seared with a hot iron that though the poyson of Asps is perpetually under their lips and they spit their venom against their Superiors yet recant not repent not nor do their tender Consciences feel any remorse or regret Thus Ver. 6. when the Post went out with the Letters from the King and his Princes throughout all Israel and Judah and according to the Commandment of the King requiring the people to Conform and not to be stiff-necked v. 8. as their fathers were but yield themselves unto the Lord so is the Law of the King and Council there called But what entertainment did the people give it This is the question at this day Truly the people were then as now some of them Conformists and some of them Non-conformists The Nonconformists were Ephraim wholly and part of the Tribe of Manasseh and part of Zebulon v. 10. The Conformists were all Judah part of the Tribe of Ashur part of Manasseh and part of Zebulon v. 11 12. Here stand the two Pparties the Non-conformists jearing and laughing and scorning and mocking at the Messengers or Ministers of the King declaring the Kings pleasure and the Law v. 10. And the Ministers were right serv'd I am sure Father Gray beard will say he would have chastised them for their worthy eares nay I fear he would have cried out ruine and desolation all Scotland and part of the Church of England c. is quite undone Here is man's Post against God's Post man's Threshold against God's Threshold Antichrist against Christ and the King's Law against the Positive words of God's Law But perhaps some will say Hezekiah though a good King yet had his faults and so might his Council too tell us not what they did but tell us how God did approve and like of what they did in making a Law against his Law who did God own the Conformists or Non-conformists can you tell us that Yes that I can 2 Chron. 30. 12. This commandment of the King and the Princes against the positive rule of God's Law being made for a good reason moving the King and his Council thereunto is not withstanding called the Word of the Lord and the band of the Lord was with the Conformists God is on our side may they say For the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the Commandment of the King and of the Princes by the word of the Lord. Thus tempting of Moses is called tempting of Christ 1 Cor. 10. 9. This I had not now urged but that Greg. and such fellows as he will take upon them to read Politick and Divinity Lectures to the World in Print when they know nothing but Modern Orthodoxy read Books and hearken to Preachers of their opinion wherein thus confirm'd they admire their Gigantick Improvements and then bid defiance like furious Orlando's to all mankind when indeed they are big with nothing but a soft pate huft and blown up with their own dear humours of self-conceit Nor do I think Governours have warrant from that instance to disannul Gods Sacraments but as to Circumstances and Ceremonies of time place habits gestures and the like according to their Judgement and necessity or conveniency moving them have an unanswerable Right Let Greg. and his Modern Orthodox men mitigate this too I fear them not nor all their snivellings and whinings which no body admires but blew and white aprons and the more ingenious Tankerd-bearers And let them consider without prejudice and in the fear of Almighty God that when the Sons of Jonadab the Sons of Rechab in obedience to him their Superiour submitted to his Humane-law in drinking no Wine nor building Houses nor planting Vineyards which certainly are all very good things and God likewise tells man that all the good creatures he made on purpose for him and his use every herb bearing seed and every tree bearing fruit commanding it should be to mankind for meat c. yet in obedience to the first commandment with promise they would not take the liberty and priviledge warranted to them by God and his Word but would obey the commandment of Jonadab their father and keep all his precepts And God did so love them for it that he blesses them for it saying Jer. 35. 18 19. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father and kept all his precepts and done according to all that he hath commanded you Therefore thus saith saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever Happy would it be for the people of England in soul and body and estate here and hereafter on earth and in heaven if they would observe these thing rather than the wily wrestings of Holy Writ by crafty Seducers that have no way to cheat the people and be admired by them but by such Artifices as cheat them of their souls too and make the Kingdom so disturbed and their followers too and the bottom of all these juglings is but to get a paltry sneaking livelyhood and a little popular applause And then must our Governours and the King in especial be therein happy too and verifie every way the Anagram of his name in Latine Carolus Stuarte Anagr. Clarus sorte tua When Nero set Rome on fire he played upon the Ho-boy all the time and laid the blame on the Christians and thus Greg. J. O. and the rest of his friends the Modern Orthodox set these three Kingdoms on a flame with a brand fetch'd from Geneva and the Covenant and yet they make themselves merry with our misery lay all the blame upon King Charles Arch-Bishop Laud Ceremonies and Imposition of the Liturgy assassinating again those two glorious Martyrs in their Honour and Innocence and endeavouring to justifie the bloody Villains that murthered them Nor must his Majesty so much as think of their bloody and unparallel'd Cruelty because Augustus Caesar's Father too was murthered and his Kinsman Henry IV. of France likewise and Henry III. and such Gentlemens Memories had their Successors and the Cabinet-Council that they let the murderers escape scot-free and if piety and good nature would move for a stricter vindication of his Fathers death yet in Policy have a care displease not the Villains as you love your Kingdoms for a sturdy Swiss and a malepert Fisher-boy in Naples overturn'd all by a basket of Apples With such stuffe as this does Father Grey-beard and his Modern Christians wipe their mouths with the whore in the Proverbs and say they have done no wickedness but all the fault is in thine own people in King Charles I. Arch-Bishop Laud Fathers of the Church Superfetations Parliaments and evil Counsellors And if I have beat all these Butt-ends of his upon his own Pate and vindicated King Charles I. his Reign from that deformity wherewith both it his Majesty and Arch-Bishop Laud are by this bold Author as falsly and maliciously as well as most unseasonably in this Juncture maligned I have my end But who this Malignant is for my part I am not solicitous nor did I ever see any man that was taken for him upon suspicion I have dealt with him all along as is prescribed in the method for cure of unruly and vain talkers and deceivers Tit. 1. 13. namely rebuk'd him as sharply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cuttingly to the quick as near as I could with honest design by such harmless incisions to let out the impostumated Quitter and prepare for his cure odi vitium non virum And now I have done and to write after him p. 325. but withall to set him a better Copy I shall think my self largely recompen sed for this trouble if Greg. and others shall learn by this Example that it is not impossible thus long to be merry and angry as he was but to be merry and angry and yet not sin by traducing the most innocent and honourable Persons dead and alive by such superfetation of Rayling as he has done I am Your servant Edm. Hickeringill FINIS Dr. Bruges
same methods now as in 1640 Did they not then as he now endeavour to enrage the people and rowze them again when they are tyred and willing to be quiet with new jealousies and fears fears of Ceremonies fears of losing their Bibles and their Sabbaths rendring the Eminent Bishops dead and alive friends in their hearts and doctrines too to Popery but for a certain reason rather making love to it than espousing it He sets not down these opinions of Bishop Bramhall's with an intent to confute them 't is beyond his ability but only notes them with an Asterism as bordering upon Popery as pernicious to the Laity to beget in them new heats against the Church by exposing the deformities of King Charles I. and all his choicest Bishops for the love they bore to Ceremonies and Arminianism and making all their Religion both of those deceased and of those yet in power and alive to be wholly trivial if not prophane Which brings to my mind that observation of his Sacred Majesties in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 15. concerning the same practices that now this Greg. does again renew It was a great part of some mens Religion to scandalize me and mine they thought theirs could not be true if they cryed not down mine as false It has always been the method of Atheists and Hell by scandalizing the Clergy and bringing them into Contempt thereby to foil all Religion and bring God into Contempt He that violates the Embassadour is not afraid of the King that sent him Plato was of an opinion that no man that went into a dark dungeon an Atheist and staid there two hours alone could come out an Atheist Because though company and frolicks may drown the secret whisperings of the soul that the natural instincts of the truth of the Deity cannot be heard yet when the soul is left to an undisturbed conference with and reflexions upon it self an opportunity it seldom wants when the hour of death is at hand it must needs determine in the behalf of God Almighty and against its own vanity As that Scotch Secretary of State that liv'd Atheistically died more wretchedly with these last words Heu miser aeternos vado damnatus ad ignes Muzzle the Conscience some men can and keep it from loud barking but the longest practice upon it cannot altogether so stop its mouth but it will make them hear sometimes if not gnaw them yea enough to make them weary of life to be rid of such a troublesome companion but neither live nor dye can they with comfort such a precious life leads an Atheist his head is at variance with his heart his wicked life and fears of an after-reckoning make him wish there was no God but cannot long make him believe there is no God Tantùm optat nullos esse putare Deos. For this reason it is that their words and actions fall out by the way and are so often contradictory sometimes laughing at all Religion and then presently apologizing for it sometimes railing and then immediately condemning all railng commending what they condemned and condemning what they did commend like brothers of the blade that when they have rob'd in one disguise change their Vizards and shift themselves into another shape for â—…ear of the Hue and Cry which puts me in mind of this Gregor Who did ever see so much railing in so little a book as his was ever any man prosecuted as he does the Ecclesiastical Politician with such variety of style in such prodigious rayling as we have already noted in part what can be said more to defame the memory of King Charles I. Than to say his whole Reign was deform'd with Ceremonies Arminianism and Sibthorpianism and Manwaring Has not his present Majesty our Gracious Soveraign as high interest in and concern for his Blessed Fathers honour as his Crowns can any violate the Majesty of the Father and the Son be untouch'd and unconcern'd and if this be true that Greg. suggests That the whole Reign of King Charles I. was deform'd the Duke of Buckingham stab'd by Felton had a great hand in that deformity and then does not this malicious invective seem to plead for the justice and equity of that horrid violence that depriv'd