all of them in their Application do generally confute yet does most unavoidably follow the other of absolute and unconditional Decrees which all Dissenters in reality hold whilst they affirm themselves the only People of God and all others Reprobates And therefore in this assurance of their being the Chosen and Elect of God they possess the greatest inward Peace and Tranquillity imaginable The Consideration of that Infinite Love of God and his free and distinguishing Grace to call them and pass by the rest of Mankind this particular and undeserved favour which they wholly monopolize and appropriate to themselves begets in them a Reciprocal Love to God for if God so loved them when they were Enemies as to send his only begotten Son out of his bosom purposely to save and redeem only a few out of the whole Mass of Mankind in the World of which few they are a part when in the mean time he passes by Millions more Wise Mighty and Learned without taking notice of them or doing any thing for them more than to harden their hearts that so he may take occasion to condemn them for refusing that Grace and Mercy which by reason of his Previous Decree they could not possibly accept How much then are these obliged to God for making such a difference How ought they to love God This Love still increases their confidence and security they are therefore sure that this is the Hope which maketh not ashamed which is the Anchor of the Soul because the Love of God is shed abroad in their Hearts and at last they arrive at such a certainty as will not permit them to have the least doubt but that they are the Vessels who are chosen to Honour who by this Grace are fitted for future Glory This fills their Earthen Vessels brim-full of Satisfaction and a Joy which upon all occasions runs over at their Mouths and to which they will tell you could you but once come to experience it all other Comforts are far inferiour Now they have sweet Communion and Fellowship with God their Conversion is in Heaven nay Heaven and all that is good and great stoops down to dwell with them And thus these things which are nothing but the pure Effects of this strong Imagination that they are the Elect are to them infallible Signs of their Election and they think the Spirit bears witness with their Spirits that they are the Sons of God by giving them this Joy in the Holy Ghost and in believing and so the Mother begets the Daughter and the Daughter begets the Mother like the Riddle of Ice and Water in infinitum a Simile not at all unfit for such a slippery and unstable Principle as is the Foundation of this their Perswasion But the mischief is that all that ever you can say or do to represent unto them the danger they are in signifies little or nothing for they look upon you to be carnal and not able to discern such spiritual affairs as this is BUT if you chance to tax them with Hypocrisie which is but too common you cannot do them a greater kindness for that convinces them beyond all other Arguments and confirms them in the opinion of their own truth and sincerity and that you are mistaken since they know and do sensibly feel those real Effects of Joy and Pleasure which you would perswade your self and them they do but counterfeit NAY further they are so far from believing any body but themselves that they will not believe the Scripture if that would perswade them that they do not walk in the Spirit or are not led by the Spirit or that they have not yet put off the Old Man and the former vain Conversion and crucified the Flesh and the lusts or desires and affections thereof CARRY them to that place of Saint Paul where he tells us what are the lusts of the Flesh and what are the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.19 Now saith he the works of the flesh are manifest Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witcheraft Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such like all these they will tell you they have put off and are become new men and all this we must believe because in the outside of their lives they have quitted some scandalous and notorious sins which before they were guilty of and have got an affected way of hard words and talking about Religion some austerities of life in which they think all sanctity consists all which may be nothing but a Form or Fashion of Godliness and in which they have not yet out-done many Heathens who were strangers to Grace and I am sure in their opinion shall be so to Heaven But though they still live and it may be more than ever in the most notorious allowance and daily practice of Hatreds or Enmities Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions or Factions and Divisions Heresies Envyings Murthers if not of mens Persons yet of their Fame and Reputation which is as dear and tender as life all this is nothing Tell them as oft as you please as the Apostle there says 1 Cor. 3.3 Of which things I have told you before as also in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God they will neither believe him nor you Tell them as he does the Corinthians that whilst they are full of strife envyings and divisions one of Paul another of Apollos one of this mans Congregation another of that mans Church they are yet carnal they will laugh at you but neither credit him nor