Peoples Election and approbation are necessary Titles to a Crown That a King is Major Singulis Minor Universis and may be deposed and punished by the People proved from their practice The great Encouragement it gives to Rebellion and Courage to Rebels The same Doctrine of Fatality taught by Mahomet to inspire the Turks with Courage against the Christians LET us now see whether these Principles render them better Subjects to the State than Sons to the Church And I am afraid we shall find them as prejudicial to the safety of the one as to the Peace and Tranquillity of the other If it be rational to argue from Effects to Causes we shall need no other Demonstration to assure us of the Dangerous natures of these Men and Opinions than the known and undeniable matters of Fact so largely treated of in the Histoty of Presbytery Wherein is fully shewn the Original Rise and growth of this pernicious Doctrine the Mother of all those Younger Sects Factions and Divisions amongst us in matters of Religion It was begotten born and nur'st up at Geneva in Rebellion and from thence this Amazon Lady this Penthesilea furens Ducit Amazonidum Lunatis agmina Peltis Penthesilea furins mediisque in millibus ardet march'd attended with Fire and Sword Ruine call'd Reformation in the Van and Desolation in the Rear through the greatest part of Europe over a Red Sea of Blood as well as Salt Water into Scotland and from thence with the Directory in one hand and the Sword in the other a Solemn League and Covenant as smooth as Oyl in her mouth when drawn Swords War and Rebellion were in her Heart she came along with the Northern Army into England and there spent her force and fury and I hope her last and dying Efforts upon these Miserable Nations So that one may truly say of this Doctrine as the Poet does of Comets Nunquam in terris spectatu impune Cometes This new Light of the Gospel how bright and shining soever was a portentous Blazing-star which did not only presage but wherever its dreadful Beams displaid their Malignant Influences it did produce Sedition and Rebellion Murther and Sacriledge Desolation and Destruction Ruine and Confusion The consideration of which dismal Revolutions methinks were enough to make the greatest Phanatique fall heartily to his Litany and pray Good Lord deliver us If this be Religion Sit anima mea cum Philosophis For I doubt not but a good sober Indians Hell will be far more tolerable than such Mens Heaven as were guilty of all these Mischiefs can be without Repentance and Amendment I intimated before how little kindness they have for Monarchy or indeed for any Nobility Gentry or Magistracy unless it be to countenance patronize and Support their Designs and how inclinable they are to dislike and hate that Government which opposes their Interests or crosses their Intentions of a Reformation and possibly there are not many who would not be of my Persuasion had they but heard them speak with that feeling kindness as they will do of the late times of Rebellion Oh how much Sin was suppressed Godly Men incouraged and the Sabbath Sanctified to what they are now in these Dayes of Licentiousness and undoubtedly that Aristocratick Government or rather Democracy Anarchy or Confusion for I know not what to term it it was so Mercurial is still the Darling of their Memories Oh! the happy dayes when there was no King in Israel but every man had liberty of Conscience and did that which was right and good in his own Eyes Oh that sweet and precious Time that dear Liberty of Conscience when there was no King no Bishop no Fines no Imprisonments for Religion but the Gospel ran on Couragiously conquering and to Conquer that is to say when Club Law and the Law of the Sword put them out of the Danger of the Sword of the Law and Justice It is a most convincing Argument that they think the present Government and Governers Tyrannical and Heathenish when they do so often tax them with being guilty of persecuting the People of God and unless we are not only blind but stupid we cannot but perceive that they do most Passionately wish and pray that the Kingdome may be the Lords and that the Saints may Rule the World that is once again have the Honour which Hugh Peters applied to the then Saints To bind their Kings with Chains Psal 149. C. 7.8 and their Nobles with Fetters of Iron And had they but Power that the high praises of God might be in their Mouths whilst a two-edged Sword was in their hands no doubt is to be made but they would be forward enough to fulfill their part of the prediction in Executing Vengeance upon the Heathen-Governours and punishment upon all the People who would not say or act like them Let them now with their usual dissimulation deny all such Intentions and in truth there is an unlucky Proverb that will hinder their Confession for if they confess this they are sure to be hang'd for Treason as they well deserve Let them pretend never so much Innocence all the World shall never perswade me till I am divested of my Reason that there is any person who would not willingly shake off that Yoak which is so uneasie to him and which as he verily believes is unjustly and unlawfully imposed upon his neck Credat Judaeus appella And however the ordinary sort of People whose prospect looks little further than to morrow may have no intentions that are so black and dangerous yet undoubtedly the Heads of the Faction who have ever been observed to be subtile and Designing men are for an Alteration of the Government Ecclesiastical and Civil and they well know how easie it is to lead a Populace by the Nose with the plausible pretences of Piety Reformation Gods Glory and Liberty of Conscience to do what they please by telling him it is necessary to be done for the attainment of those Ends. Thus have I seen Clouds gather in the Skie cloathed with fleeces of the brightest Wool and shining with a counterfeit borrowed light to which nothing was comparable but the Sun that lent it Who could but admire their glory or suspect so much light and whiteness to be Dangerous and yet nothing is more common than for such Glouds to be charged with the most dangerous and terrible Principles of Thunder Lightning Storms and Tempests which when ever they break out which is soon perceived by the Changing into black and growing numerous then let whatsoever is Eminent beware a Clap the high Towers of Government and Steeples of Religion are sure to suffer for it For Feriunt summos Fulgura Montes Lightning th' Artilery of the Skie Strikes the Hills that highest lie I will make no scruple to apply the Comparison to these sort of Men who as St. Peter tells us in his plain description of them are Clouds carried with a Tempest And to make this
it and a New and better Light set up in the room of it and I hope now I have pleas'd you Marpr What would you have the Godly Ministers sent away from us Kingl. By no means not I for I know none such among you or that I may not be uncharitable but a very few some mistaken well-meanining Men it is possible there may be whom the Politiques lead about by the Noses but it is the Vngodly Seditious Factious Teachers who are no Ministers but of their own or Hugh Peters's making that not only I but you if you understood your self or your own Interest ought to be against who are like the notable Pick-pocket with three hands one of which was a Wooden one who used to do his feat at the Church and had two hands to hold up Devoutly at his Prayers and a third at the same time Diving into your Pocket Marp Well well Sir you may say what you will but they are Godly Men and if God for our Sins should suffer them to betaken away from us he would raise us up more Kingl. Good Sir be not so bold with God Almighty and however you make bold with him at every turn I doubt you would not be so bold though you are a Man of Gifts your self to set up for a Teacher if you were assured or but thought that you should be Exported amongst the rest of the Commodities with which the Nation is clogged and overcharged and for which we want a good Market and I believe it would cool the Courage of the hottest Zealot and keep him from setting up a Trade to which he never was bound Prentice a Retayler of Disobedience and Faction Marp O Sad what say you would you have us sold for bond-men amongst the Commodities of the