as the Capitol and you may sooner remove Mountains then shake their Confidence But is it not prodigious to see people so jocundly satisfied with a Book written with so much looseness as if its Author had either utterly forgot what I had utter'd or cared not what himself was to prove a Book wherein 't is hard to find a passage that is not coarsly false or impertinent and very few that are not apparently both a Book in which you shall meet with nothing singular and remarkable but horrid Untruths and Falsifications § 14. But however a Book he resolved to write without regard to Truth or Falshood and though he were not so lamentably costive as a late Brother of the scribling humour that was so far to seek for an Exordium that he was forced to take his rise at the day of the Moneth and the year of our Lord yet he was much more unhappy to make his entrance with such an awkerd acknowledgement as must for ever defeat and discredit the design of his whole performance by confessing that all his Pleas how solemn and serious soever he may appear are but dissembled and hypocritical Pretences When he tells us that 't is none of the least disadvantages of his Cause that he is enforced to admit a Supposition that those whom he pleads for are indeed really mistaken in their apprehensions But though this may seem a rash and unadvised Concession yet if you examine it you will find it a notable wily and cunning device For unless he will give place to such a Supposition or if he will rigidly contend that what he pleads in the behalf of is absolutely the Truth and that Obedience thereunto is the direct Will and Command of God there remains no proper Field for the Debate about Indulgence to be managed in For things acknowledged to be such are not capable of an Indulgence properly so called because the utmost Liberty that is necessary unto them is their right and due in strict Iustice and Law And yet the whole scope of his Apology and the onely Fundamental Principle upon which he builds is that they are obliged to do what they do out of Obedience to the Will and Command of God and by consequence the things they contend for are not capable of any Indulgence but are matters of indispensable duty and Divine right so that were the Government of Church-Affairs at their disposal they must establish the things that they desire to be indulged in as duties of strict Iustice and Law and restrain all other different forms and practices out of regard to the Divine Command and then to tolerate ours or any other way of Worship distinct from their own would be to permit men to live in open defiance to the direct Will and Command of God that has precisely injoyned a different Form of Worship So that it seems all pretences for Liberty of Conscience are but artificial Disguises for the advantage of farther Designs and when they gain it then the Mask falls off and the Scene is shifted and Petitions for Indulgence immediately swell up into Demands of Reformation So unfortunate is this Man in his whole performance that by all the Principles he has made use of to plead for Indulgence he is obliged to plead against it And there is not a more effectual Argument against Toleration of different Forms of Worship then their Fundamental Conceit that nothing ought to be practised or establish't in the Worship of God but what is precisely warranted and authorized in the Word of God For this restrains and disavows all Forms but one and ties all the Christian World to a nice and exact Conformity to that compleat and adequate Rule of Worship But suppose he were to speak to the Nature of the things themselves and not to the Apprehensions of them with whom he has to do Then farewel all soft and gentle Language and you shall hear nothing but Thundrings against Superstition Will-worship Episcopal Tyranny Popish Corruptions Rags of the Whore and the Dregs of the Romish Beast Then what is Prelacy but a meer Antichristian Encroachment upon the Inheritance of Christ And he that thinks Babylon is confined to Rome and its open Idolatry knows nothing of Babylon nor of the New Jerusalem the depth of a subtle mystery does not lie in gross visible folly it has been insinuating it self into all the Nations for 1600 years and to most of them is now become as the marrow in their bones before it be wholly shaken out these Heavens must be dissolved and the Earth shaken i. e. as he expounds both himself and the Text the setled and establish't Government of the West must be subverted Their Tall Trees i. e. Kings and Princes hewed down and set a howling and the residue of them transplanted from one end of the Earth to the other Or as the same Author expresses himself upon another occasion The Heavens and the Earth of the Nations must be shaken because in their present Constitution they are directly framed to the Interest of Antichrist which by notable advantages at their first moulding and continued insinuations ever since hath so rivetted it self into the very Fundamentals of them that no digging or mining with an Earthquake will cast up the Foundation-stones