Sence of our Ecclesiastical Performances for which we shall find they have as little kindness or Charity as for the former All the Ceremonies of the Church which they tell tell the People are with us the greatest part if not the All of our Worship are far from that Spirit and Truth which God seeks for in all those Worshippers that he approves That they are no where Warranted in the Word of God and therefore unlawful The Surplice and other Vestments badges of Innocence and distinctions of Degrees or Office are Rags of Rome Bowing at the Name of Jesus flat Idolatry kneeling at the Sacrament the same The Cross after Baptism a vain and foolish piece of Superstition and a Relique of the Popish Crossing In short the whole Book of Common Prayer c. a dull dead Letter formal having not the Power or Spirit of Devotion nothing but a translation of the Mass-book into English Full of Thank Calvin for his Tolerabiles ineptiae frivolous stuff mere Porredge and I know not what for there is nothing that may render the Service of the Church contemptible or Odious which they will stick to say of it and in so doing perswade us they do their Duty and God good Service How far they have successfully advanced in this Wicked Design is but too Evident by the General neglect of People in repairing to the Church on the Holy Fasts and Festival Dayes Though they are enjoyned by the Statute Laws of the Land to be kept Holy Ann. quarto quinto Ed. Sexti st 3. as well as by the Command of the Church And by which all people are enjoyned to resort to their Parish-Churches to hear Divine Service Anno. 1. Eliz. st 2. and to joyn in an unanimous and Vniform Worship of God Anno 23. Eliz. st 1. Nor will they come to Church on the Lords Day in the afternoons when they have no pretence of the hindrance of their Secular Affairs if there be only Prayers and Catechizing but not a Sermon which as hereafter shall be shewn is made the Essential part of all Religion Now all these Waters of Marah spring from the same Fountain The Doctrine of their being the Elect and only people of God For if they be theirs is the right way of worship and all others false and vain But that they are the Elect you have already heard and what infallible Marks their Teachers have given them and more than all that have told them that undoubtedly they are which likewise has been confirmed unto them by the Testimony of the Spirit helping them to pray and filling them with Love and Joy in believing And if ours be false wayes and Will-worship such as keep men in Error and Ignorance Blindness Formality and Superstition such as will certainly bring them to Hell ought they not think you to promote Gods Glory and their own by pulling down the Kingdom of Antichrist and destroying the Brazen Serpent when it is abused to Idolatry Undoubtedly they think it is their Duty and not only theirs but the Duty of all Magistrates Kings and Princes of the Earth who are bound to endeavour it to hate the great Whore of Babylon and to burn her with fire and if they will not be so wise to receive this Instruction from them and so learned as to put this in Execution the people may if they can get power nay must endeavour it with or against their Wills for the Work is the Lords and Cursed be he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48.10 and Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from Blood which is the true Chain of their desperate Opinions and Practices A most admirable Sorites to prove Rebellions not only Lawful but Necessary and which you see is forcibly back't with abused Scripture Thus one Error in the Foundation multiplies into a thousand and contrary to the Rules of Architecture is like an inverted Pyramid the higher it rises the wider it spreads and one mistake in a Principle is the Parent of innumerable in the Practice I will conclude this particular with the following Apologue and leave the Application of it to every mans pleasure A certain Husbandman having in his Plantation a Vine it grew wonderfully and did produce great plenty of incomparable Clusters and of a most delicate tast some of his wise neighbours coming to see his Plantation and perceiving the Shoots and Branches so Luxuriant they gave him advice to crop and prune it and to take off most of the largest and fairest leaves telling him that the Plant spent it self too much that way and that all the good they did was but to make a little unnecessary Flourish which might well be spared that they Beauty or Shade could not make a recompence for the injury they did in drawing away such abundance of the sapp and moisture from the Root whereby they hindred its Fruit robbing it in great measure of they juicy nourishment Upon tryal the Experiment does not succede the Fruit proves neither so fair plentiful nor of that greateful flavour as formerly it used to do But to give him assistance in his design the following Yeaâ— he spies upon one of the Branches a fine wrought webb charged only with a few little tender Eggs his Curiosity and Ignorance of what it was tempted him to let them alone and to see what they would come to The heat of the Sun in a short time discloses a brood of most curiously variegated Catterpillers the honest man finds them still lodged in their cunning inclosure admires their Beauty and many-colour'd nature Ammel and thus argues with himselfe Sure these Worms can do my Vine no hurt they look so finely and feel so soft which arguments prevail with him not to disturb much Iess destroy them Before he thought any more of them or look't again they had overspread his Vine and devoured all the Leaves and had left the tender fruit naked and bare which being thereby exposed to the scorching Sun the unkindness of the Winds and Weather in a little time parch'd and dwindled quite away and if he had not used much industry he had utterly lost his delicate Plant. Which for all his care and pains did not yet in several Years recover the damage it had sustained by these pretty silken Guests You need make no Question but for ever after he knew them again at first sight and assoon as ever he spied a Webb but beginning to be spun upon his Vine he gave it a speedy Dispatch 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 Common-wealth Of the little kindness they have for Monarchy Salus populi Suprema Lex their fundamental Principle of Government abused to perswade Men. that the
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
