all of them in their Application do generally confute yet does most unavoidably follow the other of absolute and unconditional Decrees which all Dissenters in reality hold whilst they affirm themselves the only People of God and all others Reprobates And therefore in this assurance of their being the Chosen and Elect of God they possess the greatest inward Peace and Tranquillity imaginable The Consideration of that Infinite Love of God and his free and distinguishing Grace to call them and pass by the rest of Mankind this particular and undeserved favour which they wholly monopolize and appropriate to themselves begets in them a Reciprocal Love to God for if God so loved them when they were Enemies as to send his only begotten Son out of his bosom purposely to save and redeem only a few out of the whole Mass of Mankind in the World of which few they are a part when in the mean time he passes by Millions more Wise Mighty and Learned without taking notice of them or doing any thing for them more than to harden their hearts that so he may take occasion to condemn them for refusing that Grace and Mercy which by reason of his Previous Decree they could not possibly accept How much then are these obliged to God for making such a difference How ought they to love God This Love still increases their confidence and security they are therefore sure that this is the Hope which maketh not ashamed which is the Anchor of the Soul because the Love of God is shed abroad in their Hearts and at last they arrive at such a certainty as will not permit them to have the least doubt but that they are the Vessels who are chosen to Honour who by this Grace are fitted for future Glory This fills their Earthen Vessels brim-full of Satisfaction and a Joy which upon all occasions runs over at their Mouths and to which they will tell you could you but once come to experience it all other Comforts are far inferiour Now they have sweet Communion and Fellowship with God their Conversion is in Heaven nay Heaven and all that is good and great stoops down to dwell with them And thus these things which are nothing but the pure Effects of this strong Imagination that they are the Elect are to them infallible Signs of their Election and they think the Spirit bears witness with their Spirits that they are the Sons of God by giving them this Joy in the Holy Ghost and in believing and so the Mother begets the Daughter and the Daughter begets the Mother like the Riddle of Ice and Water in infinitum a Simile not at all unfit for such a slippery and unstable Principle as is the Foundation of this their Perswasion But the mischief is that all that ever you can say or do to represent unto them the danger they are in signifies little or nothing for they look upon you to be carnal and not able to discern such spiritual affairs as this is BUT if you chance to tax them with Hypocrisie which is but too common you cannot do them a greater kindness for that convinces them beyond all other Arguments and confirms them in the opinion of their own truth and sincerity and that you are mistaken since they know and do sensibly feel those real Effects of Joy and Pleasure which you would perswade your self and them they do but counterfeit NAY further they are so far from believing any body but themselves that they will not believe the Scripture if that would perswade them that they do not walk in the Spirit or are not led by the Spirit or that they have not yet put off the Old Man and the former vain Conversion and crucified the Flesh and the lusts or desires and affections thereof CARRY them to that place of Saint Paul where he tells us what are the lusts of the Flesh and what are the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.19 Now saith he the works of the flesh are manifest Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witcheraft Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such like all these they will tell you they have put off and are become new men and all this we must believe because in the outside of their lives they have quitted some scandalous and notorious sins which before they were guilty of and have got an affected way of hard words and talking about Religion some austerities of life in which they think all sanctity consists all which may be nothing but a Form or Fashion of Godliness and in which they have not yet out-done many Heathens who were strangers to Grace and I am sure in their opinion shall be so to Heaven But though they still live and it may be more than ever in the most notorious allowance and daily practice of Hatreds or Enmities Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions or Factions and Divisions Heresies Envyings Murthers if not of mens Persons yet of their Fame and Reputation which is as dear and tender as life all this is nothing Tell them as oft as you please as the Apostle there says 1 Cor. 3.3 Of which things I have told you before as also in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God they will neither believe him nor you Tell them as he does the Corinthians that whilst they are full of strife envyings and divisions one of Paul another of Apollos one of this mans Congregation another of that mans Church they are yet carnal they will laugh at you but neither credit him nor you Tell them that they who resist the Supreme Magistrate his Power and Authority his Laws and subordinate Ministers of Justice shall receive to themselves damnation they will answer they shall not if they do it for Conscience sake He says Rom. 13.2 5. they must be subject for Conscience sake they say they must not be subject but ought to do as they do and be disobedient He tells them there is a necessity for it wherefore ye must needs be subject from a necessity founded upon Nature Law Reason Policy self-Interest and Religion they will reply there is no necessity nay that it is a burthen and oppression to Good Men Christian Liberty and tender Consciences How true they are may be a question but it is none whether they are not a sort of unmannerly Believers thus to contradict an Apostle nay all the twelve and Christ too if they say not what pleases them TELL them they despise Governments 2 S. Pet. 2.5 and therefore are presumptuous self-will'd such who are not afraid to speak Evil of Dignities of the things they understand not sporting or pleasing themselves with their own deceivings or with deceiving themselves and that for these things they shall utterly perish they will not believe it concerns them but though they are manifestly guilty of the Crimes they will be ready to throw the punishment there or elsewhere mentioned upon your back IF St. Jude
such as complain'd to her of any affront or injury they knew not well how to revenge Defame 'em Defame 'em some Body will believe it and whose Disciples and Followers they are and what designs they have we may soon know if we call to mind that it was the advice of their great Masters when they were to draw up a Charge against the most innocent King Charles the First Let us blacken him by all means let us blacken him which they did to purpose till their Cruelty gave him the Coronation Robes for Heaven dy'd in the pure Scarlet of his own Blood Nor do these of the Nursery ever fail to put the Doctrine in practice and all this they think they may do and that it is good and justifiable being only against the Wicked who are God's because their Enemies And that hereby they may make them appear such and manifest that they only are the Godly and Elect and all other Reprobates BUT these are but slender attempts and only in order to their Grand Design of Religiously subverting both the Church and State which let them protest never so much against and pretend themselves never so innocent of any such Intentions I shall never be able to believe but they do design Others may do as they think fit But if I meet a Man at Ware going towards London I shall conclude that to be the Place whither he designs his Journey though he tells me he is travelling towards York which if I were not well acquainted with the Roads I might otherwise be apt enough to credit especially if I tell him he is mistaken and must turn back again and I find he intends to deceive me telling me I am mistaken and that he is in the Right way and his Wits too and knows better than I can direct him whither he is going which is the exact humour of all these