himself a French coat a French wit a French head a French wigg French legs French cringes French Tongue and all other members about him in apish and mimick imitation of the French frenchefyed thereby to be taken for a Gentleman whence the Proverb Jack would be a Gentleman if he could speak French At which so probably related by the old Gentleman most of the company laughed heartily and concluded that this new Author designing in his whole book to promote again the good old Cause which he calls modern Orthodoxy and sometimes the cause too good resolving right or wrong to plead the Cause of the Non-Conformists which since he has espous'd he is not asham'd of and therefore confesses p. 282. that if he can do the Non-Conformists no good he is resolv'd to do them no harm and we will believe him without swearing To carry on this goodly design he bespatters the present Government with unparallel'd malice endeavours to stain and blemish the late Kings whole Reign as deform'd rails at Bishops and evil Councellors dead and alive justifies Schisme as shall shortly appear cries up Indulgence and liberty Breda Breda Reformation Reformation and with bitter sarcasmes and invective taunts prosecutes the present Parliament Rallery being the most biting and insufferable Railing and all this with as little fear as wit Rather than not have a fling at the Parliament and pinch it till it recant all especially the Act for Uniformity or any Act against the good old Cause and Non-Conformists to twit it home as wittily and effectually as he can he p. 110. confounds nature to create a Joque turns the Parliament-men into a Parliament of women on purpose to break a jeast upon them which had otherwise missed them viz. Superfoetation of Acts. And new-mints a word Trinkle trinkle the members rather than his beggarly wit should have nothing currant It would make a man sick to see this little Tantalus catch and gape for a jeast and a little Rhetorick And alas it will not come And at other times to see him make a Lyons face and grunt and groan to send forth a little wit but it is right Presbyterian it will not come for the man is as costive as one of the old Assembly of Divines or Smec or Tom Dumby-low who dy'd because he was so And all this pother is for an old Cause that stinks above ground in the nostrils of every honest heart both here and all the world over Yet commend me to the men for one thing they are as restless and indefatigable in their endeavours to promote it though so often baffled by God and man that they still cease not to move every stone bribe and flatter threaten and frown fight and rayl cant and recant pray and lye preach and slander snivel and whine exhort and blaspheme in publique in private in City and Countrey in Churches in Conventicles with License and without License by your leave and in spight of your teeth As if old Knox himself was again metempsuchos'd in every one of them To this purpose in this Authour they assault the Church and State with the old weapons new furbish'd and to make you believe their old cause was good they make the old Kings cause bad and this bold man dares in this juncture of affairs with implacable inveteracy prey upon the dead not permitting to rest in the bed of Honour our gracious and blessed King Englands Martyr That sacrific'd his own life rather than to live in infamy by betraying his people the laws and his own just rights And though we can scarce believe our own eyes when we see the matchless Impudence of this Authour thus to traduce him and his whole Reign and the present Parliament with Taunts as bitter as bold yet to make all this seem but a jeast when he casts firebrands arrows and death like mad he seems to say Am not I in sport In an affected but taking and fashionable Drolling way insinuating into every mans humour to carry on the work Cajoling the Rabble with liberty Indulgence Breda Breda Cajoling the Yeomen and Corporations with Interest and Trade and propriety invaded with fears of Sibthorpianisme Ceremonies Arminianisme and Manwaring Cajoling the Gentlemen and noble men with the dangers that again threaten their Reputation and Honour and make them feel for their Cutto's and draw upon poor Cassock and Lawn-sleeves for fear it should come again to the Proverb of his own making Jack-Gentleman But I being suddenly call'd away was no longer happy with the further discourse of this Cabal of wits only I took notice before I parted that the Virtuoso's all this while made not one Repartee or if they did it was but one little one answering mostly with a countenance compos'd and made up of magisterialness and high conceit mixt with some pity but more scorn and a little smile now and then proceeding from both But with such a paltry and surly grace that I could scarce contain my self and I had much ado to forbear kicking the Coxcombs And they had certainly felt the Print of my toes but that I was not so angry as to hold from laughing right out at such affected gravity they look'd