truly Militant than in the present The envious Dragon Rev. 12.12 13. knowing that he hath but a short time has summoned up all his Infernal Militia to make one great and vigorous attempt upon the persecuted Woman having forcibly driven her into the Wilderness he throws out of his mouth water as a flood that if it be possible he may cause her to be carried away by those Deluges and Inundations of Errours IN a danger so eminent every good Soldier of Christ Jesus is bound by the Sacramentum Militare of his Baptism to do the utmost of his endeavours and earnestly to contend for the Faith Jude v. 3. which was once delivered to the Saints and not only be contented to stand fast in that Faith 1 Cor. 16.13 but to quit himself like a man and be strong THAT Son must needs have little Courage and less Duty who can see a most beautiful tender and indulgent Mother prostituted to the barbarous rage of her most implacable Enemies and the murdering Steel ready to be plunged into her innocent Bosom and all that while stand gazing on or spending that time in childish and fruitless Laments which he ought to employ towards her present rescue and speedy assistance I am not ignorant that whoever concerns himself with the present Enemies of the Church puts his hand into a Nest of Hornets and had need to be well guarded both with Law and Innocence if he hopes to scape their stings and possibly that Consideration together with the natural inclination of my Genius above all other things to quiet and repose might have been powerful enough to divert me from this design if some stronger Reasons had not put me upon it BUT lest by some in this scribling Age I might be thought infected with the common Malady Scribendi Cacoethes I do here enter my solemn Protest against it and that I had no other intentions in making my thoughts publick but to satisfie the importunities of my own mind by discharging that Duty I owe to God and the Holy Church And if I cannot prevent the common and by consequence my particular danger I shall yet have the satisfaction that I have not by my silence consented to it nay further that it may be even beyond my Province I have attempted to do it THE goodness of actions is not to be measured by their prosperous successes and if that fails to answer the expectation of my wishes and desires I shall yet have avoided the imputation of their folly of whom the Historian tells us who were known silendo periisse to have perisht by either their imprudent or wilful silence THE knowledg I have of the disproportion there is betwixt the Design and the Undertaker might also it may be discourage me from the Enterprize if I did not remember that once a contemptlble Sling and ordinary Pebble prostrated the prodigious man of Gath 1 Sam. 17.49 50 51. and overthrew an Army not less numerous or insolent than this with which I am to encounter I cannot tell whether some mens prevailing Fears and the desire of that security which they vainly hope to establish by what they call temper and moderation or the over tender Charity of others towards their (a) Who yet scorn that Epithete farther than it serves their interest and are Giants in their own opinion though in other mens and in truth more wilful than weak weak Brethren have hindred them from speaking plain But I have observed that most of those Prints which have of late days past the Press concerning them have been handled with as much niceness and caution as men with naked hands would treat the peevish Nettles or armed Brambles MUCH has been said written and printed in Vindication of the Church of England her Rites and Ceremonies But I find that these Apologies have always been rendred suspected of partiality and so made useless by the Heads of the Separation amongst their credulous Followers and being usually Books of a greater Price than every mans Pocket could easily reach and of a larger content than either that or their capacity could without trouble contain the ordinary sort of people being willing to spare both the expence of their Money and Time never come to a clear understanding of the Controversies but determine their Judgments according to the opinions and censures of their Heads to whom they have wholly resigned themselves and their Faith Now it is most undoubted that the Character which they will give of all such Writings is never free from partiality or ever favourable to any thing that is against their own Practice or Interest AND if at any time some of the more curious or inquisitive startled with the common Vogue demand of their infallible Rabbi what is his sense of the Learned and Judicious Mr. Hooker the pious Mr. Comber or the late incomparable both learned and mostest Mr. Falkner or of any other Pieces of that kind so highly cryed up by the Church of England-men he will not fail to do all he can to perswade them not to lose so much time in reading such frothy stuff which is nothing but untemper'd Mortar to dawb over the Temple of Antichrist which notwithstanding all that can be done to support it must down must fall very suddenly and that they may much better spend their precious time in reading the godly Works of such or such a man of his own Opinion with which Seditious Sermons the world is abominably pestered But that he may say something in answer to their Question Hooker of whom one may by his actions probably conjecture he never read more than the Title Page he will tell them writ against some factious spirits in Queen Elizabeth's days but that concerns not them And for the rest they will not want something to say against them which though it cannot enervate their masculine Arguments yet shall infallibly prejudice and sully either their reputation or intention in writing The Friendly Debate is an extravagant Droll Libertas Ecclesiastica was penn'd in hopes of Preferment the Companion to the Altar is no Companion fit for them the Rationale upon the Common-Prayer has no more Reason than what it wears upon the Frontispiece And though I do purposely conceal both my Name and Capacity and will not tell them whether I am a Lay-man or an Ecclesiastick nor shall all their industry find it out if I can prevent it yet I do expect the same or worse treatment and measure from them and to hear their Random-shot whistle about my Ears LET them say or think who I am or what they please of me and were that all the Liberty of Conscience they would desire or demand they should not fail of a willing and speedy gratification and I cannot therefore be thought unjust if I expect the same liberty which I would grant to others My intentions are to deal plainly with them and to proceed without favour or affection so far as I have the
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
all the whole Party are managed by Interest or guilty of Hypocrisie I am clearly of another Judgment and do believe it is a want of ability or means to discover those Dangers which are closely concealed from them by the cunning Ring-leaders of Faction which is the true Reason why they do so much admire and adore the fair outside and specious appearances of these Men who are like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Luke s. 11. v. 44. those dangerous vaults under the Painted Sepulchres at whose outward Beautie and Garniture whilest Men do with wonder gaze they are not aware of the Dangers of their inward hollowness till they are irrecoverably fallen into it THERE is no question but Goodness and Piety do command an Universal Love and Veneration insomuch that even those persons whose constant Debaucheries declare them open Enemies to all Virtue cannot yet forbear to pay a secret Homage to those Men with whom they see her dwell And this is the Lure which these cunning Falconers know so well how to manage and by it to reclaim the greatest Haggards But it is but a Lure and would they well consider when they have with so much eagerness stoopt upon it that it is only a few Gay Feathers and not a real Quarry they would not so tamely take the Hood and give themselves up to that blind Faith and Obedience which is expected from them I would willingly believe that it is not the Wills but the Understandings of these Men that are to blame and as I desire it were so I should extreamly rejoyce to be convinced that their Piety were real But I shall never be capable of entertaining the Perswasion That any Person can truly Fear God who does not Honour the King or that he can be