you Tell them that they who resist the Supreme Magistrate his Power and Authority his Laws and subordinate Ministers of Justice shall receive to themselves damnation they will answer they shall not if they do it for Conscience sake He says Rom. 13.2 5. they must be subject for Conscience sake they say they must not be subject but ought to do as they do and be disobedient He tells them there is a necessity for it wherefore ye must needs be subject from a necessity founded upon Nature Law Reason Policy self-Interest and Religion they will reply there is no necessity nay that it is a burthen and oppression to Good Men Christian Liberty and tender Consciences How true they are may be a question but it is none whether they are not a sort of unmannerly Believers thus to contradict an Apostle nay all the twelve and Christ too if they say not what pleases them TELL them they despise Governments 2 S. Pet. 2.5 and therefore are presumptuous self-will'd such who are not afraid to speak Evil of Dignities of the things they understand not sporting or pleasing themselves with their own deceivings or with deceiving themselves and that for these things they shall utterly perish they will not believe it concerns them but though they are manifestly guilty of the Crimes they will be ready to throw the punishment there or elsewhere mentioned upon your back IF St. Jude
Disciples Example is a Tutor sufficiently able to instruct them in this part of their Duty And that Man or Woman either must have so little natural Logick as to be meer Naturals who cannot thus argue from Induction Such a man or Mr. is a pious good and conscientious man for he prayes by the Spirit is painful and powerful in preaching Soul-saving Gospel-Truths Now surely if it were not unlawful to go to the Church and hear those Prayers or receive the Sacrament he would not refuse to do it and abstain from them himself But he does abstain Nay might have kept or had a good Living if he would have conform'd which Good Man he relinquish'd or refus'd for Conscience-sake Therefore it is unlawful and I cannot fear to erre or be mistaken if I follow so good a pattern such a godly mans Example But though in publique they are always tender mouth'd of what may either discover their Wicked Designs or bring them under the unavoidable penalty of the Laws and are not a little cautious and circumspect where they are not assured that all the Ears and Tongues of the Assembly are at their Devotion and therefore will not speak plainly or positively yet they will deliver their Sence so as to be well enough understood That there ought to be no Communion with the Wicked and we know who they mean by that for what fellowship hath Light with Darkness Rev. 18.4 or God with Belial and therefore come out of her my People come out of Spiritual Babylon and Egypt and be not partakers of their Sins lest ye be likewise of their Plagues which latter part of the verse explains the former and informs us how far our Separation is lawful viz. from the Sins of the wicked World not from an outward Communion with the Visible Church And though there is no place suffers more frequently by their abuse of it I know none that favours them less if they would put the right Construction upon it And though they may be thus squeamish in Public yet in private discourse and where they are under the Rose or dare be confident that they shall not be betray'd they will explain their meaning and declare that the Church of England is Babylon her Worship Antichristian nay impious and blasphemous And this the Disciples propagate from one to another and are not so wary as their Teachers but having more zeal than prudence stick not to tell every body so with whom they fall into common converse and discourse and this Doctrine is usually left to the care of the Old Disciples to whose charge the new Proselyte is always committed and they never fail in the ample discharge of this Duty Should they propose it bare-fac't the uncharitableness of it would at first sight affright many and discourage more but this is Meat for strong Men not Milk fit for Babes and therefore it is worth our observation to see how artificially and by degrees they take their Novices from the Breast and with the common stratagem of Nurses they rub the beautiful Breasts of Consolation of the Mother-Church with the bitter Wormwood of their false aspersions or smear them over with the sooty black of their own Calumnies and so fright these Younglings from that sincere Milk of the Word which is able to save their Souls It is always some considerable time before any Young Disciple does absolutely forsake our Church and Communion nor do they usually feed them with this solid food of Separation till by their unnatural biting of their Mother they manifest that they have Teeth first he comes at the latter end of Prayers which by their tempering with him he now begins to dislike after a while having linger'd about the Church-yard for the Watch-word he drops in just as he hears the Psalm beginning to be sung before the Minister goes into the Pulpit then it may be he will miss a day or two and in time as he grows to a clearer Vnderstanding of this Doctrine that he is to have no fellowship with the Wicked and who those are he totally leaves the Church to which he