so scurvily With Head toss'd up but bridling in the chin As if with half cheek-bit and Curb reyn'd in Mumbling a little sometimes to themselves as the poor ass does when feeding upon Thistles the sharp pricks gawl his Chaps Whether like right-bred Cocks of the Game they kept their best strength for the Reserve and last Close or that they were good Husbands of their wits and would not spend it but in better company some Cabal of their own or thought that the Moderators place was their own by Patent and just right determining all at the last or did not at that time carry their wit about them as loth to wear it out or like old true hunted Hounds would not open but when the scent was certain or whether they had some peculiar endearances for the Authour I cannot decide But I was so netled with what I had heard of this new Author above all admiring the stupendious contradictions and double-Tongue of the man that though I had read in Diodorus Siculus of an Island in Arabia where the Inhabitants have two tongues in a head but loth to go so far to see them yet since I might see the Marvel at home more prodigious than the child at the Swan by Charing-Cross with two heads I was resolv'd though it cost me a shilling to see what I could find in this marvellous Book and readily finding one at the next Stationers the Bugg almost startled me at first it had such a Portenâ—…ous Title The Rehearsal Transpros'd The Rehearsal Transpros'd Some of the Common Herd of mankind that ne're paid six pence yet at a Club of the Virtuoso's nor so much as once got the word for that night would quietly if not frighted with the Goblin pass by this Title-Page when starch'd up with the
honest words like the Divel in Samuels Cassock 1 Sam. 28. 14. And the weeds that may now annoy the Churches Garden may yet prove medicinable virtute officii though not virtutis officio Galba Otho and Vitellius as our Richard the Third were good Emperours though bad men and 't is possible bad men may yet sometimes be good Preachers Yet we may say as of weeds they do more harm than good in the Garden of God they make the way of Truth to be evil spoken of and stain the Surplice they wear Being the Churches Opprobrium Rom. 2. 23 24. the scandal of their Profession and high Calling putting Religion to the Blush For when we compare their prophane lives with those of the good Apostles whom they succeed we may say as that Painter replyed to a Cardinal who was angry with him for painting the faces of St. Peter and St. Paul so red I do it saith he for the very nonce that they may be thought to blush at the lives of their Successors He was in the right on 't that of old complain'd that formerly the Church had wooden Chalices and golden Ministers but now saith he we have golden Chalices and wooden Ministers Such Drones so they get the Honey care not who labour or under what discouragements they labour that 's work for the poor Bee Thus Damasus the Scholar to St. Hierom stept up into the Infallible Chair whilst poor St. Hierom ended his days in a Cell at Bethlehem Yet it is more true Honour to deserve Honour and want it than by Simony or smock Simony to bluster in swelling Titles without merit Cato had rather men should question why he had no statues erected in honour of his great worth than why he had any True Piety and Vertue is vera nobilitas it s own ornament and needs not the varnish of dear-bought Heraldry to set it off And if true Piety be required in any man much more in a Clergy-man whose escapes like a City upon a Hill and the oyntment of the right hand cannot be hid especially in these times when men watch for advantage against them and like the Divels rejoyce in iniquity A little spot is seen in white in a Swan not so in Swine fine Lawn is sooner stain'd than course Canvas every little flaw spoils a Diamond The people are affected opere more than ore exemplis plus quam verbis more with Examples than Precepts more with deeds than words except they be very flattering words and pronounc'd by such glozing Parasites as will lick up the peoples spittle in hopes of gain or fame humoring them to the life but to their own and the peoples everlasting death like Demas that forsook St. Paul to be further preferr'd to the favour of the rabble and in the Idol Temple at Thessalonica They therefore that tread in high places had need look to their steps that they walk uprightly especially when they have many followers and dependents lest they be accessary to other mens fall as well as principally to their own As the due place of the Clergy sets them above many others Heb. 13. 17. 1 Thes. 5. 12. so should they be more eminent than others in Learning and Piety Gods high Priest of old had Pomegranates for smell as well as Bells for sound King Solomon the Preacher call himself Koheloth the Preacheress of the feminine gender and Preachers are called wisdoms Maids Prov 9. 3. And the Apostles are called Joh. 3. 