his Majesty and the Duke of their lives Could they fall desired and beloved for their innocence that liv'd for nothing but to deform the whole Reign Father Grey-beard reads his own sentence against himself the same Book that evidences his villany craves justice against it any I 'll join with him in his wishes p. 187. I could wish that there were some severer Laws against such villains who raise such false and scandalous reports of worthy Gentlemen and that those Laws were put in Execution and that men might not be suffered to walk the streets in so confident a Garb who commit those Assassinates upon the reputation of deserving Persons That King Charles I. was a deserving person he confesses when he calls him the best Prince in the world that Arch-Bishop Laud was a deserving person he confesses when he says he 's confident he studied nothing more than to do his Majesty and God Almighty good service and withal was so learned so pious so wise a man and that he ought not to be mentioned without due honour and that he deserved a far better fate than he met with and yet notwithstanding all this merit and honour due to him he makes him the cause of the Rebellion begun in Scotland as he would make us believe by imposition of the English Liturgy p. 303. And surely the King had a hand in 't too or else he makes him a cypher rather than a King sure this man was by when the Inditements were contrived and drawn up against our Blessed Soveraign and Arch-Bishop Laud for then they lay to their charge all the innocent blood as they call'd it shed in England and Ireland and who could expect any better should come on 't when they seem'd to know nothing but Ceremonies c. with that begun and with that ended till the whole Reign was deform'd And yet for all that this Gregory double tongue makes one a Pious Learned wise man and the other the best Prince that ever wielded the English Scepter Was not this Greg. begot by some Proteus of a Camaelion an Oedipus cannot riddle him he fights backward and forward sometimes for the King and sometimes for modern Orthoxy he slashes with a two edged Sword and cuts both ways brandishes against the enemy and then falls foul on his own party and the Good Old Cause but it is with pickeerings and flourishes rather than close fight and good earnest and therefore he gives the Good Old Cause a good new name and because the old one is odious he calls it sometimes Primitive Simplicity sometimes modern Orthodoxy and p. 303. the Cause too good A Cause too good too good for what too good to be burnt does he mean as it was by the
or kneel as do the English Protestants one is as warrantable as the other and all alike and all unlike to the posture of our Saviour at the Institution of it if he lean'd his head upon St. Johns Breast as he did at Supper which yet cannot be prov'd that that posture of Discumbency was his posture at the celebration of this Sacrament But much more credit had it been to Trinkles and much more good had he done in his generation if instead of hollaing and whooping against the Ecclesiastical Politician he had been hollaing and whooping his Dogs his Hogs his Geese or his Sheep and leave discourses of Divinity and Policy and censures upon the Doctrine and Fathers of our Church King and Parliament to men of greater abilities and more modesty greater reading and better parts Or if his antipathy be great as it seems to be to all Clergywen forgetting his Father let him concerning Sacraments learn of that almost matchless Pen of Sir William Morrice in his Coena quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which like a true English Gentleman and not an upstart Virtuoso he has gain'd a more lasting and glorious name than a Kingdom could have given him without such accomplishments and as much honour by every page of that his Book as Father-gray-beard has got dishonour by his And that is enough in all conscience in the judgement of all Learned men always excepted the Modern Orthodox who I know would be angry to be excluded quite from being thought at least to be Learned men though the truly Learned men of the world by long expectation to see some of their Learning in their works or words are now grown hopeless and despair of it it is so long a coming a deaf man would be glad to hear it as much as a blind mind would be glad to see it chiefly because their Learning consists in sounds and tones cantings groanings noise clamours and whinings which would be convenient for a deaf man to hear And likewise in thumping the Pulpit and there traversing all the whole postures of a Master of Fence and has frighted some that used to sit near the Pulpit from their feats being so often menaced with visage grim and fierce and Bible heav'd up lest at last they should be knockt on the head with Geneva and Knox. And truly at this taking Oratory they are old excellent and for this alone cryed up and followed by the rabble in as great multitudes as Jack-pudding himself has about him at a Fair. And though I know not one knowing man of Quality in England that is a Phanatick except upon design as a crafty Mountebank companies and playes the fool with his own Jack so the rabble and multitude are generally as much pleased with one of these Phanatick Jack-puddings and part with their monies as freely to them and flock about them in droves as great and numerous about them as about Merry Andrew or Poet Wild. And they 'l follow this foolery till their pocket's emptied and pickt pretty often and the jest grow stale as indeed it is very sowre already to all understanding men and women and though they did flock hand over head with their Plate Thimbles Bodkins Horse Arms Spoons Gold rings and Beakers to those Jack-Puddings in the late times Hugh Peters and the rest preaching upon Judg. 5. 23. Curse ye Meroz as if they were afraid the Devil would take the hindmost yet it would not be so taking now as then except the Hocus's devise some new Antick Tricks fools and children being delighted only in change and novelty though the Text Curse ye Meroz will serve still now for the feat as well as ever it did when occasion serves Though to all but Fools and Knaves it is such a Text for Loyalty and Allegiance such a Text for the King and Cavaleers that Almighty God has not furnish'd us with such another in the whole Bible Yet these villains could turn it to the quite contrary sence wresting the holy word of God by their Interpretation as blasphemously as atheistically for they were not all of them so besotted but they could not but know that they did lie to the Holy Ghost I confess indeed there are abundance of Texts besides the fifth Commandment that plead for Allegiance and Loyalty but none like this of Curse ye Meroz Other Texts require us not to think evil nor speak evil of Dignities much more not to entreat them evilly For who can lift up his hand against the Lord 's Anointed and be guiltless Though the Lord 's Anoynted be as wicked as Nero or Saul and have a Devil in him as King Saul had yet we must not be so devilish as to lift up our hands against him David that did not cut off King Saul's head yet his heart smote him and his conscience smote him for cutting off Saul's skirt But this Text Curse ye Meroz denounces a heavy Curse not only as other Texts do for rebelling against the King and taking up arms against him and sending in money and plate to the Rebels to comfort the hearts and bowels of Traytors But here they are by the Angel of the Lord accursed that like Meroz sit at home and will neither come nor send in their Horse and Arms and Monies to the help of the Chief Magistrate and Chief Judge of the Land as Deborah then was and Meroz was accursed by the Angel of the Lord for not coming to help her against her mighty enemies Where note too that the helping thus the Chief Magistrate as Deborah was is called helping of God or the help of the Lord. No man that has his wits about him or has any sober sence enough to keep him from slavering can deny this meaning I put upon it and let Greg. and all the Modern Orthodox if they dare offer at any other Interpretation or mitigate the force of this sence I put upon it if they can and they are daring enough even now as well as formerly not only as T. G. and R. B. upon that Text Touch not mine Anointed but as many others of them and Greg. amongst the rest does p. 120. upon that Text Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft Which Text because the Eccles. Politician interprets it Rebellion against the King Greg. says for fear he would be knock'd on the head if he should deny it he does allow him that interpretation Nevertheless he say there that Text of Scripture will scarce admit it And though we know by that what true affection he bears to the King against whom who rebels rebels against God We have sinned against Moses and against thee say the People for the sin of Mutiny and Rebellion immediately against Moses is acknowledged Rebellion against God so that that evasion will ease the tender consciences of no Rebels but such of the Modern Orthodox like Father Gray-beard that thus mince it as R. B. and J. O. did Rom. 13. 2. making damn'd in that Text sound more
Acts 4. I wish the Modern Orthodox would shew us how they can answer this with all their cavils cheats evasions and tricks that we might have another occasion to render them as ridiculous as they are already in themselves to all the ingenuous of Christendom And that which makes devout men own the Common-prayers of our English above others is that a great many prayers are taken out of the Mass book englished that we might not pray as many Papists do in an unknown Tongue taking out of it only the Jewels which are for ought I know or any body else alive Apostolical and almost as old prayers as the Lord's Prayer 't is an unanswerable Schism to depart from the Church of Rome Antioch or Greek Church in any thing but wherein they depart from Christ and the Apostles But these fiery headstrong and wicked Modern Orthodox instead of sweeping a house pull it down and consequently make more work as well as more bad work 'till they have quite erazed the very foundations of the House of God Nor did the Race or Religion of these Modern Orthodox ever come into any Kingdom but they fill'd it with blood and ruine sad instances whereof we have at home in Scotland in France and Germany c. desolated by their means a hundred leagues together in more places than about Munster their desolations and depopulations to be seen at this day a sad spectacle whereof I have often had which makes me the more loath their abominations And every good man as well as every worthy man that has either honour or estate to leave to his Children and Posterity had need be careful not only to leave his Lands and fields to his children and posterity but likewise use his utmost care and diligence that those fields be not Akeldama's to his children fields of blood which they must needs be if these Modern Orthodox men be not kept under and muzled as you do a curst curr for when ever and in what Kingdom soever since the first Rebel of them Calvin broach'd their Religion they have mouth'd and bit so keenly where they had liberty that the blood always followed you may see the print of their teeth yet good Lord deliver us from them and the father of lies from the Devil his children and all his works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle to Titus I. II. Speaking of unruly and vain talkers and deceivers spiritual Gypsies cheats and Juglers It is very fit that their mouths should be stopped saith St. Paul It is not fit that their mouths should be stopped saith Gregory Father Gray-beard Indulgence Liberty Breda Breda And what a rare fellow this