rarely returns till he comes upon mens shoulders with his Heels forward to his own Funeral except to hear a Funeral Sermon for a deceased Friend or Relation Sometimes the temptation of saying Twenty pounds may persuade him to come once in a Month but then only to the Sermon which being ended he tumbles out of the Doors for fear he should be thought one of the Catholick Church by praying for it or have any share in the Peace of God which hating in his Life and Actions he will not suffer to enter into his Ears Though for all his haste this will not excuse the forfeiture which by the express words of the Statute is to be imposed upon all such as do not resort to their Parish-Church to hear Divine Service Now the advantages they receive by this Separation are principally these First hereby they come to know their Strength and Numbers and this adds not a little to their confidence and as they believe to their present Security from Punishment and future hopes of Tolleration if not Establishment And whosoever does but take notice of the frequent boasts they make how Considerable a part of the Nation they are must conclude that the knowledge of their Number is one great and main end of their Separation and that hereby they seem secretly to threaten their Superiours into a suspension of the execution of the Penal Laws against so great a Party whilst they sliely intimate how unsafe it is to meddle with a Multitude and disturb a Populace Secondly hereby they come to know and be known one to another which begets as much Love amongst them as they are capable of who are all Slaves to Vngenerous Interest Nor does this knowledge of one another a little advance the affairs of the Trading part of them of which sort of people their greatest numbers consist and who it may be became Proselytes only in hope of the Custome of the Brotherhood of which they assure themselves if they be ready Money Customers presently and if not such as soon as they can get clear of the Debt-Book of the Wicked with whom at present they are forced to deal and though some from experience are of another Opinion yet they question not but they shall have honest dealing and good pennyworths and possibly this ingrossing and forcing a Trade amongst themselves together with their avoiding all troublesome Offices in the lower Sphere of the State are not the least encouragements to their Separation nor the smallest steps to those Riches which they so much boast are amongst their Party for I remember it was their common discourse that the great want of Money and the sensible decay of Trade for these last Years before the Toleration was occasioned by their keeping up their Money or not giving down their Milk being it seems in a sullen Humour because they were kept within
season and most certainly out of season with which place they do so frequently scratch this Itch of the Ears An Itch the more it is scratched the more it may and the more it pleases especially the courser the Stuff is the more delightfully it rubs and is still desired until at last the blood and smart follows the busie Fingers and poyson'd Nails and from their scratching us till we bleed again Libera nos Domine A third advantage they make of Preaching is that hereby as well as in their Prayer they have many opportunities of displaying their own Excellencies and manifesting their great Abilities Gifts and Parts of which whatever men of sober Judgements may have They have no small Opinion as is most evident by their obstinate persisting in their own Ways and Wills not only against lawful Authority and the wise safe and prudent Determinations of their Superiors but against Scripture and Reason which must certainly speak them Wise in their own Conceit though thereby they render themselves more hopeless than Fools if we may take King Solomons word And they are so far from condescending to men of Low degree that they will not do it to those Persons who are of the Highest and whilest they thus preach Christ of strife and envy if they would impartially examine their Hearts they would find a great measure of Pride Conceit and Self-love at the bottom of them for as the abovementioned Royal Writer tells us Only by pride comes contention and it is very evident that in all their Preaching they have a great respect to advance their own Fame Interest and Design by the Authentick recommendation of their Doctrine and Discipline from the adored Pulpit which by successful Experience they find do all thereby receive the most considerable Advantage And how great an Estimate they set upon themselves is apparent by their Intrusion into other mens Parishes by which procedure they necessarily suppose themselves more fit and qualified than those who are by Law stated in those Places to do the work of an Evangelist One of these Men being about to set up for himself in another mans Parish was pressed with several Arguments to desist but more particularly with that golden Rule of Christs Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri nê feceris to do as he would be done by but either it was to him a leaden Argument or he had a leaden Head for he would make no other Reply to it But that it was fit the People should be instructed I will not trouble my self to explain that that spoke his Sense of himself and