29. Christs Nymphs to teach the Clergy purity as Virgins The longer their Gowns and Robes are the more apt to contract dirt and therefore the more carefully to be holden up lewdness in a Virgin is insufferable Epicurism and Libertinism prevail'd in the World not for the goodness of the Doctrine but because of the sober and austere life of the Doctor that brought it Epicurus And I am confident that rebellion and schism which is factions libertinism had never prevail'd so far in the hearts of the people of England against so righteous a King and Laws but for the austerity of many of the most vile incendiaries and the loosness and remissness of others who went not so steddily though walking upon better ground Thus you see my friend I am not possest with a spirit of contradiction right or wrong to oppose all that Greg. does say I can be content to accept truth even when it comes from the father of lyes and all I have now writ toyou upon this occasion given me by Greg. is only out of my hearty well wishes to the Clergy that the enemy by standing on their ground may have no advantage over them for we are not ignorant of his devices endeavouring to foyl and always twitting a good cause where he finds the least resistance and defence Though in the greatest latitude of Charity no man can imagine that Father-Gray-beard exposes the loosness of any of the Clergy for any love he has to a more strict conversation either in himself or them That which is most admirable in the man is the pregnancy of his fancy in only one Art to wit the superfetation of wit in all the kinds of railing the worst Butter-whore is to seek and may well go to school to Trinkles he and she both being so sertile sure the brood they ingender will all be Marvelous railers With what exuberancy of stile and variety of invectives does he prosecute the Ecclesiastical Politician Bishop Bramhall Arch-bishop Usher Bishop Sparrow Bishop Andrews deceased Arch bishop Laud deceased King Charles deceased with many sinister reflexions upon his gracious Majesty and this happy Parliament How falsly does he charge the Church of England when he says it admits none to Baptism without the sign of the Cross whereas the sign of the Cross is not the Cross in Baptism by her Constitutions But the Cross after Baptism when the God-fathers and God-mothers vouch for the visibility of the Childs profession and education in Christ's Religion and is a practice as ancient as innocent amongst Christians who being scofft by the Heathens for believing in Christ crucified on a Cross they did ever since the Apostles time thereby testifie and openly and couragiously justifie to the World that they were no Gnosticks but like St. Paul not ashamed of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And whereas he makes it such a horrid thing to keep men from the other Sacrament of Christ viz. the Lords Supper because they will not kneel and stoop to a Ceremony let him know they do justly and warrantably in so doing granting there is such an Humane Law and Ordinance for the same which ought to be lest men left to their liberty some would out of novelty singularity or capriciousness loll or lye upon the ground in unseemly if not in immodest postures and consequently tempt some to abhorr the offering of the Lord. And whether we stand or keep walking all the time as many Calvinists do or sit as do some other Calvinists
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
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
then a glorious King therefore down with the Bishops down with Evil Councellors The man is desperately disingenuous and unnatural I think whosoever was the Author he plays the Tarrier by his falling on so fiercely upon the old Foxes the fathers of the Church and by that should be some Vicars son For the Tarrier you know is a monstrous beast begot of a bitch by a Fox and so is half-dog and half-fox but there is no such enemy in the world to a fox as is the Tarrier which is a part of him though an Amphibious and degenerate Issue I think replyed another he is rather a Jaccal which is an Arabian beast but more monstrous in the odd humour of his rapacity robbing the graves and scratching up for a prey the dead Corps that lay decently interr'd as by name Bishop Andrews Bishop Bramhall Arch-Bishop Usher Arch-Bishop Laud and a glorious Martyr worth them all King Charles I. It is a marvel saith another what you will make of this New Author at the long run for you have made him a Ferret a Tarrier and a Jaccall already The Gentleman himself has reduc'd thus many Metaphors within the compass of one bare sentence p. 49. setching a Cònjurer a Play-house and a Ferret to make it up sure his Rhetorick was born in a time when Metaphors were cheap for though they be far fetch'd yet sure they were not dear bought he is so prodigal of them Well said saith a young Lawyer I will bestow one Metaphor the more upon him for his liberality He seems to me to be a Cotswould-Hare he 's so well breathed he has stood three or four Courses already the first called Rosemary that