thereof And therefore the Lord Iesus having promised the service of the Nations to his Church will so far open their whole frame to the roots as to pluck out all the cursed seeds of the Mystery of Iniquity which by the craft of Satan and exigences of State or methods of advancing the pride and power of some Sons of Blood have been sown amongst them And then abundance of Scripture and dark Prophesie is pour'd forth to make good these mild and peaceable Doctrines It is the great day of the wrath of the Lamb. The Land shall be soked with blood and the dust made fat with fatness for it is the day of the Lords vengeance and the year of recompence for the Controversie of Zion All the Kings of the earth have given their power to Antichrist endeavouring to the utmost to keep the Kingdom of Christ out of the World What I pray has been their main business for 700 years and upward even almost ever since the Man of Sin was enthroned How have they earned the Titles Eldest Son of the Church The Catholick and most Christian King Defender of the Faith Hath it not been by the blood of the Saints And now will not the Lord avenge his Elect that cry unto him day and night will he not do it speedily Will he not call the Fowls of Heaven to eat the Flesh of Kings and Captains and great Men of the Earth Rev. 19.18 All this must be done to cast down all opposition to the Kingdom of the Lord Christ and to advance it to its Glory and Power That consists mainly of these three things that he there reckons 1. Purity and Beauty of Ordinances and Gospel-worship
branch of Godliness and Duty of Religion signifies as much as all the rest that is nothing at all As for Spiritual Evangelical Obedience 't is but a canting Phrase if by it he intend any thing more than a sincere and habitual Conformity to the Moral Precepts of the Gospel Moral Obedience to the Gospel and Spiritual Evangelical Obedience are but coincident Expressions of the same thing And lastly as for the Tenour of the Covenant as they are wont to discourse of it it requires nothing but a bold Confidence setting up with Gods irrespective Decrees and trading in his absolute Promises For I. O. as well as W. B. informs us That the Promises comprehensive of the Covenant of Grace are absolute which as to all those that belong to that Covenant do hold out thus much of the Mind of God that they shall be certainly accomplished in and towards them all But who are they that belong to this Covenant He answers Every poor Soul that will venture to trust it self on these absosolute Promises Faith in the Promises and the Accomplishment of the Promises are inseparable He that believeth shall enjoy and this wholly shuts up the Spirit from any occasion of staggering O ye of little Faith wherefore do ye doubt Ah! lest our share be not in this Promise Poor Creatures there is but one way of keeping you off from it i. e. disputing it in your selves by unbelief So that the onely Condition he requires to vest Men in a right to these absolute Promises is nothing but meer Confidence Though there cannot be more horrid Non-sense in the World than that Faith or Boldness should be required as the Condition of absolute Promises yet it were as well if they were altogether absolute as demand no better Qualification for their accomplishment than a Bold Face And suitable to this it follows some Pages after that there neither is nor can be any other Ground or Reason of Doubtings but Unbelief It is not the greatness of Sin nor continuance in Sin nor backsliding into Sin that is the true cause of thy staggering whatever thou pretendest but solely from thy Vnbelief So that though a Man persevere in an habitual course of the greatest Wickednesses yet for all that he has an undeniable claim to all the Promises of the Gospel if he will at all-adventure resolve to be stomachful in his Conceit that they were particularly made and designed to himself Now if this be one as 't is the choicest one of the Mysteries of their New Godliness I leave it to you to judge whether it be possible to invent any Doctrine more apparently destructive of an Holy Life or repugnant to the Tenour of the New Covenant which is plainly nor more nor less than Gods Stipulation of Eternal Life upon no other Condition than of an habitual and uniform Obedience to the Gospel So that all these Spiritual Graces resolving themselves so easily either into Duties or Helps or Hindrances of Morality he has given us an abundant proof of their canting and imaginary Godliness when he produces these Instances as things of a more precious and spiritual Nature than Moral Vertues and yet unless they signifie them they signifie nothing § 6. But this is not all the main ground of my Charge against them for making an inconsistency between Grace and Vertue is That they make Moral Goodness the greatest Let to Conversion insomuch that in their Case-Divinity the Conversion of a morally Righteous Man is judged more hopeless than that of the vilest and most notorious Sinners Than which our Author affirms there is nothing more openly taught in