in Doctrine shewing uncorruptness gravity sincerity sound speech that cannot be condemned that they that were of The contrary party were ashamed having no evil to say of them when I ordained Elders in every City I had men blameless sober just holy temperate whose judgements were setled whose passions were allayed whose affections were composed whose actions were advised and conversation exact and uniforme since every one did what was good in his own eyes My young Ministers have been unstable in all their ways unsetled in their minds rash in their undertaking imprudent in their carriage weak in their discourses unexperienced in their behaviour not even orderly and stayed in their conversation to the grief of good men who esteem all Ministers very highly in love for their works sake to the joy of those evil men that have ill-will for Sion who cry Aha aha so would we have it O young men who requireth these things at your hands Why do you run before I am willing to send you O how dare you take this Office uppon you until you are called with solemn preparation as was Aaron Are not you afraid now you have newly passed the elements of Philosophy â—nd the first principles of Nature to look into those mysteries which the Angels desire to look into to search into that knowledge which passeth knowledge Are not you afraid to ascend that pulpit whither Luther said he never ascended though very aged without fear and trembling are not you afraid to undertake that dreadful work from which the Prophets fled the Fathers avoided the Primitive Pastors trembled at Do you know what you do when you undertake to be Embassadors in Christs stead to bring back the world to God to be Co-workers with God in the salvation of souls to be Angels of the Church to be as Stars in Gods right hand to be Stewards of the Mysteries of God to watch for precious souls as they that must give an account How can you govern others who cannot govern your selves What power have you over others who have hardly any power over your selves What esteem can you find among them who will naturally dispise your youth Did not Philosophy think you fit O young men to hear Morals and shall Divinity admit you to read divine Lectures How can you in the heat of youth in the vigour of your lusts appear in the world perswading men to mortifie their lusts to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts With what hope can you endeavour to compose the world to that great Rule to which you cannot compose your selves How will you behave your selves as guides among persons whose years and experience are so much beyond yours How impertinently will you converse how weakly will you discourse how imprudently will you deal how contemptibly will you live among a staid and discreet people wiser then you in their Generations The goodness of God having furnished man with two chief Instruments saith an incomparable man both necessary for this life hands to exercise and a mind to devise great things the one is not profitable longer then the vigour of youth doth strengthen it nor the other greatly till age and experience have brought it to perfection SECT 2. Of Debauched Men ordained 1500. OH am I as Juhan blasphemed the sanctuary of all prophaneness Am I a refuge for all licentiousness Whom a strict Colledge expels whom the severe University discountenanceth whom civil men note with a mark of hatred and abhorrence must I admit to my sacred Order and honour with my most solemn Ministrations My care is that each Minister should be of an holy and unblameable conversation What have these poor creatures to do to take Gods word held forth by me in their mouths seeing they hate to be reformed O my reverend Sons what do you bring a man to teach the world a God and his service Who is without God in the World What do you send them to speak of that God who is not in all their thoughts Why are they employed to propogate the knowledge of God who desire that the knowledge of the holy One may cease from them To what purpose do they preach an holy Life who never intend to live it Why do they put those poor souls to pray for those things of God which they do not desire to read that Bible which they do not believe to bind those heavy burthens upon the people which they themselves do not intend to bear to teach that on the Sabbath demurely which they will contradict throughout the Week profanely Is there any need of authorizing publick patterns of impiety Do you intend to destroy what ye have built I know you not Why then do you send lewd Ministers to teach men by an evil example that prophaneness which I have endeavoured to reform by my good instructions Wo is me that I see those within me running to all excels of riot who are imployed to teach a pure Religion and undefiled before God. You O reverend Fathers taught men to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly justly and godly in this present world and will you suffer men to go from among you to teach all ungodliness and worldly lusts O alas one man a Divine and a Beast What consecrated to God and devoted to sin An abomination in the holy place Behold thou art called a Minister and restest in the Law and makest thy boast of God and knowest his will and approvest the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the Law and art confident that thou thy self art a Guide to the blind a light to them which are in darkness an Instructer of the foolish a Teacher of babes which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth of the Law thou therefore that teachest another teachest thou not thy self thou that preachest a man should not steal dost thou steal thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery dost thou commit adultery thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge thou that makest thy boast of the Law through beeaking the Law dishonourest thou God for the Name of God is blasphemed among the people through you SECT 3. Of Vnlearned Men Ordained I Am ashamed that that ignorance which formerly found preferment should now find orders too and that I should settle them legally in that calling whereunto I alwayes said they had illegally intruded themselves It was too much to suffer that daring ignorance to Vsurp the sacred Office much more to consecrate it to it The late Miscarriage want nothing to compleat them but to be hallowed The Catholick Church never entertained a Ministry but what was qualified either with extraordinary gifts from above or with humane learning from below by which the mind being instructed and improved in all the riches of wisdom and knowledge which are part of the glory and image of God in man by this learning all truths are clearly unfolded How do you think poor souls can clear divine truths
whole Christian World which either is or would be governed by Bishops as the most Apostolick Primitive and Universal Way Would you have me disown the right succession of the power Ministerial conferred by Episcopal hands unto this day Shall the Jewish Church have the Heads of their Tribes as Bishops and Rulers over their Brethren the Priests and Levites and the Christian Church in imitation of them as in other particulars so in this have their Apostles Evangelists their Pastors and Teachers without reproach and may not I O it is certain that what is once well done in a regular publick way is ever after done as to the permanency of that vertue that is always in a great and good example Shall I lay aside Primitive and right Episcopacy which hath such grounds from Scripture both as to the divine wisdom so ordering his Church among the Jews as also by the example Precept and Direction evident from our Lord Jesus Christ and the holy Apostles in the New Testament who preferred worthy persons for their Piety Zeal and holy Gravity to exercise a Christian authority over Ministers and people for their souls good which might consist with charity and humility for the preservation of the Churches peace and purity in the best and primitive times such grave persons as for their Age were Fathers for their innocency Saints for their industry Labourers for constancy Confessors for zeal Martyrs for charity Brethren for their light Angels and venerable for all Excellencies And I own no other Bishops but such in whom are remarkable the vertues of the most ancient and imitable Bishops the Industry of St. Austin the Courage of St. Ambrose the Devotion of St. Gregory the Learning of Nazianzen the Eloquence of St. Chrysostome the Mildness of St. Cyprian the Love of St. Ignatius the Constancy of St. Polycarp the Nobleness of St. Basil and those come nearest the Apostolical pattern and resemble the most of any Christians or Ministers the Grace and Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ I endeavour that my Bishops may be among Christians the most faithful among Men the most civil among Preachers the most painful among Orators the most perswasive among Governours the most moderate among pious Men the most fervent among Professors the most forward among severe Men the most exact among Sufferers the most patient among Perseverants the most constant the most compleat every way and perfect unto every good work These I take care should be duely chosen should be esteemed with honour and reverenced with love My Rule to them is That they should over-rule with vigilance should rule with joynt counsel neither levelled with younger Preachers and Novices nor exalted too much above the grave and Elder I allow these men an honourable competencie with eminency wherewith they may exercise a large heart and liberal hand which may conciliate a general respect and deserve the common Love. My direction to them is that their vertue and piety may preserve the Authority of their places and this is the order peace and dignity of the Church that they may be the Touchstone of Truth the Loadstone of Love the Standard of Faith the Pattern of Holiness the Pillars of Stability and the Centres of Vnity such as the Erroneous may hate the Factious envy good men may love and bad men may Fear 2. Can ye blame my Doctrine approved by the Reformed and agreeable with the Primitive Church a doctrine according to godliness teaching all men that denying all ungodliness and worldly lust they should live righteously soberly and godly in this present world 3. Do you find fault with my Devotion in the publick worship of God by Confession prayers praises Psalms and other holy Oblations of a Rational and Evangelical service offered up to our God by the joint piety of all my children the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Communi Oratio where nothing is expressed as my mind which I thought not agreeable with the mind of Gods spirit in the Scripture nor do I know any part of it to which a judicious Christian might not in Faith say Amen taking the expressions of it in that pious and benign sense which the Church intended and the words may well bear Indeed the whole composure of my Liturgy is in my judgement so wholesome so holy so compleat so