was slipt at him made more hast than good speed and scarcely had poor Watt in view during the whole run The Latter gave him fair Law yet withal gave him so many smart turns so nimbly and so quick that I wonder how the poor fool shifted for it self And now I hear there 's one will have another Loose at him if 't be but for sport and yet 't is an even wager he 'l click him up in good earnest Look to thy Hits poor Watt Thou hadst better have sat For ever on thy Squatt Than Hunted at this rate The Ostrich wings has got For Legs alone help not This last though set out late Intends to shew thy fate And make thy Bonny Skutt A Trophee for the Hut And there to be laught at Hold good Gentlemen says one of the Citizens you have made beast enough of him already in all conscience but truly verily and indeed that Gentleman there who made a Jaccall of him in my opinion has sampled the Pattern to the life As there is a Law in England against wolves so if I were a Parliament man I would move for a law against Jaccalls This Jaccall is an unsufferable beast in our Soyl especially when no dead corps pleases his Palate so much as those sacred Reliques of Arch-Bishop Laud especially those of Englands Martyr King Charles 1. For he that beheaded these two was not half so barbarous nor did do them half so much harm as this Gregory Father-Grey-beard who with his utmost malice and inveteracy strikes at their Innocence and Honour For which cause though such a Barbarian ought not to be Christned yet He having no name the Company did as He did to Mr. Bayes give him a name by which he was known amongst them to this day calling him for his merits-sake as we do hereafter Gregory Father-Grey-beard or Mr. Gregory and sometimes plain Greg. For certainly the Heads-man Father-Grey-beard was incomparable less mischievous than this villain the natural lives of those two glorious Martyrs being mortal but their Innocence by this vile man here assassinated should be immortal and King Charles himself was more tender of these than of his life valuing his dignity above his Crowns saying in his own unparallel'd words I shall ne're forget them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 15. I can more willingly lose my Crowns than my Credit nor are my Kingdomes so dear to me as my Reputation and Honour Those must have a Period with my Life but these may surviveto a glorious kind of Immortality when I am dead and gone and a sweet consecrating of them to an eternity of Love and gratitude among Posterity Those foul and false aspersions were secret Engines at first employed against my peoples Love of me that undermining their opinion and value of me my enemies and theirs too might at once blow up their affections and batter down their Loyalty This in practice what ever be the design is endeavour'd in this Book p. 301. with as much venome as can be spit asserting there that the whole Reign of King Charles 1. was deform'd We had a good wise King the while then and fit to live and Reign that would suffer his whole Reign to be deform'd Thus making him a Pupill rather than a Prince and one that of himself regarded not what was good but was kept during his whole Reign under a Tutor and Guardian or rather Governour and he viz. Arch. Bishop Laud one of the worst too for he sayes he seem'd to know nothing but Ceremonies Arminianisme and Manwaring with that he begun and with that he ended and thereby deform'd the whole Reign of King Charles 1. p. 301. Thus he makes our Solomon a Rehoboam namely a child at forty years of age By Ceremonies Arminianisme and Manwaring whatever they be in themselves this Author represents them as very vile wicked and ugly things because they deform'd the Kings whole Reign And therefore he concludes thereby that King Charles 1. had no wisdom to understand the vileness wickedness and ugliness of these three things Ceremonies Arminianisme and Manwaring whereby his whole Reign was deform'd or else that King Charles understanding the evil nature of these things that did deforme his whole Reign had not honesty nor innocence enough to keep them off from deforming his whole Reign So choose him whether for this Author determines him necessarily in these words to be either so much a fool as to suffer his whole Reign to be deform'd with Ceremonies Arminianisme and Manwaring and to be led by a man that seem'd to know nothing else with which he begun and with which he ended and thereby deform'd the whole Reign Or else knowing these things and how they deform'd his whole Reign he makes him a vile and wicked King that would not save and deliver his whole Reign from deformity By the former he makes him a weak prince without wisdome the contrary whereof is known to the whole world and was never suggested before this time by any but the Rebells in the beginning of the late Civil-wars to withdraw the affections of his people from him as from a man that had not wit nor understanding enough to govern them but was led by the Duke of Buckingham and Arch-Bishop Laud. But if he mean the latter that
