change indeavouring an alteration in the Establilsh't Government for such an humour the word signifies such Persons as are Sorte suâ minimè contenti a description so exactly suiting with the querulous humour of these People that all the Art in the World cannot coyn a fitter And to conclude all Emphatically These are they which separate themselves Animal having not the Spirit how highly soever they may pretend to it nor having made a further progress in Religion than what is meer Sensitive or Animal as the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies such natural attainments as without Grace men may and many Heathens have attained to unless they may be said to exceed them in the Confidence of proclaiming their own Worth and Merits Thus do they stand guilty by the Verdict of Christ and his Apostles and if we must Judge of them by their fruits and by the fore-mentioned signs whether they are False Prophets and Wolves in Sheeps clothing then here is Separation Sedition Contention Disobedience Despising of Dignities speaking evil of Dominions Wrath Strife slanderous and false accusations of their Sober Pious and Lawful Superiours and much more of the same Nature of which they stand daily convicted by their Preaching and Practice LET them now if they can shew that the Church of England does either teach or allow any of these things forbidden by Christ or the Gospel or that any one of these signs of False Prophets do agree to them And let all the World judge if the true Sons of the Church are not the true Ministers of Righteousness AS for their Impeachment against us as guilty of Idolatry and Superstition all the Art they have used for near this hundred Years has not been able to go further in the proof of it than a bare saying so and that though pronounced never so Magisterially will amount to no more than a seeble Womans Argument They are so because they are so Ergo they are guilty of Idolatry and Superstition Which may be good Logick amongst their silly Apron Disciples but will never pass muster any where else AND for their slander That our Clergy especially the Prelates are so much inclined to Popery I know not whether it has more Malice or falshhood in it For they cannot be ignorant how learnedly some former Bishops and some of the present Clergy have defended the Protestant Cause against all the Champions of Rome and have shewn the forgeries and feign'd Miracles upon which that Church has built her Usurpations how amply have they satisfied the World that we have not left Rome as anciently Christian till Rome had first left the Ancient Catholick-Apostolick Faith and Truth AND however the Men of this Party made the great and learned Arch-bishop Laud so much a Papist as for that suspicion or imputation to lose his Head they are obliged to that Head which we lost more than He And the best Arms they can employ against the Papists they must be forc'd to borrow out of his Magazine and so long as that Incomparable Piece of his against Fisher continues in the World it will be an Eternal Monument of his Learning Piety and firmness in the Protestant Doctrine and of their falsehood and Cruelty in depriving our Church and the whole Protestant cause of such an able Chief and expert Commander and for no other Crimes but his Loyalty to his Prince his Constancy to the Church and his wearing the Sacred and Venerable Miter Crimes great enough if They were Judges to take off the Heads of all the Bishops in the World THEY cannot but know how many several times before a Man comes from a Colledge to a Cathedral he must take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiaâ—â—e and renounce the Church of Rome and therefore they must suppose That all these Pious and Reverend Fathers will make no scruple of Perjury of which if ever they return to the obedience of the Pope they must be most horribly guilty but the truth is they care not how much they suppose them guilty and never think they can render them odious enough though by the most improbable slanders which their Malice can invent God forgive them for it for sure they know not what they do CHAP. XX. THE CONCLVSION AND now having found them thus guilty I know they will say I am a Man of a persecuting Spirit a Reprobate a Machiavellian a hard word they use to brand their Enemies withall and which most of their Party know not what it means whether a man or a Devil or something worse if it could be But it has been the hard measure of those whose names I do so reverence that it will be the greatest honour they can do me to put me in the Rear of them The Captain of our Salvation was said to be a Samaritan and to have a Devil and the great Apostle tells us he was by some accounted their Enemy because he told them the Truth and so long as the World indures it will be so For Obsequium Amicos Veritas odium parit Flattery will for a while procure many Friends but great is the Truth and will prevail though it raises a