own Authority This as to the Thing it self We shall now see it in the EFFECTS §. 2. The Fruits of a Toleration A THis is that Diabolical Liberty says Beza Confess Fid. Eccl. l. 5. de sect 44. which hath filled Polonia and Transilvania with so many Plagues of Opinions Reader that thou mayst discern the mischief of Ecclesiastical Anarchy the monstrousness of the much-affected Toleration and be warned to be wise to Sobriety and fear and suspect the pretended New Lights I approve that this Treatise discovering the Gangrene of so many strange Opinions should be Imprinted James Cranfords License to the First Part of Edward's Gangrena B You have most Noble Senators done worthily against Papists Prelates and Scandalous Ministers in casting down Images Altars Crucifixes throwing out Ceremonies c. but what have you done against other kindes of growing Evils Heresie Schism Disorder against Seekers Anabaptists Antinomians Brownists Libertines and other Sects You have destroy'd Baal and his Priests but have you been zealous against Golden Calves and the Priests of the Lowest of the People You have put down the Book of Common-Prayer and there are many among Us that put down the Scriptures slighting yea blaspheming them You have broken down Images of the Trinity Christ Virgin Mary Apostles And we have those who overthrow the Doctrine of the Trinity oppose the Divinity of Christ speak evil of the Virgin Mary slight the Apostles You have cast out the Bishops and their Officers and we have many that cast down to the ground all Ministers in all the Reformed Churches You have cast out Ceremonies in the Sacraments as the Crosse Kneeling at the Lords Supper and we have many cast out the Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper The Sects have been growing upon us ever since the first year of your sitting and have every year encreased more and more things have been bad a great while but this last year they are grown Intolerable And if Schism Heresie c. be let alone and rise proportionably for one year longer we shall need no Cavaliers nor Enemies from without to destroy us Ib. Epist. Ded. to the Lords and Commons C The Independent Churches like Africa do breed and bring forth the Monsters of Anabaptism Antinomianism Familism Nay that huge Monster and old flying Serpent of the Mortality of the Soul Antapologia P. 262. D As John Baptist wore a Leathern Girdle So the Doctrine that he preach'd was Leathern Doctrine Saltmarsh's Serm. at the Bath E The Saints are those that are now stiled Anabaptists Familists Antinonians Independents Sectaries c. The First party that rose against you namely the Prophane ones of the Land are fallen under you and now there is another Party Formalists and Carnal Gospellers rising up against you c. Del's Serm. to the General and Officers June 7. 1646. F Shall the Presbyterians Orthodox Godly Ministers be so cold as to let Anabaptism Brownism Antinomianism Libertinism Independency come in upon us and sleep in a whole skin Gangren Par. 1.91 G When Cartwright Hildersham Travers and many other gracious Divines by the blessing of God upon their Great diligence had undermined and well near overthrown the Episcopal Sees and all the Cathedral Ceremonies Incontinent the Generation of the Separatists did start up c. Bayly's Disswasive Pag. 12. H The famous City of London is become an Amsterdam Separation from our Churches is Countenanc'd Toleration is cry'd up Authority lyeth asleep c. Calamy's Serm. to the Lord Mayor Jan. 14. 1645. Pag. 3. Divisions whether they be Ecclesiastical or Political in Kingdoms Cityes or Familyes are Infallible Causes of Ruine to Kingdoms Cities and Families Serm. to the Lords Dec. 25. 1642. I Diversity of Religion disjoynts and distracts the Minds of men and is the Seminary of Perpetual Hatreds Jealousies Seditions Wars if any thing in the world be and in a little time either a Schism in the State begets a Schism in the Church or a Schism in the Church begets a Schism in the State c. Once for all it is the Preservation and Reservation of Religion which you have Covenanted to endeavour and not a Liberty of Opinion which will consist with neither Newcomen Serm. to Parl. Sept. 12. 