Barge-Saints who tugg so hard at the Oars of Reformation and constantly Row one Way and look another CHAP. XI Of the Wicked Design they have by the strength of this Doctrine to overthrow the present Church and its Government Which by their pretending to be the Elect who Worship God in Spirit and Truth they endeavour to make unlawful and Antichristian This Doctrine contrary to Gods promise to be with his Church to the End of the World and derogatorie to his Honour Of the false aspersions they secretly cast upon the Church and the publique Service of God Of the inconvenience of arguing with them and the advantages they make thereof Their impudence in boasting themselves and arguments invincible Of their dislike of Places of publique Worship of the treatment they met with in the times of their Power the house of Prayer made a Den of Theeves Of their inveterate Hatred against Bishops and the Liturgie Of the dangerous Tenent they maintain that all People Princes and Magistrats are bound to pull down Antichrist which with them is Episcopacy and that if Princes will not the People may if they can get the Power into their hands Which makes them grasp continually at Dominion LET us now come to examine the dangerous effects this Doctrine has upon the Church and how industriously secretly and with an unwearied and restless constancy they undermine its Foundations and with all their Power mightily endeavour to overturn it And wisely they do like their Predecessors make their attaque upon that quarter of the Government which is most defenceless and unarmed and by Ruining which they formerly gain'd the Town Now that they do really design this is apparent from the New Model of Church-Government which they should introduce and impose upon the Christian World as the only true and Evangelical way warranted by the Word of God and for the Establishment of which they have so often drawn the Sword in Scotland and England For the very design of building a new house in the same Place necessarily implyes the pulling down of the Old one as being decayed useless and inconvenient Does not this new invention of theirs extreamly conduce to the Glory of the only Wise God and confirm the Truth of his Promises that he would be with his Church to the End of the World and that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it When from the very time of his Ascension if we will believe them for fifteen hundred years and upwards he never thought more of it For sure if he had he would never have suffered Antichrist to rule in it so long and in all that time never reveal what was his Positive Will and Pleasure in the way of his publique Worship and Service till this new Apostle Fisherman found it out in the Lake of Geneva or in that other Lake which has no Bottom which by the fire and Brimstone with which it has set the World in Flames one would be apt to Guess and that it came from the Angel of the bottomless Pit whose name is in the Hebrew Abaddon Rev. 9.11 but in the Greek Tongue hath his name Apollyon and in the English the Destroyer and some will be ready to interpret it the Presbyterian They may talk what they will of the Mystery of Iniquity which with them is Episcopal Government and the Church-Hierarchy which begun they say to work so Early I am sure the woful Experience of the greatest part of Europe especially England can sadly testifie that their way is the Abomination of Desolation or that which makes Desolate wherever it comes which they would set up in the Holy Place or in the Place of the Holy Church But the thing is certain for they are the Elect People of God who were predestinated from all Eternity to be so and therefore the true Church and if so all others must be False And to make this manifest and apparent having neither * unless a stat prorâ—tione Voluntas Reason Antiquity nor Scripture to assist them they are resolved to be their own Friends and since Fathers Councels and Scriptures are all Prrtial because the writings of Bishops in their own Cause they can do the Work without them And though St. Peter tells them no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation St. Pet. 2. Ep. 1 Cap. 20 v. and they are yet but Private men and I hope will never be other Yet will they put them upon the Rack of their private Interpretations and the prophecy of the Revelations for all the Curse at the End of it more than any other till they wrest and Extort a confession from them that Episcopacy is Babylon c. that is such a sence as may advance their own Designs and it is to be feared Damnation since the same Apostle tells all those do who are unlearned unstable 2 Ep. St. Pet. 1. v. 12. or unfixed in the truth as he uses the Word which does exactly correspond with the humor of these people who after they have once left the Church roul from one Opinion to another and
THE Countermine Or A short but true DISCOVERY OF THE Dangerous Principles and secret Practices of the Dissenting PARTY ESPECIALLY THE PRESBYTERIANS SHEWING That Religion is pretended but Rebellion is intended And in order thereto The Foundation of MONARCHY in the STATE and EPISCOPACY in the CHURCH are Undermined The Second Edition 2 Tim 3.6 9. For of this sort are they that creep into Houses But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men By one who does passionately wish the Prosperity of the Church his King and Country LONDON Printed for Jonathan Edwin at the Three Roseâ— in Ludgate-street MDCLXXVII THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Reasons and Occasion of the following Discourse The imminent Danger of the Church and State by reason of the restless Endeavours industrious Malice and secret Contrivances of Dissenting Separatists CHAP. II. Of the Policy of the Enemies of the Church and State to amuse us with the old Stratagem of Fears and Jealousies of the Danger of Popery Hereby they ingratiate themselves with the Common People The improbability that the Romish Perswasion and Government should ever be established again in these Nations If it has of late increased amongst us we are obliged for it to these Dissenters who have made those Breaches by which these Enemies enter By these Fears and Jealousies which they sow in the Minds of People they indeavour to make them hate the present Government and Governours both in Church and State perswading them they are Popishly inclined and Antichristian And thus secretly undermine the Foundation of Monarchy and Episcopacy CHAP. III. An Account of the Heads of the Factions amongst us from whence we may conjecture what their Intentions are Of their way of Education in the Times of the late Rebellion in the Vniversities or in the Army Of their Lay-Teachers and Shop-Doctors how they came by their Gifts and Talent in Preaching the Advantages they made of Religion in their Trades the Employments they had under the Vsurping Governments the Incouragement they had to invade the Pulpit The desire they have of an alteration in the present Government to recover their former Power and Profit The great unfitness of these men to Officiate in the Church who are guilty of Sacriledg Murder and Perjury CHAP. IV. Of the Ways whereby they decoy others to be of their Perswasion Of the great pretentions they make to Zeal and Holiness Of the great Veneration they seem to have for the Scriptures when yet they are directly against them Instanced in two Positive Commands to obey Magistrates in the State and those that have the Rule over them in the Church The unreasonableness of the Pleas they make for their disobedience which if allowed must take away all the Power of Superiours and cancel all the Duty of Inferiours The Impotency of that Plea of expecting express Scripture as the only Warrant for all our Actions The unpracticableness of it shewn in a familiar and very possible Instance CHAP. V. Of the several Arts they use to gain Love Credit Esteem and Veneration Of their Pretences to Exemplary Piety in their Actions Words Looks Gestures Habits Of the way of their maintenance by Free-will Offerings the Advantages they have thereby over the Clergie of the Church it eases them of a great trouble and preserves the love of their Auditors who lâ—ke this Gospel way where they may at their plâ—â—sure withdraw their Bounty it secures them fâ—om the Penal Laws Of the Advantages they mâ—ke of Punishment by calling it Persecution of their seeming Constancy