a good Christian so long as he continues to be an ill Man Nor can I be brought to believe that he is a Child of God and loves God as he ought to do who hates his Brother unless they can convince me that it is not Canonical Scripture which tells me In this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil whoso doth not Righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his Brother And I am very well satisfied that it is no Work of Righteousness to refuse to obey God in those lawful Magistrates and Ministers who arc of his especial appointment and his Vicegerents and Representatives and to whom therefore he commands all Obedience and Subjection should be given DID they lie under the hard Circumstances of invincible Ignorance of their Duty they would deserve Pity and Pardon both from God and Men but being prest on all sides with such clear and irresistible Arguments from undeniable Scripture Law and Reason that they owe all Duty to their Soveraign and all Obedience to their Superiours in the Church there is no colour or pretext left them under which they can shelter themselves from the unavoidable guilt of wilful Disloyalty and Obstinate Schism I have often wondred to hear with what Veneration they will speak of the Holy Scriptures and to see how constantly they retreat to them as the most impregnable Fortress for the Defence of their Opinions and Perswasions how peremptorily and frequently they appeal to them as the only indifferent Judges and Arbiters of all Controversies and Differences in Religion how zealously and earnestly they plye the People with the great Duty of searching the Scriptures for in them they have Eternal Life St. Joh. c. 5. v. 3â— and yet all the World cannot perswade them either to believe or hear those Scriptures though speaking never so plainly against their Erroneous Practices I know no Commands more Positive than what our blessed Lord himself and the Apostles of our Lord have given for their Obedience to Kings even Heathen Kings St. Marâ— c. 12. v. 1. Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars as well as unto God the things that are Gods And let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers Rom. 13. v. 1. saith St. Paul And he enforces the Command upon them with the most dreadful of all Penalties Not imprisonment of their Bodies confiscation of their Goods or Death in all which they pretend to glory and be more than Conquerors but with Damnation of which if they suffer it they will have no cause to Boast And as if he had foreseen what shield they would oppose against such a mighty Blow as comes from the all-powerful Arm of Divine Vengeance he takes away even that Defence and tells them it is a folly to pretend the Obstacle of Conscience since they must needs be subject not only for * The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Poena vindicta as well ac Ira. So. Rom. c 3. v. 11. Is God unjust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who taketh vengeance Wrath or fear of Punishment but also for Conscience sake NOR is the other Command less plain and positive Obey them that have the Rule ever you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account That there are such Persons who have a just Authority over them by the Fundamental Laws of the Land is matter of undeniable Fact and these very Men having given their coâ—â—â—â—t to those Laws by their free Representatives in Parliament stand bound to the observance of them by their own Act and Deed. Which manifestly shews the unreasonableness of their disobedience But further that these Governours of the Church have that Authority vested in them and derived upon them by a continued succession from Christ and his Apostles is a Truth which though they may stoutly deny yet they will never be able with all their skill to disprove without a new Index Expurgatorius and such a one as must purge not only all the writings of the Ancient Fathers all the Records of time all the Acts of the allowed General Councils but even the Bible or at least some part of it out of the World ALL that they say for themselves to palliate such Notorious Disobedience is That they ought to obey God rather than Men which is undoubtedly true and necessary in all such cases as that for which it was first urged where the Commands of Men are contrary to the Express Laws and Positive Will of God But a most impertinent and frivolous Evasion where the Impositions of Men are either agreeable to the Will of God or by being by him left altogether undetermined are therefore absolutely in the Power of his Deputies the lawful Magistrates to determine this way or that way as to them shall seem most expedient And therefore the Apostle commands 1 Pet. 2. cap. ver 13 to 18. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake SOMETIMES they will tell us especially those whole Reason convinces them of the impotency of the former Plea that they are obedient so far as the Impositions are lawful that is warranted
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
openly avow if not by their Doctrine yet by their Practice and justifie the blackest of all Crimes Rebellion which is as the sin of Witchcraft and that stubbornness which is as Iniquity and Idolatry of which they so vehemently accuse others yet all this is done for Conscience sake and that pretence can by a strange Chymistry turn the greatest Sinners into golden Saints and the most horrid Impieties Sacriledg and Murder as they would make us believe into acceptable services to God Almighty THOUGH in reality after all this they have made no greater advance and it may be are not yet better than the Pharisees of old Acts 26.5 whose Sect was the strictest among the Jews they were as strongly perswaded of their own sanctity they would make as long Prayers Mat. 23.14 15. and devour Widows Houses too They were as industrious to save Souls nay would do more than most of these will adventure at compass Sea as well as Land to make a Proselite and I fear with the same success as these men do I say they are not yet gotten altogether so far nor are quite so innocent For amongst all the Crimes our blessed Saviour accuses them of and condemns them for and for which he denounces so many fearful Woes against them I do not find that ever he charges them with the Guilt or so much as suspicion of Rebellion against Caesar or any of his Prefects or yet with Disobedience to the High-Priest who was then their Ecclesiastical Superior Nay further we may well suppose that as in their Tithing Mint Annise and Cummin so they were exact in their Duty to all these by the design they had to entrap the Holy Jesus with that Question whether it was lawful to give Tribute to Caesar or not they being beforehand satisfied in themselves that it was and resolved if he should deny it to accuse him of a Crime which they were well assured would condemn him NOR in truth are they arrived to any higher Pitch than it is very possible for a Heathen by the meer strength of Nature to perform and some of them went as far in Morality if we may believe the Histories of their Lives as it is possible for Humane Nature to go BUT further to discover how great Masters they are in the Art of Converting every thing to their advantage and by all ways to gain love both to their Persons and Perswasions Even Punishment the original design of which is to make all Crimes odious as they handle the matter it adds a Lustre unto