of the Minister of the place because it is easie to be read without the help of Spectacles It will now appear no Wonder that they do so highly magnifie Preaching and look upon it as the only Means of Grace so that in all their Discourses of it it passes amongst them with the Prerogative Emphasis of The Means and even their own Extempore Prayer which they pretend to be the immediate product of the Spirit to which I never heard preaching did pretend yet is but a handmaid to wait upon it and must lower the Top-sail to this All-powerful this only Soul-saving-Ordinance Good very Good and if the Spirit must truckle to the Flesh and Humane Invention be preferred before Divine Inspiration guess of the rest of them by this And in truth to hear them exalt it as they never fail to do upon the least hint that offers it self in their way a man would believe that they think it more essentially necessary to Salvation than Faith Hope or Charity of which last and greatest of the three you shall rarely hear them Discourse the true reason being because all their Preaching and Actings are directly contrary to it and by St. Paul's rule their golden Language is no better than sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbals worth nothing without Charity but the pretended Reason is to take men off from their Settlement upon the Lees and Dregs of Popery and the Opinion of the Meritoriousness of Good Works to which they say all men are but too naturally prone and inclined and I am very apt to believe it and that by the high value they set upon Preaching a great many of their Followers think that to go to hear a Sermon is a thing wonderfully Meritorious so that it is but changing the Work and not the Opinion of Merit which they bring men to by all their Pains Now do I know as well as if I were of the Secret Cabal and so I may be under a disguise for any thing they know purposely to discover their dangerous Intrigues that this one place will if possible keep this Book from ever being read by any of their Disciples and will heed no other Sentence for its Condemnation Oh 't is a most abominable Book it is against Preaching Oh what sad times should we have if every body were of this Persuasion It is against The Means Oh sad and in regard they sow this aspersion amongst the other Tares of Dissention and endeavour by it to make the Bishops and Church of England as odious as it is possible by telling their Disciples the most abominable falshood That the present Governors of the Church are all against Preaching I will endeavour to ward off the desperate blow with the Shield of Truth and wash off the Dirt which these Calumniators throw upon the face of the most beautiful Church in the Christian World I must therefore let them know that the Church of England has as great a Veneration and Esteem for that Duty as it can challenge It is not the truely ancient and Apostolical Way of Preaching nor the new Way neither that the Church is against It is the gross abuse of Preaching which these Men have put upon it and the Ill Vses they dayly make of it to countenance disperse and insinuate their wicked Designs to disturb and ruine all Government against which with very good Reason the Church declares it self St. Peters Sermon with which he converted three thousand Souls was not one quarter of an hours Discourse nor attended with the Prologue of a long-winded Extempore-Prayer nor indeed is that preaching which is so strongly prest and commanded any thing of affinity or kindred with this which they call Preaching as will appear to any who considers That the great Commission of our Saviour to his Disciples to go and teach all Nations St. Matth. 28. ult was as the Word plainly imports to go and make Disciples of them That is to Baptize them into the Faith of Christ by turning them from their former Vanities of Idolatry worshipping Stocks and Stones Act. 14.15 Gold Silver four-footed Beasts Creeping Things to know and serve the only true and Living God and Jesus Christ whom he had sent To certifie unto the Gentiles as well as the Jews Heb. 1.3 that Christ the only begotten Son of God the express Image of his Person and brightness of
his Glory was sent into the World out of the pure Love of God to all Mankind St. Joh. 3.16 For God so loved the World that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting Life and that therefore he sent him to be a propitiation for our sins 1. St. Jo. 2.2 and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole World That is in his good Intention he is unwilling that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance and by this preaching of the Gospel to come to the knowledge of these Truths that so they might be saved Let those men therefore preach as Christ commanded and as the Apostles Evangelized and then if the Church forbids them they may say it is against Prèaching Let them obtain a Lawful Deputation and not run before they are sent saying The Lord sayes when the Lord hath not sent them Let them Teach and warn all men every where to Repent because he that is baptized Repents Believes and continues stedfast in that Faith shall be saved but he who does not though he has formerly escaped the Pollutions that are in the World through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ yet