discreet so devout so useful so savoury so well-advised that I find nothing in the eighteen Liturgies composed in the Eastern and Western Church that is excellent but is in this of mine and many things which are less clear or necessary in them are better expressed or wisely omitted here the whole being so ordered as might best inform all peoples understandings stir up their affections and quicken their devotions in a wholesome form of sound words such as Moses David the Prophets and the Lord Jesus left behind them solemnly recorded in the Scriptures So that according to the primitive care I first laid down Scripture grounds in the Creeds and Confessions and then I enlarged and fixed my Liturgies and devotions as near as I could to the majesty solemnity and exactness unanimity and fulness of publick Prayers upon all holy publick occasions so plainly that the devout soul knows well what it should desire of God and so affectionately that it earnestly desires in it what it knoweth God alloweth and so uniformly that it peaceably goeth along with the Congregation with one mind and one heart in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace 4. Is it the Rites and Ceremonies I impose that displease you Alas I find the God of Heaven which we worship in England enjoyning more Ceremonies on his own people and forbidding no holy custom to any Christians in order to advance the decency and order of his service or Christians mutual edification and joint devotion under the Gospel Our blessed Saviour hath by his spirit guiding the pens and practises of the Apostles sufficiently manifested the Power and Liberty given the Church and the Governours of it for the choice and use of such decent customs Rites and Ceremonies not as divine institutions upon the consciences butashumane injunctions upon the practises as agree with godly manners and the truth of the Gospel and may best serve for order decency peace solemnity and mutual edification of Christians agreed upon by publick consent in which every ones vote is personally or vertually included It 's true as the Liturgy so the Ceremonies have something of Rome in them for to deal plainly I did freely and justly assert to my own use and Gods glory whatever upon due tryal I found to have the stamp of Gods truth and grace or the Churches wisdom and charity upon it I would not refuse any good I found amongst them because it was mixed with some evil but trying all things I held fast that which was good being intent upon the great ends of piety devotion and charity It 's true I enjoyn my
wrong or to manifest unto them the necessity of making such a change CHAP. III. The Church of England's resentment of scandalous Profaneness OH you my Sons why do you these things for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people Oh Sirs my God above looks upon you and is provoked the blessed Angels see you their fellow-servants for you area spectacle to God Angels are grieved wicked men observe you blaspheme God good men behold you are ashamed Is it for this that you are delivered that you may work wickedness Hath God punished you and will you yet sin more and more Will not twelve years sufferings reform you will not twenty years reproaches awake you will not miracles of judgement deter you from evil will not miracles of mercy oblige you to good Oh despise you the riches of Gods goodness towards you not knowing that the goodness of God should lead you to repentance But after your hardness and impenitency of heart will you treasure up more wrath against another day of wrath Is this the return you make to a gracious God to dishonour him Is this your kindnesse to me to undoe me Is this you gratitude for the publick favours of King and Parliament to be utterly unworthy Religion hath honoured you with a high Calling you betray it your Prince vouchsafed you Royal Favours you shame him honest people afford you their pity and compassion you deceive them Is this your kindness to your friends I saw indeed the late scandalous Centuries but I neglected them as slanders and calumnies I heard the late complaints and outcries but slighted them as I do envy malice and hatred Dreadful things were daily suggested against you great things were daily offered for you the Faction reviled the Orthodox maintained you sober men writ for you but now you consute them holy men excused you but you contradict them good and great men spoke for you but who will now believe them Must you needs justifie Malice it self Must you needs justifie what Uncharitableness it self durst not suggest against you Do you hear what they say There there go your Ministers If you hear not what they say see what you are You are the salt of the earth if the salt now loose its savour wherewith shall it be salted it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men You are the salt yet how unsavoury you are the light of the world and do you walk as children of light are you burning are you shining lights Oh your carelesness Oh your indifferency in matter of Religion Oh how negligently you do the work of the Lord while you know God is serious in the Word he speaks in the Judgements he aflicts in the Mercies he bestows when you know Christ is serious in redeeming souls the holy Spirit is serious in sanctifying them the Devil is serious in undoing them the whole Creation is serious round about you How you Triffle with immortal souls how you play with the great and terrible work of the Ministry how formally you do pray how nnconcernedly