Gray-beard is you may know by the opinon he has of Calvin p. 59. whom he calls a good Scholar and a honest Divine calling the Calvinists p. 69. our Calvinists They may be Calvinists Father Gray-beards Calvinists because they are always bloody Headsmen whereever they have room to strike and a sword in their hand But they are not our Calvinists I assure you Greg. let them be your Calvinists then it is pity you should be parted And for Calvin's being a good Scholar I doubt you would scarcely be mightily in love with the Jesuits though they should approve themselves as many of them have far better Scholars that is men of better parts and better read men and have shown more schollarship in their Works and yet I think many of their principles have been as destructive to the peace of Kingdoms even almost as Calvin himself called therefore Lucian so meritoriously anagrammatized 100 years before Father Gray-beard was born For my part I hate to undervalue any man's scholarship but I hate the folly as much of those men that argue so ridiculously that because Calvin was a good scholar therefore he could not be a Knave or as bad as a Jesuit This must be Greg's meaning or else his scholarship does not at all vouch his Divinity Perhaps Greg. is more acquainted with Calvin's scholarship than I am though I think I have seen and read all his Works the most famous the Calvinists themselves say is his Institutions designed for a Confession of Faith the Adjuster of Controversies the Oracle of his Followers and as if pronounc'd è Cathedra unerring Divinity and infallible dedicated to that purpose to his King that once was so I mean Francis the French King whom he there in his Epistle Dedicatory styles the most Christian King yet though he therein gave his own cause and his own heart the lie yet not altogether to forget himself and to show he was still John Calvin he threatens him with the strong hand of the Lord which shall without controversie come in time and extend it self armed I look'd for that both to deliver the poor out of misery and to take vengeance on the despisers which now triumph with so great confidence Sure this great Divine was a great Prophet or rather he knew well he had laid in that Book such grounds of and for sedition that his Followers would with strong hand stretch forth themselves to take vengeance and call all this The hand of the Lord and the help of the Lord. Curse ye Meroz to this is but the second part of the same tune Some men have had such a Reverence for this same Calvin especially being dead O! de mortuis nil nisi bonum that it has been thought as bad as sacriledge to tell truth of the man No man can have greater Reverence to urns than I have nay though a man die or be hang'd for his crimes yet when the law is satisfied all good men ought to be so But in haynâ—…us murtherers Parricides and Traytours the Law is not satisfied with their deaths but their horrid heads and quarters are set up as long as they 'l last not to scare crows but to scaré men from the like villanies There is as great difference therefore betwixt my speaking truth of Hugh Peters and John Calvin and betwixt Father Gray-beards speaking lies of our glorious Martyrs Charles I. and Archbishop Laud as betwixt light and darkness truth and falshood honour and infamy innocence and villany heaven and hell Except bold Greg. that assassinates the Innocence and Honour of these sacred Persons deceased do likewise say that the Law was not satisfied except they also had been quartered as well as beheaded and more I could say but that the grief of my soul is so great to think such a bold villain as this Greg. should dare now now that his Son our Gracious Soveraign is happily return'd to aspeâ—…se the sacred memory of his Father and friends and the whole Reign infamously as can be spoken in saying against them and the Reign that it was wholly deform'd and if so who is guilty of the Innocent blood which those King-killers laid to the charge of our Sovereign in that unparallel'd Indictment against him and Archbishop Laud sure Gregory Grey-beard was not far off when that
so he was faithful to himself and the true measures of Government and knew if he had rendred himself to their mercy and yielded to their rage it had been but offering his throat to be cut a sad instance whereof I could give you in these late times But what does Moses in this case Exod. 33. 26 27. who is on the Lords side whose for me let him come to me There came none to him but Gown-men neither only in those days the sons of Levi wore swords and it seems knew how to handle them as well as bluffer Gallants for Moses had no sooner given them the word of Command but they fell upon the rabbble cut and slew till they had left three thousand dead upon the spot and this the Holy Ghost calls the consecrating or sanctifying of a mans self by slaying the Mutineers and there is a Blessing from Heaven promised to be bestowed upon them for their valour and good service in the â—…9 v. Such a white-liver'd Politician as Mr. Greg. durst not receive such measures of Government as these into his breast for fear they should fright him out of his wiâ—…s and if Englands Martyr Charles I. had hearkened to his own courage so much as he did to softer Councils if some Pantaloon Muâ—…se Courtiers that had better courage to lead a dance or a young Lady than head a Troop had been away if in their stead he had had a Company of Swiss for his Courtiers or gallant English Gentlemen with English Courages and with them sallyed out upon the Tumults which flock'd about his Gate he had in all probability crush'd the Cockatrice in the Egg and sent the Prentices home as O. C. did to their shop-boards with a vengeance to them However it could not possibly have fared worse with him than it did those softer Politick Lectures bringing the good King in conclusion to die afterwards at the same place the more 's the pity and pity it is that mercy and kindness are not always good nor fit as that good King found to his cost and therefore tells his son If ever you trust to them meaning the factious Rebâ—…ls or must stand to their Courtesie you are undone To manage the Reins of Government thus with a steddy hand and to ride with a Hank is the best of all both for King and people as we have found head-strong Jades would kill themselves if you lay the Reins upon their necks it is their happiness and ease to be rid with a Curb a licentious Government is no Government it is contradictio inâ—…adjecto or as Greg. phrases it p. 83. it is another J. O. an He Cow that is to say a Bull. And it is worth the while here to remember the clean fancy of that incomparable English Poet A King by yielding does like him and worse That sadled his own back to shame his Horse And because Mr. Greg. has put me upon 't to answer his Politick Lectures out of the Bible I 'll but give two Instances out of it not to instruct my Governours and tutour Kings I thank God I was never such a conceited thing nor so lost to all modesty and sense of humility But it is in my Sphere to instruct people what a blessing attends their Obedience to their Supreme Governours if when they command some things in Religion which in Circumstantials of Religion are poynt-blank against God's own Law and yet God likes it well blesses the people for such obedience though the Command of their Governours perswaded thereunto out of good Reason some great convenience or Necessity was directly different from the Command of God When the King and his Council made an Order to keep the Sacrament of the Passeover 2 Chron. 30. 2. together with the advice and concurrence of the Parliament therein called there all the Congregation it must be meant in their Representatives for all the People nor the thousandth part could not come to hear or know what was done at the great Council much less give their votes I say this King Hezekiah with his Council and great Council of the Congregation made a Decree to keep the Passover in the second Month. This is worse than the Cross after Baptism and Kneeling at the Sacrament for we can find no beginning when they entred into the Church and therefore have as much cause to think it was the posture of Christ and his Apostles and their constant practice if not more cause than to think the contrary But here in 2 Chron. 30. 2. is an Act of Parliament I 'll call it so for the better understanding of it in English phrase for it is of the same nature quite contrary to the Law of God concerning the Sacrament as to one Circumstantial of Time God commands to keep it in the first Month and positively reiterates the Command and bids them keep it in that appointed season Num. 9 2 3 5. The King and Parliament say to the People we command you for certain good reasons and motives to observe the Sacrament in the second Month. Now saith Modern Orthodox hang me draw me quarter me imprison me fine me do your worst I defie the Dâ—…vil and all the Laws of men contrary to God's Law here I 'll live here I 'll die So you may say I and be damn'd too in all probability lose your Soul as well as your Life Liberty and Estate as wise as you are and as wilful as you are And you may go on railing your Governours and the Fathers of the Church and tell them they sit in the seat and temple of God and as if they were God nay above him make Laws different from God's Law and therefore call them Antichrist the Be ist and the false Prophet and whether it be right to obey God or man judgeye Thus accepted was that Law of the Kiâ—…g and Parliament in Hezekiah his time by the Zealots that had more heat than light and more passion than knowledge and true spiritual wisdom For if our Governours be never so bad they cannot be so bad as the Devil himself and Michael the Arch-angel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was not so impudent or audacious as to rail at the Devil when contending about an honest Cause with him nor was the Devil his superior but because a Dignity a Principality an Angel though a black one St. Michael was not so audacious as to blaspheme the Devil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What desperate wretches then are those devillish people that pretend to the greatest sight of Religion and Knowledge of God and yet censure rail blaspheme lie slander revile and speak evil of Dignities and their Superiours without any remorse or check of Conscience and these people will talk of Consciences Consciences and liberty to tender Consciences then the nether Milstone the Adamant the Rock is tender if these men have tender Consciences that make their faces harder than a Rock impudent foreheads hard hearts hearts of stone consciences
