patience faith c. delights in Alarms of War Therefore though the Devil carries on many great actions as an Angel of light hiding sin under the gilt of religious pretences as revenge under colours of Justice cruelty under zeal rebellion for propagation of the Gospel and ruining of Families and Countries for the Glory of God yet nothing is a greater dishonour to God reproach to Christians or hindrance to the Gospel nothing makes more Atheists infidels and loose professors than for the strictest pretenders and mighty zealots who would be thought the only Christians to act contrary to the very nature and design of the Gospel as this is one To kill instead of loving one another To resist instead of submitting to the powers To contemn and act in despight of instead of submitting to every Ordinance of man To make Songs Libels and invent all manner of evil on and against instead of not speaking evil of our Rulers It was anciently observed that the glory of God was more advanced the Gospel more propagated and the number of believers more increased by sufferings than Arms whence that ancient and common saying The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church It was three hundred years after Christ before the Christians used any Armes unless in the service of the Emperour who was throughout those three Centuries a Gentile unless charity will allow a plea for Philip. But all that while the Sword of the Lord was not in the hand of Gideon but in the mouths of his Prophets and yet then the Church enlarged herself and gained upon the Gentile World in such wonderful measures that some persecutions were raised purposely to stop its farther progress lest of a suddain the whole World should become Christian But when the Spaniards cut a way for the Gospel into America with the sword and seeking to conquer Soul and body at once taught them by the mouth both of their Priest and the Cannon though they boast of the numbers baptized yet I fear scarce one became Christian any farther than in name since they presently flew off and would endure neither the persons that acted nor the Religion that suffered such slaughters amongst them The soft breathings and whispers of the Spirit are soon drowned by the thundrings of Drums Later ages have experienced the same truth for the patient sufferings of the Protestants under Queen Mary increased the number of Protestants and God soon removed the rod and rewarded the Faith and patience of the Church with more outward prosperity and greater glory of the Gospel than ever was in this Nation before or since But when in the time of K. Charles the I. men made the Pike and Musquet the weapons of their warfare instead of the Sword of the Spirit and the Shield of Faith when they pleaded they had more wit than to burn in Smithfield calling the Martyrs Fools as some have done Abraham because when called of God he left his own Country not knowing whither he went the Protestant Religion immediately suffered her decayes and that glorious body which drew the eyes of all Christendom upon it hath ever since been in the wane till now it is almost lost in the Fogs and mist of opinion and disputes And the Protestant Church of England is become like another Babel wherein there be almost as many Tongues as men who instead of brick and Lime to raise the work bring axes and hammers to beat it down Which together with mens falling from one error to another and dancing all the rounds of opinion and sinking at last into levelling principles to own no governour but King Jesus that dominion is founded in grace and that therefore the Sts. shall rule the earth and take to themselves the spoils of the wicked which are tenents destructive of all Government both in Church and State we may judge a curse upon the new methods that men have taken whereby to secure Religion amongst them The Pope was the first that ever preached this doctrine of non-allegiance of Subjects it was therefore from Rome that some Protestants took these measures and consequently this is more truly Popery than a Cross in Baptism and such other things that have not like the other any intrinsick evil in them and were in the Church long before the Bishop of Rome claimed the title of Vniversal We may therefore say of such while they damn the Papists for plots and evil intendments on Governours and Government as St. Paul Rom. 2.3 Thinkest thou this O man that judgest those that do such things and doest the same that thou shalt escape the judgment of God Search into all Religions in the World and perhaps you shall find no other but the Alchoran that seeks its propagation by the Sword For which very thing as well as others it hath been condemned by all honest and judicious men And doubtless without being censorious we may say it is self and not the things of God that is sought in such wayes Now if interest cannot perswade nor the Gospel teach I am sure our Laws cannot allow such a resistance which is the 3. Thing some may think to justifie such practices by For our Laws make all resistance a capital crime without any limits or exception if it be not so let anyone produce but any one single Act or any clause therein that allows such proceedings And whereas some plead we ought to be governed in such and such wayes that Kings are not absolute by the constitution of our Government these pleas do not reach the point For in case Governours do not rule according to Law but beside or against them Governours are accountable to God only but not to their Subjects who are taught only to obey or suffer And I presume that no man is so daring and wicked in his argumentation as to undertake to make out that in the first constitution Subjects have any power of resistance upon any account whatsoever And I doubt not but that the wisdom and loyalty of Parliaments will evidence the same sentiments themselves I would fain know whether such reachings and disputes of restless and unbridled Nature do not drive at the same thing that our Saviour charged as a very heinous sin upon the Pharisees Mark 7.13 that they made the commands of God of none effect by their traditions The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies to weaken or spoil of its authority or obligatory power which is done by pleading any humane constitution tradition or custom against the Laws and Commands of God by which means the matter is brought to this point Whom shall we obey God or man The thing is clear in the instance our Saviour gives The Pharisees by their Corban which was an Invention and Doctrine of subtile and covetous Hypocrites absolved children from honouring their indigent Parents with necessary supplies of food and sustenance so such men by such pleadings of our Laws would acquit subjects from the great