in suffering for wâ—at they call Conscience hereby they gain love pity and money They make this Persecution in infallible Mark of the true Church the use the make of it to render the Government odious to the People and to dispose them by degrees to endeavour the alteration of the present which they call Reformation The same Arts made use of to promote the late Rebellion CHAP VI. Of their Endeavours to insinuate themselves into the Favour of Persons of Quality And that notwithstanding their Flatteries they are the greatest Enemies to Gentry Nobility and Royal Dignity Of the manner how they creep into Popular Places and the Arts they use to endear themselves to the People by putting them out of a good Opinion of their Lawful Minister The Reason of their setling in Market-Towns or Populous Villages where there is not already some prevailing Sect. Tradesmen lovers of Reading and have time to peruse their poysonous Writings Hereby they propagate their Way the Shop-keeper mingling and retailing their Doctrines amongst his other Wares With their design upon Corporations in Future Elections of Parliaments CHAP. VII After they are setled in such Place of the Manner of their behaviour in the Meeting House Of their Extempore Prayer Examined and â—â—posed to open view Of the Pretence they make to gain Veneration that they Pray by the â—pirit The ill use they employ it in to make the set and appointed Forms of Publick Prayers Nauseous and Odious to the People Proved from Scripture and the Express Commands of our Saviour that it is not of Gods appointment nor a fruit of the Spirit By Example of the most infamous and abominable Sinners guilty of Rebellion and Witchcraft who had this faculty even to admiration Extempore Prayer shewn to be a meer Art the way how they or any Person indued with a tolerable measure of Confidence may attain to it A probable Philosophical Reason why they fancy themselves inspired in these Enthusiastick Effusions CHAP. VIII Of the Doctrines they chiefly insist upon and in which they first instruct their Hearers And first of the Doctrine of absolute and irrespective Decrees of Election and Reprobation Of their Way of trial of their Followers whether they be the Elect by knowing the punctual time of their Call Repentance sorrow for sin c. The agreeableness of this Doctrine to their Followers whom for being such they perswade that they are certainly the Elect and that they cannot fall totally and finally from Grace Their signs of Election proved false from Judas the Son of Perdition who had all they make the infallible Marks of Election and something more viz. Restitution which they will not be perswaded to CHAP. IX Of the great danger of this Doctrine as they apply it First to themselves it fills them with a groundless and false confidence of the goodness of their Spiritual Condition makes it almost impossible to convince them by Reason or Scripture though they live after the Flesh in Hatred Envy Malice Disobedience c. but that they have the Spirit and live after the Spirit and are new Creatures It fills them with Pride and Pharisaical contempt of others puts them into Security the most dangerous Condition a man can be in CHAP. X. Of the ill Consequences this Doctrine has upon the private Communities where it comes From hence proceeds a certain breach of Vnity No people so addicted to Debates Envyings Strife
Backbitings Whisperings Slanders condemning censuring all who are not of their Way to be Reprobates as these Separatists Vncharitableness and Atheism hereby extreamly propagated they separate the dearest Friends and by creeping into Houses and beguiling silly Women divide those whom God hath joined together they are curious and busie-bodies in espying out the faults of all others which they publish to make themselves appear the Elect and all others Reprobates All this is done to fit them to act upon the publick Theater of the World which they practice in private Villages or where ever they dwell CHAP. XI Of the wicked Design they have by the strength of this Doctrine to overthrow the present Church and its Government which by their pretending to be the Elect who worship God in Spirit and Truth they endeavour to make Vnlawful and Antichristian This Doctrine contrary to Gods Promise to be with his Church to the end of the World and derogatory to his Honour Of the false aspersions they secretly cast upon the Church and the Publick Service of God Of the Inconveniences of arguing with them and the Advantages they make thereof their Impudence in boasting Themselves and Arguments invincible Of their Dislike of Places of Publick Worship Of the treatment they met with in the time of their Power The House of Prayer made a Den of Thieves Of their inveterate Hatred against Bishops and the Liturgie Of the dangerous Tenent they maintain That all People Princes and Magistrates are bound to pull down Antichrist which with them is Episcopacy and that if Princes will not the People may if they can get Power into their hands which makes them continually grasp at Dominion CHAP. XII Of the desperate Influences this Doctrine has upon the State and Civil Government This Amazon Fury bred in Rebellion and ever since nurst up with Blood proved from our own and all Europe's sad Experience This Doctrine inclines men to Aristocracy or the Government of a Commonwealth Of the little kindness they have for Monarchy Salus Populi suprema Lex their Fundamental Principle of Government abused to perswade men that the Peoples Election and Approbation are necessary Titles to a Crown That a King is Major singulis minor universis and may be deposed and punished by the People Proved from their Practice The great Encouragement it gives to Rebellion The same Doctrine of Fatality taught by Mahomet to inspire the Turks with courage against the Christians CHAP. XIII Of their Doctrine of the Necessity of Separation from the Wicked which they teach in private and by their Example in publick The Vses they make of it to know their Strength and Numbers which they always boast of if possible to bring Authority to comply with their Desires Hereby they ingross a trade amongst themselves Of their undermining Authority by making it Contemptible by their daily affronting it Of the Vnlawfulness of Separation from the Example of our Saviour and from Scripture Separation by S. Jude made a Mark of Reprobation Jeroboam's Policy the end of their Separation CHAP. XIV Of their Exaltation of Preaching and the Reason why they do so Of the great Veneration People have for the Pulpit The Advantages they make of it to gain the love of the People for being so painful Labourers dispersing their Doctrines and procuring Benevolences Hereby they bring the Prayers of the Church to be nauseous accustom People to Variety and Novelty and have opportunities of displaying their Gifts and Abilities as well as in Extempore Prayer The abuses they put upon the Church that it is against Preaching A Vindication of the Church from this Aspersion Of the Primitive and Modern Preaching It is against preaching themselves and their own Interest and wicked Designs that the Church declares it self CHAP. XV. A short View of some other of their Doctrines Of their Judaizing the Lords Day Of their censuring all their Ancestors and even their own Children to Damnation Their subtilty in deriding all these Accusations and disowning the Actions of the late Rebels when yet they tread in the very same steps That they have the same designs manifested from their great industry in all New Elections of Members of this present Parliament to get Voices for such as will be favourable to their Interest A probable conjecture that they have had a principal hand in the late unhappy differences between the two Houses and of the great desire they have of a New Parliament and their Hopes when that shall happen CHAP. XVI Of the Artifices which these men use to render all Applications ineffectual by their tiring out the Inferiour Magistracy with their obstinacy The Advantages they make of the suspension of Laws to fortifie their followers and perswading them it is a particular effect of the care which God takes of them and the Cause That place in the Acts of Gamaliel's counsel If this work be of God it will stand by which they frighten some and endeavour to discourage all people from medling with them considered and proved to be the word of Gamaliel