all this deformity was his own doings and that though his Reign was deform'd it was himself his own Inclinations and bent which contriv'd at least concurr'd in making his whole Reign deform'd then and even then it is the old cry of the Rebells who when they had got their wills of the Earl of Strafford and Arch-Bishop Laud and left the King no Councellors nor Kingdomes nor so much as liberty then changed their note and justified the Evil Councellors more than the King himself saying he himself was his own wicked Councellor and a Tyrant and ought to die And though their words like these of this Authour were devillish and malicious yet they were as good as their words and condemn'd him for a Tyrant and cut off his head 'T is indeed answered another all you say is infallibly true and undeniable to a Tittle but that which is admirable and a greater Marvel is the skill and cunning of the man He does the feat so cleaverly as if he shot with white Powder did execution indeed effectually but makes no noyse or evil Report like other unskilful and bawling Phanaticks for though you stare about you shall not see the Executioner nor know whence the shot comes or if you do he puts his vizard on presently and looks like Faux in disguise Or as the Mountebank keeping a man who is content to be slash'd and cut that his master may thereby show his Dexterity and skill in the Cure so this Virtuoso wounds and cuts but indeed with design mortally and with matchless courage and boldness disdaining trivial force fights neither with small nor great except they lye in his way and detard Royal assassination but only the King of our Israel against whom when he has spit his venome and with bold and home thrusts assaulted his Innocence and honour Yet he has his Playster at hand though it be without vertue and would seem to make all whole again with crying Oh Lord Sir I beg your pardon and then as you were All is well again The Playster which he would make Alexipharmacal for the wounds with which our late Soveraign is attempted and made together with his whole Reign deform'd is the neatest of all and clapt on as soon as the blow is struck p. 301. deform'd the whole Reign of the best Prince that ever wielded the English Scepter A contradiction in terminis and as barbarous as absolute For how could he possibly be the best Prince that ever wielded the English Scepter except all the Princes that ever wielded the English Scepter had their whole Reigns deform'd either by their carelesness or folly or which is the less affront to be call'd Knave rather than fool because one may be help'd the other is remediless by vileness and wickedness doing the work themselves and deforming their whole Reign Again if he be the best Prince that ever wielded the English Scepter and yet either did deform his whole Reign or suffered it to be deform'd with Ceremonies Arminianisme and Manwaring Then these three Reign-deforming Buggs Ceremonies Arminianisme and Manwaring are very consistent with the best Prince that ever wielded the English Scepter And if so then these three Reign-deforming Buggs are indeed but Buggs and fright men more than burt them and can scare none but children and fools For that the best Prince that ever England had owns cherishes them or at least permits them to be own'd and cherish'd above all other things and owns above all other men the man that seemed to know nothing else but these Ceremonies Arminianisme and Manwaring with which he begun and with which he ended And all this must necessarily follow or else those good English Princes that kept off or expelled out of their Kingdomes these same three ugly Reign-deforming things were better Princes than He that either brought them in kept them in or suffered them to stay in and thereby deform'd his whole Reign And if they in doing so well and much better than he were better Princes than he how could he be the best Prince that ever wielded the English Scepter So egregiously confident and self-conceited is this Virtuoso Authour this new Politician that through the high value he has for himself together with the mean and low esteem he has for all others thinks so slightly and easily to Gull them and casting a little mist before their eyes hopes to lead them about like fools by the nose Otherwise this fool-hardy man would never have been so lost to all modesty and discretion as to think to impose upon men and be juggle them by such transparent mists and easie Legerdemain namely plain down-right Non-sense and Contradiction Alas the man is not master of his Trade And yet as if he onely and the rest of the new Politicians and Virtuoso's were like the Chinenses and had two eyes in their heads but all the rest of the world blind or at least the best of them but single-ey'd men who with but one eye are not so very quick-sighted especially if you come upon them on the blind side The Company seem'd wonderfully well pleas'd with this discourse all of them but the Virtuoso's and Ingenioso's who were but four in all and they too answered not one word whether troubled with the Fret and at the heart too mad and enrag'd to utter a word hearing themselves thus check'd to the face and their Brother Virt who but a little before they had cry'd up for such a Prodigie and Marvel of wit should so suddenly be charg'd home with so unavoidable a shock whilst they stood by and idly looking on had neither ability nor wit enough to make resistance nor knew how to help themselves nor Him yet to see how soon the wind turns and how suddenly smiling Dame Fortune can knit her brows if he had but come into the Room one half hour before the whole Clubb had rouz'd at the happy surprize of this wonderful wit and had carried the Bugg upon their shoulders like the Knight of the shire on Election-day in Triumph about the Room and had given him as many thanks for his great pains in this admirable Book as the Authors friend I. O. and the Conventicle did when they sent him for these his happy endeavours the Gratuity gather'd amongst the Churches as a due offering with all hearty Acknowledgments and the Thanks of their house especially for promoting the good old Cause modern Orthodoxy Liberty Indulgence and Reformation but particularly for setting the old Cry against Bishops and evil Councellors to a new Tune not the old whining snivelling canting Leer-away now somewhat stale detected and out of fashion but the fashionable that most taking and admired new new Tune the pleasant Droll-away The Brethren and Black-caps fac'd with white having not vivacity nor wit enough for that way the vertue of Sack-possets having not hitherto prov'd effectual nor spritely enough to raise their Phlegmatick and insipid Tempers to any semblance of elevated and Mercurial Style
pray possibly to God and preach of God and hear Gods Word this worship of it self good becomes evil a sin because though doing a duty which is good and great in it self yet thereby transgressing a duty of the second Table which is better and greater and of a higher concernment your worship then and there is but as the cutting off of a Dogs-neck and God will say who hath required these things at your hands When ye disobeying the fifth Commandment in your forbidden Conventicles appear before God and spread forth your hands he will turn away his eyes from you yea when ye make many prayers he will not hear Why Your hands are full of blood Your actions are Bloody Schisme and Rebellion has fill'd the Land full of blood from one end thereof unto another already and therefore this liberty you cry up so and cry so much for and the calling of your forbidden assemblies God cannot away with It is iniquity even your solemn meetings Isa. 1. 11 12 13 14 15 17 19 20. And know that the great duty of a truly godly man is to cease to do evil to learn to do well to seek judgement relieve the oppressed plead for the widdow and to be willing and obedient and ye shall eat the good of the Land But if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured by the Sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Oh but the Ark the tottering Ark what godly heart would not tremble for the Ark of God as old Eli's did 1 Sam. 4. 13. What considering heart would with Democritus hold from laughing till his sides ak'd to see the madness of the people and the Priest or rather with the other weeping Whitaker weep at the folly and delusion of poor souls so dismally bejuggled If a Conformist Minister with all his Aaronical weeds on or barely attir'd in the linnen Ephod should but name such a Text in a Christian Congregation how would the frighted Brethren run out of Church and cry out Types Ceremonies shaddows Levitical Old Testament Spirit Is this your Gospel Minister Is this Primitive simplicity Is this modern Orthodoxy Is there one word of the Spirit in all this Text Is it not froth as applyed and nothing to the purpose But comes me godly Mr C. precious Mr. C. persecuted Mr. C. Bartholmew Calamy and then all must be Gospel that he speaks And though we poor souls understand not the Cant yet the cunning Gypsies know well that by the Ark of God is meant the Bartholomew Babies By the great scarlet Whore is meant the Pope but then whisper I to my self this same great Whore if it be the Pope can be none of them possibly but onely Pope Joan. By Babylon is meant Rome that shall be destroyed with fire and plagues in 666. the name of the beast and the number of the name But the mischief on 't was that Prediction how ever aim'd yet light upon poor London God knows instead of Rome so hard it is to construe the Revelations and so fatal to peep into the Ark and to pry into Gods secret judgements such usually pay for their peeping that unlike to the good and true prophet Jeremiah 17. 16. hasten from being a Pastor to follow God to follow their own inventions in desiring the woful day upon others O Lord thou knowest Then by Babylon and Antichrist is not only meant Rome that stands still and above a thousand miles from Babylon yet take but one jump more and but half so far and you do onely make Babylon in the Land of Shinar where the great Tower stood Gen. 11. shake hands with Rome in Italy but with a small stretch more into Little-Brittain you may make Episcopal Grandeur Lawn-sleeves Cross Cringing and Surplice confederates in the complement Would not Balaams Ass if alive open his mouth again to rebuke the madness of these Prophets And a greater marvel it is to me that the poor people should be such Asses besotted and gull'd to their faces by so easie and stale a Legerdemain of these juglers Who endeavour to turn the world upside down topsiturvy embruing all nations in blood and ruine as we have found to our cost and by dear-bought experience And all these Hocus-Tricks is but to scrape up a sneaking and beggarly living unworthy a man of parts or honour and to avoid the Statute against Beggars Fidlers Gypsies and Pick-pockets like sworn Brothers of the Blade they clap on the Vizard of Religion and Liberty with so much art and cuning that though you hear the Gypsie Cant you would almost swear he was a Saint And as soon suspect your own hands as his though you find them in your pocket The sleight of Tongue doing the seat instead of sleight of Hand and with much more safely gets a richer prize To whom Mall Cut-purse her self was but a fool for the Knave shall look you right in the face all the while he is at it and cutting your Purse And as if Egypt was broke loose hither in a new fashion these vagrants shall wander from town to town all the kingdom over by droves and in this new guize laugh at the Constable Beadles Justice of the Peace House of Correction the Stocks the Whipping-Post and the Jail crying out Liberty Liberty Indulgence Indulgence Breda Breda Would it not make a mans heart ake and his hair stand on end to see whole multitudes trepan'd by these spiritual Juglers into Rebellion and Blood to the ruine of souls and bodies Indeed the Apostle Saint Peter prophesies of these times and these tricks in 2 Pet. 2. 1 2 3. saying that false Teachers shall privily bring in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sneakingly by stealth furtim clà m subdolè speciem pietatis praetendens creeping into Houses and leading captive silly women with damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them Which those only do that pretend to Christianity but deny Christs Religion that is deny Christs word or great Religion the summe of all Religion that is of Christs making viz. To do as we would be dâ—…ne by And though their ways lead to destruction yet many shall follow these pernicious ways This great way of truth being evil spoken of as mâ—…er morality or the like by those that through covetousness and with fcigned words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fictitious Canting New-coyn'd Fanatick words as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies they shall make Merchandise of you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall make their money of them or these men that pretend so to the spirit shall be spirits indeed but evil ones Spirits such as catch up men women and children to make money on them through covetousness If it were not foretold that many shall follow their pernicious ways we might well wonder that such flocks should follow these evil spirits to their eternal damnation as well as temporal loss of body and goods But we have liv'd to see and yet do see whole shoals catcht with