Seasonable Advice TO ALL Protestant People OF ENGLAND Heartily recommended by a Lover of his COUNTREY LONDON Printed for Randal Taylor 1681. Seasonable Advice TO ALL Protestant People OF ENGLAND Heartily recommended by a Lover of his COUNTREY I Think there be few men so unobserving as not to see that many are much inclined to stand upon their guards and by Arms if it appear unlikely to be otherwise done to secure themselves and Religion in such sort as may seem most for their own interest and the advantages of Truth Therefore it shall be the business of these Papers to enquire into the Causes and Reasons of such a disposition together with all Motives and Encouragements thereunto 1. Then Some conjecture this is the most probable way we can go to work our own interest in point of Safety Trading and Religion To which I answer 1. By way of concession That some indeed plead a foreign War may sometimes be needful and therefore beneficial to a Nation if successfully managed because it takes away many idle and Vagabond persons many Cheats Thieves and ill Husband who like Caterpillars only live on the fat of the earth and as drones or Lurdains feed on other mens labours And also as it keeps up a people in the courage and discipline of War For hereby a Nation is not only eased of a burden both chargeable and troublesome but is also made the more able to defend her self against any foreign Invader And by the same means other Countreys may be made the seat of that War which else in little time might have been brought home to their own doors For by this course the many and great Evils that Armies generally cause in debauching of persons in illegitimate offsprings in wasting of goods and cattel are all avoided the things that would have been consumed by persons thus employed are saved and the increase of such evil inhabitants mightily stopped which things soon compensate the charges of an ordinary War But in a Civil War the case is wonderfully altered For then all debauches and illegitimate increase is amongst our selves then they be our own Shops and Houses our own Barns and Stables that are plundered then every Trophy is an argument of our own calamity and all spoils evidence our own losses and every slaughter is a mischief to the whole body from which so many members are cut off and perished Which things necessarily make a Nation more poor and weak and consequently a more easie prey to some foreign Assailant But certainly we above all others have cause to dread such a contest by reason we are made up of so many parties who are all acted by different Religions and interests and amongst whom on every side animosities are mightily heightned by former occurrences That if once we fall to pieces it is not well to be expected that any humane art or any thing less than a Divine Power is able to compose and set us together Besides which we have dangers from without viz. formidable forces alwayes ready and watching opportunity of raising their own trophies on our ruines From all which things we may justly fear that as it hath been the fate of the strongest Empires and Kingdoms to fall by their own hands when others could not destroy them that the same destiny may attend our differences But in case this last evil viz. of a foreign force and total ruine do not happen Yet look to the end of such a Contest and perhaps we may find some reason to suspect that the concomitant miseries of a War that is slaughters plunders ruine of families c. may prove but the beginnings of sorrow For in all probability such resisters will be either the Conquerors or the conquered For since mens Spirits are now so heated that a composure of differences is so difficult even while peace continues when the Sword is once drawn it may possibly appear utterly impossible as when the late King's Concessions were voted satisfactory by some no Concessions would satisfie others And let Victory incline either way resisters must expect far greater evils than what they now lye under For 1. If they be overcome reason will not suffer us to hope escaping the wrath of the Powers resisted And so much the rather because such will not be a single offence but a repetition of like things still fresh in memory and which Authority so easily passed over And though circumstances are so much different from what they were before that it must needs go very hard on their sides who may thus seek to secure themselves from what they fear yet because men are much uncapable of receiving impressions from Arguments of this nature by reason of their numbers the very thing that emboldned the Jews to enter into a War with the Roman Empire whereby they ensured and hastened the total ruine of their Place and Nation that is their Religion and Properties at once I shall therefore since suppositions grant nothing suppose them more likely than I judge they are to be the Conquerors And 2. If so they must look to be enslaved either by the Forces which made them Victorious and then as the Romans once were be governed by a standing Army which made Emperours and ruled in all points according to their own pleasures which if ever it so happen will like a Band of Robbers make spoil and plunder of all they like and be sure will have good Commons when they be their own carvers Or else fall under the will and power of some cunning head that shall feed the Souldiery with the spoil of the people that by them he may be empowered to act his will upon the Nation By which means the wealth and treasure of the Land shall be divided between tyrannical Usurpers and the Forces that uphold them If you think this unlikely reflect a little upon late disasters and you will find it was the misery of this Nation that Religion and Property all went to wrack for the satiating an hungry and ungovernable Army Of which a late Non-conformist in his Iter Boreale brings in the Nation thus sighing her complaints That I should sink with Justice â—…ay accord Who let my Pilot be thrown over board Yet 't was not I ye Righteous Heavens know The Souldiers in me needs would have it so And a little after he speaks of them as setting up a single Person after the Death of O. Cr. of whom thus A Legion then he rais'd of armed Sprights Elves Goblins Fairies Quakers and New Lights And with these he Church and State possest Who though they fill'd all Countreys Towns and Rooms Yet like the Fiend that did frequent the Tombs Churches and Church-ground they haunted most No Chappel was at ease from some such Ghost The Priests ordain'd to exorcise those Elves Were voted Devils and cast out themselves Bible or Alchoran all 's one to them Religion serves but for a stratagem The Holy Charms these Adders did not heed Churches themselves did