1644. K Independents the most Pharisaical proud envious and malicious Sect that ever sprung up Bastwicks Independency not Gods Ordinance Wild-geese Old-geese sticklers against Parliaments and Presbytery Fighters against God Violaters of all the Laws of God and Nature a company of Rats among Joyn'd-stools not worthy to give guts to a Bear Moon-calves c. Id. Postscr Pa. 12.32 34 36. c. L The Errours and Innovations under which we so much groan'd of Latter years were but Tolerabiles Ineptiae tolerable Trifles Childrens-Play compar'd with these Damnable Doctrines Doctrines of Devils as the Apostle calls them Polygamy Arbitrary Divorce Mortality of the Soul No Ministry no Churches no Ordinances no Scripture Yea the very Divinity of Christ and the Holy Ghost question'd by some denyed by Others and the very Foundation of all these layd in such a Schism of boundless Liberty of Conscience c. Serm. before the Commons Aug. 22. 1645. Pag. 29. M The Scriptures deny'd to be the word of God Only of Human Authority Insufficient and Uncertain Edward's Gangrena Pag. 15. God has a hand in and is the Authour of the Sinfulness of his People P. 16. The Soul dies with the Body In the Unity of God there is not a Trinity of Persons Nor Three distinct Persons in the Divine Essence but only Three Offices Pag. 17. That Christs human Nature is deâ—led with Original Sin That no man shall perish or go to Hell for any Sin but Unbelief only Pag. 18. That men may be saved without Christ. That there is no Original Sin in us only Adams first sin was Original Sin Pag. 20. That the Doctrine of Repentance is a Soul-destroying Doctrine Pag. 21. c. N A Minister in Hertfordshire bringing a place of Scripture against an Anabaptist which he could not Answer said It was the Weakness of the Apostle and there he wanted the Spirit Pag. 33. Part. 1. Some of the Sectaryes Plead Miracles Revelations Visions as Christs appearing to an Anabaptist and forbidding her to baptize her Child Pag. 58. And their dressing up a Cat like a Childe Ibid. O One Cozens of Rochester in Kent sayd that Jesus Christ was a Bastard and that if he were upon the earth again he would be asham'd of many things he then did Ibid. Pag. 105. Oh Lord Thine Honour is now at stake for now O Lord Antichrist hath drawn his sword against thy Christ and if our Enemies prevail thou wilt lose thine Honour Strickland at Southampton Jun. 9. 1643. If thou dost not finish the good Work which thou hast begun in the Reformation of the Church thou wilt shew thy self to be the God of Confusion and such a one as by Cunning Stratagem hast contrived the Destruction of thine own
THE DISSENTER'S Sayings In Requital for L'Estrange's Sayings Published in Their Own Words FOR THE INFORMATION OF THE PEOPLE By Roger L'Estrange LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in St. Paul's-Church-Iard 1681. TO THE READER AMong the Curiosities of This Latter Age the Invention of Transmitting unto After-Times the Apothegms and Sayings of Men Famous in their Generations with a He being Dead yet Speaketh for the Motto is in my Opinion not the least Considerable This is the Sweet Oyntment that has Perfum'd the Memory of the Late Kings Judges the Sufferers of the Kirk Militant and the whole Band of Covenanted Martyrs that have Finished their Testimony on the wrong Side of the Pale What a Comfort is it for a Man in the Contemplation of his Future State to say with the Reverend Mr. Baxter Saints Everlasting Rest pag. 100. Then shall ye be with Pym and White c. Your Names shall be Chanted with Their Names Your Sayings Recorded with Their Sayings c. This Din may do well enough when a Man's Bones are laid and his Head past Aking But to see my Self Embalm'd before My Time and Serenaded with Mr. Roger L' Estrange's Sayings with Brief Notes to prevent Mis-apprehensions c. It looks methinks like the Inviting a Man to his own Funeral And in few Words I was not so very Hasty but I could have waited till the Complement might have come on in due Season This is precisely the Seven and Thirty'th Civility of This Kind that I have Received within less than Two Months from the True Protestant Dissenters Which truly I look upon but as so many empty Casks thrown out to divert me from sinking the Rotten Barque they are Engag'd in These Learned Pieces I know very well are Compos'd and Publish'd at the Charge and for the Service of our Ignatian Society So that I cannot pitch upon a more suitable way of Acknowledgment than to Oppose SAYINGS to SAYINGS the Dissenters Sayings to L'Estrange's Sayings fairly and impartially Reported and in such manner Digested and Dispos'd that the Reader shall find every Article of the Subject in Question unanswerably Refuted by their Own Lips and Pens Conscience