the Carved Work of all the Houses of God in the Land in order to their setting up the Synagogues of Satan in the room of them If you discourse with them and put the Question Whether the Church of England is a true Church and whether Salvation may not be obtained in Communion with it They will do all they can to decline the Question and will certainly dissemble their Opinion by telling you They dare not judge every man must stand or fall to his own Master That they forbid or hinder none from coming to our Church whose Consciences will give them leave All which is only to avoid the Pinch of the Controversie and is neither better nor worse but what the Apostle S. Paul calls Speaking Lyes in Hypocrisie 1 Tim. 4.2 For it is evident that they think it unlawful because they abstain from our Church and refuse Communion with us themselves and should they speak never a Word to their
Disciples Example is a Tutor sufficiently able to instruct them in this part of their Duty And that Man or Woman either must have so little natural Logick as to be meer Naturals who cannot thus argue from Induction Such a man or Mr. is a pious good and conscientious man for he prayes by the Spirit is painful and powerful in preaching Soul-saving Gospel-Truths Now surely if it were not unlawful to go to the Church and hear those Prayers or receive the Sacrament he would not refuse to do it and abstain from them himself But he does abstain Nay might have kept or had a good Living if he would have conform'd which Good Man he relinquish'd or refus'd for Conscience-sake Therefore it is unlawful and I cannot fear to erre or be mistaken if I follow so good a pattern such a godly mans Example But though in publique they are always tender mouth'd of what may either discover their Wicked Designs or bring them under the unavoidable penalty of the Laws and are not a little cautious and circumspect where they are not assured that all the Ears and Tongues of the Assembly are at their Devotion and therefore will not speak plainly or positively yet they will deliver their Sence so as to be well enough understood That there ought to be no Communion with the Wicked and we know who they mean by that for what fellowship hath Light with Darkness Rev. 18.4 or God with Belial and therefore come out of her my People come out of Spiritual Babylon and Egypt and be not partakers of their Sins lest ye be likewise of their Plagues which latter part of the verse explains the former and informs us how far our Separation is lawful viz. from the Sins of the wicked World not from an outward Communion with the Visible Church And though there is no place suffers more frequently by their abuse of it I know none that favours them less if they would put the right Construction upon it And though they may be thus squeamish in Public yet in private discourse and where they are under the Rose or dare be confident that they shall not be betray'd they will explain their meaning and declare that the Church of England is Babylon her Worship Antichristian nay impious and blasphemous And this the Disciples propagate from one to another and are not so wary as their Teachers but having more zeal than prudence stick not to tell every body so with whom they fall into common converse and discourse and this Doctrine is usually left to the care of the Old Disciples to whose charge the new Proselyte is always committed and they never fail in the ample discharge of this Duty Should they propose it bare-fac't the uncharitableness of it would at first sight affright many and discourage more but this is Meat for strong Men not Milk fit for Babes and therefore it is worth our observation to see how artificially and by degrees they take their Novices from the Breast and with the common stratagem of Nurses they rub the beautiful Breasts of Consolation of the Mother-Church with the bitter Wormwood of their false aspersions or smear them over with the sooty black of their own Calumnies and so fright these Younglings from that sincere Milk of the Word which is able to save their Souls It is always some considerable time before any Young Disciple does absolutely forsake our Church and Communion nor do they usually feed them with this solid food of Separation till by their unnatural biting of their Mother they manifest that they have Teeth first he comes at the latter end of Prayers which by their tempering with him he now begins to dislike after a while having linger'd about the Church-yard for the Watch-word he drops in just as he hears the Psalm beginning to be sung before the Minister goes into the Pulpit then it may be he will miss a day or two and in time as he grows to a clearer Vnderstanding of this Doctrine that he is to have no fellowship with the Wicked and who those are he totally leaves the Church to which he rarely returns till he comes upon mens shoulders with his Heels forward to his own Funeral except to hear a Funeral Sermon for a deceased Friend or Relation Sometimes the temptation of saying Twenty pounds may persuade him to come once in a Month but then only to the Sermon which being ended he tumbles out of the Doors for fear he should be thought one of the Catholick Church by praying for it or have any share in the Peace of God which hating in his Life and Actions he will not suffer to enter into his Ears Though for all his haste this will not excuse the forfeiture which by the express words of the Statute is to be imposed upon all such as do not resort to their Parish-Church to hear Divine Service Now the advantages they receive by this Separation are principally these First hereby they come to know their Strength and Numbers and this adds not a little to their confidence and as they believe to their present Security from Punishment and future hopes of Tolleration if not Establishment And whosoever does but take notice of the frequent boasts they make how Considerable a part of the Nation they are must conclude that the knowledge of their Number is one great and main end of their Separation and that hereby they seem secretly to threaten their Superiours into a suspension of the execution of the Penal Laws against so great a Party whilst they sliely intimate how unsafe it is to meddle with a Multitude and disturb a Populace Secondly hereby they come to know and be known one to another which begets as much Love amongst them as they are capable of who are all Slaves to Vngenerous Interest Nor does this knowledge of one another a little advance the affairs of the Trading part of them of which sort of people their greatest numbers consist and who it may be became Proselytes only in hope of the Custome of the Brotherhood of which they assure themselves if they be ready Money Customers presently and if not such as soon as they can get clear of the Debt-Book of the Wicked with whom at present they are forced to deal and though some from experience are of another Opinion yet they question not but they shall have honest dealing and good pennyworths and possibly this ingrossing and forcing a Trade amongst themselves together with their avoiding all troublesome Offices in the lower Sphere of the State are not the least encouragements to their Separation nor the smallest steps to those Riches which they so much boast are amongst their Party for I remember it was their common discourse that the great want of Money and the sensible decay of Trade for these last Years before the Toleration was occasioned by their keeping up their Money or not giving down their Milk being it seems in a sullen Humour because they were kept within