when Gods Commandments seem to justle for precedence and strive for the place As they often do and no man can truly fear God and obey him as he ought that understands not these Laws of Honour and rules of Precedency We cannot err when our Saviour is the guide and leads us the way I 'le instance in a few cases for example The Pharisees of old just like our modern Pharisees in their modern Orthodoxy were marvellous men for the worship of God and Gods day of worship the Sabbath-day Oh the Sabbath-day and then for prayers long long prayers sacrifice and indeed for all the worship of God prescribed in the four first commandments who but they Good very good thus far who can otherwise think but that these who are so much for God and his glorious worship should be Gods own People the Godly Party and Almighty God as much for them Who dare check them lest he seem thereby to fight against God Who dare speak against their ways lest he seem to bid heaven battail and speak against Gods ways The Lawyers amongst them who were the chief Preachers took it wonderful hainously that even our blessed Saviour himself should dare to reprove them and when he made so bold as to do it they took it as a very high affront Thus saying thou reproachest us also us also and reproachest not reprovest but reproachest us also taking for granted that to reprove was to reproach them Yet for all this in the first Sermon our Saviour makes he assures his Auditory That except their righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees they should in no wise enter into the Kingdom of God What Would not the worship of God in his own way bring them to God No. Would not a zealous and holy keeping Gods holy day bring them to God No. Would not the being cry'd up for the most pure and godly party bring them to God No. Would not prayers many and long and good too and preaching many Sermons and full good and Orthodox and saving Truths bring them â—…o God No Yet our Saviour gives them his Testimonial that they did not only preach well but also nothing that was ill whatsoever they bid you observe do And to give those Pharisees their due they did not only go Heaven-wards but they did far over-go many of our Pharisees and Preachers Heaven-ward For the Pharisees sat in Moses's chair preached Truth and nothing but the Truth whereas Bind your Kings with chains and your Nobles with fetters of Iron This honour have all the Saints Curse ye Meroz c. and many other good Truths were miserably wrested you know by many nay most of our godly Party that pretended above all others to fear God on purpose to dishonour the King But I lay not the stress upon that but granting that any man preaches and prays keeps Gods holy day and worships him how divinely truly and sincerely soever yet all this exceeds not a Pharisee nor shall ever bring him to the Kingdom of God Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils Depart from me saith our blessed Lord I know you not What not know thine own Preachers prophesying in thy name and such as have prayed too Lord Lord No. I know you not saith he why Ye are workers of iniquity Workers of iniquity Who are they or rather who are not so In respect of the first Table the four first commandments the Pharisees of all men living were not so workers of iniquity And in respect of the four first commandments such as prayed and preach'd in Christs name stood for the Lords worship and consequently Gods times of worship and the Lords-day were of all men living the least workers of iniquity Therefore since Christ knows not these there is a greater thing than Gods worship awanting and which is the one thing necessary and what 's That Our Saviour tells us in the same Sermon even to do to others as we would they should do unto us for this is the Law and the Prophets Mat. 7. 12. That is to say The summe and great design of the Law and the preaching of the Prophets have all but this one scope and end to prevail with mankind to keep the second Table or six last commandments which do more particularly direct us how to observe this great general rule Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them So that as food and â—…ayment is for the preservation of the body Preaching Gods holy word Prayers keeping days holy and all the worship of God whatsoever has but one main scope and end even to make men good good to our own bodies and souls by temperance and sobriety good to others by demeaning our selves peaceably justly and mercifully one towards another as we are particularly directed in the six last commandments Which six last Commandments God himself our blessed Saviour and the Prophets and Apostles do therefore prefer much above the first table and four first Commandments in so much as the end is more noble than the meanes to that end as the life is more than meat and the body than rayment meat and rayment being but the meanes designed for that great end namely the preservation of the body