Nation I thought what a Conscience men of your Principle have Kingl. Still more mistakes I have you sold why you are such inestimable Jewels as are no bodies mony unless it be the Grand Seigniors It may be you might become the Turbant but I dare say no Christian Prince will venture at you for all your Lustre nor think you ornamental to his Diadem which I fear few of you have a kindness for because it carries a Cross at top on 't and for other Merchants I know none that Trade in Noise and Bustle Marp Good Sir We love the King and are as good Subjects as any he has Kingl. I am glad to hear it but I should be far more glad to see it that so I might believe it and it were well if your Words and Actions were at Peace with themselves but you are so great lovers of Dissention that it is impossible to find Unity in the same Person amongst you but we will wave that Discourse Marp And I pray Sir What would you do with those Multitudes who will never be brought to hear your Service Book it may be you would have them Excommunicated to help the Commissaries and Officials to a little money for their Absolution Kingl. I will not concern my self with what I would have done but you had no need to tell me what a slight Esteem you all have of that Dreadful Sentence It is because you do not understand it However We will leave it to the Wisdom of those in whose Power it is both when and where to make use of it But what Mulitudes are these you talk of Sure you are great Arithmeticians for you are always at Multiplication Division and Numbers Fractions and Multitudes I would you knew the Golden Rule to Marp You cannot but know that we are a considerable part of the Nation and if you would come to one of our meetings you would be convinced of it Kingl. I thank you for your invitation but I will not trouble you or add to your supposed Numbers by my Company and for all your skill in Figures I believe you have a great many Cyphers amongst you and if all those who follow you out of Affectation to be accounted some-body or out of little Design and interest were taken off which they would soon be if they met with a disappointment in those things which induced them to joyn with you your Numbers would dwindle into an inconsiderable Company Mar. And what must become of those what must those poor Souls do poor Sheep without a Shepherd Kingl. It is not impossible but they may by the care of the Magistrates in suppressing sin by the exemplary Lives of the Clergy and their care as the Letter there tells you by Evangelical Instructions contained in the 39 Articles be divorced from those Errors which they have adopted into the Family of their Faith Or suppose if they continued refractory they should be Out-law'd while they Live and incapacitated to make a Will at their Death or as the Country-man said be their own Executioners and dye detestable What think you of that Marp I think the like was never heard of before in all the Persecutions that ever were Kingl. Pray when you come at home consult the Statute Book for I know you have it by you if it be for nothing else but to find out creeping holes in Acts of Parliament You will find 3 Jac. 5. something like this against Papists Marp And is there not a great deal of Reason for it I hope you do not favour Popery and the Jesuits Kingl. Not so much as you your party do for you are Recusants as well as they and till you can make it appear that you are less dangerous to the Peace and Security of the Nation by your own Judgment you should expect the same Treatment from the Government And since we are got into the Statutes pray look over 27 Eliz. 2. you will in the Proem find your Character and in the Act the Punishment which by your confession if your designs are the same with the Jesuits you deserve Marp Well I am sure we have nothing to do with Antichrist of Rome and it is you that come so near them which will never suffer us to joyn with you Kingl. Never's a long day but should some of you persist to the last Gasp that tells us you are not immortal certainly we owe some care to our Posterity I my self have sown that wood which is like seris factura Nepotibus umbram and undoubtedly this would be a means to plant that Peace and Unity which though it may not advance so far as to give us the entire pleasure of securely reposing our aged heads under their agreeable shades yet may afford us the satisfaction to see them grow and give us hopes that succeeding Generations may be free'd from those Dangers which we labour under Marp We are all at Peace and Quiet and you would force us into Disorders and Mutinies Kingl. Do you begin Mr. to shew your self in your colours I thought just now you had lov'd the King so dearly and been as good Subjects as any Sure you would not make Mutinies if
Jealousies and that they have another Design in dispersing them abroad than the use which they constantly employ them in And that is this THEY find by certain Experience that to accuse any Persons or any parts of our Worship of Superstition or Popery is an Expedient that never yet fail'd to render them contemptible and hated to the Multitude which is a clear Demonstration that the Universal Genius of these Nations is an Enemy to that Perswasion Nor will the Romish Religion ever recover any tolerable credit so long as the Cruelties of Queen Mary's Reign the Spanish Invasion in Eighty Eight and those threatned Inhumanities the Powder-Treason the Inquisition or the late horrid Rebellion and Massacre in Ireland which influenced that in England are either remembred or feared All which makes it strongly improbable That any Prince or Government either in Church or State who must of necessity consult their own interest in the quiet and welfare of their People should attempt to introduce that Religion to which the People their Subjects of all Degrees and Conditions discover such a general aversion and universal detestation and which therefore must create infinite troubles and most desperate Inconveniences AND if it be well considered we shall find that the Jesuites and all the Romish Factors have not been able for this last Century Some persons are strangely mistaken if the Concilium de propaganda fide at Rome has not been very helpful in setting those Divisions amongst us for they know well enough what that means Divide Impera which employment these Dissenters take out of their hands as being the greater Artists in this Mystery of Iniquity so effectually to serve the interest of their own Affairs as these Persons have done and if the Papists have made many or considerable Proselytes possibly they owe them to those Divisions which these men have made in our Church and not to any strength of Arguments they are able to produce to convince them of any Errouts either in our Doctrine or Discipline And though he must be a great Stranger in the Romish Transactions who is ignorant how great Dissentions Heats and Animosities are amongst the Religious of their several Orders and how great differences even about their main Question of Transubstantiation there are amongst their Doctors nay how great Dissentions have been amongst the Popes themselves notwithstanding their pretended Infallibility yet the great Motive they make use of to induce any person to return to the Faith and Obedience of the Church of Rome is the strange Discords and Divisions which are amongst us and the great Unity which is as they falsly boast only to be found amongst them which Unity they urge as an infallible Mark of the true Church BUT as I believe the Presbyterian or any other Dissenter has no real Design or Intention to oblige the Church of Rome though there is no doubt to be made but that by their Divisions they do extremely advance the Roman Interest and Affairs so I am satisfied that their aim is only to amuse us and please the People till such time as they have made their Party strong enough against the Church of England of which they are in reality more afraid than they are either of the Pope or Turk and could they but once come to be uppermost and have the power of the Sword they would be so far from being afraid of St. Peter's double Dagger that if the Pope did not civilly leave them to the management of their own Affairs they would hazard to make the triple Diadem shake and I know they have strong hopes to destroy