Fighting against Conscience Text against Text Practice against Pretense and the whole Meddling Party from One End of the Controversy to the Other laying violent Hands upon Themselves So that there shall need no Other Plea for the Government than the very Arguments of those that Contend so eagerly against it Every Party still as it was Uppermost serving it self of the Same Scriptures and Weapons against the Opposition of the Under-Schismaticks which the Lawful Magistrate does employ for his own Support against the whole Body of the Schism In This Extract or Collection the Reader may phansy himself to be gotten into the Phanaticks Tyring-Room where he sees all their Dresses and Disguises their Shifts of Masques and Habits their Change of Scenes their Artificial Thunders and False Fires Nay the very Buggs and Devils that they fright Fools and Children with at a Distance to be no more Near hand than Paint and Canvass You have here laid open to you the Mystery of the Work to the very Springs and Wheels that make the Motion Play Their Deeds of Darkness brought to Light their very Souls Expos'd their Pleas and Consciences still varying with their Fortunes Or in One Word You have here the Dissenters Picture to the Life of their own Drawing Upon That Fruitless Conference at the Savoy where His Majesty did all that was possible for Him to do to Gratify the Importunities of an Ungrateful and Insatiable Party without Laying the Church and the Crown at their Feet And the Treaty brake off in effect because the King would not part with the Rest What did they do but instead of Submitting to some Accommodable Alterations in the Service-Book as was propounded wholly Abolish the Liturgy of the Church and Publish a Directory of their Own with Miserable Complaints and Appeals to the People that they could not prevail so much as to be Heard How much are they beholden to Me then for bringing them to the Fairest Hearing here that ever Men had for they shall have their Own Choyce the Multitude for their Judges and They Themselves shall be allow'd to be their Own Advocates And in Truth there will need no more when every Man of them is both Plaintiff and Defendent within Himself and his own Right Hand a Witness against his Left POST-SCRIPT JUst as I was hurrying away this Sheet to the Press out comes The Protestant Mercury If he had called it The Protestant Cheat or Cuckold a Body might have guess'd at the Authors of it by Their Names On April 3. say They Mr. L'Estrange thought fit to Take the Sacrament at his Parish-Church St. Giles in the Fields and was observed To Whisper the Minister some time before he did Receive But he would do well in his next Pamphlet to tell those that still suspect him how oft and where and when he came to That Holy Table in Sixteen Years Time before the Discovery of the Popish Plot and before he was Publickly question'd for being a Papist It is true that I Received the Blessed Sacrament as above and Whisper'd also to the Minister the Learned and Reverend Dr. Sharp and the very Words I Whispered were These So let God deal with Me as I am Clear not only of Popery but of All the Things that have been Sworn against me that look towards it Now for the further Satisfaction of Knaves and Fools for no other that know Me and my Circumstances can pretend to suspect me let them Ask Mr. Gatford Minister of St. Dionis Backchurch a Worthy Divine if I have not several times Received the Holy Sacraments from his Hand and in my Parish-Church too long and late before the Discovery of the Popish Plot. To say nothing of Hundreds of other Witnesses that I could produce in my Justification if the Triple League of Mercenary Libellers were worthy of it AUTHORITIES Cited in This WORK BAstwick Burton Jenkins Junius Brutus Baxter Buchaman Case Mene Tekel Knox Burroughs Marshall Poor Mans's Cup. Strickland Jus Populi Calamy Goodwyn Bond Brooks Manton Saltmarsh Love Del. Herle Nonsuch Charles Cartwright Fenner Caryl Faircloth Owen Gilby Goodman Cockaine Bridges Simpson Ward Vdal Crosse Newcomen Spurstoe Salwey Martin Junior Snape Holms Edwards Young Gillespy Evans Robinson Cosens Penry King Kid. Mitchel Guthery Crab a Felt-maker Hobson a Taylor Mellish a Cobler Debman a Cooper Heath a Coller-maker Potter a Smith Durance a Wash-Ball-Man Green a Felt-maker Spencer a Coach-man Rice a Tinker Field a Bodies-maker Crew a Taylor c. Dissenters Sayings c. §. 1. Of Toleration A A Toleration is against the Nature of Reformation a Reformation and a Toleration are diametrically opposite The Apologists in Petitioning for a Toleration have not only broken the Covenant themselves but they endeavour by all their Wit and Art to bring the Parliament and