Ceremonies of true Religion the true Religion it self and Gods holy Sion but yet the Governours in the City will watch over thee punish thee and keep thee off because thou art an enemy to the holy City to the true Religion or else thou wouldst not have overturned and trampled upon the Suburbs If you understand this you have the true notion and understanding of a Ceremony if you do not I will not further explain my self Wilt thou not suffer thy child to loll and jear with his hat on whilest thou art praying and kneeling with thy hat off though he pretend conscience for his disobedience and wilt thou not kneel then when they bid thee kneel that are thy Superiours in Church and State and be uncoverd when they bid thee be uncovered Hast thou power to enjoin Ceremonies in thy family and have not thy Superiours as much power to ordain Ceremonies in the Church Dost thou that pleadest the fifth Commandement against thy wicked disobedient son servant never plead it against thy self Dost thou say to thy son and servant you must needs be subject and that for conscience sake and dost thou never send that Scripture home to thine own heart thou that sayst a man should not steal or be disobedient dost thou steal art thou disobedient What need of Jayls or Acts of Indemnity or Uniformity Licences or Liberty Indulgence or no Indulgence It is all one to him that is of this Religion which will not suffer a man to pray and lye slander and preach fast and murder talk of incomes and getting Christ whilest he goes the way to hell There can be no Rebel-Saints of this Religion I 'll tell you in one word how truly to get Christ whilest Canters belabour you with a sound and an empty noise To get Christ is to get to Christ and there is no getting to Christ but in his own way his own way is what he taught himself for the sum of all Religion Law and Prophets Mat. 7. 12. which we have been treating of which is ready at hand always to direct thee in thought word and deed believe the Creed say the Lords prayer and the Liturgy frequent Sacraments and this is religion enough to carry thee to Heaven But you 'll say perhaps and object against me that if this be my religion why do I not practise it and again ask me whether in this Letter I have done to others as I would they should do to me that is would I be willing to be so sharply reprov'd and check'd as I sometimes check Father Grey-beard and the Canters To which I answer I not only would be content to be so us'd but if I were such a wretch to trouble and confound the Kingdom where I live with arts and methods that do tend and as by sad experience we have found have tended to blood ruine wars and desolation I would esteem him the best friend that I had in the world that could either convince me and the people seduced by me of our villanies or laugh me and them out of such fopperies by representing me and them upon the stage in as ridiculous a posture if it were possible as ever they were acted by me or them or Hugh Peters himself when multitudes of poor fools strove who should first part with their silver-bodkins and Plate body and soul for the Good Oâ—…d Cause And if it were not to do both the seducers and seduced good by this plain dealing I had not writ a word in this Letter for I know my reward from most of them is that hatred for my good will railing lying and slandering me as the worst of men and yet cannot evidence in one particluar where I have transgress'd this great rule of doing as I would be done by this ten years Which I speak not as a fool or a Pharisee to boast of for fame nor honour nor dishonour riches nor poverty good report nor evil report safety or hazard can seem to me or any that are well grounded in this religion of Christ of doing as we would be done by any thing to move me towards the least desire of applause for I know this justification of my self is the way to create great envy and great reproach against me in those that know no duty so great as the four first Commandements namely the worship of God his days Sermons mysteries discourses and disputes of their ways of worship they are full of that but yet can envy lye slander and rail and then I tell them but they believe not that all their praying hearing keeping Sabbaths are not worth a Louse nor their faith neither though it is the very words at least the sence of what they read with their eyes 1 Cor. 13. 2. only here 's the difference I speak more worthily of their prophesying and their faith than the Apostle does allow to such idle mysteries where charity is wanting for he says such a man as has the gift of prophesying understands all mysteries all knowledge has all faith without charity is nothing whereas I only say such a man's gifts knowledge mysteries and faith are not without charity worth a Louse So that I have therein out-bid the worth of them a Louse is good for something I will not tell all its vertues it is good for the Jaundice c. but all knowledge mysteries prophesying and faith without charity the Apostle makes good for nothing at all Away with mens prate of Religion and admiring this and that precious man this and that precious piece of worship when it only puffs men up makes them more proud more scornful more headstrong more cruel more bloody more rapacious greater lyers greater slanderers more malicious than they were before and more a Devil than any man in the world is Turk Jew or Cannibal Shew me not the meat but shew me the man if these people that prate of their precious heavenly food they have had in these late times have in the mean time such starv'd souls empty of all goodness but a little outside holiness and vizard of worship but are full of such horrid sins as envy malice injustice lying cheating defaming and sometimes murdering and plundering and sequestring that on this side Hell there 's no such treacherous false and unsociable villaines then by this it is evident that like Ephraim they sed upon the wind liv'd like Camelions upon air sound whineing canting feigned words and if perhaps they have cast out some one Devil of swearing or Sabbath-breaking they have entertain'd in the room seven other Devils more wicked than the former and the last state of that man is worse than the first I know with this plain dealing I stir in a nest of wasps and because I have cryed down these feigned words with which craft these silver-smiths and juglers get their wealth these dearly beloved tones and whinings that did so affect the silly women thus undervalued spoils the trade Gâ—…e me pen and ink and paper
in wording it they did not nor could not fore-see such as this of the Anabaptists mistake and misconstruction in this particular Yet the word bearing two significations and Lay-men in those times not so audacious and impudent nor the reading Scriptures so promiscuous and frequent as of late of which sad consequences we have too much experience But does not our Saviour bid men search the Scriptures Jo. 5. 39. I answer no he does not he said only to them that were learned in the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to whomsoever of his auditors that were conversant in Scriptures in the Indicative Mood ye do search the Scriptures because in them ye think to have eternal life and they are they that testifie of me yet ye will not come unto me that ye might have life As if our Blessed Saviour should say as he does in another place seeing you see and yet you do not perceive and hearing you hear and do not understand ye search the Scriptures thinking to find this eternal bread that I am preaching of namely eternal life by Christ and there you may see me for they testify of me yet ye will not come for so is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred Jo. 1. 10. tamen sometimes sed unto me that ye might have life I know the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be taken in the Imperative Mood but that it is not so agreeable with the context nor signifies any thing if it were so to prove this promiscuous use and license of reading the Gospel and New Testament of which not one word was then writ Indeed no man in the world can desire more than I do that all people did understand the Scriptures the mind and will of God by reading and searching into the Scriptures themselves and also into the English Bible so they read and search with the spirit of meekness for instruction and not for cavil and disputes raising controversies and horrid new opinions out of difficult places of Scripture not knowing what they say nor whereof they affirm Those controversies should be left to those of greater abilities and of more sober spirits than themselves There are plain places of Scripture enow for edification and to direct us in the way to Heaven by living soberly righteously and godly in this present world And he answered smartly and well to a Fanatick but a light heel'd Gentlewoman that was mightily perplex'd with finding out the meaning of Daniel Ezekiel and the Revelations that she had been better employed if she had consider'd the meaning of those plain Scriptures Thou shalt not commit adultery and Fear God and Honour the King I wonder what rational account any man that understands only the English Translation can give why the Pharisees should find fault Luke 6. 1 2. with Christs Disciples for plucking the ears of corn as they pass'd through the corn fields and did eat rubbing them in their hands did not the Pharisees eat on the Sabbath days yes surely and if they eat any thing could not eat less nor more easily made ready than rubbing the Corn out with their hands and eating some of the grains meat ready dress'd in and to their hands And though some Sabbath days were kept with more abstinence than others and more solemnity yet the English Translation help us to no discovery calling that Sabbath only The second Sabbath after the first The second Sabbath after the first what 's that If the Jews had a Sabbath that was called the first Sabbath as indeed they had namely the Feast of the Passover when the first day thereof fell on a Sabbath day then by this translation this Sabbath day when the Disciples plucked the ears of Corn and did eat must be the second and next following Sabbath to it But that is not true because it is not the meaning of the original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither helps at all to solve the doubt as being but an ordinary Sabbath on which it was lawful to eat a Break-fast but it was not lawful to eat a Break-fast or drink any thing by the Jewish Canon until the sixth hour which we call Noon or twelve a Clock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 6. 