theirs They never fear or feel the deserved Penalties of the Laws but both in publick and private they cry out as men upon the Rack and if for their commiting a spoil in Gods Harvest Justice does but take them by the Ears with their hideous out-cryes they call all the compassionate Herd to condole with their sufferings and this must be call'd a Time of Persecution and the suffering-days of the Saints Now the very Word Persecution sounds so heathenish and unlawful that it is impossible but they should meet with abundance of Pity and that we know is both the Parent and the Child of Love And it is no wonder if they glory in these Tribulations and patiently take the spoiling of their Goods if they can be found which they are sure will be restored by the Bountiful Pity of their Congregations sevenfold in this Life and in the World to come God knows what THAT great constancy of Mind with which they appear to suffer they may well shew when one hair of their Heads is not toucht Their frequent talking of resisting unto Blood which I much question whether they would in Suffering as for Doing we may from former Experience take their Word and their many and vehement Exhortations to Constancy begets in their followers an opinion that they are not at all inferior to the Martyrs of the Primitive Times or those of later Days and that therefore they are in the right Way because they are persecuted by the Wicked for such are all those who are not new-cast in their Mould And this makes the People redouble their Love and their Bounty knowing that if he that gives but a Cup of cold Water shall not lose his Reward theirs shall be exceeding great and full of Glory Hereby they are sure they are not of the World because the World hates them for they make what they call Persecution an infallible sign of the true Church which is so great an Error and Mistake that if it be admitted there can be none False for undoubtedly Philosophy has not been without its Martyrs and there is no Religion of Pagan Jew Turk as well as Christian but has in their sense suffered Persecution that is have been opposed condemned and punished by the Laws of some Times and Places BUT they have another Design and the Project does but too commonly succeed according to their Wishes and Intentions for they do not only hereby purchase to themselves Love Riches Pity and Reputation but they likewise inspire a secret Hatred into the People against all Magistrates from the Commissary and Official to his most Reverend Grace from the Countrey-Justice of the Peace to Sacred Majesty it self AND I am the apter to believe this because in common Discourse from the Highest to the Lowest of them I could never yet hear any one of them speak kindly either of the late Blessed King CHARLES the Martyr or of His present Majesty excepting for the Act of Indemnity or the last Indulgence and Toleration Whatever Reason they had for the one I am sure they had sufficient cause for the other and had they any Remainders of good Nature Ingenuity or Generosity they would think all their Duty and Service too little to express their sensibleness and gratitude for that one Gracious Act whereby they enjoy their Lives Liberties and Estates all which they had so absolutely forfeited And though they dare not call the Master of the House Beelzebub yet for certain his Domestiques shall meet with far coarser treatment if they are not such as are visibly inclined to be favourable unto them but discharge their Duty by putting the Law in execution against them presently they are Persecutors Blood-Suckers Neros Enemies to God and all Good Men which all must be restrained to those of their Party who only are Good and Godly FROM hence the People come to a dislike of their Governors and Government from thence they proceed to wish it were otherways and by degrees grow at last familiarly to entertain those dreadful and desperate Resolutions if they have Opportunity and Ability to make what Alterations they think good not only in Religious but Civil Affairs not only to depose but murther Kings and extirpate Episcopacy Root and Branch and indeed to commit all Villanies and Disorders Nor will they stick at any thing which they are pleased to varnish over with the pretence and only the name of Reformation THAT
all that little good Opinion which before he had of Religion and this together with his own loose inclinations and the fashionable humour of being irreligious easily perswade him that it is nothing but a fine Device of Politicians to keep the lower part of the World in awe Or if he has read the Poet he believes him more than the Gospel when he tells him Primus in Orbe Deos Timor fecit The Foundation of all Religion was either Fear or Fancy And are not these glorious discoveries occasion'd and found out by this New Gospel-Light BUT to proceed these persons are always curious and inquisitive to find out the most secret Crimes of others amongst whom they live and will never fail to publish that in the open street and upon the house top S. Mat. 1â— 15 which was done in a corner and they are so far from the true Christian Way of private admonition directed by our Saviour that without waiting for Reformation by those Degrees they proceed immediately to a Dic Ecclesiae and tell it to their Church upon the first discovery LIKE the wily Serpent they do commonly begin the Temptation with the Woman as being the weaker Vessel yet having a strong Ascendant and influence upon the Husband and hereby do not rarely Verifie the Apostles prediction when they creep into houses and lead Captive silly Women laden with Sins led away with divers Lusts and it is the common opinion that it is not impossible to find amongst their Converts more Women who either are or have been of ill or at least suspected Fame than in many other places which go under a harder Censure But the good Woman becoming a New Creature religiously cheats her husband to help to maintain the Speaker the Man first suspects and after a little Time discovers the Intrigue of his Wifes paying for this new invented Leachery of her Ears and as well he may is not a little angry or displeased at it She tires him with perpetual Lectures Repetitions Admonitions and Importunities which makes his House or Shop uneasie to him and either does or very probably may induce him to seek more agreeable Conversation abroad and whilst he indeavours to avoid her continual dropping in a rainy day as the wise man calls the Persections of a Contentious Woman by chusing such places and persons for his Divertisement he may endanger the Ruine of his Soul Body and Estate And surely next to the debauching a Woman into forbidden Embraces I think this alienating of those two whom God hath made one and no person has power to put asunder either in Body or Mind is a displeasure that must needs be the most sensible Affliction to both Parties and so much the more if formerly there has been an entire Love and kindness when they shall come to be so far estranged as to live in perpetual jars and discords and whilest they both strive to save the others Soul run a manifest hazzard of losing both and do most certainly lose one of the greatest designs and satisfactions of Marriage which is that they may be mutual helps and comforts one to another The Heathen Poet could have taught them better Doctrine where he tells them Foelices ter amplius Queis irrupta tenet Copula Nec malis divulsa Querimoniis And