Man never so many Enemies And if it shall be said All Truths are not fit for all times I must make that Necessity plead for me which can do violence to Nature and which made the Son of Crassus who before was Dumb break his Silence with Regem nolite occidere And it would make the dumb Ass speak the second time if she were alive to reprove the madness of these Prophets who run on in the Wayes of Balaam to curse a Church and People whom the Lord hath Blessed and they shall be blessed when these their Enemies shall inherit the Woe and perish in the Gainsaying of Corah The very Geese will awaken the Gauls when they hear the Barbarous Gauls secretly creeping up the Hill to surprize the Capitol And the silly Curs will bark when they hear the Evening Wolf coming towards the Fold to worry the Sheep Danger opens every Eye and Fear will open any Mouth I do not question but to run through various Censures and am ever since I was at School acquainted with the Fate of Books Pro captu Lectoris habent sua fata Libelli And though it is uncommon yet give me leave to close this Discourse with what is usually the begining of others something to the Reader which I do not because I love innovations but because I hate long Prefaces and will not be a Pimp to my own Pen or Court the coy to cast their Eyes upon the following Sheets with Epistolary Rhetorick I had rather have People read if they think good and then judge than judge by the Elaborate Front and after read what it may be they will not like and meet with Eger Wine after all the Promises of the Carved and Gilded Bush All I have to say for my self is That if I have not done so well as I should I have done as well as I could and am sure I shall deceive no expectation because nothing was ever expected from me IF the judicious shall tax me of two much Levity there is to entertain the greatest Sobriety even under those little lightnesses serious truths and it was the humour of the Age which has violenc'd my Inclinations with which even Truth is hardly palatable without the Ragoust of Droll and Burlesque AS for the Aiery and pleasant they will think it too serious and so it is to play withall and if it may not by diverting advantage them I shall not be offended if they chuse what they like better AS for my Friends in which Number I reckon all those that love their Country Prince Laws Liberty and Religion they will certainly pardon the Defective Effects of that Zeal and Passion I have for them and their Interests though in some things to the severity of Criticks especially the prejudiced I may appear to have been so far transported as to seem blind AND for my Enemies to shew them I am a Church of England Man I will forgive them and pray for them though for speaking out too plain they hate me persecute my Fame or despightfully use my Reputation and it may be I am too intent upon Affairs of greater concern than to turn again and pelt Stones at the Dogs that bark at me or to be angry because I am dasht and bespatter'd in dirty Ways which whoever travels in the same Road of Truth that I have must of necessity expect and though a great Man tells us Of Writing Books there is no End I will hope there will be such an End as proceeds from there being no necessity of such Books because no occasion for them Dabit Deus his quoque Finem FINIS A Catalogue of some Books printed for Jonathan Edwin at the three Roses in Ludgate-street THE True Liberty and Dominion of Conscience vindicated from the usurpations and abuses of Opinion and Perswasion in Octavo Christian Ethicks or Divine Morality opening the way to Blessedness by the rules of Virtue and Reason by Tho. Traherne B.D. Octavo Roman Forgeries or A true Account of False Records discovering the Impostures and counterfeit Antiquities of the Church of Rome by the same Author Octavo Daily Devotions consisting of Thanksgiving Confessions and Prayers in two parts by an humble Penitent in 120. The Causes and Remedies of the Distempers of the Times in certain Discourses of Obedience and Disobedience Octavo
Beloved as I came hither I saw that place of Idolatry naming the Cathedral Ah! poor Souls A pitiful man I warrant him thought I with my self that live in that place of Superstition what will become of you but you my friends are not in darkness but under the precious Sunshine of the Gospel-Light And so he went on And in truth the treatment which these Sacred and Venerable Places met with in the time of their Empire is sufficient to convince us of that respect and kindness they have for them Our Lord upbraids the Wicked Jews for making the House of God which was to be a House of Prayer for all Nations a Den of Theeves and a house of Merchandize what may we then think of those Men who once made St. Pauls whose very Ruins are one of the Wonders of the World not only a publique Exchange and a Den of Theeves but of Murderers a stable for Horses far more innocent Beasts and less Brutish than their