the Gospel Than which I affirm there is no Blasphemy more grosly false and wicked For what viler and more dishonourable Representation can Men make of the Doctrine of the Gospel than to make Vertue the greatest Prejudice to its Entertainment Is that Institution worthy the Divine Contrivance that is more befriended by Debauchery and Prophaneness than by sincere Obedience to the best and most essential Laws of Goodness Nothing can be more suitable to the Design and the Doctrine of the Gospel than the practice of Moral Vertues and is it not strange that it should be destructive of its own Ends and purposes and that Men should indispose themselves for the Discipline of Christianity by being adorn'd with its best and choicest Qualifications We never read of any Man that was hindred from embracing the Christian Faith by any of his Good Qualities Cornelius's Integrity in fearing God and working Righteousness was the onely thing that prepared and disposed him to Conversion and the young Gentleman in the Gospel wanted but one Moral Vertue to make him an entire Christian he was upon the Borders of the Kingdom of Heaven one step more would have placed him in it The onely thing that kept him out was Covetousness which though it may in some persons escape for an Infirmity was never yet rank't in the Catalogue of Moral Vertues The usefulness the purity the excellency of the Doctrine of the Gospel cannot but endear it to a Mind that is inclined to Goodness and to a Vertuous Soul the Beauty and Perfection of its Laws is its strongest and most effectual Obligation It was this that ravish't some of the first Fathers out of their state of Heathenism into the Bosom of the Church their Minds were prepared to embrace true Goodness by the study of Wisdom and Philosophy they were onely at a loss where to find it and therefore when they met with such a Divine Religion and that establish't upon such firm and undeniable Principles 't is scarce to be conceived with what transports of Joy and Zeal they run into its Profession In brief the Gospel is all that tends to the Glory of God to the Perfection of Humane Nature to the Relief of my Neighbor and to the Security and Happiness of Societies and all this it enforces under the severest Penalties and endears by the noblest Promises And now let any Man tell me which way 't is possible for Vertue to tempt aside from such an admirable and Godlike Institution How says our Author were not the Pharisees a People morally righteous and yet were they not at a farther distance from the Kingdom of God than Publicans and Harlots the vilest and most notorious Sinners because they trusted in their own Righteousness Yes yes they were right-worthy Moral Men bright and shining Examples of the great Vertues of Pride Peevishness Malice Revenge Injustice Covetousness Rapine Cruelty and Unmercifulness These were the Graces and the Ornaments of those precious and holy ones Go thy way for a woful Guesser no Man living beside thy self could ever have had the ill fortune to pitch upon the Scribes and Pharisees for Moral Philosophers And Sir were any of them now alive they would tell him to his teeth they are no more Moralists than himself Their Parts and Vertues lay another way They were a fasting and
and as to this particular business of the Scots they speak thus When they i. e. Papists Clergy and other Enemies of Religion conceived the way sufficiently prepared they at last resolved to put on their Master-piece in Scotland where the same method had been followed and more boldly unmask themselves in imposing upon them a Popish Service-Book for well they knew the same Fate attended both Kingdoms and Religion could not be altered in one without the other God raised the Spirits in that Nation to oppose it with so much zeal and indignation that it kindled such a flame as no expedient could be found but a Parliament here to quench it i. e. By hiring and tempting them to a new Rebellion at the price of one hundred thousand Pound beside the reward of Pay and Plunder for the common Souldiers the promise of Church-Revenues for the chief Promoters of the service the sacrifice of the Archbishop of Canterbury to their malice and revenge and what was most likely to endear the Cause the Reformation of the Discipline and Worship of the Church of England by the Model of the Kirk of Scotland that absolute Pattern of a thorough godly Rebellion Again The Declaration of Lords and Commons March 2. orders this Kingdom to be put in a posture of defence by Sea and Land because there was a design by those in greatest Authority about the King for the altering of Religion That the Scottish War was fomented and the Irish Rebellion framed for that purpose That they had Advertisements from Venice and Paris and Rome that the King was to have four thousand men out of France and Spain which could be to no other end than to change his own Profession and the Publick Religion of the Kingdom In the 19 Propositions sent Iune 2. 