a Doctor of the Law but not the word of God because not universally true CHAP. XVII A more particular Survey of their Policy in rendring all Expedients useless which have been applied to reclaim them from that place in Ezra 7.26 Of Capital Punishments Of Imprisonment how they make it of advantage to them to confirm their Cause and Followers and to bring a general odium upon the Laws and Government their Evasions to escape Forfeitures Of their Complaints of the Injustice and Oppression of the Penal Laws Of Banishment A Coffee-house Dialogue about it betwixt Mr. Kinglove of and a Grandchild of Martin Marprelate CHAP. XVIII The Heads of Separation brought to Trial by the Scripture proved to be false Prophets by their fruits by the description of them by the time of their appearance the signs given to know them by Wolves in Sheeps clothing Their pretence to be the Ministers of Righteousness the way they would evade these Signs Their Plea of Not guilty because not guilty of all manifested to be vain and such as if admitted will clear all even Mahomet from the guilt of being a false Prophet CHAP. XIX A further pursuance of the Discovery and that these men are false Prophets from the Description of St. Peter and St. Paul St. Peter's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and St. Judes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 considered as particularly designed to shew their infectious contagious Doctrines Of their despising Dominions querulous unsatisfied and complaining humour A short Vindication of the Church from their malicious Aspersion of being guilty of Idolatry CHAP. XX. THE CONCLVSION THE COVNTERMINE Or a short but true DISCOVERY c. CHAP. I. The Reasons and Occasion of the following Discourse The imminent danger of the Church and State by reason of the restless Endeavours industrious Malice and secret Contrivances of dissenting Separatists THERE never was any Age in which the Holy Church of God was more
Jealousies and that they have another Design in dispersing them abroad than the use which they constantly employ them in And that is this THEY find by certain Experience that to accuse any Persons or any parts of our Worship of Superstition or Popery is an Expedient that never yet fail'd to render them contemptible and hated to the Multitude which is a clear Demonstration that the Universal Genius of these Nations is an Enemy to that Perswasion Nor will the Romish Religion ever recover any tolerable credit so long as the Cruelties of Queen Mary's Reign the Spanish Invasion in Eighty Eight and those threatned Inhumanities the Powder-Treason the Inquisition or the late horrid Rebellion and Massacre in Ireland which influenced that in England are either remembred or feared All which makes it strongly improbable That any Prince or Government either in Church or State who must of necessity consult their own interest in the quiet and welfare of their People should attempt to introduce that Religion to which the People their Subjects of all Degrees and Conditions discover such a general aversion and universal detestation and which therefore must create infinite troubles and most desperate Inconveniences AND if it be well considered we shall find that the Jesuites and all the Romish Factors have not been able for this last Century Some persons are strangely mistaken if the Concilium de propaganda fide at Rome has not been very helpful in setting those Divisions amongst us for they know well enough what that means Divide Impera which employment these Dissenters take out of their hands as being the greater Artists in this Mystery of Iniquity so effectually to serve the interest of their own Affairs as these Persons have done and if the Papists have made many or considerable Proselytes possibly they owe them to those Divisions which these men have made in our Church and not to any strength of Arguments they are able to produce to convince them of any Errouts either in our Doctrine or Discipline And though he must be a great Stranger in the Romish Transactions who is ignorant how great Dissentions Heats and Animosities are amongst the Religious of their several Orders and how great differences even about their main Question of Transubstantiation there are amongst their Doctors nay how great Dissentions have been amongst the Popes themselves notwithstanding their pretended Infallibility yet the great Motive they make use of to induce any person to return to the Faith and Obedience of the Church of Rome is the strange Discords and Divisions which are amongst us and the great Unity which is as they falsly boast only to be found amongst them which Unity they urge as an infallible Mark of the true Church BUT as I believe the Presbyterian or any other Dissenter has no real Design or Intention to oblige the Church of Rome though there is no doubt to be made but that by their Divisions they do extremely advance the Roman Interest and Affairs so I am satisfied that their aim is only to amuse us and please the People till such time as they have made their Party strong enough against the Church of England of which they are in reality more afraid than they are either of the Pope or Turk and could they but once come to be uppermost and have the power of the Sword they would be so far from being afraid of St. Peter's double Dagger that if the Pope did not civilly leave them to the management of their own Affairs they would hazard to make the triple Diadem shake and I know they have strong hopes to destroy the Kingdom of Antichrist which when they had finished at home they might have a temptation having an easier passage through the Streights than Hannibal had over the Alps to invade Peter's Patrimony and burn the great Whore of Babylon with fire and fulfil all the Prophecies in the Revelations without the assistance of Kings though there 't is said that they shall do it NOW if any persons will be so adventurous to follow me I will endeavour to lead them through their subterranean Passages and shew their Contrivances and their secret Mines and Magazines of that white Powder which though it makes no noise yet is not a whit less dangerous than that for which we celebrate the fifth day of November and which will at one blow overturn all Root and Branch of Liturgy Episcopacy Monarchy and Liberty CHAP. III. An Account of the Heads of these Factions amongst us from whence we may conjecture what their Intentions are Of their way of Education in the Times of the late Rebellion in the Vniversities or in the Army Of their Lay-Teachers and Shop-Doctors how they came by their Gifts and Talent in Preaching the Advantages they made of Religion in their Trades the Employments they had under the Vsurping Governments the Incouragement they had to invade the Pulpit The desire they have of an alteration in the present Government to recover their former Power and Profit The great unfitness of these men to officiate in the Church who are guilty of Sacriledg Murder and Perjury LET us come therefore to take a survey of their Persons from thence we will proceed to their Principles which will quickly lead us to the consideration of their Practices AS to their Persons we must consider them as that pleasant fellow divided the World into two parts one of which was born to cheat the other or according to the more customary and familiar method we must divide them into the Heads and Body for by the Way I must tell you that these Factions have one remarkable Qualification of a Monster that to one Body there are many Heads all challenging Equality though at the same time every one of them aimes at Priority The Body being for the most composed of those who are deceived I shall not concern my self with them as the Principal Subjects of this Discourse for if at any time one of this Body advances so far as to be able to deceive others that Member presently starts up to be a Head 'T is these Heads and their Hands that we have just reason to suspect and to be afraid of and with these therefore I chiefly intend to deal THESE Heads must likewise be subdivided which is natural to them into two Classes which Word will please some of them though it may be the distinction will not They are either Scholasticks or Laicks Literate or Ignorant Heads The Scholasticks are such as either had their Education in one of the Universities or in the Army-Colledge during the late precious times when the Saints bore the sway and rul'd these Nations with a Rod of Iron viz. the Sword and with that Iron-Scepter broke their Enemies in pieces like a Potters Vessel IF they are such as suckt the Breasts of either of the Universities 't is odds but they are some of those who were nurst up immediately after their poor Mothers had most outragiously