the Kingdom of Antichrist which when they had finished at home they might have a temptation having an easier passage through the Streights than Hannibal had over the Alps to invade Peter's Patrimony and burn the great Whore of Babylon with fire and fulfil all the Prophecies in the Revelations without the assistance of Kings though there 't is said that they shall do it NOW if any persons will be so adventurous to follow me I will endeavour to lead them through their subterranean Passages and shew their Contrivances and their secret Mines and Magazines of that white Powder which though it makes no noise yet is not a whit less dangerous than that for which we celebrate the fifth day of November and which will at one blow overturn all Root and Branch of Liturgy Episcopacy Monarchy and Liberty CHAP. III. An Account of the Heads of these Factions amongst us from whence we may conjecture what their Intentions are Of their way of Education in the Times of the late Rebellion in the Vniversities or in the Army Of their Lay-Teachers and Shop-Doctors how they came by their Gifts and Talent in Preaching the Advantages they made of Religion in their Trades the Employments they had under the Vsurping Governments the Incouragement they had to invade the Pulpit The desire they have of an alteration in the present Government to recover their former Power and Profit The great unfitness of these men to officiate in the Church who are guilty of Sacriledg Murder and Perjury LET us come therefore to take a survey of their Persons from thence we will proceed to their Principles which will quickly lead us to the consideration of their Practices AS to their Persons we must consider them as that pleasant fellow divided the World into two parts one of which was born to cheat the other or according to the more customary and familiar method we must divide them into the Heads and Body for by the Way I must tell you that these Factions have one remarkable Qualification of a Monster that to one Body there are many Heads all challenging Equality though at the same time every one of them aimes at Priority The Body being for the most composed of those who are deceived I shall not concern my self with them as the Principal Subjects of this Discourse for if at any time one of this Body advances so far as to be able to deceive others that Member presently starts up to be a Head 'T is these Heads and their Hands that we have just reason to suspect and to be afraid of and with these therefore I chiefly intend to deal THESE Heads must likewise be subdivided which is natural to them into two Classes which Word will please some of them though it may be the distinction will not They are either Scholasticks or Laicks Literate or Ignorant Heads The Scholasticks are such as either had their Education in one of the Universities or in the Army-Colledge during the late precious times when the Saints bore the sway and rul'd these Nations with a Rod of Iron viz. the Sword and with that Iron-Scepter broke their Enemies in pieces like a Potters Vessel IF they are such as suckt the Breasts of either of the Universities 't is odds but they are some of those who were nurst up immediately after their poor Mothers had most outragiously
answers the scrupulous and conscientious Servant there is to be a Godly Meeting at such a place and I must go to hear such a Precious Man who teaches the most feeling soul-saving heart-breaking sin-destroying Truths But besides I know not whether the Horse be worth so much or whether he is sound Wind and Limb and I am afraid lest I should cheat or over-reach my Neighbour and indeed I dare not do it for I would not wrong my Conscience to gain the whole world and lose my own precious Soul So that as far as I see if what he calls his Conscience does but suggest it the Man will be the Master And this Liberty of Conscience is a most excellent thing to cancel all such Contracts as Indentures and if it were but as generally received and put in practice as it is preacht in London the Chamberlain of the City would be eased of a great trouble and Conscience would make more Free-men in an Hour than he can do in seven Years It were endlese to recount all the Instances of this Nature which might be brought to shew the unreasonableness ridiculousness and dangerous folly of maintaining this Doctrine AS for that subtle piece of Non-sense of satisfying that Duty which they owe to Authority by Suffering which they call Passive Obedience I think it is out of countenance already or if it be not I think it may very well blush when they rank themselves amongst Thieves Murderers the damned in Hell and the Devils themselves all which are passively obedient to the Laws of God and Men that is they suffer the just Punishments of their Disobedience to both THIS may appear a large Digression and not much to the purpose of the Intention of these Papers But I thought I could not do these men justice if after the Character of their Persons I did not endeavour to take away from them this Feather with which they play so frequently and tickle both their own Mouths and the Ears of others CHAP. V. Of the several Arts they use to gain Love Credit Esteem and Veneration Of their pretences to Exemplary Piety in their Actions Words Looks Gestures Habits Of the way of their maintenance by Free-will Offerings the Advantages they have thereby over the Clergie of the Church it eases them of a great trouble and preserves the love of their Auditors who liket his Gospel-way where they may at their pleasure withdraw their Bounty it secures them from the Penal Laws Of the Advantage they make of Punishment by calling it Persecution of their seeming Constancy in suffering for what they call Conscience hereby they gain love pity and money They make this Persecution an infallible Mark of the trite Church the use they make of it to render the Government odious to the People and to dispose them by degrees to endeavour the alteration of the present which they call Reformation The same Arts made use of to promote the late Rebellion LET us now examine by what Arts and Arguments they proceed with so much success in the Returns they make of their Traffick for Reputation Money and Disciples and to pass for such precious godly men and the only Soul-savers both in their Opinion and the Thoughts of others who follow them in Multitudes WE must therefore understand that what by the In-comes of the late Times when the Spoils of the Wicked and the Riches of the Nation ran through their Chanels and what by the present liberal Contributions of the Brotherhood they have as little Necessity as Opportunity to enrich themselves by impoverishing others What they did before is both by Time and the surpassing Generasity of their most gracious Prince buried in Oblivion So that now they have nothing to do but to promote the Good Cause and God's Glory for I dare engage that Restitution of any thing formerly obtained by unlawful Means is no part of their Religion nor ever raised the least scruple in the tenderest of their Consciences THEY know well enough that Example is more prevalent and convincing than all the Precepts and Arguments in the world and that he that would draw another to be of his Perswasion must first perswade him to believe that he is good and has a great love and tenderness for his concerns and eternal Welfare And herein lies their Excellency It is their greatest care and constant endeavour to manage their Lives and Actions with so much cunning and artifice that Detraction and Envy shall have much to do with all their curiosity to find out any thing in the outside and visible part of their Lives whereof to accuse them excepting for their disobedience to Government which though it be unfledg'd Rebellion in the shell yet they are so far from esteeming it criminal or sinful that therein consists the only differencing part of their Religion from other Men. And for my part I will in displaying this their Master-piece and what-ever else concerns them do them all the justice and reason they can deserve THAT they may therefore appear to be the most upright Men in their generation they are not only violent in decrying Sin in others especially great and scandalous common and customary sins Intemperance and that Debauchery under which the Nation groans but