1642. the eighth is this That your Majesty will be pleased to consent that such a Reformation be made of the Church-Government and Liturgy as both Houses of Parliament shall advise c. And the 17th That the King should enter into a more strict Alliance with the Protestant Princes and States for the defence of the Protestant Religion against the Attempts of the Pope and his Adherents And the Propositions made by Lords and Commons Iune 10. 1642. for bringing in Money and Plate to maintain Horse and Arms runs upon this ground first That Religion else will be destroyed and this is particularly recommended to all those that tender their Religion And when the King countermanded the Propositions they re-inforce them by the endearments of Religion And Tuesday 12 Iuly 1642. resolve it upon the Question That an Army be forthwith raised for its defence and preservation Their Declaration of Aug. 8. 1642. grounds its self upon this That the Kings Army was raised for the Oppression of the true Religion And therefore they give this account to the World for a satisfaction to all Men of the Justice of their proceedings and a warning to those who are involved in the same danger with them to let them see the necessity and duty which lies upon them to save themselves their Religion and Country Where they tell us at large and in great passion That Papists ambitious and discontented Clergy-men Delinquents and ill-affected persons of the Nobility and Gentry have conspired together and often attempted the alteration of Religion c. That all was subject to will and power that so mens minds being made poor and base and their Liberties lost and gone they might be ready to let go their Religion whensoever it should be resolved to alter it which was and still is the great design and all else made use of but as instrumentary and subservient to it And then after an horrible harangue about the King and Queens going away the Lord Digby's Letter the Members going to York c. They the Papists Prelates c. come to crown their work and put that in execution which was first in their intention that is the changing of Religion into Popery and Superstition The Scots in answer to a Declaration sent them by their Commissioners at London from the two Houses did Aug. 3. 1642. return another wherein they give God thanks for their former and present desires of a Reformation especially of Religion which is the glory and strength of a Kingdom c. Protest that their hearts were heavy and made sad that what is more dear and precious to them than what is dearest to them in the whole World the Reformation of Religion has moved so slowly To which they add that 't is indeed a work full of difficulties but God is greater than the World and when the supreme Providence giveth opportunity of the accepted time and the day of salvation no other work can prosper in the hands of his Servants if it be not apprehended and with all faithfulness improved This Kirk and Nation when the Lord gave them the calling considered not their own deadness nor staggered at the Promise of an hundred thousand Pound through unbelief but gave glory to God And who knoweth but the Lord hath now some Controversie with England which will not be removed till first and before all the Worship of his Name and the Government of his House be setled according to his own will when this desire shall come it shall be to England after so long desired hopes a tree of life And therefore they proceed to press earnestly for an Uniformity in both Kingdoms but it must be after their own model What hopes say they can there be of Unity in Religion in one Confession of Faith one form of Worship one Catechism till there be first one form of Ecclesiastical Government yea what hope can the Kingdom and Kirk of Scotland have of a durable Peace till Prelacy be pluckt up Root and Branch as a Plant which God hath not planted and from which no better Fruits can be expected than such sowre Grapes as this day set on edge the Kingdom of England In answer to this goodly Declaration the Lords and Commons desire it may be considered that that Party which has now incensed and armed his Majesty against us is the very same which not long since upon the very same design of rooting out the Reformed Religion did endeavour to begin the Tragedy in Scotland c. And having thanked the Assembly of the Church of Scotland for proposing those things which may unite the two Churches and Nations against Popery and all superstitious Sects and Innovations whatsoever do assure that they have thereupon resumed into their Consideration the matters concerning the Reformation of Church-Government and Discipline which say they we have often had in consultation and debate since the beginning of this Parliament and ever made it our chiefest aim though we have been powerfully opposed in the Prosecution and Accomplishment of it And in another Declaration to the Convention of Estates they remonstrate that the honourable Houses have fully