for no other Crime were called Delinquents and Malignants and were accordingly treated in their Persons and Estates as the most notorious Malefactors by these honest godly men who for these serviceable Cruelties and ill-gotten riches came to be feared by all respected by many though lov'd by few And it was no uncustomary thing to see one of these pragmatical Peasants with his high shoes and Hobnails in greater Authority than the Right Worshipful or it may be the Right Honourable of his Parish So great gain was the Godliness of those times that it is no Miracle if they long and breath so much to see those Gospel-Days again BUT lest I should be thought a little unkind in giving them the distinguishing Character of ignorant Heads though I could produce many Instances one or two shall suffice to make it appear that I am not injurious but civil to them in concealing so many of their follies as I am able to publish ONE of these proud and insolent Ignoramus's being urged to pay some respect to his Superiors from the Example of St. Paul who complemented the Roman Governour with that respectful Address of most Noble Festus found out this cunning Evasion for his unmannerly Religion that for ought he knew Most Noble was the Deputies Christian Name ANOTHER of the same form was so childishly ignorant even in the Common Sentiments of Nature as to put the Question whether it was the same Moon at the place where he dwelt as was in other places and to admire her kindness for travelling with him all one Evening going if he went and standing still if he did so to wait upon this younger Brother of Endymion Nay so strangely silly was this Animal as by a pleasant conceited Gentleman who did it with abundance of personated gravity and plausible Artifice to be perswaded out of his Christian Name and yet this Fopp would swagger about Predestination and Election as boldly as the tallest Doctor of the Tribe And though I make no question but a great many of them may have far more natural cunning not many of them have much more Learning Since I know it is not now to be hoped for by a Miracle and I am sure they are far enough out of the Road and advantages of obtaining it any other Way I will not say it is impossible but I dare say it is very difficult to find a Head of any faction or separation who either was not bred up for some time a few days at least for the Credit on 't in one of the Universities or one of those mens Pupils who were educated in the times of Rebellion when a Month made any man of Gifts for it was no matter for Parts a Master of the Arts of praying Extempore and Preaching Pindariques a Year was sufficient to proceed to the Grace of Doctor or by what was then called Grace to make him fit to do the Work of one of their Evangelists or Apostles and qualifie him to preach that Gospel which was able to convert Christians to Paganism or something worse Or else generally you shall find them such who have been Reverend Spiritual Curiassiers or Chaplains to some of the Rebel Cohorts or a Disciple to some of them A Sequestrator Committee-man or related to and dependant on them A Favourite to some of the great and leading Men of those times or however acquainted with them or some of those other sorts of ignorant conceited impertinent Mechanicks and take the Herring out of which Barrel you please for they are all of a price NOW do not these look like men fit to be intrusted with the Management of the Publique Affairs of the Church and the conduct of Souls to Heaven of whom some were Actors most of them Abettors in all those abominable Sacriledges those horrible Depredations and that Infamous Murther of the best of Princes the Lords Anointed and their Lawful Soveraign to whom they all ow'd and had many of them sworn Faith and Allegiance and have thereby added Perjury to the rest of their Abominable Crimes WERE not these things matters of Fact and so notoriously known that they must have Faces of Brass to deny them the Charge would be most uncharitably scandalous but I desire no other Testimony than that of their own tender Consciences and of all the World that knows them to evidence the Truth as well as Greatness of their Crimes CHAP. IV. Of the Ways whereby they decoy others to be of their Perswasion Of the great pretensions they make to Zeal and Holiness Of the great Veneration they seem to have for the Scriptures when yet they are directly against them Instanced in two Positive Commands to obey Magistrates in the State and those that have the Rule over them in the Church The unreasonableness of the Pleas they make for their disobedience which if allowed must take away all the Power of Superiours and cancel all the Duty of Inferiours The Impotency of that Plea of expecting express Scripture as the only Warrant for all our Actions The unpracticableness of it shewn in a familiar and very possible Instance IT is some kind of Miracle that there should be such ill Men and yet such good and glorious Pretences but it is a far greater that after all this they should be able to gain Proselytes be followed admired countenanced and esteemed almost to Adoration by so many Persons Our next Discovery must therefore be By what Arts and Methods they purchase that Reputation in the World and how they come to make so many Disciples HAD some Ages past over since the late Dismal Revolutions one might imagine such specious pretences might prevail again and the concealed mischief pass undiscovered But the Blood being yet scarce drie upon the Sand where they acted the Real Tragedie the Scars of those intestine Wounds which they gave both Church and State being still visible and apparent and the Ashes of our former Fires so lately quencht that they do not only still smoak but are full of hot and glowing Embers one can scarcely tell how to judg otherways but that those Persons who do so industriously blow them up and supply them with the same combustible Materials must be very desirous to re-kindle those devouring Flames and that a great part of those who are the Countenancers and followers of these Men and their Perswasions must have a Design to repeat over again those Horrid Villanies which were contrived either by the same Persons or at least such as were of the same Leaven and carried on by the same Methods and gradual Progressions the very same pretences of Conscience Religion and Reformation with which now these present Dissenters act YET I dare not believe of so many as seem to love or like them that the greatest part would rejoice to see the Confusion and Desolation of their Native Country and I would be unwilling to fix that Design upon several who I am confident are Innocent of it Nor do I think that
from the Express Word of God which is amongst all Dissenters the most Universal Sanctuary where their Disobedience seeks and as they think finds a most certain Refuge and sure Protection LET them now shew us for the proof of this new Tenent any one place of Scripture where all Obedience is limited only to what is expresly commanded in the holy Canon If they can they have better Eyes than all the rest of the World and if they cannot why do they destroy their Maxime by their own Practice by yielding Obedience to a Doctrine no-where warranted by express Words or Commands of Scripture and this impregnable Fortification in which they think their Disobedience so securely retrench'd will like the Walls of Jericho fall flat in an Instant if we consider FIRST That the Members of the Church ow'd all Obedience to their lawful Superiours both in Church and State before some parts of the Scripture were committed to writing and long before they were collected into one Volume and so communicated to the dispersed Church Now before they were either written or published they could be no Rule for their Obedience which nevertheless was a Duty which they were obliged to perform both as Men and Christians SECONDLY If we consider That though the Scriptures are sufficiently able to make the Man of God wise unto Salvation in point of Faith and Doctrine yet