they are all extreamly vigilant over themselves most prudent and dexterous not only in avoiding the sins but even the occasions which may lead them into any disorders And therefore though they appear wonderful courteous and full of obliging smiles yet they will rarely converse much or long with any Company and always chuse to leave behind them the great desire of their further conversation rather than to importune and nauseate with a tedious visit coming to see you as a Physician for your Soul and staying as if they had more Patients in their Round and it may be only for the Fee Nor will they so much as come in any place where there may be occasion or suspicion of Scandal or expence unless in case of necessity or in their travels upon the road they are as scrupulous of a Tavern or publick House as a Mahometan who by his great Prophet is forbidden the use of Wine If at any time they fall in accidentally with idle or extravagant Persons they will either by their silence or morose severity escape their persecutions and by a discreet Incomplaisance avoid those dangers and inconveniences which hot Discourses and hard Drinking precipitate so many Men into I do not charge them with these things as matters of guilt and if these were their only crimes they were the most excellent Persons of the World And possibly the want of this necessary Circumspection and cautelous Prudence in some of those who call themselves Sons of the Church have done her the greatest unkindnesses and have given such advantages to her enemies as they could not have hoped for from all their own industrious malice and subtilest contrivance I wish they would seriously consider of it and in time reform
all that little good Opinion which before he had of Religion and this together with his own loose inclinations and the fashionable humour of being irreligious easily perswade him that it is nothing but a fine Device of Politicians to keep the lower part of the World in awe Or if he has read the Poet he believes him more than the Gospel when he tells him Primus in Orbe Deos Timor fecit The Foundation of all Religion was either Fear or Fancy And are not these glorious discoveries occasion'd and found out by this New Gospel-Light BUT to proceed these persons are always curious and inquisitive to find out the most secret Crimes of others amongst whom they live and will never fail to publish that in the open street and upon the house top S. Mat. 1â— 15 which was done in a corner and they are so far from the true Christian Way of private admonition directed by our Saviour that without waiting for Reformation by those Degrees they proceed immediately to a Dic Ecclesiae and tell it to their Church upon the first discovery LIKE the wily Serpent they do commonly begin the Temptation with the Woman as being the weaker Vessel yet having a strong Ascendant and influence upon the Husband and hereby do not rarely Verifie the Apostles prediction when they creep into houses and lead Captive silly Women laden with Sins led away with divers Lusts and it is the common opinion that it is not impossible to find amongst their Converts more Women who either are or have been of ill or at least suspected Fame than in many other places which go under a harder Censure But the good Woman becoming a New Creature religiously cheats her husband to help to maintain the Speaker the Man first suspects and after a little Time discovers the Intrigue of his Wifes paying for this new invented Leachery of her Ears and as well he may is not a little angry or displeased at it She tires him with perpetual Lectures Repetitions Admonitions and Importunities which makes his House or Shop uneasie to him and either does or very probably may induce him to seek more agreeable Conversation abroad and whilst he indeavours to avoid her continual dropping in a rainy day as the wise man calls the Persections of a Contentious Woman by chusing such places and persons for his Divertisement he may endanger the Ruine of his Soul Body and Estate And surely next to the debauching a Woman into forbidden Embraces I think this alienating of those two whom God hath made one and no person has power to put asunder either in Body or Mind is a displeasure that must needs be the most sensible Affliction to both Parties and so much the more if formerly there has been an entire Love and kindness when they shall come to be so far estranged as to live in perpetual jars and discords and whilest they both strive to save the others Soul run a manifest hazzard of losing both and do most certainly lose one of the greatest designs and satisfactions of Marriage which is that they may be mutual helps and comforts one to another The Heathen Poet could have taught them better Doctrine where he tells them Foelices ter amplius Queis irrupta tenet Copula Nec malis divulsa Querimoniis And St. Peter tells the good Women the way to convert their Heathen Husbands is by their chaste Conversation coupled with fear to offend them and not by perpetual ingrateful Curtain-Lectures THE wise King tells us ATale-bearer maketh strife Prov. 26.20.16 c. 28. and a Whisperer separateth chiefest Friends And with these Talents they do so abound that the Coffee-Houses are not better stor'd with News especially what may advance the Defamation of all those from the highest to the lowest that are not of their Way or do oppose them But above all their aspersions are thrown upon their Lawful Minister if possible to make him odious to the People which they know if they can effect it will be no hard matter to bring them into their Confederacy And having left him because he will not leave the Church and his Duty nor forswear himself to please them that they may appear to have some Reason too for their deserting of him they will not stick to vilifie contemn despise defame and scandalize by all the ways they can invent true or false it matters not and herein their cunning is not less than their malice one blow at the Root being worth a hundred at the Leaves or Branches and rather than fail where nothing else is to be had they will content themselves with ridiculous Improbabilities A Clergy-man of my acquaintance being call'd up to London upon the dispatch of some emergent and important affairs of his having it seems nothing to fix upon him besides they reported that during his stay there he had his Pocket pickt at the Play-house of a considerable Sum of Money which was as they would have people believe a most remarkable Judgment upon him for his Vanity but a far greater Untruth he having as he solemnly protested to me never had that common piece of ill Fortune at London or any where else in all his Life nor for seven years before having seen a Play though he thinks it far better and more lawful than one of their Conventicles where the Teacher picks the Money out of their Pockets all their Duty Loyalty and Allegiance out of their Hearts and if they do not in time repent they are in the greatest danger of having the Devil pick their Souls out of their Bodies IT were endless to recount all the disturbances they make where-ever they come and this being but the Prologue to greater Mischiefs and Inconveniences we will proceed to them though to keep their hands in ure they are like the Gentlemans Servant who being observed by his Master to be so light-finger'd that he never went any whither but he stole something before he came away he gave him a strict charge not to meddle with any thing at a House whither he was going to make a Visit at his coming away the Fellow took up a handful of the Rushes with which the Hall was strow'd and put into his Pocket and his Master demanding why he did so he made answer it was to keep his hand in ure So these men will play at small Games Heads and Points in their own Parish rather than stand out and first grow well acquainted with making Parties Divisions and little Mutinies in the Town where they live that so they may be perfect at the Trade and fit to set up and Act their parts of the Tragedy their Masters are composing as soon as it is ready to appear upon the Publick Theater of the World In a word they are intimately acquainted with the Jesuites Maxim which they use against the Protestants Fortiter calumniare aliquid haerebit thus Englisht by a certain Lady who was wont to use and give this devillish Counsel to