St. Peter tells the good Women the way to convert their Heathen Husbands is by their chaste Conversation coupled with fear to offend them and not by perpetual ingrateful Curtain-Lectures THE wise King tells us ATale-bearer maketh strife Prov. 26.20.16 c. 28. and a Whisperer separateth chiefest Friends And with these Talents they do so abound that the Coffee-Houses are not better stor'd with News especially what may advance the Defamation of all those from the highest to the lowest that are not of their Way or do oppose them But above all their aspersions are thrown upon their Lawful Minister if possible to make him odious to the People which they know if they can effect it will be no hard matter to bring them into their Confederacy And having left him because he will not leave the Church and his Duty nor forswear himself to please them that they may appear to have some Reason too for their deserting of him they will not stick to vilifie contemn despise defame and scandalize by all the ways they can invent true or false it matters not and herein their cunning is not less than their malice one blow at the Root being worth a hundred at the Leaves or Branches and rather than fail where nothing else is to be had they will content themselves with ridiculous Improbabilities A Clergy-man of my acquaintance being call'd up to London upon the dispatch of some emergent and important affairs of his having it seems nothing to fix upon him besides they reported that during his stay there he had his Pocket pickt at the Play-house of a considerable Sum of Money which was as they would have people believe a most remarkable Judgment upon him for his Vanity but a far greater Untruth he having as he solemnly protested to me never had that common piece of ill Fortune at London or any where else in all his Life nor for seven years before having seen a Play though he thinks it far better and more lawful than one of their Conventicles where the Teacher picks the Money out of their Pockets all their Duty Loyalty and Allegiance out of their Hearts and if they do not in time repent they are in the greatest danger of having the Devil pick their Souls out of their Bodies IT were endless to recount all the disturbances they make where-ever they come and this being but the Prologue to greater Mischiefs and Inconveniences we will proceed to them though to keep their hands in ure they are like the Gentlemans Servant who being observed by his Master to be so light-finger'd that he never went any whither but he stole something before he came away he gave him a strict charge not to meddle with any thing at a House whither he was going to make a Visit at his coming away the Fellow took up a handful of the Rushes with which the Hall was strow'd and put into his Pocket and his Master demanding why he did so he made answer it was to keep his hand in ure So these men will play at small Games Heads and Points in their own Parish rather than stand out and first grow well acquainted with making Parties Divisions and little Mutinies in the Town where they live that so they may be perfect at the Trade and fit to set up and Act their parts of the Tragedy their Masters are composing as soon as it is ready to appear upon the Publick Theater of the World In a word they are intimately acquainted with the Jesuites Maxim which they use against the Protestants Fortiter calumniare aliquid haerebit thus Englisht by a certain Lady who was wont to use and give this devillish Counsel to
well serve their Interest and cannot be Godliness unless it brings in Gain and should this Doctrine once appear unlawful down goes their Dagon and loses both his Head and Hands and will be an useless Trunk a mere Stump and no longer a God The setting up the two Golden Calves was not the least Policy of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat 1 Kings 12 26. to vers 31. who is rarely mentioned without that infamous Remarque that he made Israel sin and that Sin was Separation from the Church and Rebellion against his lawful Soveraign To go up to Jerufalem to Worship will in time bring the Kingdom back again to the House of David and therefore the Calves must be erected at Dan and Bethel Not that Jeroboam was so sottish that he did not know that Idolatry and Schism Revolting and Rebellion were unlawful but something was necessary to be done to preserve his ill-gotten Crown and the People had formerly been strangely fond of a Calf and two he thought would please them better I fear Jeroboams Policy is one end and the chief one of their Separation even to nurse the People up in Disloyalty against their lawful Prince and disobedience against the Holy Church For should the People go to the Church to Worship to hear Divine Service and receive the Holy Sacrament should they hear their lawful Ministers preach their Duty press them to Fear God and Honour the King they might in time be convinc'd of their Errors and Mistakes and then all 's lost 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 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 Abuse 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 Interests and wicked Designs that the Church declares it self NOW to the end that they may have the better opportunity to disperse and divulge their Doctrines there is no place that can be so subservient as the Pulpit a Discourse from thence having gained the mighty Reputation of being Authentique and the generally received Opinion being that from that place men speak as the Oracles of God and that every Word that comes from their mouths is as true as the Gospel as in truth it ought to be There is therefore a Necessity that they should exalt Preaching as the chiefly necessary most excellent Christian Duty and give it the preheminence above all other Ordinances And this is the third Doctrine which for the same Design with the other with so much vehemence and earnestness they press upon the People And to satisfie you how strangely the present Age is enamoured of the Pulpit and how great an Opinion People have of what is spoken there I will relate a passage which happened to a Reverend Divine in the County of Essex Every Lords Day as he thought it was his Duty in the Afternoon he Expounded upon some part of the Nine and thirty Articles to instruct his Parishioners what was the Doctrine of the Church of England judging it a good expedient to remove the Scandal that lies upon our Religion and to prevent their falling into Sects and Factions with which that County does abound and this he did in the Reading Desk without the formality of a Prayer to usher it in or make it look like a Sermon but never met with any thing but the discouragement of a thin Audience whereby ghessing at the true Reason he gave them notice that for the future he would Preach in the Afternoons being determined to try if the same Matter would take better from the Pulpit than it had done from the Reading Desk he chose such Texts as were suitable to the Doctrines he intended to Expound upon and from them delivered the very same Words he was resolved to use in his Exposition Nor did the success at all deceive his expectation The Church is now throng'd and crowded whereas before it used to look as if the Stones and Pillars must have said Amen as 't is said they once did to the Prayers of our Venerable Bede The Discourses are extreamly approved of and the People wonderfully pleased The plain truth on 't is the