up in Blood and One that never suck'd in any other Principles but Prerogative and Tyranny Ibid. Pag. 23. M. Charles the First rather chose to submit to the Justice of an Ax in a Hangman's Hand than to sway a Scepter with Equity None-such Charles Pag. 167. Notes on Sect. 5. YOu have here A the Strain and Spirit of a True Covenanting-Brother And they all sing the same Note For they do not only Abjure the Government but they Abjure Repentance too swearing never to make Defection to the Contrary Part But all the Days of their Lives Zealously and Constantly continue therein against All Opposition and promote the same accordingly to their Power against all Lets and Impediments whatsoever In B you find the Petitioner for Indulgence Excommunicating his Sovereign The Paraphrase of C is according to the Stile of This Age only crying No Tory No Courtier at an Election the branding of Honest Men with being Popishly affected and he that will not run Riot with the Rabble is made a Pensioner of France D. and E. Complaining of Persecution In F. you see what work the Doctor makes with the Defender of the Faith G H. I.K.L. are as so many Daggers in the Heart of Sovereignty it self But it is according to the Principles of the True Protestants of Munster that still begin with Religion and end with Treason Pray say if it be not a thousand pities now after all these Complements upon His Sacred Majesty and His Blessed Father that these High-flown Dissenters should not be taken into the Government When these People set up for Pillars of the Church it were a kind of Injustice not to Allow the Kings Judges to put in too for Ministers of State Sect. 6. The Presbyterians Opinion of the Covenant 1. BE astonished O Heavens and tremble O Earth Let the Sun it self be cloath'd in Blackness at this so horrid an Impiety What! Abjure such a Covenant A Covenant so solemnly taken A Covenant for the Matter of it so Religious so Holy c. And must This Covenant be Abjur'd now This Covenant Is not God's Own Word and God Himself too after a sort Abjured in That Act whoever are guilty of it c. The Highest of all Crimes imaginable a Crime that murthers Conscience that murthers Souls that murthers Religion it self a Crime against the First Table most immediately against the Sovereign God and the greatest of that Nature that Men can be guilty of Speeches of the three Regicides Pag. 5. and 6. The Cause says Bark stead lies in the Bosom of Christ and as sure as Christ rose the Cause will rise again Ibid. Pag. 16. I die cleaving to all those Oaths vows and Protestations that were imposed by the Two Houses of Parliament as owning them and dying with my Judgment for them Love 's Tryal Printed Aug. 1652. The convincing Demonstration that there lies no Obligation on me or any other Person from the Oath commonly call'd The Solemn League and Covenant is a Knot cut by the Sword of Authority while it cannot be loosed by Religious Reason Short Survey of the Grand Case Pag. 23.1663 O the Burning of the Covenant in England and the Causes of Wrath in Scotland shall certainly be follow'd with such a Fine and Fierceness of Indignation as shall make Authors Actors Abetters and Rejoycers thereat know what it is to give such an open defiance to the Almighty A Covenant Burnt and Burnt by Authority in the sight of Heaven with such Hell-black Solemnities where the great God is altera pars contrabens for Reformation of Religion according to his Word and Righteousness in walking before him is such a Sin as may make every Soul to tremble at the fore-thoughts of what God will do for vindicating his Glory from that Contempt thereby cast upon him I wish that the Burning of that City into Ashes where that Covenant was Burnt together with that None-such Plague and War may make them take warning ere it be too late who did this Wickedness O England England I fear I fear thy Woe hasteneth the Wrath of God is upon the Wing against thee both for breach of Covenant and wiping thy mouth as if thou hadst done nothing amiss Thou hast stood and seen thy Brothers Day Alas for thy Day when Others shall stand aloof from thee for fear of sharing in thy Judgments Poor Mans Cup c. Pag. 19. We shall not nor cannot enter upon the particular Declaration of that Grace