evident I desire all such whose Age will give them leave to call to mind whether they have never seen or heard that Salus Populi est suprema Lex publiquely asserted in Print and abused to countenance the most Villanous Actions that the welfare of the People of which these Men are the only competent Judges is above all Laws Persons and Considerations whatsoever and that Kings whose only true Title to their Crown Contrary to Scripture By me Kings Reign Proverb The Powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13. is the Peoples Election and Approbation and neither Succession nor ordination and appointment from God and Kingly Government if prejudicial to that Fundamental Law may by the People be abolished deposed nay and punished for such Delinquencies even to the loss of Crown and Life Have we not seen all this done as well as said Have you never heard that a King is Major Singulis but Minor Vniversis a little better man than Dick or Tom or Will if you take them barely by themselves in a Frock with a Cart-whip but by your Majesties leave good Sir King you are not so good a man as Mr. Multitude Have you never known the Time when the Commons of England were white Boyes and stroak'd over the Heads with the tickling Imagination That all the good People of the Nation were a free born People and I know not how many good morrows with which they were wont in those Dayes to cologue the World with a Bait of a pretended Liberty into the Trap of a real Slavery What they then thought they boldly writ and spoke and what they dare not now Speak yet they dare as boldly think that being a freedom which they cannot be deprived of and undoubtedly they do so and it is still their Judgment their Actions speak it most distinctly and plain It is not this or that King but Monarchy in general that they are against as not being a Government for their Turn nor any kind of Government by a Single Person and I am confident they did as much hate Oliver after he took upon him to be a Single Protector as before they lov'd him whilst he was only his Excellency and their Renowned and Victorious General It is a Common-wealth that is their Darling where every one is not without hopes of his being uppermost and that it may come to his Turn to have a Share in the Government And where amongst so many Elective Heads they are sure to make a Party and it shall go hard if not the Major whereas one single Person can be but of one Perswasion at one Time and it is a thousand to one never of theirs if he consults his own Security Settlement Safety Interest or Glory which because it is Natural for all men to do they cannot believe but he will And this is the reason of their Hatred of Monarchy because they fear it and knowing how inconsistent their Principles are one with another and that they cannot both have the Government they are afraid lest Soveraign Princes awakened by their Danger should by the most Rigorous Methods ease themselves of the Jealousie they justly entertain of such desperate Rivals and Competitors and this makes them likewise so industrious and restless in their Endeavours by making a Party to overbalance the power of the Prince and if possible by force to wrest his from him by which means they think it is only possible to secure themselves from Ruine Nor will they ever quit these Persuasions so long as they hold to their Principles which for ought I see is like to be as long as they live For if they be the Elect People of God and in the Right Way of true Worship and Religion they are bound in Conscience to promote and propagate it with or without the consent of their King 't is all one As we daily see they do by all their Actions and Indeavours And they who in his Royal City and before his face are not affraid to Violate his Laws and Proclamations will never fear the sword of Justice if once they are assured that their own is longer And though the Apostles teach no such Doctrine nor the Holy Martyrs ever propagated the Christian Faith or Church-Government with any other Blood but their own or with any other Weapons but Prayers and Tears these men are of another Opinion and can fight the Lords Battels and Curse Meroz as bitterly as the Angel did if they come not to help the Lord against the Mighty And for encouragement to fight I know no Doctrine like this and that of Mahomet which whatever they may do in others agree in this point that the Terminus vitae est immobilis Every mans Fate is in unalterable Characters written in his forehead Those feeble and effeminate Asiaticks had never carried their conquering Armes so far amongst the Hardy Europeans if they had not been inspired with this Doctrine of Fatality and that if it be decree'd that they must Dye in this Battel or in that Assault it is impossible for them to prevent it and if they must escape and overlive it they shall though they run upon the Mouth of the Roaring Cannon And in which likewise they agree and have a further Harmony if they fall by the Fatal Steel or undistinguishing Bullet they do not only die in the Bed of Honour but step immediately into Paradise which is but the just Recompence of those who sacrifice their Lives to propagate the Alchoran or the Good Old Cause I do not now wonder to have heard those of the Royal Party say so often that the Rebels fought like Turks since in this Opinion they were such Besides being the Elect and fighting Gods Cause they acquire a new Courage from the hopes they entertain that he is obliged to protect them and to fight from them that the Stars in their Courses shall fight against Sisera And how far such thoughts did Encourage our English Rebels a people naturally bold enough to attempt the most hazardous Enterprises Let those Loyal Gentlemen testifie who yet wear the Honourable Scars which they purchas'd in the defence of their King Country Laws Liberties and Religion against those desperate Villains Let the many Cruel Battels and desperate storms hard marches and hot Engagements they underwent let these be Witnesses it was not all for Pay and Plunder though these were good Encouragements But the Main of the Quarrel was pro Aris in their English against Altars for Religion and Reformation the Liberty of the Subject which if any thing can will inspire a Coward with Courage and make him Valiant And that the Cause was Gods they never then made any doubt nor yet make any more scruple of it than they do of their Election And what kind thoughts they have of the present Magistracy you shall ghess if you have any skill Ex pede Herculem to take the proportion of Hercules by the print of his foot One of these and a Teacher
I promise you in some Company where he thought he might be bold lamenting the looseness and vitiousness of the Times and the blame being laid at the Door of the Inferiour Magistrates who were so remiss in putting the Laws in Execution Pray says he how can it be otherwise when there are none in Authority but the God-damm'ees and though no former Prince has so highly obliged them as his present Majesty by the Act of Oblivion and a General Pardon since though possibly a better Temper and milder Inclinations are not to be found amongst all Mankind yet for all that I believe the Guards about White-hall at which they grumble so oft calling them a standing Army are a greater Security for him than their Love or Allegiance And I make no dispute but if they had Power proportionable to their Desires if he would not consent to their unreasonable Demands and in Effect depose himself they would make bold in plain English to un-King him and it may be something more as well as his Glorious Father whose Caution I think therefore ought never to be forgotten * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lady Elizabeth's Relation of what the King said to her immediately before his Death To Forgive them but never Trust them For what is a King to them if he be not one of the Elect and that he can never be unless he be of their Church and resolve to Establish their true and Evangelical Ways from which he must therefore be very far so long as he suffers the Laws and his subordinate Ministers of Justice to persecute these People who are the Elect the undoubted Children of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 