and life Therefore as he that clothes himself with rayment how good warm soever it be and presently throws it all off again and he that eats and eats and eats and either presently vomits it up again or that the meat Lienterically pass through him without alteration and digestion must needs be starved so he that takes in never so much of spiritual food and digests it not according to the great design and end for which God sent it namely to observe the six last Commandments that is to be good to himself and others he must needs have a ruin'd and starv'd soul. The Doctrine how wholesome soever being worthless for want of the use and these great Sermon-mongers are at best but the great-eaters the spiritual Maynards and Wood of Kent Mr. C. of Norwich W. B. of Yarmouth For can all our worship of God prayers praises and preachings observing Lords-days and Sacraments profit God Is he the better for them Job 35. 7. 8. If thou be righteous what givest thou him or what receiveth he of thy hand Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art and thy righteousness may profit the son of man but cannot profit God Therefore when Almighty God first promulgated his sacred Laws he tells his people wherefore he ordered them to keep his Commandments Deut 10. 13. even for their good not his own And excellently does his Prophet Micah tells us to this purpose the great duty of man Micah 6. 6 7 8. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and how my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt-â—…fferings c. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord
though I could fill a Volume upon this excellent subject so needful to be explain'd in these times when people have run a madding with the English Bible in their hands and brought to vouch their Exorbitances and horrid villanies I need say nothing of the mischievous consequences of this promiscuous License of reading the Bible those that thumb'd it so much having prov'd themselves the most execrable Villains and Hereticks that ever the Sun shone upon but shall only give two or three instances for what I have said Which when people have weighed and seriously consider'd they will not so stare and stamp and cry out Oh this man would rob us not of our goods our wives our good names and our lives but that which is dearer to us than all these he would rob us of our dear English Bibles then come the days of darkness again and of ignorance oh look to him he robs us of our Bibles is not here a Popish plot And you will have cause to thank him for it more than all the Sermons that ever you heard from modern Orthodoxy for this has ruin'd everlastingly the souls of millions of poor people guided with that frenzy and zeal and has also shortned their days by duckquoying them into Rebellion and blood blood being therefore given them to drink for they were worthy But the trepanning Priest deserv'd the greatest punishment here and hereafter by drilling them into Rebellion and blood by wresting and misapplying of Scriptures such as those Curse ye Meroz Bind your Kings with chains and your Nobles with fetters of Iron such Honour have all the Saints Babylon the great is fallen and a hundred of the like temper Whereas all that I say makes righteousness and peace to kiss each other makes useless Swords and Guns brings again the golden age where every man sitting under his own Vine and fig-tree leads a holy and happy life here and hereafter has a Heaven upon earth breaking their Swords into Plow-shares and their Spears into Pruning Hooks there being no use of Armory if the world were of my Religion herein contained or rather of the true Christian Religion the summ and scope whereof our Blessed Saviour delivered with his own mouth and epitomiz'd in one verse and sentence Mat. 7. 12. as abovesaid But some instances I promis'd to give to evidence that the English Bible is in some particulars erroneous scarce sence and of ill consequence As in part of our Saviours first Sermon is rendred Mat. 5. 41. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile go with him twain From this story and fiction by our English Bible father'd shamefully upon our Blessed Saviour a Christian is bound if he meet with any man that being stronger than he forces or compels him though he be in post-hast or going for a Mid wife a Doctor or Chirurgeon upon life and death or whatsoever occasion yet he must go another way quite out of his way a mile and may not call for the help of the Constable or neighbourhood or other good body to defend him from this violence but in a quiet submission and obedience he must thus compell'd go a mile which way soever the compeller pleases he must make no resistance but that 's not all he must go another mile of his own accord and being thus easie to be fool'd at the two miles end if the man compel him again further another mile away he must trudge and so along all England over and the world over for there 's no end of this obedience if a Christian meets but with