over-severe and rigorous and this cannot but make them fearful and irresolved in all their Thoughts and this cannot but fill their heads with foolish and silly scruples and this cannot but make them afraid of every Action lest whatever they do should offend their stern and angry Deity So that whilst this restless passion reigns in their minds it cannot but make them as troublesom to the Commonwealth as to themselves and their Governours can command them nothing so innocent and harmless against which their nice and troubled Fancies cannot raise multitudes of scruples and little exceptions So that every trifling imagination of their own shall be able to countermand the wisest and most useful Laws and the publick order and setlement of the Society in which they live shall be eternally disturbed by their stubbornness and invincible Folly For though Superstition springs from pusillanimity and irresolution of soul yet if it fixes and setles it soon hardens it self into down-right Confidence and there is nothing so impudent and inflexible as a mind confirmed in Superstition No Laws or Penalties can work it off from its Resolutions but it grows resty peevish and impatient and whatever troubles or contradicts it stirs up its fury And hence it is that Princes have always found Religious Cowardize the boldest and most warlike temper in the World because 't is arm'd and ensured by Conscience According to that vulgar and obvious saying of Cicero's Superstitione qui imbutus est quietus esse non potest The leaven of Superstition is a restless thing and minds tinctured with it naturally work and ferment themselves into an unquiet and seditious temper Sometimes 't is Pride and Insolence and 't is a mighty gratification of this Vice in some men to controul their Governours for when they swell with conceits of their own extraordinary Godliness and dote upon themselves as the special darlings and favourites of Heaven 't is natural for them to grow sawcy and presumptuous and to think themselves too precious to be govern'd after the rate of ordinary men The priviledge forsooth of being the Children of God tempts them to conceit themselves better and wiser than their Governours who alas unless they are which rarely happens but in Usurpers of their own Faction are natural and unregenerate men that understand not the things that appertain to the Kingdom of Heaven and can promote nothing but their own carnal ends and Interests And this cannot but possess them with wild and ungovernable conceits and make them turbulent and seditious and willing to pick quarrels with the wisdom and discretion of their Superiours With what other spirit can those men be acted who plead niceness and tenderness of Conscience to exempt themselves from the force of Laws and the duty of Obedience and yet are of all men the most positive and confident in their own Perswasions think themselves the only Sons of Knowledge and fit to instruct and reform the World and wherever they have any power injoyn their own fond conceits with the fiercest and most decretory severity And if any man be so sturdy or so unfortunate as but to question their imperious and peremptory Decrees he is sure to be censured and treated as an Heretick or worse and he cannot possibly erre out of weakness but obstinacy What else I say can be the humour of these mens Consciences but a proud Impatience of all controul and a restlesness against all Authority till themselves may have it at their own disposal Sometimes 't is Clownishness and Ill-manners there is a passionate untutor'd and impetuous Conscience that becomes rude and insolent from the sense of its own Integrity and because 't is confident in the goodness of its intentions it is furious and ungovernable in the Prosecution of its ends The very honesty of such men is in effect nothing but rashness and violence they are transported by the outrage of Zeal and regard not the peace of Government but pursue their own Perswasions to which they are determined by Chance or Folly or Passion without Reason or Abatement they must not give up a Metaphysical Notion for the removal of a Civil War or the preservation of the State and in stead of submitting to the common and necessary methods of Government they will force Crowns and Scepters to yield to their Imperious Folly or involve a Kingdom in all the Miseries and Desolations of War Their particular Opinions are of more force than the Edicts and Declarations of Kings and who but themselves are fit Judges of their Duty and Obedience The bare Authority of their own Perswasions is supreme and uncontroulable and they will prove themselves his Majesties best Subjects by disobeying his Commands and fighting against his Person Now though these boisterous Men may have no form'd and malicious designs against the State yet this savage and extravagant Probity is more troublesom and mischievous in a Commonwealth than open and premeditated Villany it will ruine a Kingdom for the Publick Good And Men of this humour are bound to that rigour and niceness of Conscience as makes them uncapable of peaceable Obedience and Subjection for unless the publick Laws suit exactly with their own private Sentiments that unavoidably exasperates them against the Government and they