require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And when the Pharisees that prided themselves so much in looking so carefully after Gods worship and Gods day were offended so highly with the liberty which our Saviour and his disciples took to themselves upon the Sabbath-day in not keeping it so strictly as these Hypocritical Puritans deemed they ought to have done our Saviour tells them of a superiour Law and of far greater concernment than the four first Commandments put together Mat. 12. 7. and that was the Law of charity and mercy which if the Pharisees had understood they would not have condemned the guiltless Even God himself dispenses with his own Law for worship in the old Law when mercy and charity plead against it for sacrifices and offerings were then part of Gods worship which were very chargeable therefore for mercys sake and charitys sake at the Purification whereas the woman by Law ought to offer a Lamb for her cleansing yet if she was a poor woman and not of ability Almighty God abates of his due and is content with what without any great charge or trouble she might easily get in that Country namely two Turtles or two young Pigeons So that the Question is not so much which are Gods Commandments as which are the greatest Commandments and best deserve preferment not the first Table but the second for to do justice and judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice Prov. 21. 3. and to obey is better than sacrifice 1 Sam. 15. 22. Therefore we must conclude That though the worship of God be good yet to do good and communicate good to others is better though to observe the four first Commandments be good yet to observe the six latter is better Though faith in God be good yet charity to our selves and others is better 1 Cor. 13. 13. and all faith and worship without this charity is not worth a pin nay is just nothing at all though a man preach like an Angel 1 Cor. 13. 1 2. This being granted for a great Truth and which all the whining Tribe though they lay all their heads together are not able to disprove or gainsay may silence the Non-conformists Prayers and stop their mouths more than St. Bartholomew yet has done For though to meet together to pray and preach and worship God according to the four first Commandments be good yet to obey the Commands of a Christian Magistrate and submit to his Laws according to the first Commandment in the second Table is better and ought to be preferr'd by every truly Conscienc'd Christian and in so doing he is safe in that submission and obedience But Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye saith St. Peter Acts 4. 19. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard This Text has been damnably abused and as the same Apostle says of other Texts of Scripture in St. Pauls Epistles wrested put upon the rack as the word signifies and made to speak what it never thought and will never justifie our Non-Conformists either before God or man in the least To whom does the blessed Apostle speak Act. 4. 5 6. to the Rulers and Elders and Scribes and Annas the High-Priest and Caiaphas c. who condemn'd our Lord Jesus to be crucified and if they might have had their wills would have been the death of all Christianity with him And is his Sacred Majesty and his two Houses of Parliament no better in your esteem than Annas and Caiaphas they are mightily beholden to you for your good opinion of them And if that be not your opinion that Text is nothing to your case nor to the purpose but point-blank against you For whether it be right to hearken unto God judge ye God had never given Laws for his own worship to mankind but for the good peace and welfare of mankind God had never made the first Table of the Law but in order to and for the better observance of the duties of the second Table If Subjects would never have been disobedient to their Prince and Governours nor children disobedient to their Parents nor servants to their Masters if men would never have coveted their neighbours goods nor their neighbours wife nor servant nor have rob'd and murdered one another but would have liv'd soberly righteously and therefore godlily in this present world the Allelujahs of Angels had been the great worship of men But since it is otherwise and that the wickedness of man is great in the earth and the imagination of the thoughts of his heart so bent to evil and that continually therefore God establish'd his Laws in the first Table by worship sacrifices c. Typically in the Old Testament for expiation of the guilt of sin and justification and sent his Son who was made a sacrifice for us antitypically in the New Testament for expiation of the guilt of sin and justification as our Priest and to show us how to live well as our Prophet and to exact our obedience as our King But none are benefited by his Priestly Office but such as obey his princely Laws according to his Prophetical Injunctions none are justified but such as are sanctified for this is the great will of God our sanctification Our Sanctification therefore is the grand design of the Law and Gospel Prophets and Apostles and that sanctification being summarily concluded by our Saviour in doing as we would be done by and all lesser holy duties of prayer praising hearing Sacraments being in order to the