1. which our English Translation renders very imperâ—…ectly and untruly the second Sabbath after the first and Beza renders it much worse namely Sabbato altero primo And not at all to the purpose The incomparable Grotius renders it best and gives the best reason for that reddition namely the second Prime-Sabbath that is the day of Pentecost on which it was not lawful to eat a break-fast or eat or drink till twelve a clock and therefore did the Pharisees find fault with the Disciples not for eating upon a Sabbath day as every body did as well as their beasts but for eating upon the second Prime Sabbath the day of Pentecost And this thus explain'd gives a very good account of the strength of S. Peter's argument to prove that the Disciples were not drunk as some did suppose when they spoke with new tongues upon the day of Pentecost Acts 2. 1. 15. These are not drunk seeing it is but the third hour of the day or nine a clock Why Is 't not probable men may be drunk by nine a clock yes on other days but not on that day the day of Pentecost or second Prime Sabbath when none were suffered to sell any wine or meat or drink nor tast any thing till twelve a clock or the sixth hour A great many more imperfections there are in our English Bibles which I had rather were mended than discover'd these Instances are sufficient to abate the confidence of those bold companions that instead of being teachers of others had need learn more humility and modesty themselves and not be so desperately devoted to a new opinion built upon false grounds whose foundation is not laid upon the rock of ages Christ and his word but upon the sandy bottoms of self conceit and the English Bible I hope therefore that without any Paralogism I have evidenc'd that what the Reverend Bishop Bramhall has asserted concerning the promiscuous License of unqualified persons reading the Sciptures is though a Paradox in this hypocritical age where the appearance and profession of piety is more priz'd than the truth yet not Apocryphal nor Popish as Father Grey-beard maliciously insinuates p. 30. rendring him thereby an enemy to the Laity Whereas indeed and in truth he is the best friend to them that wishing them well and desiring their good more than their good will would not willingly have them take that in their hands which through unskilfulness they cannot mannage and through weakness they cannot weild name 〈◊〉 Scriptures sharper than a two 〈◊〉 Sword But is the Good Old Cause which 〈◊〉 thought had taken its last sleep awake again Does not Greg. revive the Good Old Cause again under the name of modern Orthodoxy and give it strength as well as life by the
But unluckily in this fatal year of Seventy two amongst all the Calamities that Astrologers foretel this also hath befallen us And p. 68. Which meeting with the former fracture in his Cranium and all the concurrent accidents already mentioned has utterly undone him And so in conclusion his madness hath formed it self into a perfect Lycanthopy He doth so verily believe himself to be a wolf that his speech is all turn'd into howling yelling and barking and if there were any sheep here you should see him pull out their throats and suck their blood And does so verily believe himself a Jaccal that if there were any dead Corps here interr'd you should see the beast scratch up their graves and tear them out to inâ—…omb them again ignominiously in his nasty Guts And p. 77. That after they have done or suffered legally and to the utmost they must still be subjected to the wand of a Verger or to the wanton lash of every Pedant that they must run the Gantelope or down with their breeches as oft as he wants the prospect of a more pleasing nudity And p. 85. Speaking to the little comfortable importance call'd for variety of phrase p. 12. closer importance Parthenope whose mother Sir sells Ale by the Town wall as you love your self Madam let him not come near you he hath been sed all his life with vipers instead of Lampreys and Scorpions for Cray-fish and if at any time he eat Chickens they had been cramb'd with spiders till he hath so invenom'd his whole substance that 't is much safer to bed with a Mountebank before he has taken his Antidote And p. 136. For I am weary of noting the stabs he gives himself as much as possible I would not expose the nakedness of any person so eminent formerly in the Church And p. 139. Perhaps he said so only for evasion being old excellent at parrying and fencing And p. 139. He has face enough to say or unsay any thing that 't is his privilege what the School-Divines deny to be even within the power of the Almighty to make contradictions true And p. 155. Whereby you may see with what Reverence and Duty he uses to speak of his Superiours and their actions when they are not so happy as to please him And p. 164. But of all his three bolts this was the soonest shot and therefore it is no wonder if he miss'd his mark and took no care where his arrow glanced But what he saith of his Majesty and his Council And p. 146. He confounds himself every where in his reasonings that you can hardly distinguish which is the whoop and which is the holla and he makes Indentures on each side of the way wheresoever he goes And p. 275. But such as you it is that have always strove by your leasing gently good Hec. as you love me to keep up a strangeness and misunderstanding betwixt the King and his people and all the mischief hath come on 't doth much lye at your doors And whether all the invectives against the whole Reign of King Charles I. deform'd as he says with Sibthorpianism absolute Government the rock on which we split the imposition of the English Liturgy the cause of the Rebellion Ceremonies Arminianism Montague and Manwaring libelling the Reverend Bishops for their worthy cares sentencing Ministers of State Privy Counsellors jeering the present Parliament with being trinkled and bringing forth Superfetation of Acts as if he had a Commission to be chief Censor prying into all Offices and Officers and condemning all that stand in the way of Mâ—…dern Orthodoxy and the Good Old Cause and Nonconformists without mercy or fear dead and alive and all this in seventy two and with as many self-contradictions as impertinences can have any other meaning than by such Leasing to keep up a strangeness and mâ—…sunderstanding betwixt the King and his people judge you Is 't not pity but he should have his own wish p. 187. Only I could wish there were some severer Laws against such villains who raise such false and scandalous reports c. Sure I am he gives himself often enough to his shame the Bâ—…stinado and if they are not all Butt-ends yet they are dogged Counter-buffs with the least whereof he hits himself a vile box on the ear And instead of encountring the enemy le ts fly at all adventure and the random shot rencounters his own party and being overcharg'd the Butt-end of his Gun bumps his own breast and fells him with the Recoil A sad accident like that but much more fatal than that which befel an honest well-meaning Zealot our friend and acquaintance W. S. Who good man conceited of his own Prowess and Gallantry and taking â—…he Alarm at The Contempt of the Clergy musters up presently all his force in a Letter to a Friend with design to vindicate the Clergy from Contempt and the fury of that Charge But in his wrath and rage mistaking his way and to oblige his friends by the next Term makes more haste than good speed and missing also his Rest in the height of his Career coming to the Grapple fights in the Shock hand over head for the enemy against his own party In an Answer so incongruous to the design confessing all asking forgiveness and crying for quarter before the enemy had any thoughts of hurting him and all this in language so insipid and ridiculous that he made the Clergy they thank him so much the more contemptible and both himself and the Clergy the more laugh'd at Producing nothing but a mere black Patch aim'd indeed against and clap'd on too upon the face of his adversary but only thereby rendring the enemy so much the more a Beauty who indeed was lovely enough before So that my dear friend if ever the mad hair-brain'd humour of Scribling possess you as it has done Greg. and W. S. so that nothing can hold you but you must needs come out in Print tempted by the Dog-Star the Stationer or the near approach of the next Term In a Letter to a friend let me beg of you as you tender your Reputation and Honour that you take care not to subscribe it of all the Letters in the Cross-Row with those in the Fag-end of it W. S. And be sure you put not in the Superscription one syllable of The Rehearsal Transpros'd Lest thus mark'd the Hue and Cry pursue you upâ—…n suspicion of folly and self-conceit for the former and upon suspicion of folly self-conceit and sedition for the latter and punish you as self-condemn'd by your own gross self contradictions for both But especially take heed that you have not the least resemblance of Greg. who does so often with his own hand foil and baffle himself and the cause he designs to promote The man 's a Fanatick and by certain Paroxyâ—…s as pleases the Planet that governs him Lunatick with Modern Orthodoxy and talks like Oliver's 〈◊〉 now in Bedlam craz'd with a notion on that side
because no body can believe that the same tongue does in good earnest in one breath speak contraries and blow hot and cold together at the same time Indeed the man that blew his Pottage to make them cold and blew his fingers to make them hot came something near in likeness to your mouth but the Story says it was at several times and he made two blasts on 't and two Periods But you in one sentence and breath without stop or comma talk of a whole Reign deform'd by the best Prince that ever wielded the English Scepter and the like of the Arch-Bishop you outdo all that ever I heard of And worse than the cruel Panther that allures and entices his Prey to come near him by sending forth a sweet scent and savour from his mouth 'till the silly brutes thus trepan'd come within his grasp and the reach of his bloody paw Your breath is not so intirely perfum'd but has two savours I wonder any body that have their senses intire should be in love with you and but that you are incomparable in your own conceit I wonder you are so much in love with your self And nothing do I admire more excepting always your own unparallel'd confidence than that any body should admire you for such a tall fellow and tough Champion for Modern Orthodoxy which you so often by your self-contradictictions betray as well as therein your own weakness and infirmities Indeed you manage a Cause that is plausible enough God knows in these days when you strike at the Bishops who have not at present too many friends and they themselves scorning to be grave with a Buffoon it is his own phrase and having not many that I see to take up the Gantlet in their defence so readily as my self though I confess with great disadvantage to my own fame The Argument I undertake being not so plausible and taking in defending them now a days as your jolly opposition and affront in which particular alone you have the advantage of me mine is the better though your's be the more acceptable Cause and this alone makes you to be cry'd up for a Sampson because you smite the Church and Clergy Hip and Thigh though it be be not angry with the Jaw-bone of an Ass. Is it not possible there should be true honour and vertue under a Cassock or Lawn sleeve Has Holland shirts Perrywig and light Drugget got the Monopoly of true Nobility As the Noblemen and Gentlemen would be affronted if the Clergy should despise them with your Proverb Jack Gentleman so why should not the Reverend Bishops and others be as much offended when such a Pick-thank in a whole discourse seems to cry Jack Clergy-man The King alone is the Fountain of Honour and are those streams of honour that flow from him more pudled in a Clergy than a Lay-Channel Does not the man forget his own Father I hate the folly as much as the pride of such Upstarts that because in their Pride Jollity and Atheism they would cast contempt