must be making Remonstrances and entring into Confederacies for redress of Publick Grievances and yet so nice and narrow are those Rules they prescribe to themselves and their Governours that 't is impossible to fit Laws that are made for the Community to their pettish curiosity 'T is natural for these Men to be displeased with the Grandeur and Prosperity of the Court The height of a Princes Felicity frets their proud and envious Minds and they are never so apt to complain of the badness of the Times as when the Government is most flourishing They are incurable Male-contents and to prevent Arbitrary Power are upon all occasions making Encroachments upon the Royal Authority and lying at catch for all Advantages and husbanding all Opportunities to abate the Sovereign Prerogative and the Monarchy must be kept low to secure the Liberty of the Subject It was such hot Spirits as these that were the late Patriots of their Country and Fathers of the Publick Liberty that involved the Nation in a bloody War upon no other Motive than of the Goodness of their Prince and the Happiness of his Reign And when they were once engaged they resolved to have their Wills or the Kingdom should be ruined Nothing but the utmost rigour to be found in all their Treaties and Transactions and not an Iota to be abated in any of their Edicts of Pacification but they were all along craving and importunate in their Demands imperious and inexorable in their Impositions when it was their turn to make Petitions they would extort their Desires by clamour and importunity but when to grant all their Favours were clogg'd with such stern and rigid Conditions that an open Affront would scarce have been more
wickedness of their Lives Beside 't is a lowd mistake to fasten any guilt at all upon the depraved Tendency of Nature for there are but two Parts of Original Sin viz. either the imputation of Adam's particular Offence of which we stand guilty as parties of the Covenant and this is all the guilt we are chargeable with upon the account of the first Transgression for 't is certain Adam could derive no more guilt to his Posterity than what himself contracted and therefore no other instance of disobedience can be imputed to us than that in which he prevaricated Or real Communication of a decayed and ill-addicted Nature and this is not a Crime but an Infelicity that was inflicted by God himself upon Mankind as a Punishment of Adam's Sin and what is an Act of his Will can be no fault of ours We may indeed thank our first Father's Apostacy for this Disaster because it was justly inflicted upon himself and his Posterity for that Offence but what was intended meerly as a Punishment to impute to our selves as a Crime is I think new I am sure crude Divinity But however suppose all the unhappy Inclinations of our Natures may be charged with actual guilt yet what is that to outward Transgressions Can any Man be so oddly absurd as to affirm that the bare Tendency of his Nature to sin has prevaricated such and such particular Commandments in Thought Word and Deed And yet it was onely these and the like circumstantiated Confessions that are not capable of being applyed to any thing but Actual Sin that were the matters of my Reproof § 16. But this curst Dilemma has not such short Horns but that it will gore St. Paul as well as the Nonconformists that acknowledges the former sins of his life when he was injurious a Blasphemer and a Persecutor which sins I pray God deliver others from As for the uncivil censure suggested in this Parenthesis I accept it as an eminent Issue of his Charity and Good Nature But as for St. Paul's acknowledgment that stands far enough out of harms way from the reach of my Dilemma for there is no possible way to acquit that blessed Apostle of the guilt of those enormous Impieties unless he would be so bold as to give the Lye to St. Luke as well as to himself But he adds when an Apostle he professes himself the chiefest of sinners But 't is apparent that this Confession refers not to his present Condition but to the time of his being Injurious a Blasphemer and a Persecutor when no Man reviled the Son of God with fiercer Zeal and Confidence or persecuted the Church of Christ with more barbarous Outrage and Inhumanity which being so great a Crime in its own Nature and so bold an Affront to the Divine Will had he not reason think you to mark himself for one of the greatest Sinners that ever obtained pardon For as for such as had affronted the Holy Ghost and blasphemed the Name of Christ against the Convictions of their own Conscience they came not into this account of pardonable Offenders as being fatally consign'd up to a state of Impenitence and Unbelief but among all Sinners that were within a capacity of Mercy he knew not a greater Wretch than himself Though this Confession relates to the Malignity of the Crime not to the Malice of the Criminal for he is so far from affecting to make a sad Story worse that he abates the guilt of his sin by the most excusing and allaying Circumstances in that he did it in