you do preach how vain and unprofitably do you discourse how unevenly do you walk What do you speak for Eternity do you preach for Immortality Are you sent of God Are you here to save souls and yet Gallio-like care for none of those things Wo is me to see you walk in the counsel of the ungodly stand in the way of sinners and sit in the seat of the scornful whose delight should be in the Law of the Lord in whose law you should meditate day and night What the same man laugh at Religion and preach it the same soul Droll upon serious Holiness in company and yet urge it in the great Congregation What perswade men to vertue in the Pulpit and laugh men out of it in the Parlour Where is that serious Holiness that crowned that solemn Gravity that adorned that severe Vertue that advanced my sober Ministers my Reverend Pastors and holy men Where is thy pious Spirit devout HALL where is thy gracious Temper excellent VSHER where is thy even and setled Frame serious HAMMOND where is thy vertuous deportment Famous MORTON where is thy rational well-weighed and stayed soul O venerable SANDERSON In England as in Rama there is a voice heard lamentation and weeping and great mourning I as Rachel weeping for my excellent children but they are not Wo is me for your Covetousness O ye my sons that you instruct men for another world yet look not beyond this that you who are sent to teach men to live by faith should yet live by sense that you who teach faith the evidence of things not seen should yet eye only the things which are seen O shame self-denial is the great duty you enjoyn self-seeking is the great sin you are guilty of Love not the world is one of the most remarkable Axiomes of our Religion Love the world is the considerablest rule of your lives I have coveted no mans silver or gold saith the Apostle Oh what say you I seek not yours but you saith he I seek not you but yours saith you Neither at any time used I a cloak for covetousness God is my witness saith the Apostle Oh what you have done God and men are witness Give me the souls saith Abraham take thou the goods give us the goods say you take you the souls Is to live to Christ in this sense thy gain is to die to him thy advantage Alas Alas Oh your debauched courses you vile and sordid souls An holy Calling and an unholy Life Spiritual persons and yet live after the flesh a clean Garment and an unclean heart servants of God and yet servants of sin reverend in your Function and yet shamefully in your Lives a Minister and yet given to Wine a Priest and yet wanton in holy Orders and yet in riotous Disorder walk circumspectly and yet reel a man devoted to the Study and the Closet in chambering and wantonness conversation in heaven and in Ale-houses and Taverns study Eternity and yet trifle away time stand at the Communion of Saints yet sit down in the company of scorners Oh these things ought not to be Thus vile you are and yet you are proud thus dishonouring your selves and yet ambitious Learne of me said Christ for I am meek and lowly Look upon you you are proud and Lordly I made you Ministers for the service of souls you advance your selves to be Rulers I taught every soul of you to be subject you are impatient of subjection Humility and meekness was the glory of my Ministers haughtiness and pride is your shame Were you raised by the favour of God and men lately to be high now God remembred and man pitied you in your low estate God will remember and man will punish you in your high estate You humbled your selves and you were exalted you exalt your selves and you may be made low Oh
to heart alledging that they saw no more Religion in the world then Interest and Gain they knew not what to do to be saved Alas you are not sensible that there may be hundreds in Hell that you looked not after cursing the day that ever you were born that ever you were sent into the World that there should be so many Wretches that lived only to damn men If it be a Charge you desire why do you not attend unto that flock over which the holy Ghost made you overseers Why do you not in that calling wherein you are called abide with God Is it possible for you to serve two Cures you will hold to the one and despise or neglect the other and is it possible for you to be saved Lord what if you gained the World at the rate of undoing souls Do you consider that the bread you eat is the price of souls How can you eat with comfort and think Oh some of my charge may be now going to Eternity and I prepared them not How can you sleep securely and think Some of my charge may awake to morrow in another World whether of Wo or Well I know not How can you die peaceably and think Where shall we meet the many souls that have gone before us out of our Congregations Oh where are ye O immortal souls with God or for ever departed from the presence of the Lord Oh did you ever read that of St. Bernard Qui non unus sed plures in beneficiis non unus sed plures in suppliâ—iis If you pity not me once again by these courses decaying if you pity not poor souls by this means perishing Oh pity your selves and have mercy upon your own fouls Alas that men should be educated chargeably should study diligently should be ordained solemnly to delude souls to mock God to deceive the world and undoe men for two or three or four hundred pounds yearly during a short life that you should appear in a Pulpit if yet you do appear in a Pulpit for a little Maintenance that you should appear very solemnly every Sunday only to put a trick upon