Riders and if ever there were Hippocentaurs in the World it was they for the Horse and Man were both of a piece It were a pretty Subject for a Romance and so great was the impiety that future Ages will scarcely believe it any other to relate the Pious Adventures of the Knights Errant of those dayes what fierce Battels they had with the painted Glass Windows with Christ and his twelve Apostles the Saints and Martyrs Where-ever they met with them they were sure to suffer in Effigie How many right Doughty Knights they overthrew and kill'd over and over after they had been dead some Ages only because their Superstitious Marbles were in the idolatrous posture of Kneeling and more certainly Praying to some Popish Saint in the neighbouring window In vain was it that they had taken Sanctuary in those Holy Places they could not protect themselves nor be at rest till by their looking like Skeletons they gave an ample testimony to all that saw them that they were Dead and as they thought beyond the hopes of a Resurrection though God be praised in that particular they were no true Prophets and we have seen those dry Bones live and flourish again Long may they do so Long live and flourish And here I cannot omit a pleasant passage which happened at a place where Ireton had his Quarters in the late times and which I have since seen In his zeal against Images at the Church whose windows were very Beautiful he made all the twelve Apostles and many other Saints suffer a second Martyrdom only the Picture of the old Dragon vomiting the Flames of Hell out of his Mouth was spared and for old acquaintance left intire and undefaced which was then by the Inhabitants taken notice of and who was his Saint not without applying the proverb Like to Like quoth the Devil to the Collier But had these Men power I am satisfied they could make good use of the Places even the same that Judas would have had made of the precious Oyntment Jo. 12.5 sell them and give them to the Poor and 't is easie to guess who those are for though they abhor Idols Rom. 2.22 as they account these places yet they think it no Sin to commit Sacriledge and we may remember that some of the Cathedrals were once exposed to Sale though as it was observed the gains the purchasers made of their Bargains was like Aurum Tholosanum which made all those who had it die Beggars and miserable But the Persons are their greatest Eye-sore being as they complain Goads in their Sides and Thorns in their Eyes the Houses and Inheritance might do them good if the present owners were but dispossessed of them and at this they strike fair whilest they perswade the People all they can that the present Office of a Bishop as it is in use in the Church of England is a meer humane invention That by the Bible Bishops and Presbyters are all one That they Lord it over the Flock of Christ and that their Authority which with so much Rigor they Exercise over the Church of God and especially over tender Consciences and good Men is a meer Tyrannical Vsurpation upon the Liberties of their fellow Labourers in the Gospel They are not altogether so busie upon this Theme in Publique as formerly they were when their Tongues were their own and there was no Lord over them not so much as Soveraign Lord or Lord Bishop to restrain them which were brave Dayes of Liberty indeed But I make no Question but they ply it in Private and I am the apter to believe it because the unwary now and then blab it out And it was but the other day that one of this Tribe a little heated with discourse could say before a great many Persons of a contrary Judgment to his What do you think the Bishops fit to govern the Church undoubtedly He did not nor do any of them and had not his fear pull'd him by the sleeve and given a check to his overforward Tongue no doubt but he would have produced all the strong Reasons of the Cabal for the proving of the Negative And this I dare confidently affirm that there is not one in a hundred of them who have drunk of this Poison but hate the present Office if not the Person of a Bishop who may have done them much Good but never any injury and possibly one whom they never saw in all their Lives Did the Commons of England understand what great Immunities and Priviledges they possess by the perswasions and powerful influences of some former Bishops upon our Kings and the Laws they would find that they have a great deal of Reason to Love and Honour the present Bishops for the sake of their Predecessors My Design being not so much to pretend to the full Determination of Controversies as to discover the secret practices of these dangerous People I will not undertake the Quarrel nor undervalue those Reverend Fathers of the Church by taking up the Gantlet for them lest under the pretence of doing them Justice by my ill Managery of so great and good a Cause I might affront and injure both them and it I was always of the Opinion that every man is not a fit Combatant for all Truths and I have not yet shaken hands with that Modesty which hitherto has made me esteem my self of their Number who may want Ability rather than Will or Courage to do them service And indeed as they are sufficiently able without calling Auxiliaries to their assistance they have already several of them vindicated their own Cause Office Institution Succession and whatever does concern them so learnedly fully and Effectually that it were but to light a Candle to the Sun for me to go about it Leaving them therefore to the Management of their own Affairs let us return to our Propose and having heard what are the Opinions of these Dissenters concernign the Places and Persons we now come to take their