Constancy and Courage by which the Lords Faithful Witnesses were sustein'd and did bear Testimony to the Word of his Truth the Holy Covenant and the Cause and Work of God Napthali Pag. 162. I bear my Witness unto the National Covenant of Scotland and Solemn League and Covenant betwixt the Three Kingdoms of Scotland England and Ireland These Sacred Solemn Publique Oaths of God I believe can be loosed nor dispensed with by no Person or Power upon Earth Napthali Pag. 207. I bear my Witness and Testimony to the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries Synods and General Assemblies Popery and Prelacy and all the Trumpery of Service and Ceremonies that wait upon them I do abhor I do bear my Witness unto the National Covenant of Scotland and Solemn League and Covenant c. The Testimony of James Guthrie Minister at his Death at Edinbourgh June 1. 1661. And so of every Man of the Party that Dy'd for the Rebellion in Scotland Notes on Sect. 6. BY This Covenant was designed the Subversion of the Government and by the force of This Covenant it was accomplish'd They do all of them assert the Obligation of it to the very Death and by virtue of This Covenant it is that they have Confederated afresh in Scotland to murther the King and all that serve under Him Now if This be their Principle let any Man consider the Consequence of admitting any Unrenouncing Covenanter by an Act of Special Grace into the Government after so full a Proof and Exposition of the Meaning of That Covenant and so frank a Declaration of their Resolution to make it good Sect. 7. Dissenters Liberty of Conscience THe Scots did not only resolve to take the Covenant themselves but enjoyn'd it throughout the whole Kingdom Sir Henry Vane's Speech at a Common Hall Octob. 27. 1643. Page 4. They enjoyned it upon the Penalties that those that should not take it or should defer it should be esteem'd Enemies to Religion to his Majesties Honor and to the good of the Two Kingdoms that they should have all their Rents and Profits Confiscate That they should brook nor enjoy any Office or Benefit in that Kingdom that they should be cited to the next Parliament to Answer the not taking of it and to be proceeded with there as Enemies to the State and to Religion and to receive such farther Punishment as by the King and Parliament should be put upon them Ibid. Page 5. And that particular
to lay the King by the Heels Let the Reader take Notice that These are not the Wild Speculations of sick-brain'd Phanatiques but Positions Rooted in the very Foundations of the Separation Subversive of the very Ordinance of Government and not only asserted by Votes and Arguments but put in practice upon the Lives and Liberties both of Prince and People Sect. 10. Tumults Encourag'd and chiefly by the Able Holy Faithful Laborious and Truly Peaceable Preachers of the Gospel Petition for Peace Pag. 4. A THe Land is sore Troubled there 's no place nor being for a faithful Minister of the Word Our Blood cryeth for Vengeance against the Bishops If This Persecution be not provided for 't is the Case of many a Thousand in England great Troubles will come of it Dan. Pos. L. 2. Cap. 10. It astonishes us to foresee what Doleful Effects our Divisions would produce Proposals Pag. 12.1661 B The Act for suppressing Conventicles is a Law dishonourable to God destructive to the Gospel and pernicious to most of the sober People of the Nation Quaeries upon the Proclamation for enforcing the Laws against Conventicles c. Pag. 12. Qu. Whether the Saints ought not to continue the assemblies of their Worship of God without or against the Consent of their Magistrates they being commanded so to do Matth. 28.18 19 20. Heb. 10.25 c. Pag. 14. C When the Ark of God is taken the Ministers of Christ are driven into Corners the Souls of our Wives and Children are in danger to miscarry Calamy's Serm. Dec. 28. 