they are altogether silent as to the particulars of Discipline and Government Some general Rules are laid down as That every thing must be done with Decency and in Order 1 Cor. c. 14. v. 26 40. Now the Question is what is Decent what Orderly and what Edifying The Scriptures cannot be the Arbiters of what they leave undetermined nay not so much as mentioned Who must then be Judges Surely those Powers and that Authority which are ordained of God and established by the Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of our Nation and not these Men nor indeed any private Persons who can shew us neither Mission nor Commission Succession nor any other Authority more than they may have obtained by Usurpation to be Judges over the Church of God And their own Practice when they were in Power shews the unreasonableness of this Plea since what they deny to others they did then arrogantly challenge to themselves viz. To determine the Times and Modes of Worship and in their worthy Directory they did impose many things not expresly commanded in Scripture nor so much as incouraged by any ancient Usage or Custome in the Church of Christ Nay the very making and imposing such a Directory was by this Rule absolutely unlawful as being no-where commanded in the Word of God And what were all their Exercises publick and private Fasts and days of Thanksgiving for their prosperous Wickedness but Times of Worship Prosperum scelus virtus vocatur I dare not say of God of their own not the Scriptures appointment So that it makes it very suspicious that they are of the same spirit with Diotrephes and that their prating with such malicious words against their Lawful Superiours 3 S. John v. 9. proceeds from that Ambitious Love which they have to Preheminence themselves which gives them such an aversion to those Humilities and due Submissions which they owe to others THIRDLY the impotency of this Evasion will most fully appear if we consider the Nature of Obedience which is hereby utterly destroyed for the very Essence of Obedience does consist not in disputing the lawfulness of the Commands but in a willing and ready putting those Commands in Executions provided they are such as are not directly contrary to the plainly understood and Positive revealed Will of God or to the Universal and Common Laws and Dictates of Nature and Nations which none of those to which Dissenters are disobedient can be proved to be And the Subject of all Obedience either to the Laws of God or Man usually consists in such things as are expedient to be done in order to the publick good rather than agreeable to our inclinations which though under the specious Name of Conscience if they may be permitted to be Judges will emancipate all Mankind and set them free from that Duty which they owe to their Superiors and it would be no more but pleading this Corban against whatsoever is expected from them and all the Obligation to Duty is immediately cancel'd And I would gladly be satisfied if this Doctrine were Universally received and put in Practice Deus fecit omnia pondere mensurâ Sap. c. 11. v. 20 and therefore saw that every thing was veery good Gen. 1.31 whether it would not quickly turn the whole World upside down and in a few Moments destroy that Beautiful Order of which Almighty God was the Primitive Author in Nature and as St. Paul tells us is no less in the Church for God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches of the Saints and that Peace is never to be hoped for had or enjoyed without Order and Obedience to those Decencies which by a Lawful Authority are commanded and which therefore the same Apostle absolutely and universally enjoins Let all things be done decently and in order BUT to shew the impracticableness of this Opinion in the common concerns of Life and much more therefore in the Religious we will suppose that one of these precious Men has Children and Servants whom he has educated in the fear of the Lord and instructed in the Way of Righteousness according to his own Principles He calls for his Son and tells him Son such a Man owes me a considerable summe of Money this is the day for payment pray go and receive it for me to supply my present urgent occasions But replies the Son Sir how do I know whether this be a just Debt and unless I be satisfied in Conscience that 't is so I dare neither demand nor receive it of him Oh Son says the Father Remember your Duty and the Commandement Honour thy Father c. and from that Text he preaches him a long Lecture of the Necessity of Obedience and the many advantages both Temporal and Eternal which do attend it Sir answers the Son All this is true and I am Obedient to you and Honour you so far as the Scripture warrants me but I can find no express Command in the Word of God for this you would have me to do and unless I can my Conscience will not give me leave for I must obey that and God rather than Man Having such ill success with his Son whom he has made so good a fencer as to beat him at his own Weapon he betakes him to his servant who has been sufficiently taught that he must not be an Eye-servant but serve with singleness of Heart as unto the Lord Pray says he to him go to my Grounds and take up such a Horse carry him to the Fair or Market and sell him but not under such a Price Oh Sir
I promise you in some Company where he thought he might be bold lamenting the looseness and vitiousness of the Times and the blame being laid at the Door of the Inferiour Magistrates who were so remiss in putting the Laws in Execution Pray says he how can it be otherwise when there are none in Authority but the God-damm'ees and though no former Prince has so highly obliged them as his present Majesty by the Act of Oblivion and a General Pardon since though possibly a better Temper and milder Inclinations are not to be found amongst all Mankind yet for all that I believe the Guards about White-hall at which they grumble so oft calling them a standing Army are a greater Security for him than their Love or Allegiance And I make no dispute but if they had Power proportionable to their Desires if he would not consent to their unreasonable Demands and in Effect depose himself they would make bold in plain English to un-King him and it may be something more as well as his Glorious Father whose Caution I think therefore ought never to be forgotten * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lady Elizabeth's Relation of what the King said to her immediately before his Death To Forgive them but never Trust them For what is a King to them if he be not one of the Elect and that he can never be unless he be of their Church and resolve to Establish their true and Evangelical Ways from which he must therefore be very far so long as he suffers the Laws and his subordinate Ministers of Justice to persecute these People who are the Elect the undoubted Children of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 16. upon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer-Book And as his late Majesty of blessed memory does in the forementioned Book not improbably Conjecture Possibly that aversion they all have for the Publique Litturgy of the Church is because it does so frequently pray for the King and the Royal Family to which in their Hearts they cannot say Amen and that the Conjecture is not wide of the Mark this following Instance will in some measure make apparent One of this Gang being amongst other Company entertain'd as a neighbour at a friends house immediately as soon as Dinner was done he steps out of the Room into a by Entry and a Clergy-man who was present returning thanks and as is customary and commendable closing his Grace with a short Prayer for the Kings Majesty the Queen and Royal Family this impudent Fellow was by those who stood next the Door heard scornfully and maliciously to say when he came to that Passage Oh! by all Means if it were not for that all were worth nothing and indeed it makes me apt to think that this is one if not the only Reason why they account all the Prayers of the Church worth nothing for they are not yet arrived to that Perfection in Christian Religion to love or pray for their Enemies in which number they never fail to put all Crowned and Mitred Heads How directly contrary this Doctrine is to the Divine Philanthropy the infinite Love of God to all Mankind and indeed to the whole Current and