God and men I hope better things of you and things that accompany salvation though thus I speak In the Primitive times every Church of so many souls as are of your Parishes had many Ministers whereof the ablest speakers did most in publick and the rest did the more of the less publick work which some mistake for ruling Elders but now one of you takes the care of many Churches The Popish times I mean years 632. could divide England into Parishes for the better discharging of the cure of souls our times unite those Parishes again for the better maintenance of pride and vanity Is it for this that we are reformed is it for this we are Protestants then each Parish had their Ministers to pray with them ferventlie to teach them faithfully to comfort them seasonablie to converse with them usefully Ah! in quae nos reservamur tempora Now now my people are neglected my buildings are ruined my hospitality is lost my authority is shrunk and faln and the Church of England is thought to be nothing else but the interest of a few crafty Clergymen ordering all things to their best advantage Though Envy may know and Prejudice it self may consider I am a Church made up of godly and religious men Princes Nobles Gentry Bishops Ministers and people maintaing an Orthodox Doctrine a Primitive Government a pure and orderly Worship a severe Discipline and a Christian Communion in Word and Sacrament who have forbid these extravagancies by wholsome Laws checked them by severe Canons and disallowed them by fair and just means imaginable In the darkest and most superstitious times I ordered That no Monks i. e. idle persons should take Livings of Bishops or appropriate the Revenues of them to themselves but that the Priests serving those Cures and the Churches might be provided with necessaries Do you know why Monks were pulled down in H. 8. time Lay it to heart I beseech you for many look for your fall too 1. They were accused for engrossing Wealth and trade and do you hear what the world saith of you 2. They were accused for impoverishing Parish-Priests and decrying Preaching as ministring Matter of Schism and Disputes and magnifying their own performances of Prayer and Devotion by which and other Artifices they undermined the poor Priests and procured that many Churches presentative with their Glebes and Tyths were appropriated to their Covents leaving but a poor pittance for the Parish-Vicar This was the occasion of the first Impropriations I pray God your carelesness doth not occasion another Oh remember Robert Whitgifts the Abbot of Wellow's speech who was wont to say That they and their Religion could not long continue because said he I have read the whole Scripture over and over and never found that Monasteries and I may add pluralities were founded by God for said the honest Abbot every planting which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up Do you remember that Lay-parliament in King H. 8. his time wherein the Nobles and Commons assembled signified to the King that the Temporal profession of Abbots Priors c. vainly spent would suffice to find 150 Earls 1500 Knights 6200 Esquires 100 Hospitals do you remember those Mock-Parliaments that often considered how many 1000 men your Tythes ill bestowed upon you as they thought would maintain You were once undone now are you made whole I beseech you my sons sin no more lest a worse thing come unto you Bishop Jewel on 1 Thes p. 71. Forasmuch brethren as we were kept from you for a season concerning sight but not in heart we are enforced the more to see your face with great desire Therefore we would have come unto you I Paul at least once or twice but Satan hindred us Such a zeal and care had he over the people of God. Oh in what case then are they that are careless and have no regard of the people of God! which hunt after Livings and bend not themselves to do good which serve their own belly and seek to be rich and eat up the people of God as if they were bread they cannot say they have a desire to see the face of their flock and that their heart is with them howsoever they find time for other matters they can never take time to know their sheep and they do the work of the Ministry among them they care not for them they think not of them they plant not they water not they watch not they give no warning of the dangers at hand they teach them not to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world It were happy if all such were removed out of the Church of God they destroy the souls and lead them to destruction by their negligence What account shall they give unto God for the souls
whose the holy Ghost was but to Peter one of the Stewards of the manifold gifts of God. Object I am civil to the Steward Answ How read you 2 King 5. 