Commons of England by the Disorders of the late Times and the many tickling Promises which were made them That the Burthen of Tithes should be taken away and a more Evangelical Way for the maintenance of the Clergy should be found out have lost the true sense of payment of Tithes and do not do it out of a Principle of Conscience nor consider that they are a just Right which in all Alienations passes as a reserved Rent to the use of Almighty God and it may be are one of the best Tenures in Capite of their Estates from the Great Landlord of the Vniverse and from hence it is that if they had no such esteem for Preaching yet they look upon it as a Debt their Minister ows them for what they pay him and though several of them care not how little he has yet they would be sure to have enough for their Money which makes them many times come to Church to see that the Parson does his Duty rather than from him to learn their own or perform what they know by joyning with him in humble and devout Prayers and Praises But they think they have not their Penniworths for their Penny and that a man takes no pains for what he does not speak in the Pulpit or if he does not Preach twice in a day Besides Curiosity and the desire and love of novelties and mighty Natural and the Athenian humour does but too universally prevail a certain pleasure in hearing or telling some New thing So that a Sermon though never so good and useful which was preached in the Morning would be Crambe bis costa nauseous if repeated in the Afternoon and with this humour of the World these men are so well acquainted that it is variety that makes the Feast that usually they have one Text for the Morning and another for the Evening Sermon and neither the same Prayer exactly before or after either though it is but putting Almighty before Eternal or Eternal before Almighty and it will please And I am perswaded if any man would give himself the trouble in Short-hand to write down one of their Prayers for three or four Days together he would find the great Secret of Extempore-Praying to consist in this neat and cunning transposition turning the inside outward and the foreside backward more than in any thing of New Invention at which for all
season and most certainly out of season with which place they do so frequently scratch this Itch of the Ears An Itch the more it is scratched the more it may and the more it pleases especially the courser the Stuff is the more delightfully it rubs and is still desired until at last the blood and smart follows the busie Fingers and poyson'd Nails and from their scratching us till we bleed again Libera nos Domine A third advantage they make of Preaching is that hereby as well as in their Prayer they have many opportunities of displaying their own Excellencies and manifesting their great Abilities Gifts and Parts of which whatever men of sober Judgements may have They have no small Opinion as is most evident by their obstinate persisting in their own Ways and Wills not only against lawful Authority and the wise safe and prudent Determinations of their Superiors but against Scripture and Reason which must certainly speak them Wise in their own Conceit though thereby they render themselves more hopeless than Fools if we may take King Solomons word And they are so far from condescending to men of Low degree that they will not do it to those Persons who are of the Highest and whilest they thus preach Christ of strife and envy if they would impartially examine their Hearts they would find a great measure of Pride Conceit and Self-love at the bottom of them for as the abovementioned Royal Writer tells us Only by pride comes contention and it is very evident that in all their Preaching they have a great respect to advance their own Fame Interest and Design by the Authentick recommendation of their Doctrine and Discipline from the adored Pulpit which by successful Experience they find do all thereby receive the most considerable Advantage And how great an Estimate they set upon themselves is apparent by their Intrusion into other mens Parishes by which procedure they necessarily suppose themselves more fit and qualified than those who are by Law stated in those Places to do the work of an Evangelist One of these Men being about to set up for himself in another mans Parish was pressed with several Arguments to desist but more particularly with that golden Rule of Christs Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri nê feceris to do as he would be done by but either it was to him a leaden Argument or he had a leaden Head for he would make no other Reply to it But that it was fit the People should be instructed I will not trouble my self to explain that that spoke his Sense of himself and of the Minister of the place because it is easie to be read without the help of Spectacles It will now appear no Wonder that they do so highly magnifie Preaching and look upon it as the only Means of Grace so that in all their Discourses of it it passes amongst them with the Prerogative Emphasis of The Means and even their own Extempore Prayer which they pretend to be the immediate product of the Spirit to which I never heard preaching did pretend yet is but a handmaid to wait upon it and must lower the Top-sail to this All-powerful this only Soul-saving-Ordinance Good very Good and if the Spirit must truckle to the Flesh and Humane Invention be preferred before Divine Inspiration guess of the rest of them by this And in truth to hear them exalt it as they never fail to do upon the least hint that offers it self in their way a man would believe that they think it more essentially necessary to Salvation than Faith Hope or Charity of which last and greatest of the three you shall rarely hear them Discourse the true reason being because all their Preaching and Actings are directly contrary to it and by St. Paul's rule their golden Language is no better than sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbals worth nothing without Charity but the pretended Reason is to take men off from their Settlement upon the Lees and Dregs of Popery and the Opinion of the Meritoriousness of Good Works to which they say all men are but too naturally prone and inclined and I am very apt to believe it and that by the high value they set upon Preaching a great many of their Followers think that to go to hear a Sermon is a thing wonderfully Meritorious so that it is but changing the Work and not the Opinion of Merit which they bring men to by all their Pains Now do I know as well as if I were of the Secret Cabal and so I may be under a disguise for any thing they know purposely to discover their dangerous Intrigues that this one place will if possible keep this Book from ever being read by any of their Disciples and will heed no other Sentence for its Condemnation Oh 't is a most abominable Book it is against Preaching Oh what sad times should we have if every body were of this Persuasion It is against The Means Oh sad and in regard they sow this aspersion amongst the other Tares of Dissention and endeavour by it to make the Bishops and Church of England as odious as it is possible by telling their Disciples the most abominable falshood That the present Governors of the Church are all against Preaching I will endeavour to ward off the desperate blow with the Shield of Truth and wash off the Dirt which these Calumniators throw upon the face of the most beautiful Church in the Christian World I must therefore let them know that the Church of England has as great a Veneration and Esteem for that Duty as it can challenge It is not the truely ancient and Apostolical Way of Preaching nor the new Way neither that the Church is against It is the gross abuse of Preaching which these Men have put upon it and the Ill Vses they dayly make of it to countenance disperse and insinuate their wicked Designs to disturb and ruine all Government against which with very good Reason the Church declares it self St. Peters Sermon with which he converted three thousand Souls was not one quarter of an hours Discourse nor attended with the Prologue of a long-winded Extempore-Prayer nor indeed is that preaching which is so strongly prest and commanded any thing of affinity or kindred with this which they call Preaching as will appear to any who considers That the great Commission of our Saviour to his Disciples to go and teach all Nations St. Matth. 