Daniel and the Revelations to be accomplisht in England only But other Prodigies so much talked of and still believed by many there is no truth in them For the Saddles said to rise out of the Earth are now as confidently said to come to nothing And all the groanings of men and shrieks and cries of women and children as if under some bitter torments said by a weekly Intelligence about 17. Months since to have been heard at Edgehil in Warwickshire are notoriously false What is become of the Army and the audible reports of Guns said to have been seen and heard at Hatfield some time this winter Where are the Armies reported to have been seen in the air in Leicestershire Where is the blazing Star said to have been visible several nights to people about VVarwickshire and elsewhere I might give in a long relation of Prodigies that have had no being but only the fears fancies and mouths of the people I find a whole heap of such stuff raked up together in a book printed An. Dom. 1662 or 61. wherein we are told of a Drum beating at certain times in a well in Oundle in Northamptonshire and of the waters turned to blood at the time the said Drum was heard which continued by fits such a space that people came many miles and were frequent witnesses to those things but when my self some time after inquired of the truth of this relation I found the inhabitants of the place wholly strangers to any such matters And divers other very monstrous relations from which nothing can be learned but the vanity falshood and religious frenzies of some great zealots By which wild extravagancies they would perswade men to believe that even Heaven it self gives approbation to their cause that the Stars fight in their courses for them that even Nature goes out of her common paths to make way for them that all the Elements and whole Juries of the creatures give in their verdicts for them whence it must needs be concluded that they are Chara Dei Soboles the people of God and the offspring of Heaven Though I know no greater evidences of an overgrown hypocrisie and pride yet it is strange how wonderfully those devices take with the people for whilst every party are of so different interests and Religions yet they all receive these things with such religious regards that they will undertake to spell out of them the fall of Princes the revolution of Government and the advance every one of his own party though as inconsistent together as the present establishment and themselves Now whilst it is made a very heavy charge upon the Church of Rome that they uphold their Religion by officious lies and pious frauds all parties amongst us do the very same thing For by these stratagems men gather keep and increase their parties for poor well-meaning people seldom question the truth of such pretended Prodigies but receive them as signs from Heaven sent to condemn what they dislike and approve what themselves espouse and as assurances that in little time God will appear for them Whereas would men speak truth all those spreading parties would soon shrivel to a little substance And that we may not be overtaken with the error of the times and the strong delusions the Scripture mentions we should be careful not to make Prodigies the touchstone whereby to try the truth of a Religion the lawfulness of a Government or the goodness of a cause Nor should we receive the reports of any Prodigies till we see sufficient confirmation and good reason to do so By which means we shall exclude many of those fears that otherwise may terrifie and discompose us For as peoples attendance to such things is the greatest evidence of unsetled minds and reaching after some new thing so it is the ready course to hurry men into rash Counsels and those precipitant actions they may afterwards have all the reason in the world to repent But we should bottom our selves upon the best foundation which is a good life and a clear conscience from all forbidden things and works of darkness and then we need not be much concerned what colours may be hung out from the battlements of Heaven but may compose ourselves into a faith and confidence that whatever comes it shall be well with us and therefore not fear though the Earth be removed and the mountains cast into the sea 4. Many men are mightily moved to such sentiments viz. of the necessity of a resistance by evil reports raised on Governours For while we should not revile the Gods nor curse the Ruler of the people Exod. 22.28 it is become the humor of the times to blast their names and bespatter all their Actions Were they never so vile this can be no part of our Religion but is the work of him who is an accuser of the brethren and therefore is called the Devil from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to calumniate or slander But we may observe that all the Actions of Governours are backwards and forwards turned to evil For while any part of the Army raised for Flanders were in Arms they are said to be kept up to secure our ruine when they are all disbanded the design must needs be to leave us naked and exposed to slaughters This time was two year there was no Fleet out the reason of which was said to be that we might lye open to Forreign Invasions when the King would have set out a Fleet in April 1679. the design must then be to impoverish the Nation These two instances may mind the Reader of many others of like nature from which it is most palpably plain that a Spirit of jealousie in some men and evil intendments in others make dangers where they cannot find them and where there is no Bear nor Lyon in the way will affright fools with their own shadows But where men know no more than what is told them and easily receive whatever is offered it is no wonder that the ignis fatuus of pretended Prodigies and the black representations of Governours and Government bring them to their wits end and make them think there is no safety left when the greatest dangers may be of their own making It is from hence that as I have often observed the same times have two faces the one blear-ey'd and alwayes weeping the other more fair and comely For go amongst the common people of the Town hear their stories and you will think the world is at an end for you shall see nothing but Signs in the Sun and in the Moon and on earth Goblins and Furies distress of Nations mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking for the things that are coming on the world but discourse with men that are more wise and observing who fetch their knowledge from the things themselves not from the reports and sentiments of others and we find a place still left for hope and a comfortable enjoyment of our selves and what evil