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 and Courage to Rebels The same Doctrine of Fatality taught by Mahomet to inspire the Turks with Courage against the Christians LET us now see whether these Principles render them better Subjects to the State than Sons to the Church And I am afraid we shall find them as prejudicial to the safety of the one as to the Peace and Tranquillity of the other If it be rational to argue from Effects to Causes we shall need no other Demonstration to assure us of the Dangerous natures of these Men and Opinions than the known and undeniable matters of Fact so largely treated of in the Histoty of Presbytery Wherein is fully shewn the Original Rise and growth of this pernicious Doctrine the Mother of all those Younger Sects Factions and Divisions amongst us in matters of Religion It was begotten born and nur'st up at Geneva in Rebellion and from thence this Amazon Lady this Penthesilea furens Ducit Amazonidum Lunatis agmina Peltis Penthesilea furins mediisque in millibus ardet march'd attended with Fire and Sword Ruine call'd Reformation in the Van and Desolation in the Rear through the greatest part of Europe over a Red Sea of Blood as well as Salt Water into Scotland and from thence with the Directory in one hand and the Sword in the other a Solemn League and Covenant as smooth as Oyl in her mouth when drawn Swords War and Rebellion were in her Heart she came along with the Northern Army into England and there spent her force and fury and I hope her last and dying Efforts upon these Miserable Nations So that one may truly say of this Doctrine as the Poet does of Comets Nunquam in terris spectatu impune Cometes This new Light of the Gospel how bright and shining soever was a portentous Blazing-star which did not only presage but wherever its dreadful Beams displaid their Malignant Influences it did produce Sedition and Rebellion Murther and Sacriledge Desolation and Destruction Ruine and Confusion The consideration of which dismal Revolutions methinks were enough to make the greatest Phanatique fall heartily to his Litany and pray Good Lord deliver us If this be Religion Sit anima mea cum Philosophis For I doubt not but a good sober Indians Hell will be far more tolerable than such Mens Heaven as were guilty of all these Mischiefs can be without Repentance and Amendment I intimated before how little kindness they have for Monarchy or indeed for any Nobility Gentry or Magistracy unless it be to countenance patronize and Support their Designs and how inclinable they are to dislike and hate that Government which opposes their Interests or crosses their Intentions of a Reformation and possibly there are not many who would not be of my Persuasion had they but heard them speak with that feeling kindness as they will do of the late times of Rebellion Oh how much Sin was suppressed Godly Men incouraged and the Sabbath Sanctified to what they are now in these Dayes of Licentiousness and undoubtedly that Aristocratick Government or rather Democracy Anarchy or Confusion for I know not what to term it it was so Mercurial is still the Darling of their Memories Oh! the happy dayes when there was no King in Israel but every man had liberty of Conscience and did that which was right and good in his own Eyes Oh that sweet and precious Time that dear Liberty of Conscience when there was no King no Bishop no Fines no Imprisonments for Religion but the Gospel ran on Couragiously conquering and to Conquer that is to say when Club Law and the Law of the Sword put them out of the Danger of the Sword of the Law and Justice It is a most convincing Argument that they think the present Government and Governers Tyrannical and Heathenish when they do so often tax them with being guilty of persecuting the People of God and unless we are not only blind but stupid we cannot but perceive that they do most Passionately wish and pray that the Kingdome may be the Lords and that the Saints may Rule the World that is once again have the Honour which Hugh Peters applied to the then Saints To bind their Kings with Chains Psal 149. C. 7.8 and their Nobles with Fetters of Iron And had they but Power that the high praises of God might be in their