16. upon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer-Book And as his late Majesty of blessed memory does in the forementioned Book not improbably Conjecture Possibly that aversion they all have for the Publique Litturgy of the Church is because it does so frequently pray for the King and the Royal Family to which in their Hearts they cannot say Amen and that the Conjecture is not wide of the Mark this following Instance will in some measure make apparent One of this Gang being amongst other Company entertain'd as a neighbour at a friends house immediately as soon as Dinner was done he steps out of the Room into a by Entry and a Clergy-man who was present returning thanks and as is customary and commendable closing his Grace with a short Prayer for the Kings Majesty the Queen and Royal Family this impudent Fellow was by those who stood next the Door heard scornfully and maliciously to say when he came to that Passage Oh! by all Means if it were not for that all were worth nothing and indeed it makes me apt to think that this is one if not the only Reason why they account all the Prayers of the Church worth nothing for they are not yet arrived to that Perfection in Christian Religion to love or pray for their Enemies in which number they never fail to put all Crowned and Mitred Heads How directly contrary this Doctrine is to the Divine Philanthropy the infinite Love of God to all Mankind and indeed to the whole Current and Consent of the Sacred Scriptures how dishonourable to God and disadvantageous to Christian Religion are Subjects already largely and learnedly treated of by other Pens And if as they fell in my Way I have lightly touched upon any of them it is only so far as they were necessary to shew how pernicious this Doctrine of theirs is to themselves and the salvation of their Souls how troublesome unquiet uncharitable and unchristian it is amongst their Neighbours How destructive it is to the Church and Ecclesiastical Government Places Persons and Performances and how irreconcileable and desperately dangerous it is to the State of the present Royal Dignity and Government CHAP. XIII Of their Doctrine of the necessity of Separation from the Wicked which they teach in Private and by their Example in Publick These uses they make of it to know their strength and numbers which they always boast of if possible to bring Authority to comply with their Desires hereby they engross a Trade amongst themselves Of their undermining Authority by making it contemptible by their daily affronting it Of the unlawfulness of Separation from the example of our Saviour and from Scripture Separation by St. Jude made a mark of Reprobation Jeroboams Policy the End of their Separation LET us now proceed to a second Doctrine which is he Spawn of the first and the Daughter of such a beautiful Mother cannot chuse but must be most admirable fair Being the Elect People of God those whom from all Eternity he has out of his infinite Love predestinated to Holiness and Happiness though they are in the World yet they are not of the World and therefore they must Separate from Sinners and be a peculiar People without which they think they are not sufficiently zealous of Good Works which in plain English is That whosoever will be of the Number of the Elect People of God must have no religious commerce with the rest of the World for all other he may and that a true Title to Heaven is only to be hoped for and had in their Church and Communion and by this means they advance the so necessary Point of Separation or Distinction of a Party without which Instruments their Spiritual Carnes and Engines to draw up the Stones after they have hew'd and fitted them by the former Doctrine they cannot go on with or ever hope to finish the New Model of their Church so as to set up the Corner-Stone and with joy and shouting cry Grace Grace unto it for they would only change his Grace of Canterbury into his Grace of Presbytery And this they manage with as little noise as possible and with the same Secrecy and Subtilty as the rest though some people say they can plainly hear the Axes and Hammers go perpetually Psal 77.6 which they lift up to break down the Carved Work of all the Houses of God in the Land in order to their setting up the Synagogues of Satan in the room of them If you discourse with them and put the Question Whether the Church of England is a true Church and whether Salvation may not be obtained in Communion with it They will do all they can to decline the Question and will certainly dissemble their Opinion by telling you They dare not judge every man must stand or fall to his own Master That they forbid or hinder none from coming to our Church whose Consciences will give them leave All which is only to avoid the Pinch of the Controversie and is neither better nor worse but what the Apostle S. Paul calls Speaking Lyes in Hypocrisie 1 Tim. 4.2 For it is evident that they think it unlawful because they abstain from our Church and refuse Communion with us themselves and should they speak never a Word to their
well serve their Interest and cannot be Godliness unless it brings in Gain and should this Doctrine once appear unlawful down goes their Dagon and loses both his Head and Hands and will be an useless Trunk a mere Stump and no longer a God The setting up the two Golden Calves was not the least Policy of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat 1 Kings 12 26. to vers 31. who is rarely mentioned without that infamous Remarque that he made Israel sin and that Sin was Separation from the Church and Rebellion against his lawful Soveraign To go up to Jerufalem to Worship will in time bring the Kingdom back again to the House of David and therefore the Calves must be erected at Dan and Bethel Not that Jeroboam was so sottish that he did not know that Idolatry and Schism Revolting and Rebellion were unlawful but something was necessary to be done to preserve his ill-gotten Crown and the People had formerly been strangely fond of a Calf and two he thought would please them better I fear Jeroboams Policy is one end and the chief one of their Separation even to nurse the People up in Disloyalty against their lawful Prince and disobedience against the Holy Church For should the People go to the Church to Worship to hear Divine Service and receive the Holy Sacrament should they hear their lawful Ministers preach their Duty press them to Fear God and Honour the King they might in time be convinc'd of their Errors and Mistakes and then all 's lost CHAP. XIV Of their Exaltation of Preaching and the Reason why they do so Of the great Veneration people have for the Pulpit The advantages they make of it to gain the love of People for being so painful Labourers dispersing their Doctrines and procuring Benevolences Hereby they bring the Prayers of the Church to be nauseous accustom People to variety and novelty and have opportunities of displaying their Gifts and Abilities as well as in Extempore-Prayer The Abuse they put upon the Church that it is against Preaching A vindication of the Church from this aspersion Of the Primitive and Modern Preaching It is against preaching themselves and their own Interests and wicked Designs that the Church declares it self NOW to the end that they may have the better opportunity to disperse and divulge their Doctrines there is no place that can be so subservient as the Pulpit a Discourse from thence having gained the mighty Reputation of being Authentique and the generally received Opinion being that from that place men speak as the Oracles of God and that every Word that comes from their mouths is as true as the Gospel as in truth it ought to be There is therefore a Necessity that they should exalt Preaching as the chiefly necessary most excellent Christian Duty and give it the preheminence above all other Ordinances And this is the third Doctrine which for the same Design with the other with so much vehemence and earnestness they press upon the People And to satisfie you how strangely the present Age is enamoured of the Pulpit and how great an Opinion People have of what is spoken there I will relate a passage which happened to a Reverend Divine in the County of Essex Every Lords Day as he thought it was his Duty in the Afternoon he Expounded upon some part of the Nine and thirty