Ignorance and Vnbelief and it was this that so greatly asswaged the horrour of the Crime and as himself reports so greatly disposed him for Pardon and Repentance But how will this plain dealing justifie such Professors as pour forth daily Confessions of the blackest and most presumptuous Sins of despising the Riches of Gods Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering of treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God of treading under foot the Son of God and counting the Blood of the Covenant wherewith they are sanctified an unholy thing and doing despight unto the Spirit of Grace All this and much more set off with all the Circumstances of Aggravation not onely in the days of darkness and unregeneracy but since the glorious Gospel has shined into their Hearts since they have rested in it and made their boast of Christ and known his will and approved the things that are more excellent Is not this wild work for choice Believers to talk such extravagant Contradictions when the former passages and innumerable others common in their Mouths do apparently signifie nothing less than either an incorrigible Infidelity or a total Apostacy from the Gospel But what do I think of the Confessions of Ezra of Daniel and others in the Name of the whole People of God I think they were as full of Truth as Horrour and the People of God he here speaks of were such goodly Saints as had revolted from the Worship of the true God to all manner of Idolatry and Moral Wickedness If the Congregations of the Nonconformists are such redoubted People of God as these I have nothing to oppose to the largest and blackest Confessions of their sins If they worship Idols as they did let them with their wonted familiarity make bold with the Expression of the Prophet Ieremy to that purpose We have committed two evils we have forsaken thee the Fountain of living waters and hewn out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water And if they can vie Lewdness and Hypocrisie with that holy Nation let them continue to foist into their Prayers those dark Characters wherewith the Prophets described the unparallel'd Wickedness of that People nay far be it from me to abridge them the Liberty of helping out their stiff Fancies by purloining lofty Expressions out of the Prophetick Writings If the Israel of God be not endued with more Grace at present than it was twenty years since as I. O. describes them before the Supreme Authority of the Nation the Commons Assembled in Parliament April 19. 1649. pag. 39. We have called World Christ and Lust Christ and Self Christ working indeed for them when we pretended all for Christ. Now this Doctrine was either true or false if false what a bold and ungodly Slander was this to brand these Darlings of Providence these precious Servants of the Lord Christ these Patriots of their Country these Fathers of the publick Liberty our Author may remember who flatter'd them with these special Titles with such a a monstrous and profligate Hypocrisie If true then what Anointed Saints were those who under colour of setting up the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus and rescuing the People of England from the dismal Oppressions both of Civil and Ecclesiastical Tyranny he may understand this Language too had imbroil'd the Nation in a Bloody War had sacrificed so many thousand Lives and had butcher'd
the best of Kings onely to carry on the puny Concernments of their own narrow and accursed Interest But we must proceed and in the last place I am catechised to give an account of my Thoughts of David's self-abasements that far exceed any thing that Nonconformists are able to express Truly I think the passionateness of his Repentance was but proportion'd to the horrour of his Sin he lay under the fresh Convictions of the most horrid Villanies of Murder Adultery and Drunkenness and his guilt was enhansed with the most shameful and dishonourable Circumstances and whilst he continued in this dismal Condition what Cries and Accents could be too doleful to express the Bitterness of his Grief and Horrour If they are in the same plight and condemnation I will not then upbraid them for cloathing their acknowledgments with the blackest of his Expressions for they will then have sad occasion to sing their penitential Psalm elsewhere if they are not then to use such mournful Ditties in their familiar Addresses to Heaven falls under my former censure of trifling and fooling with the Almighty But to despise Men for the deepest humblings of their Souls before God can arise from no other Principle but an utter unacquaintance with the holiness of God the accuracy of the Law and the deceitfulness of my own Heart As for the deceitfulness of my own Heart I confess my self a stranger to it and am not at all desirous of its acquaintance for I hate nothing more then a false Bosom-Friend But however my Heart and my Self are of the same Church and the same Religion there is no Schism between us that I know of nor do I remember when we parted Communion And I think we ever had the same