Mouths whilst a two-edged Sword was in their hands no doubt is to be made but they would be forward enough to fulfill their part of the prediction in Executing Vengeance upon the Heathen-Governours and punishment upon all the People who would not say or act like them Let them now with their usual dissimulation deny all such Intentions and in truth there is an unlucky Proverb that will hinder their Confession for if they confess this they are sure to be hang'd for Treason as they well deserve Let them pretend never so much Innocence all the World shall never perswade me till I am divested of my Reason that there is any person who would not willingly shake off that Yoak which is so uneasie to him and which as he verily believes is unjustly and unlawfully imposed upon his neck Credat Judaeus appella And however the ordinary sort of People whose prospect looks little further than to morrow may have no intentions that are so black and dangerous yet undoubtedly the Heads of the Faction who have ever been observed to be subtile and Designing men are for an Alteration of the Government Ecclesiastical and Civil and they well know how easie it is to lead a Populace by the Nose with the plausible pretences of Piety Reformation Gods Glory and Liberty of Conscience to do what they please by telling him it is necessary to be done for the attainment of those Ends. Thus have I seen Clouds gather in the Skie cloathed with fleeces of the brightest Wool and shining with a counterfeit borrowed light to which nothing was comparable but the Sun that lent it Who could but admire their glory or suspect so much light and whiteness to be Dangerous and yet nothing is more common than for such Glouds to be charged with the most dangerous and terrible Principles of Thunder Lightning Storms and Tempests which when ever they break out which is soon perceived by the Changing into black and growing numerous then let whatsoever is Eminent beware a Clap the high Towers of Government and Steeples of Religion are sure to suffer for it For Feriunt summos Fulgura Montes Lightning th' Artilery of the Skie Strikes the Hills that highest lie I will make no scruple to apply the Comparison to these sort of Men who as St. Peter tells us in his plain description of them are Clouds carried with a Tempest And to make this
which by experience are found so dangerous to the Souls Bodies and Estates of Men both in their Private and Publique Capacities It is their idolizing of Preaching making it the Golden Calf of Beth-el the House of God and exalting it above all other means of Grace It is their justling with it for precedency and not that only but the All of Godliness or at least the sine qua non without which according to their Measure and Manner there can be no true Religion which the Church condemns in them and with very good Cause for it is a most manifest falshood and the Bishops are so far from being against Preaching that many of them are very eminent and constant Preachers themselves to the Confusion of this notorious Slander notwithstanding that which as Saint Paul sayes of himself comes upon them dayly the Care of all the Churches in the heavy as well as honourable Charge of Government But the plain truth is This is so necessary a Tool that if it be taken away they cannot go forward with their Babel without this they could not be able to Caress the People or conveniently to disperse their Opinions nor indeed make any tolerable advance in their Grand Design and therefore Silencing Godly Ministers of which Number they only account themselves is one of the most horrid Cruelties that Perfection can invent though unless their Tongues were out it is as easie to Silence a Thunder-clap and they are all like the Aspen-leaves of which the Story sayes a Wicked Womans Tongue was made the more the wind of Persecution blows upon them the faster do they wagg To conclude it is not for their preaching of Christ or the Gossel but for their prating with such malicious Words against Kings Prelates Magistrates Prayers and all Government Ecclesiastical and Civil for which the Laws as well as out Church condemns them and is against their Preaching 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 denying 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 Design manifested from their great Industry in all late New Elections of Members of the 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 betwixt the Two Houses and of the great Desire they have of a New Parliament and their hopes when that shall happen THere are several other Doctrines of theirs which I shall only briefly touch upon in order to a Discovery of what is their Design in maintaining them though they may deserve a just reprehension from some other Pen. One of them is their teaching the People to Judaize by making a Sabbath of the Lords Day not that I believe with all their turning over they can find any thing in the New Testament for