28. ult was as the Word plainly imports to go and make Disciples of them That is to Baptize them into the Faith of Christ by turning them from their former Vanities of Idolatry worshipping Stocks and Stones Act. 14.15 Gold Silver four-footed Beasts Creeping Things to know and serve the only true and Living God and Jesus Christ whom he had sent To certifie unto the Gentiles as well as the Jews Heb. 1.3 that Christ the only begotten Son of God the express Image of his Person and brightness of
I promise you in some Company where he thought he might be bold lamenting the looseness and vitiousness of the Times and the blame being laid at the Door of the Inferiour Magistrates who were so remiss in putting the Laws in Execution Pray says he how can it be otherwise when there are none in Authority but the God-damm'ees and though no former Prince has so highly obliged them as his present Majesty by the Act of Oblivion and a General Pardon since though possibly a better Temper and milder Inclinations are not to be found amongst all Mankind yet for all that I believe the Guards about White-hall at which they grumble so oft calling them a standing Army are a greater Security for him than their Love or Allegiance And I make no dispute but if they had Power proportionable to their Desires if he would not consent to their unreasonable Demands and in Effect depose himself they would make bold in plain English to un-King him and it may be something more as well as his Glorious Father whose Caution I think therefore ought never to be forgotten * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lady Elizabeth's Relation of what the King said to her immediately before his Death To Forgive them but never Trust them For what is a King to them if he be not one of the Elect and that he can never be unless he be of their Church and resolve to Establish their true and Evangelical Ways from which he must therefore be very far so long as he suffers the Laws and his subordinate Ministers of Justice to persecute these People who are the Elect the undoubted Children of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 16. upon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer-Book And as his late Majesty of blessed memory does in the forementioned Book not improbably Conjecture Possibly that aversion they all have for the Publique Litturgy of the Church is because it does so frequently pray for the King and the Royal Family to which in their Hearts they cannot say Amen and that the Conjecture is not wide of the Mark this following Instance will in some measure make apparent One of this Gang being amongst other Company entertain'd as a neighbour at a friends house immediately as soon as Dinner was done he steps out of the Room into a by Entry and a Clergy-man who was present returning thanks and as is customary and commendable closing his Grace with a short Prayer for the Kings Majesty the Queen and Royal Family this impudent Fellow was by those who stood next the Door heard scornfully and maliciously to say when he came to that Passage Oh! by all Means if it were not for that all were worth nothing and indeed it makes me apt to think that this is one if not the only Reason why they account all the Prayers of the Church worth nothing for they are not yet arrived to that Perfection in Christian Religion to love or pray for their Enemies in which number they never fail to put all Crowned and Mitred Heads How directly contrary this Doctrine is to the Divine Philanthropy the infinite Love of God to all Mankind and indeed to the whole Current and Consent of the Sacred Scriptures how dishonourable to God and disadvantageous to Christian Religion are Subjects already largely and learnedly treated of by other Pens And if as they fell in my Way I have lightly touched upon any of them it is only so far as they were necessary to shew how pernicious this Doctrine of theirs is to themselves and the salvation of their Souls how troublesome unquiet uncharitable and unchristian it is amongst their Neighbours How destructive it is to the Church and Ecclesiastical Government Places Persons and Performances and how irreconcileable and desperately dangerous it is to the State of the present Royal Dignity and Government CHAP. XIII Of their Doctrine of the necessity of Separation from the Wicked which they teach in Private and by their Example in Publick These uses they make of it to know their strength and numbers which they always boast of if possible to bring Authority to comply with their Desires hereby they engross a Trade amongst themselves Of their undermining Authority by making it contemptible by their daily affronting it Of the unlawfulness of Separation from the example of our Saviour and from Scripture Separation by St. Jude made a mark of Reprobation Jeroboams Policy the End of their Separation LET us now proceed to a second Doctrine which is he Spawn of the first and the Daughter of such a beautiful Mother cannot chuse but must be most admirable fair Being the Elect People of God those whom from all Eternity he has out of his infinite Love predestinated to Holiness and Happiness though they are in the World yet they are not of the World and therefore they must Separate from Sinners and be a peculiar People without which they think they are not sufficiently zealous of Good Works which in plain English is That whosoever will be of the Number of the Elect People of God must have no religious commerce with the rest of the World for all other he may and that a true Title to Heaven is only to be hoped for and had in their Church and Communion and by this means they advance the so necessary Point of Separation or Distinction of a Party without which Instruments their Spiritual Carnes and Engines to draw up the Stones after they have hew'd and fitted them by the former Doctrine they cannot go on with or ever hope to finish the New Model of their Church so as to set up the Corner-Stone and with joy and shouting cry Grace Grace unto it for they would only change his Grace of Canterbury into his Grace of Presbytery And this they manage with as little noise as possible and with the same Secrecy and Subtilty as the rest though some people say they can plainly hear the Axes and Hammers go perpetually Psal 77.6 which they lift up to break down the Carved Work of all the Houses of God in the Land in order to their setting up the Synagogues of Satan in the room of them If you discourse with them and put the Question Whether the Church of England is a true Church and whether Salvation may not be obtained in Communion with it They will do all they can to decline the Question and will certainly dissemble their Opinion by telling you They dare not judge every man must stand or fall to his own Master That they forbid or hinder none from coming to our Church whose Consciences will give them leave All which is only to avoid the Pinch of the Controversie and is neither better nor worse but what the Apostle S. Paul calls Speaking Lyes in Hypocrisie 1 Tim. 4.2 For it is evident that they think it unlawful because they abstain from our Church and refuse Communion with us themselves and should they speak never a Word to their