on the Clergy in their folly they think they may and should cast contempt on the Clergy Who in the opinion of Greg. himself are the fittest to make the best Politicians in the World if they keep to their Bibles Which none probably does or can better understand nor any in like probability better observe 't is true they are men and subject to frailties but all men as much and in all likelihood more than they And now I am upon 't I will but make tryal what virtue there is in Perriwig Father Gray-beard above all others to make a Politician of For he often ope's and gapes at Politick Lectures like an Oyster against the coming in of the Tide it is his very element and he is either there good or no where worth the opening I can scarce forbear smiling to my self to see how prettily he sets his face and makes up his mouth with such caution and gravity before he begins to read to Princes his Politick would-bees First blaming the Ecclesiastical Politician he must not be forgotten for offering at that which was none of his Province p. 61. Instructing Princes like Sancho how to govern his Island And p. 206. He had put all Princes upon the Rack to stretch them to his dimension And in another place I am asham'd Mr. Bays that you put me on talking thus impertinently for Policy in us is so Now think I we cannot be far off this Politick Lecture it is either in front or reer before or behind it is hereabouts look for Greg. his whole book then and there most condemns what he is forthwith about to practise as formerly is instanced in the case of railing To make the King and Parliament secure he would lull them asleep with saying p. 252. That men are all so weary that he would be knock'd on the head that should raise the first disturbance of the same nature A new war must have like a book that would sell a new Title In the front of his Book you have a strange and unheard of New Title here he gives you the reason of it he resolv'd there should be something in his Boook to make it sell. And what if a man that had a mind to raise a disturbance should give the Good Old Cause a new Title and call it the Cause too good or Modern Orthodoxy are not those Titles as new and as ready made to a mans hand as the the new Title to his book and by the same hand too this man cannot for his life but he must confound himself But he that should raise the first disturbance of the same nature would he knock'd on the head would he so I do not believe any man likes it so well as to be willing to be knock'd on the head except those knocks be fine gentle knocks not Scotch Knox nor Modern Orthodox knocks they did knock so gingerly that not any man I know would be so knock'd with his good will however I suppose by would be knock'd on the head he means he ought or should be knock'd in the head and that is somewhat deeper than on the head it is as much as a mans life is worth to be knock'd in the head but to be knock'd on the head may be but a Tailors blow a knock with a Thimble a Prick-Louse Rap. But not to play further with his words the thing means as plain as it can speak that the first Rebel that should make disturbance must needs be knock'd i' th' head Therefore disband your Red and Blue-Coats you need not fence where there is no fear the Modern Orthodox that use to be so busie and indefatigable are now 't is very strange and news you tell us weary As soon as ever I read this news thought I to my self and whispered this is all Leasing the Factions and Modern Orthodox weary 't is impossible As they are the Modern Orthodox so they are the never-to-be-tired modern
on 't better â—…th to fly So high a Pitch had cause to fear I never should find entrance there On that acount but was to blame Peter was not my Christian name Besides I fear'd St. Peter should Owe me a Grudge because I would Often for which I now am vext Make a holdsally from my Text Against the Pope who is alli'd To Peter by the surer side Fearing success and loth to climb I put off 'till some other time The Journey I desisting then Can tell you no great News from Heaven Therefore I 'l keep me to my Text That with some dâ—…ubts is much perplext But I 'l resolve All out of hand And first in order as they stand Curse ye Meroz What is Meroz Some Infidel will not come near us Nor to us will Horse and Arms bring But rather send them to the King And go himself and men to boot But for the Cause not stir one foot This is that Cursed Meroz that To th' Parliament will send no Plate But from us if he can will lock it And keep his money in his Pocket So much for that Another word There is to clear Help of the Lord. Help of the Lord What 's that Lord Bishop Or House of Lords Not so I hope Nor Lórd Newcastle nor Lord Goring With whom the wicked go a whoring Help of the Lord is One and All Help the Lord Essex General But that 's not All for moneys are The Nerves and Sinews too of War For Powder must be had for Gun We had as good else ne'r begun If the Red-coats have not their Pay They 'l from their Colours run away Nor will they willing be to die Nay and perhaps may mutinie For want of Pay where are we then We may go hang our selves for men Except we money have The Gold Must here be found as I 'l unfold Help of the Lord then is Dear honeys Help the poor Red-coats with your moneys Down with your Dust then come be nimble Plate Bodkins Tankards Spoon â—…r Thimble All these then as if at a stand And into pocket putting his hand All these like Barber's Teeth being strung On Red cloth ready as they hung Holding forth said all these good People From Colchester St. Peter's steeple Are all clear gains and I assure ye As many more I got at Bury Then lest the people should discover His sleight of hand and so give over Finding the Juggle out and mock it He put his hand in th' other pocket As feeling for some other strings But in the interim flyly flings His right hand into th' left behind And then the better them to blind His hands met under 's cloak in brief As the receiver with the Thief He held it out then to be seen As if some other string 't had been And said This other string of Plate I from the Wives of Ipswich got The Butcher's Wife did freely give All the poor soul had I believe I got all to her very Plackit And can have more still when I lack it Help of the Lord then is Dear Coneys Help us dear Petticoats with moneys List for I hear this Text plain lie Fine Ends of Gold and Silver crie Beggars must be nâ—… chusers whether Silver broken or whole bring 't hiâ—…her Good Wife or Wâ—…nch the Widows mite Oliver C. shall you requite If you 'l not credit what he saith I 'l give you then the Publick Faith Methinks I hear the Proverb started A fool and 's money is soon pâ—…rted That Proverb does belong to those That part with money to ouâ—… foes Help who the King No. Nosuch thing Help Parliament not Help the King When we say King and Parliament The Parliament alone is meant So much for this time then I say Desiderantur Caetera By this you have heard how the juggle has been done the story is good because 't is true and thousands to this day witness it to their cost to the loss of their goods plate and estates and which is more to the loss of the bodies and souls too it is too probable of their dear relations Was the holy word of God ever before in any age or Kingdom so vilely abus'd by such abominable wrestings and interpretations and to such base and bloody ends and designs as by these Peters Owens Marshals Baxters c. are not these worthy cares for the Fathers of the new Church of modern Orthodoxy are not these within an inch and a half at least as bad as a Rationale upon the sacred Common-Prayer could the Devil of hell ever abuse and wrest the Holy Scriptures as these modern Orthodox juglers and Sermon-mongers have done nay the Devil to give him his due was not so impudent Mat. 4. For though he was Devil for taking the sacred word into his mouth since he hated to be reformed yet those Sermon mongers in these times were much more Devils in that particular and outvyed Beelzebub himself For He Mat. 4. quoted the Scripture truly but not fully omitting in the sixth verse of that Chapter as his children used to do in the seventeenth verse of 1 Pet. 2. the latter clause as that which made not for their turn But these children have out-done their Father in hellish craft upon those Scriptures Curse ye Meroz give them blood to drink Bind their Kings with chains and their Nobles in fetters of Iron and a hundred the like not in concealing the full sence of them as the Devil did but being more devillish and out witting Hell it self in wresting them to a quite contrary sence the Devil went not so far these modern Orthodox herein making the Devil an Ass. Are not these worthy cares Mr. Grey beard for your Learned Fathers Considering therefore these things with my self as one whose fate it was to be born and bred up in schismatical times and a factious University sucking in Schism with my mothers milk in two sâ—…nses and consequently when I was a child did as a child and was gull'd and cheated into their Fopperies as much as I must needs have been into Mabometanism if I had been born and bred up amongst the Turks whom yet I have found the honester of the two though both bad I say considering with my self when I came to years of consideration what devillish bloody and rapacious villains these Modern Orthodox Preachers and Sermon-mongers were so that Hell it self could not match them and withal considering that those people that most haunted those Preachments Sermons Lectures and Stories were above all mankind whether Turks Cannibals Indians or Jews the most false malicious revengeful slanderous envious liars cheaters treacherous bloody perfidious rapacious plunderers Sequestrators Oliverians Committee-men Gifted-men cruel Dissemblers Lovers of their own selves alone together with them of their gang covetous Boasters proud Blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy Traitors heady high-minded Lovers of pleasures more than Lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof c. Presently I think