Articles to instruct his Parishioners what was the Doctrine of the Church of England judging it a good expedient to remove the Scandal that lies upon our Religion and to prevent their falling into Sects and Factions with which that County does abound and this he did in the Reading Desk without the formality of a Prayer to usher it in or make it look like a Sermon but never met with any thing but the discouragement of a thin Audience whereby ghessing at the true Reason he gave them notice that for the future he would Preach in the Afternoons being determined to try if the same Matter would take better from the Pulpit than it had done from the Reading Desk he chose such Texts as were suitable to the Doctrines he intended to Expound upon and from them delivered the very same Words he was resolved to use in his Exposition Nor did the success at all deceive his expectation The Church is now throng'd and crowded whereas before it used to look as if the Stones and Pillars must have said Amen as 't is said they once did to the Prayers of our Venerable Bede The Discourses are extreamly approved of and the People wonderfully pleased The plain truth on 't is the Commons of England by the Disorders of the late Times and the many tickling Promises which were made them That the Burthen of Tithes should be taken away and a more Evangelical Way for the maintenance of the Clergy should be found out have lost the true sense of payment of Tithes and do not do it out of a Principle of Conscience nor consider that they are a just Right which in all Alienations passes as a reserved Rent to the use of Almighty God and it may be are one of the best Tenures in Capite of their Estates from the Great Landlord of the Vniverse and from hence it is that if they had no such esteem for Preaching yet they look upon it as a Debt their Minister ows them for what they pay him and though several of them care not how little he has yet they would be sure to have enough for their Money which makes them many times come to Church to see that the Parson does his Duty rather than from him to learn their own or perform what they know by joyning with him in humble and devout Prayers and Praises But they think they have not their Penniworths for their Penny and that a man takes no pains for what he does not speak in the Pulpit or if he does not Preach twice in a day Besides Curiosity and the desire and love of novelties and mighty Natural and the Athenian humour does but too universally prevail a certain pleasure in hearing or telling some New thing So that a Sermon though never so good and useful which was preached in the Morning would be Crambe bis costa nauseous if repeated in the Afternoon and with this humour of the World these men are so well acquainted that it is variety that makes the Feast that usually they have one Text for the Morning and another for the Evening Sermon and neither the same Prayer exactly before or after either though it is but putting Almighty before Eternal or Eternal before Almighty and it will please And I am perswaded if any man would give himself the trouble in Short-hand to write down one of their Prayers for three or four Days together he would find the great Secret of Extempore-Praying to consist in this neat and cunning transposition turning the inside outward and the foreside backward more than in any thing of New Invention at which for all
unscriptural or unlawful that he blesses the Lord God of Israel who had put such a thing into the Kings Heart as was the only expedient to enable him to rebuild the House of the Lord and bring it to its former Beauty and Glory As for that fort of Punishment which is Capital and Sanguinary as it does not at all suit the temper of the Gospel so they are satisfied that it is not the Custome of our Law-givers to write theirs as 't is said the Athenian Draco did his Statutes in Characters of Blood Nor shall these Men need to fear resisting unto Blood unless they mean in unlawful Insurrections of their own railing Or for intentional or actual Violence Treason or Rebellion to which they seem to be in the ready and nearest way and therefore since if they will but take care to avoid the Crimes they are out of the reach of their punishments we will pursue this consideration no further A second sort of punishment which has been made use of is Imprisonment and in this they pretend to Glory and to make most considerable advantages for though you may confine their Bodies yet their Tongues and Pens have alwayes been at Liberty and this has been so far from hindering that contrary to other Infections they make this shutting them up contribute to the spreading of the Contagion and it has been no unusual thing for the Jaylors advantage to have a Conventicle in the very Prison fer Persecution Bonds and Imprisonments for the Gospel and also because God appears so particularly for them in delivering them out of all these afflictions and tribulations Let us now see how they will deal with a third way of Punishment which is Confiscation of Goods which has been the penalty that our Laws have most generally inflicted upon Dissenters and here it has been the general observation that the smaller Fines as twelve pence a Sunday have been most effectual the proceedings upon the greater and heavier Fines being more rarely put in execution that being generally a tenderness in all men which makes them unwilling to ruine others in their Estates as they believe these heavy Impositions would do But they may spare themselves that Pity for these People know well enough not only how to avoid the punishment but to make it become serviceable to their Interest If the Penalty proceeds upon Information as most generally it does they endeavour to render the name and Office of Informer odious so that few people of credit will intermeddle in it and then either it will not be done at all or it will be undertook by the meaner sort of people who inform out of the Hopes of their share of the Forfeiture and if it happens as too many of them are that the Information is given in by loose idle or scandalous poor people then they are safe enough and proclaim to every body You see what kind of people these are Drunkards Swearers poor pityful Fellows that will say or swear any thing for Money that are hired against us and are our Accusers And this adds not a little to the confidence with which their Leaders inspire them of having a good Opinion of themselves or of that which hereby others may come to have of them and their wayes seeing them prosecuted which they call Persecuted by such a fort of people as having no Religion themselves may therefore be thought to hate and persecute such as have and this also affords them an opportunity which they are not backward to improve by insinuating that the Authority which sets such Men at Work encourages them in it and rewards them for it is like them persecuting and wicked too Or if the Information be given in by sober honest and credible Persons they can make a Bill of Sale of all their Visible Estate to a true and trusty Friend and then they will bid the Levy a Defiance and never think this a fraudulent Deed nor shall the Officers be able if they were so minded by all their Art or Industry to discover and to prove that it is Or however they will stand upon their guard and keep the Doors fast lock't and bolted in despight of that Aphorism of the Law which sayes That no mans House shall he his Castle against the King They will rarely pay the Forfeiture which by virtue of the Warrant to Levy is demanded of them though it be but a Shilling so that the Officers are obliged to Distrain and for their own security they will take enough and when that is done there is such a general squeamishness upon People that they do not care to buy such Goods unless they be overcome by the Temptation of an excessive great Bargain so that they are forced to sell Robin Hoods merry Penny-worths and when all the Charges are deducted which necessarily attends this Procedure there will be but a slender Surplusage to be returned to the Owners some of which to mend an ill Market are so stubborn that they will not receive it Now though the fault was wholly in themselves yet will they cry out That their Goods were sold for a quarter of their worth and exclaim against the injustice