Thoughts Designs and Resolutions and therefore as long as I am careful to preserve my own Integrity let my Heart prove false and treacherous if it can the Hearts indeed of all Hypocrites and wicked Men are deceitful because they themselves are so but we shall never understand how an upright Man should keep an hypocritical Heart unless we can divide himself from himself So that when the People of God make frequent and piteous moans of the hypocrisie of their own Hearts unless still they fool and trifle there is no remedy but the People of God must pass by their own Confessions for rank and self-convicted Hypocrites for it was never known that any Man was better than his own Heart or that a perfidious Heart was found in the breast of an honest Man As for the Purity and Holiness of God I am affected with such reverential apprehensions of it that I would have Men approach his presence with an awful and religious distance and not always present themselves before him in such a foul and unclean pickle and so full of Vermin I know not a bolder affront to his Purity than to presume he will vouchsafe Communion with such polluted Souls 'T is high Presumption for an habitual Sinner continuing such to expect the forgiveness of his sins nothing can reconcile us to the favor of God but an effectual and a persevering Repentance this is an absolute and indispensable condition of every acceptable Prayer and therefore Men that acknowledge any habitual disobedience to the Laws of Christ put in a bar against their own Petitions and do not onely stave off the Divine Pity by being unfit Objects for it but provoke the Divine Displeasure by presuming of his Favour to such unworthy Wretches And when Men tell the Almighty in good earnest for otherwise they do but trifle with him still Lord we offend daily against all thy Commandments in Thought Word and Deed sinning against thee with an high hand and a bold forehead against Knowledge and against Conviction all the Thoughts of our Hearts are evil onely evil and that continually working all uncleanness with greediness drawing Iniquity with Cords of Vanity and Sin as it were with Cart-ropes c. What other Answer to their Prayers can such debauch't Wretches expect but the utmost Severity of Wrath and Indignation and the Doom of the worst of Hypocrites and Unbelievers § 17. But Ministers who are the Mouths of the Congregation to God may and ought to acknowledge not onely the Sins whereof themselves are personally guilty but those also which they judge may be upon any of the Congregation I shall not urge him with the rash examples of some of their godly Ministers of greatest Fame and Reputation for Piety that have proclaimed themselves not only to the present Age but to all Posterity proud and selfish and hypocritical and desperately and mortally wicked Certainly these must of necessity be either very naughty Saints or most horrible Dissemblers However I am sure such ratling Confessions cannot but have a sad and woful Influence upon the Lives of their popular Admirers For what can they more naturally conclude from thence that if precious Mr. that eminent Servant of Jesus Christ in the work of the Gospel be so full of sin and wickedness in how many more and greater Infirmities may I be indulged that am but a private and an ordinary Professor But to let this pass What unclean Congregations are those that have such foul Mouths Methinks it becomes not such pure People to have their Mouths always full of such uncleanly Confessions And whether it be true or false what I. O. informs us That 't is the Duty and Priviledge of sincere Believers to unlade their Vnbelief in the bosom of their God I know not but this I know that 't is an unmannerly and horrid prophaneness whenever they make their Addresses to the Almighty to disgorge themselves of the most filthy and abominable Loads of Sin in his Presence The Prayers of wicked Men or habitual Sinners as I told you before are an abomination to the Lord and he loaths nothing more then the boldness and presumption of their Addresses And therefore if they can suppose any in their Congregations guilty of those heinous Enormities they are wont so familiarly to confess yet they ought not to suppose them to have any share in the Publick Worship For when Men meet together to join in the Duties of Devotion none ought to be supposed Members of the Society but what are qualified for the performance of the Duty because all that others can contribute is not to be reckoned a part of Divine Worship and therefore Ministers ought onely to represent such Persons as are supposed capable of the Duty and all that are not so to disclaim their company and refuse their assistance as much as if they stood excommunicate from the Congregation for so they are as to all the real designs and purposes of Religious Worship However Publick Offices ought to be so contrived as to suit Publick Ends and to serve the Needs of the whole Body and therefore is the Confession of our Publick Liturgy expressed in such general Terms as may comprehend the Concerns and