countenancing their New Opinion or for the Institution of it And though possibly the Disciples might have some intimation from our Lord about it Yet having not left any thing upon Holy Record that they had the more probable Opinion is that in Commemoration of the Glorious Resurrection they keep it as a Festival and that it is to the Ancient Vsage and Command of the Church that it ows its Institution and that they never intended it for the Sabbath in a strict and Jewish sense we have the same Ancient Vsage to testifie and it was and still is the Ancient and present Quarrel of the Jews against the Christians that they break the Sabbath not only as to the Day but as to the strict Observation of it even on the Lords Day which they take for the Christian Sabbath And methinks that is strange that these men should cry out so against us for observing Dayes and but using the name of ALTAR Heb. 13.10 We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat who serve the Tabernacle for both which we have Scripture and Authority to justifie us should yet think it is no Crime in them to seek for a refuge for their Error by being obliged to the Sanction of the Law for a Sabbath And how they will make one part of the Commandment mutable by changing the Day from Saturday to Sunday and the other part eternal and unalterable without an express Warrant from him who is Lord of the Sabbath I confess it poses my Vnderstanding for as I take it they can shew no Deputation to be his Vice-Gerents But if there were nothing worse though I think this an Error I should not deny them my Vote to be Jewes and enjoy their Sabbath and think it as great a Sin to dress a good Dinner on that Day as to commit Murder or Adultery Provided they would keep it a Day of Rest from those ill Employments they have so often and still do abuse it to as well as their Fasts which were always observed to be the Prologues to Mischief or raising of Money They who are for Liberty let them not condemn the Lawful Liberty of others nor impose what they have neither Warrant nor Command for upon mens Consciences as absolutely necessary to Salvation But the truth of the Business is as they have no Doctrine without an Vse so they have severall very ill ones for this for besides that it adds not a little to that opinion of Sanctimony which is so necessary for them to cover their Black Designs by the rigid Austerity they this Day impose upon themselves and others The great Vse they make of it is to lessen the Esteeem of the Holy Fasts and Festivals of the Church which they say are mere Superstitious inventions of Men forbidden by Saint Paul where he tells the Galathians he had bestowed upon them Labour in vain if they observed days and years but the Sabbath is of Gods own appointment and to be Sanctified according to their Doctrine So long therefore as they put it to these Employments as they do in their frequent Preaching upon it to make a Distinction of a PARTY and to bring not onely our Christian but Politique Liberty into Bondage I think it is not without Danger as well though not so much as the rest As for that strange Doctrine which I have heard several of them maintain That all their Ancestors and even their own Children who dye in their Infancy are damned because they have not actual Faith or had not the true Faith as they have it is a great Uncharitableness but no injury to the Dead who are never the further off from Heaven for their saying so But this is a necessary Corollary to their former Doctrine or Predestination and of their being the only Elect for not only all Heathens but all others who are not of their Faith and Perswasion are damned and that till
it should be so You are Men of Peace and Religion certainly you have no other Sword but that of the Spirit Marp A Worm if it be troden upon it will turn again Kingl. Very good but so will not a Sheep when it is led to the Slaughter I understand you But God be praised the Curst Cow has short Hornes You yet want a Parliament for your purpose and I hope long will The Militia is out of your reach and there are Guards enough and no more than enough about White-hall to hinder insolent Petitioners from affronting Majesty and crying your old stinking Fish No Bishop So that whatever your intentions may be I perswade my self you are too wary to betray your Good Cause by shewing both your Weakness and Wickedness at the same time Marp Well! for all this I hope the Lord will not forsake his People or suffer us to lose so many good men Kingl. It is strange this should be a loss when the outright loss of 10000 better men in a Battel to secure or obtain our Peace would not be thought a loss but an advantage to the Publick and hereby not only their Lives but many thousands may be saved hereafter for any thing we know Marp Sir You create fears to your self which we are far from the thoughts of Kingl. You do well to lull us asleep with singing Peace Peace Hush Lullaby Baby But