Consent of the Sacred Scriptures how dishonourable to God and disadvantageous to Christian Religion are Subjects already largely and learnedly treated of by other Pens And if as they fell in my Way I have lightly touched upon any of them it is only so far as they were necessary to shew how pernicious this Doctrine of theirs is to themselves and the salvation of their Souls how troublesome unquiet uncharitable and unchristian it is amongst their Neighbours How destructive it is to the Church and Ecclesiastical Government Places Persons and Performances and how irreconcileable and desperately dangerous it is to the State of the present Royal Dignity and Government CHAP. XIII Of their Doctrine of the necessity of Separation from the Wicked which they teach in Private and by their Example in Publick These uses they make of it to know their strength and numbers which they always boast of if possible to bring Authority to comply with their Desires hereby they engross a Trade amongst themselves Of their undermining Authority by making it contemptible by their daily affronting it Of the unlawfulness of Separation from the example of our Saviour and from Scripture Separation by St. Jude made a mark of Reprobation Jeroboams Policy the End of their Separation LET us now proceed to a second Doctrine which is he Spawn of the first and the Daughter of such a beautiful Mother cannot chuse but must be most admirable fair Being the Elect People of God those whom from all Eternity he has out of his infinite Love predestinated to Holiness and Happiness though they are in the World yet they are not of the World and therefore they must Separate from Sinners and be a peculiar People without which they think they are not sufficiently zealous of Good Works which in plain English is That whosoever will be of the Number of the Elect People of God must have no religious commerce with the rest of the World for all other he may and that a true Title to Heaven is only to be hoped for and had in their Church and Communion and by this means they advance the so necessary Point of Separation or Distinction of a Party without which Instruments their Spiritual Carnes and Engines to draw up the Stones after they have hew'd and fitted them by the former Doctrine they cannot go on with or ever hope to finish the New Model of their Church so as to set up the Corner-Stone and with joy and shouting cry Grace Grace unto it for they would only change his Grace of Canterbury into his Grace of Presbytery And this they manage with as little noise as possible and with the same Secrecy and Subtilty as the rest though some people say they can plainly hear the Axes and Hammers go perpetually Psal 77.6 which they lift up to break down the Carved Work of all the Houses of God in the Land in order to their setting up the Synagogues of Satan in the room of them If you discourse with them and put the Question Whether the Church of England is a true Church and whether Salvation may not be obtained in Communion with it They will do all they can to decline the Question and will certainly dissemble their Opinion by telling you They dare not judge every man must stand or fall to his own Master That they forbid or hinder none from coming to our Church whose Consciences will give them leave All which is only to avoid the Pinch of the Controversie and is neither better nor worse but what the Apostle S. Paul calls Speaking Lyes in Hypocrisie 1 Tim. 4.2 For it is evident that they think it unlawful because they abstain from our Church and refuse Communion with us themselves and should they speak never a Word to their
the Pasture and not permitted to make all Common or range into the Corn-Fields Though after all these brags I have not met with any person whose observation has found Money more plentiful or Trading a Farthing better even in the time of the Toleration But lastly By this Separation they are sure to undermine the foundation of all Government which is the principal thing they always aim at both in Church and State for by their departing from one and Disobedience to both they bring their Power into question and contempt and whilest they endeavour to render them odious tyrannical heathenish and persecuting superstitious and unlawful and yet escape unpunished by the hopes of the like impunity they encourage others to follow their example and insult over the Laws and to esteem of all Power as the Frogs in the Fable did of their Wooden King And this is all in order to the accomplishment of their ultimate Design which is the subversion of the present Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical in order to the setting up a new one according to their own Phancies and Humours Now to demonstrate the unlawfulness of this Doctrine it were enough to shew that in Publick they will rarely own it themselves and will never charge the reason of their Separation upon any of these ends but upon the Ceremonies of the Church to which they pretend their Consciences will not give them leave to submit I think we shall cut the Sinews of this pretence and shew how feeble and lame an Excuse it is If we consider That these Ceremonies by their own confession are acknowledged to be indifferent in their own Natures and the reason they give why they are unlawful is because they are Imposed the Liberty of Conscience being thereby taken away Now this is a most certain truth that an indifferent thing when commanded by a Lawful Authority ceases to be indifferent and becomes necessary for all the Authority of the Church to command or impose is only exercised upon indifferent things What is absolutely necessary is commanded by God whatever is unlawful is forbidden by him so that they must of necessity either take away all Liberty from the Church to impose indifferent things that so they may have their Liberty which is unreasonable to desire and if granted them would destroy that Liberty which they would have or they must deny the lawfulness of the Authority that commands and determines indifferent things otherwise let them confess that they seek for a knot in a Rush to maintain the Quarrel But the plain Truth is the Vse they have for this Engine of Separation is to shew by their Example that they believe the Authority which commands these things is no Lawful Authority that therefore the impositions are not necessary or Obedience to them a Duty for rtherwise I cannot think them so sottish but they know it is and I am satisfied if they were in Power they would use the same Arguments to persuade to Obedience which now we do though they have stronger in their Budget upon occasion than have been yet employed to make them obey But for a further manifestation of this Error we will bring it to the Doctrine of our Blessed Lord S. Mat 13.29 in the Parable of the Tares The zealous Servants were for a present Separation and Extirpation of the Tares from among the Wheat But the Wise Master was of another judgment Not so lest they should root up the Wheat also and certainly as before was shewn this Separation of theirs has not fail'd of that effect but has already rooted up much of the good fruits of Charity Peace and Vnity out of the Church and has left us the Tares of Dissention in their room of which we may well say an Enemy hath done this And whether this Doctrine is pursued to the uttermost would not lead them to Extripation of the Tares let their Holy League witness For they all hold that Dominium fundatur in gratiâ and the Wicked have only a borrowed Right to whatever they have of Life and Fortune And how easie it is for religious Covetousness to perswade them when in Power to invade the Rights of Sinners and spoil the Egyptians will appear if we call to mind former things which though the Gracious Act of Oblivion has pardon'd them for they will never pardon the forced Restitution of the Kings Bishops Dean and Chapter-Lands But this being only a Parable may not be sufficiently convictive Let us look therefore for Example St. Joh 13.15 Now the Blessed Jesus who tells us he was to be our Example was so far from Separation or making Communion with Sinners a Crime that it was one of the greatest Objections against him S. Matt. 2.10 11 12 13. that he familiarly converst eat and drank with them and was a Friend to Publicans and Sinners S. Matt. 11 19 which accusation he did not excuse himself of but justifie from the good designs of