1662. Pag. 8 Where are our Moseses our Eliah's Where are those that lay to heart the danger of the Ark of God Pag. 10. It is not your Wicked Ministers that can settle the Ark It is not your Prophane Drunken Ministers No it must be your Godly Sober Pious and Religious Ministers Pag. 17 18. D That Truth for Owning of which you are put to suffer the loss of all things is that very Truth for which Christ himself suffer'd as a Martyr viz. That He was a King Yea he is a King and will be a King when You are gone and will prove himself higher than the Kings of the Earth by rescinding of Your Supremacy that Idol of his Indignation and Object of his Revenge Of a Truth Lord against thy Holy Child JESUS whom thou hast annointed are all these gathered together and it is for our owning of Him as Thy Annointed and refusing to be on that Conspiracy that we are thus used The Poor Mans Cup of Cold Water Minister'd to the Saints and Sufferers for Christ in Scotland Pag. 13.1678 E We saw the Blood of these Blessed Saints and Martyrs the Scotch Rebels of Jesus shed We saw the Frame of our Government Dissolv'd and Overturn'd We saw an Act. Recissory the Wickedness whereof reached Heaven We saw Abominable and Abjured Episcopacy re-establish'd by Law and the Faithful Ministers of Christ driven from their Flocks Thus we saw Jericho Rebuilt and so the Nation became a Curse being so deeply and so deliberately involved into the Guilt of Open Owned Avouched and by Law established Perjury Now what did we in the mean time Alas we had not the Spirit of the Day in its Day c. Poor Mans Cup Pag. 20. F Beloved Brethren Albeit God hath put and ordained distinction betwixt King and Subjects yet in hope of the Life to come he hath made all equal And therefore I say that it doth no less appertain to You to be assured that your Faith and Religion be grounded and established upon the True and Undoubted Word of God than to your Princes or Rulers And to You it doth no less appertain than to your King or Princes to provide that Christ Jesus be truly Preach'd amongst you Jus Populi Pag. 215. G They Deifie a Creature and renounce their Homage to the King of Kings and so provoke him to destroy both Them and their King by their Apostacy and wicked Defection and that openly before Men and Angels as David hanged up the Sons of Saul before the Sun And then they need not fear either Dag or Dagger Pistol or Poyson'd Ponyard Ibid. Pag. 414. H Come my Brethren I say and fear not to take this Agag Prelacy I mean not the Prelates and hew it to pieces before the Lord. Case's Covenant Renew'd Pag. 51. I Down with Baal's Altars down with Baal's Priests c. Salwey's Sermon to the Commons Octob. 25. 1643. Pag. 19. K I may truly say as the Martyr did That if I had as many Lives as Hairs on my Head I would be willing to sacrifice all those Lives in this Cause Mr. Calamy's Speech at Guildhal Octob. 6. 1643. L Let no Law hinder you Si jus violandum c. And if Law be to be broken it is for a Crown and therefore for Religion Simpson on Prov. 8.15.16 Pag. 23. You are set over Kingdoms to root out pull down destroy and throw down do it quickly do it throughly Ibid. Pag. 24. M Who were they but the poorer and meaner sort of People that at the first joyn'd with the Ministers to raise the Building of Reformation Marshal's Serm. June 15. 1643. Pag. 15. N Here is an extraordinary appearance of so many Ministers to encourage you in This Cause that you may see how real the Godly Ministry in England is unto This Cause Calamy's Speech at Guild-hall Octob. 6. 1643. O To You of the Honourable House Up for the Matter belongs to You We even all the Godly Ministers of the Country will be with You. Faircloth to the Commons on Josh. 7.25 Pag. 29. Let not the Pretence of Peace and Unity cool your Fervour or make you spare to oppose your selves unto those idle and Idolized Ceremonies against which we dispute Dispute against English-Popish Ceremonies Pag. 11. P A Word to the People Are Magistrates your Servants Then learn to be Wise and know your Priviledges for time to come and be not frighted out of your Right and Reason at once by those Traytors and Rebels who would make you believe that it is Treason and Rebellion to call Them to account for the Treason and Rebellion they are Guilty of Mene Tekel Pag. 41. Parliaments are the Peoples Servants The King Judges Justices Mayors Constables and all other Magistrates or Officers are our Servants to protect us and secure us from Violence and Oppression If they break their Trust and Oppress us the Law of God and Nature allows us to call our Servants to account punish them according to their Deserts and turn them out of our Service Ibid. Alas poor England thy Shepherds are become Robbers thy Princes within thee are Roaring Lions thy Judges are Ravening Wolves c. Pag. 46. What Authority had a Parliament to give away our Birth-Rights to enslave the Corporations and Counties that sent them up to assert their Freedoms and to expose us to the Lusts of Wicked Oppressors to give away the Militia of the Land to the King