and oppression of such proceedings And after all is done they will tell you that you cannot take away their Spiritual Comforts you cannot take away their God from them And they have so often and so lowdly in the Meeting-House been fore-warn'd of this that they are fore-arm'd against it What can you endure to suffer Persecution with the People of God Can you be contented joyfully to take the spoiling of your Goods for the Gospels sake Can you be ready to suffer Bonds and Imprisonments and Death rather than forsake Christ Can you endure to suffer affliction for a season with the People of God like Moses Ah my Friends it is but for a Season a short Season for those Days shall be shortned for the Elect sake Can you bear the Cross and despise the shame Can you be contented to be the Song of the Drunkards such as are drunk with the Cup of the Fornications of the great Whore of Babylon Can you endure to be called Hypocrites and Deceivers Oh! then you Elect and previous and a thousand such things I say they have so frequently been told of this that they verily believe these afflictions are sent of God purposely for the tryal of their Truth and Constancy and by their sufferings of this Nature their Teachers persuade and convince them beyond all other Arguments that they are the People of God and no Hypocrites for all that will live Godly must suffer Persecution Though that all is apparently to be restrained to that Age or some following for it is known that many who have lived Godly have not suffered Persecution Nor do they after all this noise for it is the Cause that makes Persecution and Martyrdom But having lost their outward Enjoyments they fly to their inward Refreshments to the thoughts of their being
it should be so You are Men of Peace and Religion certainly you have no other Sword but that of the Spirit Marp A Worm if it be troden upon it will turn again Kingl. Very good but so will not a Sheep when it is led to the Slaughter I understand you But God be praised the Curst Cow has short Hornes You yet want a Parliament for your purpose and I hope long will The Militia is out of your reach and there are Guards enough and no more than enough about White-hall to hinder insolent Petitioners from affronting Majesty and crying your old stinking Fish No Bishop So that whatever your intentions may be I perswade my self you are too wary to betray your Good Cause by shewing both your Weakness and Wickedness at the same time Marp Well! for all this I hope the Lord will not forsake his People or suffer us to lose so many good men Kingl. It is strange this should be a loss when the outright loss of 10000 better men in a Battel to secure or obtain our Peace would not be thought a loss but an advantage to the Publick and hereby not only their Lives but many thousands may be saved hereafter for any thing we know Marp Sir You create fears to your self which we are far from the thoughts of Kingl. You do well to lull us asleep with singing Peace Peace Hush Lullaby Baby But if there be such fears of Mutinies now what may there be some years hence when you are grown so strong and numerous as by compulsion to endeavour to obtain those Demands which now you dare not petition for Marp We for Compulsion we are utterly against it and for Liberty of Conscience for all Men. Kingl. You tell us so now but what would you say if hereafter your Contagion should spread it self amongst those Persons who ought to be the defence of the Royal Person our Laws Property and Religion amongst those who may come to be Elected Members And here a great deal of Company coming in and the House beginning to fill they broke off their Discourse and presently after went both one way out of the Door though they seemed to be of far different Wayes in other things and so I lost the diversion of their further converse but not the remembrance of what then passed or at least the principal part and substance of it Clandite jam rivos pueri CHAP. XVIII The Heads of Separation brought to tryal by the Scripture proved to be false Prophets by their Fruits by the Description of them by the Time of their appearance the Signs given to know them by Wolves in Sheeps Clothing Their pretence to be the Ministers of Righteousness The way they would evade these Signs their Plea of not guilty because not guilty of all manifested to be vain and such as if admitted will clear all even Mahomet from the guilt of being false Prophet THAT these Heads of Faction may see that I for my own particular Part have a mind to be serious with them and that I am in sober earnest and so far past the Lusoria arma that I will close in with them and come ad Triarios and to satisfie all those whose strength of Prejudice or Interest does not render them utterly incapable of Satisfaction I do cite them before their own Judges the Scriptures let us therefore fore impartially examine the Character and then in God's Name Detur dignissimo let it be awarded to those who deserve it most THAT there shall arise false Apostles false Prophets and false Teachers in the Church of God we can make no doubt having so much and so plain Scripture for it so many Caveats given us against them S. Mat. 7.15 Beware of false Prophets saith our great Lord and Saviour which come to you in Sheeps Clothing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves Take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my Name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many S. Mat. 24.4 5. S. Mark 13.5 22 23. False Prophets and false Christs shall arise ands shew Signs and Wonders to seduce if it were possible the very Elect but take ye heed behold I have foretold you all things For I know saith S. Paul that after my departing shall grievous Wolves enter in amongst you Acts 20.29 30. Also of your own selves shall Men arise speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them Therefore watch And S. Peter is in the same mind But there were false Prophets amongst the People 2. S. Pet. 2.1 2. even as there shall be false Teachers amongst you who primly shall bring in or as the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies shall insinuate by the By Damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them Denying or scarcely owning that he is the Propitiation for the Sins of all the World And many shall follow their pernicious ways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their wayes which come from Apollyon and are destructive to themselves to the Peace Unity and Safety of the Church and State by reason of whom the Way of Truth shall be evil spoken of the Ancient Catholick or Universal Doctrine and Practice of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be blasphemed or accounted Blasphemy NOW as it is most certain that there shall be such Men so it is no less certain that it shall be a very great Difficulty to discover and know them FOR first they shall come in the Name of Christ pretend a Commission from Christ and as confidently call themselves the Servants and Ministers of Christ and of the Gospel as they that really are so IN the second place they shall be able to draw Disciples after them and not a few but they shall deceive many Nay so far able as if it were possible to deceive the very Elect. And to effect this it is absolutely necessary that to deceive the Sheep they should come in Sheeps Clothing look most innocently and appear most harmless good and profitable Nay further they must have the appearance and resemblance of the Ministers of Righteousness And this St. Paul tells us is no difficult thing for such saith he are false Apostles deceitful Workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of Light therefore it is no great thing if his Ministers also be transformed as the Ministers of Righteousness IN the last place they shall arise from among our selves and their design shall be to draw Disciples after them THAT we may not be mistaken we must therefore make a Discovery of them by those Ways Marks Signs and Directions which Christ and his Apostles have in the Scripture given us to distinguish them and know them by And therefore for the fulfilling of any prediction we must first enquire for the time of its Appearance and that is all along said to be in the last times or Days Now the Spirit speaketh expresly 1. Tim. 4.1