thereby calling Sinners to repentance Nor do we find that ever he separated Himself or his Disciples from the Communion of the Jewish Church though full of such Types and Ceremonies as he came by fulfilling to abrogate but as his custom was he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath-Days went up to Jerusalem to celebrate all the commanded Festivals even to the last Passeover at which he was betray'd And further to shew us that we ought not to break Vnity or Communion with those who continue in the Visible Church he was as conversant with Judas as with the rest of the Apostles and yet he knew from the beginning who it was that should betray him knew Judas to be a covetous Hypocrite and worse than that a Devil and it is more than probable that he himself at the first Institution gave the Holy Communion to Judas as will appear to any that reads that place of St. Luke Chap. 22. from the thirteenth Verse to the two and twentieth And for the lawfulness of Separation let us hear St. Jude who having given us such a Character as I shall hereafter shew exactly fits these men lest their fair pretences should still endanger our mistake he concludes it with this distinctive Note of Separation These are they if you know them by nothing else you shall be sure to discover them by this These are they that Separate themselves S. Jude 19 Sensual or Animal having not the Spirit for all their great pretences to it unless Sedition Faction and Rebellion be Fruits and Effects of it as before has fully been made appear Could they prove us guilty of Idolatry or that we erre in any Substantial Fundamental point of Religion then their Separation would not only be lawful but necessary but till they can do this and convince us that we are not a true Church their Separation from us is unchristian and unlawful condemned by Christ and his holy Apostles But all this is nothing Their Religion must be such as
his Glory was sent into the World out of the pure Love of God to all Mankind St. Joh. 3.16 For God so loved the World that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting Life and that therefore he sent him to be a propitiation for our sins 1. St. Jo. 2.2 and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole World That is in his good Intention he is unwilling that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance and by this preaching of the Gospel to come to the knowledge of these Truths that so they might be saved Let those men therefore preach as Christ commanded and as the Apostles Evangelized and then if the Church forbids them they may say it is against Prèaching Let them obtain a Lawful Deputation and not run before they are sent saying The Lord sayes when the Lord hath not sent them Let them Teach and warn all men every where to Repent because he that is baptized Repents Believes and continues stedfast in that Faith shall be saved but he who does not though he has formerly escaped the Pollutions that are in the World through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ yet shall be damned if he fall away from Grace and return with the Dog to his Vomit which it is not impossible for him to do even after he has been enlightened and tasted of the Powers of the Life to come so long as he has Within him a treacherous evil Heart of unbelief Without him the powerful Temptations of the World and the Devil and therefore let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall lest he perish from the Right Way Let them exhort that first of all Supplications Prayers c. be made for Kings and all that are in Authority that so People may lead a peaceable and quiet Life in all Godliness and Honesty in Subjection and Obedience to the Powers that are appointed and ordained of God to be over them because they that will not live so shall receive Damnation Let them press the People to Peace and Vnity and tell them that they who live in Envyings Strife Sedition and Divisions live after the Flesh and not after the Spirit and therefore shall not inherit the Kingdom of God That they who speak Evil of Dignities and despise Dominion the things they understand not shall bring upon themselves swift Destruction and then let them Preach in Gods Name and certainly all Preaching that is not to this Effect and for these Designs is far from it till the Church or any Bishop in it finds fault with them and that will be never as long as they live nor after their death All these are Evangelical Commands Doctrines and Truths But if Satan be divided against himself how shall his Kingdom stand and if ever you find them harping upon any of these strings I am much mistaken I know they have a Thunder-clap ready but God be thanked it is but a Brutum fulmen it may make a great Crack but it will do no hurt What say you to that place of St. Paul Necessity is laid upon me and woe is me if I preach not the Gospel I say that place is nothing to their Purpose Let us first see the same Commissiom from them which St. Paul had 1 Cor 1.1 Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and then let them undertake the same Work to Evangelize as the Word is to preach the Gospel to those who never heard of it before Let us see them so Zealous as to go and convert the Savage Indians and then we shall begin to believe they are afraid of the Woe and preach the Gospel out of pure Conscience of the Necessity that is laid upon them But to go about to make all the World believe that We are Idolators and Heathens such as know not Christ that so they may have the glory of our Conversion and be thought Apostles is just as if they should first pick our Pockets and by giving us Brass again instead of our Gold perswade us to believe they are our best Friends and Benefactors wonderful kind and bountiful to us which indeed would make Us look like Fools and Children but would certainly prove those who did it to be Cheats and Knaves If in one thing they will act like Saint Paul let them in another and not boast as they do of their Great Labours in the Gospel in other mens Lines 2 Cor. 10.16 of things made ready to their hand of which Saint Paul would by no means be guilty But they are not so scrupulous in that particular as he was and for all the Necessity and the Woe will rather act the Bishop in another mans Diocess than go to Mexico to preach the Gospel and get one of their own And for that preaching which does not preach these things but a Gospel of their own that is it which the Church by Authority of Scripture protests against and if they or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel in whole or in part than what the Holy Apostles preached let him not only be silenced but accursed And so long as the Pulpit is made the Shop of Schisme not to say Heresie in the Church and the Forge of Sedition and Rebellion in the State so long as Preaching is exalted above devout Prayers and Praises which are the only Tribute we can pay our Almighty Soveraign and shall be one part of the happy Employment in Heaven so long as it shall stand in Competition with the Sacraments those holy Seals whereby we are sealed to the Day of Redemption Not only our Church sayes it but all the true Saints and Servants of God have said the same and will say so to the end of the World that not onely twice in one Day but once in a Mans Life is too much for any man to preach or any Christian people to hear And of all these miscarriages in Religious as well as Civil concerns this their Preaching is and has been most notoriously guilty I would not have them take their Measures of us by their own Standard for though they know not how to distinguish betwixt the Vse and the Abuses of things let them not say therefore that We do not neither The time was when they pretended there were great abuses crept into the Ecclesiastical Government therefore away with it Root and Branch of Episcopacy the Office it self as well as the Offence if any were besides their Loyalty Honours and Estates Crimes great enough for Pride Envy and Ambition our Church is for no such unreasonable Methods nor because they have and do greatly abuse Preaching therefore nothing less will serve than an utter Abolition of the thing I hope were there nothing else yet common Prudence will allow any Government that Liberty which is for its own Preservation and to endeavour to correct those abuses
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