if there be such fears of Mutinies now what may there be some years hence when you are grown so strong and numerous as by compulsion to endeavour to obtain those Demands which now you dare not petition for Marp We for Compulsion we are utterly against it and for Liberty of Conscience for all Men. Kingl. You tell us so now but what would you say if hereafter your Contagion should spread it self amongst those Persons who ought to be the defence of the Royal Person our Laws Property and Religion amongst those who may come to be Elected Members And here a great deal of Company coming in and the House beginning to fill they broke off their Discourse and presently after went both one way out of the Door though they seemed to be of far different Wayes in other things and so I lost the diversion of their further converse but not the remembrance of what then passed or at least the principal part and substance of it Clandite jam rivos pueri CHAP. XVIII The Heads of Separation brought to tryal 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 false Prophet THAT these Heads of Faction may see that I for my own particular Part have a mind to be serious with them and that I am in sober earnest and so far past the Lusoria arma that I will close in with them and come ad Triarios and to satisfie all those whose strength of Prejudice or Interest does not render them utterly incapable of Satisfaction I do cite them before their own Judges the Scriptures let us therefore fore impartially examine the Character and then in God's Name Detur dignissimo let it be awarded to those who deserve it most THAT there shall arise false Apostles false Prophets and false Teachers in the Church of God we can make no doubt having so much and so plain Scripture for it so many Caveats given us against them S. Mat. 7.15 Beware of false Prophets saith our great Lord and Saviour which come to you in Sheeps Clothing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves Take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my Name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many S. Mat. 24.4 5. S. Mark 13.5 22 23. False Prophets and false Christs shall arise ands shew Signs and Wonders to seduce if it were possible the very Elect but take ye heed behold I have foretold you all things For I know saith S. Paul that after my departing shall grievous Wolves enter in amongst you Acts 20.29 30. Also of your own selves shall Men arise speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them Therefore watch And S. Peter is in the same mind But there were false Prophets amongst the People 2. S. Pet. 2.1 2. even as there shall be false Teachers amongst you who primly shall bring in or as the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies shall insinuate by the By Damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them Denying or scarcely owning that he is the Propitiation for the Sins of all the World And many shall follow their pernicious ways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their wayes which come from Apollyon and are destructive to themselves to the Peace Unity and Safety of the Church and State by reason of whom the Way of Truth shall be evil spoken of the Ancient Catholick or Universal Doctrine and Practice of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be blasphemed or accounted Blasphemy NOW as it is most certain that there shall be such Men so it is no less certain that it shall be a very great Difficulty to discover and know them FOR first they shall come in the Name of Christ pretend a Commission from Christ and as confidently call themselves the Servants and Ministers of Christ and of the Gospel as they that really are so IN the second place they shall be able to draw Disciples after them and not a few but they shall deceive many Nay so far able as if it were possible to deceive the very Elect. And to effect this it is absolutely necessary that to deceive the Sheep they should come in Sheeps Clothing look most innocently and appear most harmless good and profitable Nay further they must have the appearance and resemblance of the Ministers of Righteousness And this St. Paul tells us is no difficult thing for such saith he are false Apostles deceitful Workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of Light therefore it is no great thing if his Ministers also be transformed as the Ministers of Righteousness IN the last place they shall arise from among our selves and their design shall be to draw Disciples after them THAT we may not be mistaken we must therefore make a Discovery of them by those Ways Marks Signs and Directions which Christ and his Apostles have in the Scripture given us to distinguish them and know them by And therefore for the fulfilling of any prediction we must first enquire for the time of its Appearance and that is all along said to be in the last times or Days Now the Spirit speaketh expresly 1. Tim. 4.1