any compeller or freed from him happens upon another that leads him about and about like an ignis fatuus and all this by vertue of your English Bible and in as plain words as any that are in 't and as easie to be understood without Metaphor Allegory figure or parable What do you say to this now you with your English Bible Whereas I say it is false and untrue and our Saviour never spoke such a senceless word in his life For all that he said as to this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Theodore Beza a better critick than a man renders truly Et quisquis te angariabit ad milliare unum abi cum eo duo that is in English Whosoever by vertue of an order or warrant from the Magistrate under whose Jurisdiction thou livest shall compel thee to go with him a mile go with him twain And signifies no more than that ready and cheerful obedience that is due to Authority from every Disciple of Christ who himself not only thus preach'd but practis'd there was no rebel Christians heard on that fought their Christian Kings nor so much as Heathen Kings or Heretick Kings till Calvin Knox Hugh Peters Richard Baxter J. O. Father Grey-beard and modern Orthodoxy Constantius Valens Valentinian Anastasius Justinian Heraclius were all Arrian Hereticks and Emperours yet the Christians their Subjects never confederated in a Holy League and Covenant to reform by arms in spite of their teeth the Church militant in those times did not prove their Texts with Sword and Gun The Good Old Cause was not then in those days old enough for the swadling clouts nay afterwards when Julian the Apostate was Emperour there was no army of Saints nor holy Redcoat-Christians that pull'd off his Crown or cut off his head Perhaps you 'l say thank them for nothing their wills might be good but their arms were too short or perhaps they had no skill in their weapons and though Christians and Saints yet not Army-Saints Yes that they were Army-Saints but not Rebel-Saints Army-Saints they were and there were more Christians in Julian the Apostates Army than all the Heathens and himself put together As is evident by their chusing his successor Jovinian to be their Emperour because he was a Christian but not till the Apostate was dead saying one and all one and all Jovinian Jovinian for we are Christians And our Blessed Saviour as he preach'd this cheerful obedience and also his Apostles Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. 1 Pet. 2. 13. 1 Tim. 2. 2. so did our Saviour practise There was a Holy-day made by the Chief Priest who then was Chief Jewish Magistrate and no mention of it in Gods Law but he declaim'd not against it but quietly observ'd it himself namely the feast of the Dedication Joh. 10. 22 23. He did indeed miracles to get better drink and meat when poor people wanted it but he never did a miracle to get money or Coin but only to pay his Assessment Royal Aid or Poll-money call it which you will for it was each of them and all of them Mat. 17. 27. And all this only by his example to shew true Christians that they ought to make no resistance nor give offence Thus you see I have made very good sence and good use of Mat. 5. 41. which your English Bibles make ridiculously useless and no sence consistent or compatible with
Peripateticks what they that wearied two Kings and one Queen Queen Elizabeth King James and Kng Charles now themselves weary Are they that would travel as far as Holland Savoy Piedmâ—…nt nay to New England rather than not have their wills now weary Are they that are so incessant to this hour in their Cabals meetings sending out Spies and Intelligencers into all Quarters now on a sudden weary Are these modern Pharisees that compass Sea and Land to make one Proselyte and when he is gain'd make him more a child of Hell than he was before now weary Does the Father of lies walk to and fro through the earth and like a roaring Lion seek whom he may devour and yet is never tyred with doing mischief and can the children of lyes so degenerate can those evil speakers lyars and slanderers in the French and Greek Languages Devils now be weary and shame the stock they came of I should not believe this fair tale Greg. tells though I did not by sad experience know to the contrary for though I did not live among such men nor know the men and their communication yet I know the nature of the men the Devil must be weary of tempting before such natur'd men be weary of acting If Greg. did but know the boldness impudence confederacy contrivances designs of these men so well as I do he could not with such impertinent and ridiculous Lullabees pass his word for the Nonconformists how much soever he loves them if his word be any thing worth Not that I think truly that they either can or will bite but thanks to his Majesties vigilancy they dare not the wolves in Ireland assault not nor attempt upon any man that is well arm'd for them but his nature is nevertheless as rapacious and wolfish Nor can he be a friend to publick tranquillity that