Indictment was drawn up but I am astonishd that he dares write thus now or that any loyal subject of his Majesties should be jolly laugh and rejoyce in Greg's Book God preserve his Majesty from all Modern Orthodox men and from all that have been Modern Orthodox men if they give not better proofs of their Repentance and Loyalty than caressing and joying in Father Gray-beards or any of the race of John Calvin as great a Scholar and Divine as he is The greatest scholarship that John Calvin has left behind him as a Testimonial of his Learning or Rhetorick is That his Institutions are writ in pretty clean Latine which sounds no more to me nor any scholar that I know as an argument of learning than if they had been writ in clean French Welsh or Irish. One language signifying no more of scholarship than another no though you add the admired Greek and ever to be admired Hebrew a language that no man alive understands nor can attain to into the bargain Languages being nothing else but helps to discourse with men or acquaintance with Books as our occasions trade or business does require And a Calves-head is still a Calves-head though it have a neat tongue in it whether Latine Tongue Welsh Tongue Greek Tongue French Tongue English Tongue or Hebrew Tongue which last though I say is not now to be bad for love nor money 't is utterly lost and was so before our Saviour's time Mazoreth it self cannot retreive nor retrench it nor do we read that the Holy Ghost that descended in so many cloven Tongues gave the Disciples one Hebrew Tongue amongst them all but that 's all one to me All that I urge this for is that that clean Latin style in which Calvin's Institutions is pencill'd whether by himself or any other linguist it matters not nor signifies any thing to entitle him or any man else A great Scholar But if we may judge of his scholarship by his Divinity 't is to say no more right Presbyterian and Knox his own self Who as Calvin made a Religion fitted only for the Horizon of Rebellion wherein it was born and bred so Knox that devillish Rebel thought he could not find a fitter for the Innovations blood usurpations rebellions and confusions which he and the bastard Murrey intended contrived and brought to pass in Scotland when they imprisoned their lawful Queen threatned her upon pain of death to resign her Crown which she was forced to do to save her life with which Modern Orthodoxy Scotland and afterwards England as well as other Countries has been disciplin'd 'till weltred in blood and ruine as is known by woful experience Knox outdoing his Master Calvin in nothing but his new superstition of the morality of the Sabhath and Judaizing therein not more ridiculously than mischievously that whimsee being one of the spiritual and hypocritical colours laid on to varnish their Holy War and Rebellion in Scotland and England to make the rotten Old Cause flourish with that which like their Preachments Sermons and Lectures and gifted pharasaical long nonsensical prayers are and have been as mischievous I say as superstitious and unwarrantable having not so much as the true face vizor or form of Godliness much less the power thereof Yet with these they have long led captive silly men and women laden with sins subverging whole houses and Kingdoms though they â—…e men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith but I hope they shall proceed no further It concerns all good men and all that have either religion peace estates or consciences honour or interest in Posterity to take care to their utmost that they proceed no further I hope that even yet the Modern Orthodox men will consider these things and the evil of their ways as well as evils that their ways have lead unto yet some people think they 'l be hang'd before they amend repent or recant they are so rooted in pride stony-heartedness and opinion of themselves and their ways though God knows they have as small reason to be self-conceited as ever men had I my self can show and in several particulars have already shown such a mystery of iniquity amongst them and such a damn'd cheat in what they most especially call Religion that their Trade will be quite spoyled yet when they see the hopes of their gain is gone they 'l rage and rayl like the silver-smiths for their Idol-shrines and Diana's as Gregory does at the Ecclesiastical Politician but good Mr. Gregory good Father Gray-beard old Gentleman your Idol shall not stand long as your Brother Hugh said upon a more dismal occasion Gypsees some say do understand By lines they read in face and hand How long when how where you may dwell Can every way your Fortune tell All these mysteries with their blessing You have for six pence or a less thing So Holder-forth now indeed licitè Indulg'd cries out friends Benedicite With Canting Terms cheating Tom Pops The silly-women and the Fops With both hands stretcht out open to shew He plays fair and above-board to you And never minds your purse his eyes Looking another way to the skies Yet he shall do the feat compleatly And get into your Pocket neatly Not with sleight of hand but tongue Merely with a bare Harangue An Art Mol Cut-purse neves tri'd This Art was found out since she di'd Telling you stories that shall fit right And good as Nuts to Mother midnight All the while looking in your face And telling News of Acts of Grace Telling Fortunes Predestinations Decrees Elections Reprobrations Of which he no more Truth can tell yee Then Gypsies can or William Lilly Peeping into the covered Ark Construing the Revelations dark Times hid and seasons known to none But to Omniscience alone When spiritual Gypsee thus is at it Take my advice look to thy Pocket Right Preaching's Catechizing And Sirs Our Saviour went to Questions and Answers When he preach'd to the Pharisees Publicans Sinners Sadducees Nor was his Auditory vext When he digress'd oft from his Text Which we ne'r read he took but once And then straight went again to Questions And Answers called Catechizing Which Saints of old counted a wise thing For this same Hour-glass canting cheat Has been invented but of late Though it be young 't is Gyant grown Baffling all other Religion Yet far from enlightning the mind It rather has made men stark blind Like Pearl on eye 't must not be touch'd I wish the Cataract though was couch'd For men by it to deeds have run Which Cannibals by nature shun Millions of Sermons Holder-forth rehearses Have not such good in them as these six Verses Where are they You 'l say these same six Verses that are worth millions they are better sure than golden Verses If the near relation I have to them do not enhance the price and value of them in my opinion by some self-interest endearances The six Verses are worthy to be writ in Letters of gold on
particulars established in the Church then those sermons and sermon-mongers are diabolical schismatical hypocritical seditious false foolish and Hellish and such sermons in the Church are like Baal an Idol in the Temple of God and such Sermon-mongers Baals Priests All whom here I defie in the Name of the Living God to come out if they dare try it out with me in this particular and plead for their Baal so I call those sermons that men have not only made Idols of but those Idols have been set up in the house of God ever since Modern Oliverian Orthodoxy was set up and all true and Holy Worship has been quite thrown out of the Church to make room for this Baal Not that I neither would have the Pulpit thrown out of the Church since it may be so useful by Exhortations and honest Instructions from thence how men may demean themselves in the holy Worship of God and in Temperance and Charity and Justice towards themselves and others But still I say though I allow it a place in the Church yet only such a place as the Seat of Ecclesiastical Judicature those judicial Benches you see in some Churches when Discipline was in fashion namely those Benches and the Pulpit are only for Direction Correction and Instruction and as much and more need of the former than the latter if those Seats and Benches of Discipline were as they should be fill'd with honest and able men not with Salesmen Brokers and Hucksters But neither Spiritual Courts nor Sermons neither Discipline nor Doctrine are any parts of the holy Worship of God though by reason of men's infirmities they have like Physick to the Body or Laws to a Nation been found useful when well manag'd But still they are happiest people that need fewest Laws and the healthiest people that need the least Physick and the holiest and wisest people that need the least Doctrine or Discipline Sermons or spiritual Courts Both which I confess have prov'd pretty gainful Trades as some have gone to work to the peoples great loss as well as great disparagement and reproach to them there being no greater sign of a Dunce than that he is taught and taught and taught his Lesson over and over again and yet can never say it take forth or turn a new leaf ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth as those silly women St. Paul chastises 2 Tim. 3. 6 7. But that our men should be so silly too they may be ashamed of their dull pates if they have any shame in them Besides like Blockheads and ill-thriven lean Jades they also shame their Keepers Teachers and Masters who if they had the right art of teaching could not but make better Scholars Perhaps the hypocritical Oliverian Crew will think I speak against Hour-glass Sermons out of a lazy self-interesting Preservation owning here plain and short Pulpit-talk thereby to vouch my own negligence and sloth Let them think so still I care not but though they think my Sermons too short I 'le make them amends in another bargain I am sure they think my Writings and this Letter in particular long enough if they do not perhaps they will think so upon the next occasion they give me to hold forth against them Besides my Sermons are not Hour-glass Sermons for I give order to my Clark and Sexton to turn the Hour-glass in their Pew that a great quantity of the sand may be run out under the Rose be it spoken before they set it up in view upon my first approach to the ever-to-be-adored Pulpit chusing rather to whet than dull the appetites of my hearers and leave them rather a longing for more than cloy their affections with tedious stuff 't is healthful at such meals to rise with an appetite And indeed I and my Auditory are pretty well agreed for that matter most of them I hope having not so ill been taught or so learned Christ but that they had rather be good than seem good and so they have but the Worship of God in our sacred Liturgy to the full they are more indifferent for those Pulpit after-drops of which yet they have not been scanted nor have they wanted any of their due and wonted measure this fortnight that I have spent in this Letter more troublesome to my Amanuensis than my self costing more pains and time in the Printing and Press than in the Composure However my Congregation for the generality of them judge not the worth of a Sermon by the Quantity but Quality thereof an ounce of meat being worth a pound of poyson as much as an ounce of Gold is worth a pound of dull Lead chusing rather to have a profitable and plain Sermon though short than an impertinent story antiquely told though never so long they coming not to Church to see Tumbling tricks and Hocus juglings with Cloak hung by Buttons scracht ope Hands heav'd up with wide open Mouth and Cheveril Lungs with Teeth bitingly set and grinning with such apish Peters Rogers Dedham-Jack-Pudding Tricks willing to leave those to modern Pharisees Sermon-mongers Hypocrites and Oliverian-Orthodox the Head and Body of whose Religion is made up like a dismal Monster in which nothing appears eminent but sowcing great Luggs and a Mouth greater without Brains and without any Face like true Religion and if the Devil did not possess men strangely with greedy Covetousness Pride Blood and Singularity no man could be in love with it But if any of these Mad-caps will be so hardy as to venture a fall or foil in behalf of their monstrous Mistress of modern Oliverian Orthodoxy and undertake against me to prove that she has a portion and share in religious and holy Worship and also endeavor to prove that she has decent Features if she be not a Beauty and has more eminent and protuberant parts than Mouth and Ears let him come out as soon as he will for her credit and his and all the credits of good Old Cause men lie desperately in jeopardy and at hazard Therefore the sooner they shew their courage and strength the better it will be for them and not much the worse for me now my hand is in I long to try again what metal they are made of or where their great Sampson's-strength lies which Fops only admire For we never could find yet that their strength lay in their Brains or any Excrement that their Brains put forth or hitherto produc'd Their Talent lies in chucking the white and blew Aprons and if the Husband be Novice enough to be cullied into the bargain there 's so much sav'd but if he be too crafty like a cunning old Bird that will not be catch'd with such Chaff in that Case it is lawful for the dear heart his Wife to filch religiously and cheat her Husband for God's sake And so let them address to Petticoat that 's the height they can goe and plot how to make their approaches to her Pocket and for the