20. c. Gehazi the servant of Elisha the man of God said Behold my Master hath spared Naaman the Syrian in not receiving at his hands that which he brought but as the Lord liveth I will run after him and take somewhat of him So Gehazi followed after him and when Naaman saw him running after him he lighted down from the Chariot to meet him and said Is all well and he said all is well my master hath sent me saying Behold even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the Sons of the Prophets give them I pray thee a talent of silver and two changes of garments And Naaman said Be content take two talents and he urged him and bound two talents of silver in two bags with two changes of Garments and laid them upon two of his servants and they bare them before him And when he came to the tower he took them from their hand and bestowed them in the house and he let the men go and they departed But he went in and stood before his Master and Elisha said unto him Whence comest thou Gehazi And he said Thy servant went no whither And he said unto him Went not my heart with thee when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee is it a time to receive money and to receive garments and Olive-yards and vineyards and Sheep and Oxen and men-servants and maid-servants the Leprosie therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee and unto thy seed for ever And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow Object Yes let Gehazi look to that Sol. Is it a sin in him to receive a gift and is it not a sin in you to give it Object I only laid a wager bought a horse married my Patrons daughter or gave bond to refigne Sol. Fie fie Are you called to be Ministers Do your duty you may look for your due and make no terms with men for what God freely gives you Will you add a cheat to your Sacriledge rob God and put a trick upon the Law is this is this to obey for conscience sake Object I only bought an Advowson Sol. If you cannot buy a living when it is void how can you buy it over another mans head when it is not What do you aim at in the Advowson Do you aim at the good of souls those souls are provided for already Do you aim at the benefit of the place O unworthy man What embrace the present world is the Tythe a Ministers what need you buy it aforehand Is it the peoples why do you take it at all 2. And is the Church grown so contemptible that it may be bought and sold for money Is Preferment rather a prize for the Richest then a reward for the Worthiest who will spend their dayes in serious studie and their life in wearisome retirement and their estates in a chargeable education and at last must either buy their preferment or live neglected and die unobserved what ingenious man can endure tedious allowance unsupportable fees intollerable baffles and not retire to his Closet and there give himself to dispondency and dispair cursing the day wherein he was born and the years wherein he was bred up saying as Elijah secretly to his soul Lord it is enough take away my life since I have out-lived the glory of the Church the honour of my Calling the encouragements of Parts and Worth I cannot live usefully O that I might die comfortably 3. Have I no true Ministers but a Generation of Demasses that embrace the present world Have I no Ministers called of God that will live upon God none that can trust God with their maintenance Will you all crouch for the Priests office only that you may eat a Morsel of bread will you all degrade your selves and buy and sell your sacred persons and employments Justly would the Catholick Church have degraded you Can. ap 10. Conc. Chalc. 2. Conc. Aurias 14. And will you go on making merchandize of the Word and will you go on in the Ministry out of filthie lucre and not out of a ready mind Thus thus are my worthy Sons laid aside the unworthy are promoted my people perish my Religion decaies my enemies break in upon me and I have only here and there one to stand by me The weak the scandalous that came in by Simonie betray me Oh sacred Majesty O ye the honourable Nobility O ye worthy Gentlemen let it be your honour that you can dispose of Livings to the glory of God the honour of the Church and your own comfort let it be your shame that you make any advantage of your Livings to the dishonour of God the danger of the Church and the ruine of souls O ye ingenious Ministers content your selves rather that you deserve Preferment then endeavour to enjoy them in this vile unworthy and dangerous way never stoop to these low terms be rather buried in an honest privacie then appear with a publick infamy Non si nunc olim sic erit Oh sacred and august Authority of King and Parliament own your former Laws vindicate your Authority meet meet this threatning mischief set a watch upon Patrons and their Stewards frown upon the reaching Clergy find out the Panders of Symonie that lie about town and set up as it were an Office for abomination Take heed O ye Patrons how you lay the Childs portion in a Parsonage and devour that which is holie and after make an enquirie forcing the hopeful Youth to begin with Perjury and commence with Sacriledge Oh! words fail me I must leave with you the excellent Jewel's words to Queen Elizabeth 1561. The Livings of such as are in the Ministry are not in their hands to whom they are due they seldom pass now adayes from the Patron if he be no better then a Gentleman but either for the Lease or present money Such Merchants are broken into the Church of God a great deal more intolerable then were they whom Christ whipt out of the Temple Thus they who should be careful for Gods Church that should be Patrons to provide for the consciences of the people and to place among them a learned Minister who might be able to preach the Word to them in season and out of season and to fulfill his Ministry seek their own and not that which is Iesus Christs they serve not Iesus Christ but their belly and this is done not in one County in one place but throughout all England Oh mercifull God whither will this grow at the last If the misery which this Plague worketh would reach but to one Age it were intolerable it will be a Plague to Posterity it will be the decay and desolation of Gods Church Young men see this and they are weary and