by perswading to too much security renders all unsafe I am sure King Charles I. never gave them an Inch but they took an Ell and found too late and to his cost how irreconcileable to all gratitude and good nature that sort of men continue and says in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To which Book as Greg. says of the Bible whatever Englishman keeps for this generation at least makes the best Politician without Controversie and of that happy and holy Book I 'll say Praeter Apostolicas post Christi tempora chartas Huic peperêre librum saecula nulla parem In one Edition Printed in Octavo 1649. and in page 204. c. 27. to the Prince of Wales I cannot yet learn that Lesson nor I hope ever will you that it is safe for a King to gratifie any faction with the perturbation of the Laws in which is wrap'd up the publick interest and the good of the Community I have offered all for Reformation and safety that in Reason Honour and Conscience I can reserving only what I cannot consent to without an irreparable injury to my own soul the Church and my people and to you also as the next and undoubted Heir of my Kingdoms Never repose so much upon any mans single counsel fidelity and discretion in managing affairs of the first magnitude that is matters of Religion and Justice as to create in your self and others a diffidence of your own Judgment which is likely to be always more constant and impartial to the Interests of your Crown and Kingdom than any mans Next beware of exasperaring any factions by the crossness and asperity of some mens passions humours or private opinions imployed by you grounded only upon the differences in lesser matters which are but the skirts and suburbs of Religion Provided the differences amount not to an insolent opposition of Laws and Government or Religion established as to the essentials of them such motions and mincings are intolerable Time will dâ—…ssipate all factions when once the rough horns of private mens covetous and ambitious designs shall discover themselves which were at first wrap'd up and hidden under the soft and smooth pretensions of Religion Reformation and Liberty None will be more Loyal and faithful to me and you than those subjects who sensible of their errors and our injuries will feel in their own soul most vehement motives to repentance and earnest dâ—…sires to make some reparations for their former defects Keep you to true principles of Piety Vertue and Honour you shall never want a Kingdom And p. 35. c. 7. But common civility is in vain expected from those that dispute their Loyalty And p. 21. c. 4. as swine are to garden and orderly Plantations so are Tumults to Parliaments and Plebeian Concourses to publick Councils turning all to disorders and sordid confusions And p. 201. So order affairs in point of Power that you shall not need to fear nor flatter any faction For if ever you stand in need of them or must stand to their courtesie you are undone The Serpent will devour the Dove you may never expect less of Loyalty Justice or humanity than from those who engage into religious Rebellion their interest is always made Gods under the colours of Piety ambitious Policies march not only with greatest security but applause as to the populacy you may hear from them Jacob's voice but you shall feel they have Esau's hands These indeed are Politicks fit to be read to wise Princes that observing the Sea-marks they may avoid the fatal consequences that excellent Prince experimented to his cost It is pity goodness should ever prove evil or that the Sun-shine of Royal Bounty should the more harden some sorts of men Who like true Sheba's sons of Belial that will endure no yoke no restraint of Laws no Reins of Government grow head-strong and getting the bit in their teeth away they run neck-break over hedge and ditch till they throw themselves and their rider both into the ditch And then not till then at their wits end tyred with their own licentious wantonness they entreat their rider to get up again and guide them and govern them For indeed the Crown is more beneficial to the people than to him that wears it for he has more cares more hazards more perplexities and yet neither eats drinks nor sleeps better than millions of the people nay sometimes as much in debt as any of them So that I have sometimes wondred with my self that ever any man who had wit enough to be a knave and was knave enough to be an Usurper should have so little wit as to wade in blood so deep only to get the pleasures of a Crown Which how steddy soever it sits on any Kings head is yet weighty and more troublesome than gay and thousands that behold him have less cares and hazards and yet wear as good cloths and eat and drink as well as he or any man can for to swoop like the Gipsie-Queen a dissolv'd Jewel worth ten thousand pound for a mornings draught is not now deem'd a Cordial And if Ambition and Faction were not Monsters one would marvel
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