shall be damned if he fall away from Grace and return with the Dog to his Vomit which it is not impossible for him to do even after he has been enlightened and tasted of the Powers of the Life to come so long as he has Within him a treacherous evil Heart of unbelief Without him the powerful Temptations of the World and the Devil and therefore let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall lest he perish from the Right Way Let them exhort that first of all Supplications Prayers c. be made for Kings and all that are in Authority that so People may lead a peaceable and quiet Life in all Godliness and Honesty in Subjection and Obedience to the Powers that are appointed and ordained of God to be over them because they that will not live so shall receive Damnation Let them press the People to Peace and Vnity and tell them that they who live in Envyings Strife Sedition and Divisions live after the Flesh and not after the Spirit and therefore shall not inherit the Kingdom of God That they who speak Evil of Dignities and despise Dominion the things they understand not shall bring upon themselves swift Destruction and then let them Preach in Gods Name and certainly all Preaching that is not to this Effect and for these Designs is far from it till the Church or any Bishop in it finds fault with them and that will be never as long as they live nor after their death All these are Evangelical Commands Doctrines and Truths But if Satan be divided against himself how shall his Kingdom stand and if ever you find them harping upon any of these strings I am much mistaken I know they have a Thunder-clap ready but God be thanked it is but a Brutum fulmen it may make a great Crack but it will do no hurt What say you to that place of St. Paul Necessity is laid upon me and woe is me if I preach not the Gospel I say that place is nothing to their Purpose Let us first see the same Commissiom from them which St. Paul had 1 Cor 1.1 Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and then let them undertake the same Work to Evangelize as the Word is to preach the Gospel to those who never heard of it before Let us see them so Zealous as to go and convert the Savage Indians and then we shall begin to believe they are afraid of the Woe and preach the Gospel out of pure Conscience of the Necessity that is laid upon them But to go about to make all the World believe that We are Idolators and Heathens such as know not Christ that so they may have the glory of our Conversion and be thought Apostles is just as if they should first pick our Pockets and by giving us Brass again instead of our Gold perswade us to believe they are our best Friends and Benefactors wonderful kind and bountiful to us which indeed would make Us look like Fools and Children but would certainly prove those who did it to be Cheats and Knaves If in one thing they will act like Saint Paul let them in another and not boast as they do of their Great Labours in the Gospel in other mens Lines 2 Cor. 10.16 of things made ready to their hand of which Saint Paul would by no means be guilty But they are not so scrupulous in that particular as he was and for all the Necessity and the Woe will rather act the Bishop in another mans Diocess than go to Mexico to preach the Gospel and get one of their own And for that preaching which does not preach these things but a Gospel of their own that is it which the Church by Authority of Scripture protests against and if they or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel in whole or in part than what the Holy Apostles preached let him not only be silenced but accursed And so long as the Pulpit is made the Shop of Schisme not to say Heresie in the Church and the Forge of Sedition and Rebellion in the State so long as Preaching is exalted above devout Prayers and Praises which are the only Tribute we can pay our Almighty Soveraign and shall be one part of the happy Employment in Heaven so long as it shall stand in Competition with the Sacraments those holy Seals whereby we are sealed to the Day of Redemption Not only our Church sayes it but all the true Saints and Servants of God have said the same and will say so to the end of the World that not onely twice in one Day but once in a Mans Life is too much for any man to preach or any Christian people to hear And of all these miscarriages in Religious as well as Civil concerns this their Preaching is and has been most notoriously guilty I would not have them take their Measures of us by their own Standard for though they know not how to distinguish betwixt the Vse and the Abuses of things let them not say therefore that We do not neither The time was when they pretended there were great abuses crept into the Ecclesiastical Government therefore away with it Root and Branch of Episcopacy the Office it self as well as the Offence if any were besides their Loyalty Honours and Estates Crimes great enough for Pride Envy and Ambition our Church is for no such unreasonable Methods nor because they have and do greatly abuse Preaching therefore nothing less will serve than an utter Abolition of the thing I hope were there nothing else yet common Prudence will allow any Government that Liberty which is for its own Preservation and to endeavour to correct those abuses