Disciples Example is a Tutor sufficiently able to instruct them in this part of their Duty And that Man or Woman either must have so little natural Logick as to be meer Naturals who cannot thus argue from Induction Such a man or Mr. is a pious good and conscientious man for he prayes by the Spirit is painful and powerful in preaching Soul-saving Gospel-Truths Now surely if it were not unlawful to go to the Church and hear those Prayers or receive the Sacrament he would not refuse to do it and abstain from them himself But he does abstain Nay might have kept or had a good Living if he would have conform'd which Good Man he relinquish'd or refus'd for Conscience-sake Therefore it is unlawful and I cannot fear to erre or be mistaken if I follow so good a pattern such a godly mans Example But though in publique they are always tender mouth'd of what may either discover their Wicked Designs or bring them under the unavoidable penalty of the Laws and are not a little cautious and circumspect where they are not assured that all the Ears and Tongues of the Assembly are at their Devotion and therefore will not speak plainly or positively yet they will deliver their Sence so as to be well enough understood That there ought to be no Communion with the Wicked and we know who they mean by that for what fellowship hath Light with Darkness Rev. 18.4 or God with Belial and therefore come out of her my People come out of Spiritual Babylon and Egypt and be not partakers of their Sins lest ye be likewise of their Plagues which latter part of the verse explains the former and informs us how far our Separation is lawful viz. from the Sins of the wicked World not from an outward Communion with the Visible Church And though there is no place suffers more frequently by their abuse of it I know none that favours them less if they would put the right Construction upon it And though they may be thus squeamish in Public yet in private discourse and where they are under the Rose or dare be confident that they shall not be betray'd they will explain their meaning and declare that the Church of England is Babylon her Worship Antichristian nay impious and blasphemous And this the Disciples propagate from one to another and are not so wary as their Teachers but having more zeal than prudence stick not to tell every body so with whom they fall into common converse and discourse and this Doctrine is usually left to the care of the Old Disciples to whose charge the new Proselyte is always committed and they never fail in the ample discharge of this Duty Should they propose it bare-fac't the uncharitableness of it would at first sight affright many and discourage more but this is Meat for strong Men not Milk fit for Babes and therefore it is worth our observation to see how artificially and by degrees they take their Novices from the Breast and with the common stratagem of Nurses they rub the beautiful Breasts of Consolation of the Mother-Church with the bitter Wormwood of their false aspersions or smear them over with the sooty black of their own Calumnies and so fright these Younglings from that sincere Milk of the Word which is able to save their Souls It is always some considerable time before any Young Disciple does absolutely forsake our Church and Communion nor do they usually feed them with this solid food of Separation till by their unnatural biting of their Mother they manifest that they have Teeth first he comes at the latter end of Prayers which by their tempering with him he now begins to dislike after a while having linger'd about the Church-yard for the Watch-word he drops in just as he hears the Psalm beginning to be sung before the Minister goes into the Pulpit then it may be he will miss a day or two and in time as he grows to a clearer Vnderstanding of this Doctrine that he is to have no fellowship with the Wicked and who those are he totally leaves the Church to which he rarely returns till he comes upon mens shoulders with his Heels forward to his own Funeral except to hear a Funeral Sermon for a deceased Friend or Relation Sometimes the temptation of saying Twenty pounds may persuade him to come once in a Month but then only to the Sermon which being ended he tumbles out of the Doors for fear he should be thought one of the Catholick Church by praying for it or have any share in the Peace of God which hating in his Life and Actions he will not suffer to enter into his Ears Though for all his haste this will not excuse the forfeiture which by the express words of the Statute is to be imposed upon all such as do not resort to their Parish-Church to hear Divine Service Now the advantages they receive by this Separation are principally these First hereby they come to know their Strength and Numbers and this adds not a little to their confidence and as they believe to their present Security from Punishment and future hopes of Tolleration if not Establishment And whosoever does but take notice of the frequent boasts they make how Considerable a part of the Nation they are must conclude that the knowledge of their Number is one great and main end of their Separation and that hereby they seem secretly to threaten their Superiours into a suspension of the execution of the Penal Laws against so great a Party whilst they sliely intimate how unsafe it is to meddle with a Multitude and disturb a Populace Secondly hereby they come to know and be known one to another which begets as much Love amongst them as they are capable of who are all Slaves to Vngenerous Interest Nor does this knowledge of one another a little advance the affairs of the Trading part of them of which sort of people their greatest numbers consist and who it may be became Proselytes only in hope of the Custome of the Brotherhood of which they assure themselves if they be ready Money Customers presently and if not such as soon as they can get clear of the Debt-Book of the Wicked with whom at present they are forced to deal and though some from experience are of another Opinion yet they question not but they shall have honest dealing and good pennyworths and possibly this ingrossing and forcing a Trade amongst themselves together with their avoiding all troublesome Offices in the lower Sphere of the State are not the least encouragements to their Separation nor the smallest steps to those Riches which they so much boast are amongst their Party for I remember it was their common discourse that the great want of Money and the sensible decay of Trade for these last Years before the Toleration was occasioned by their keeping up their Money or not giving down their Milk being it seems in a sullen Humour because they were kept within