great holy duty of doing as we would be done by and particularized in and reducible to the second Table prove in all cases of conscience the truly godly must do the greater duty rather than the less and the duties of the second Table rather than the first so that he do but continue his faith in Christ the while and in so doing Now cannot the Non-conformist Preachers continue to be Christians though they do obey the fifth Commandment and submit to their Governors Injunctions nay can they obey God who is the author of the fifth Commandment if they do not obey their Christian Governors does not God prefer the peace and tranquillity and welfare of mankind before his own worship and will not you prefer it In obeying and submitting in quietness to the supream and Christian powers you obey God and that obedience is better than sacrifice and proves evidently that that which Greg. sets down p. 100. for Apochrypha in the Ecclesiastical Politician is an undoubted truth namely that moral vertue being the most material and useful part of all Religion is also the utmost end of all its other duties And all Religion must be resolv'd into Enthusiasme or Morality The former is mâ—…er Imposture and therefore all that is true must be reduced to the latter In an unlawful and forbidden Conventicle you may
this bait 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing but a few canting new-coyn'd words and with these they have made shift to get the good old Coyn out of their Pockets and sometimes Plate Bodkins Thimbles Horses Armes and Silver-spoons or whatsoever comes is welcome All is fish that comes to net whilst these Hugh Peters Baxters Marshals and Owens laugh in their sleeves to see how soon the fools and their moneys are parted and how parted do they not know of the going on 't and how it is laid out what they get for it Yes they tell the poor souls they get Christ for it Oh get Christ whenas indeed they get nothing but a little canting new-coyn'd Fanatick phrase or so there 's all Be not offended that I call this expression get Christ get Christ meer canting jugling and delusion beguiling unstable soules for I will give you a reason for it unanswerable by all the Canters and Cabala of Juglers in England with whom and the best of them or all their great heads put together I am not afraid to encounter in vindication of all and every thing in this Letter occasion'd by the bold undertaking of their friend Gregory Graybeard who puts for Apochrypha and so sets it down in a different Character the great Truth that Christ our Lord ever deliver'd to the world viz. To do as we would be done by which is the great end of the Law and the Gospel namely the best regulation of our manners or as p. 100. Moral vertue being the most material and useful part of all religion which has but two parts Phanaticism and Morality Which last is comprehended in that great way of Truth so much evil spoken of by some Christians as being the practice even of some heathens and therefore not the summ of Law and Prophets But let me live and die like such Heathens rather than live and die like such Christians as dare preferre any thing above this or any part of Religion above this which my Saviour has told me is the summe of all And he that believes Christ in this word as a true Prophet and conforms his life and conversation to this Law as given by his King Jesus shall assuredly find him a Priest to pardon and forgive him and bring him to glory where he now sits And this is that which in the beginning I call'd my Religion not but that many others are of it yet but few where I live For I dwell in New-Amsterdam where Satans seat is the Head-quarters of the Legions and the Randevouz of Hell the very Sink of all heresies and sects and the Kennel where all the neighbouring filâ—…h of Religion disgorges its self and disembogues And as we never read of any Pharisee converted by our Saviour except one or two yet very many Publicans and Harlots so here we find true that of our Saviour that Publicans and Harlots shall get into the Kingdom of Heaven before these our modern Pharisees in English Separates or Schismaticks as the word signifies And the great Reason why this great Rule and summe of Christs Message or Gospel was no more believ'd by the Pharisees than now by our modern Pharisees or Schismaticks called now modern Orthodox is because the heart of this people is waxed fat and their cars are dull of hearing and sâ—…eng they see and not perceive and hearing they hear and not understand They say they believe Gospel show them Mat. 7. 12. and ask them if they believe that that Rule before their eyes is the summe of all and they 'l rail presently at you and cry out good works good works the man presses us to good works and merit Popery Arminianism and Manwaring They say they believe St. Paul's Epistles to be God's word shew them 1 Cor. 13. 1 2 3. and the rest of the Chapter and ask them do you believe that your Preacher you so cry up for a precious man when he tells you of incomes and experiences and getting of Christ is a meer empty Kettle a meer canting jugling noise a meer feign'd new-coyn'd sound if he does not preach up good works and charity to you all contain'd and included in doing as you would be done by They will presently fly out in rage and wrath against you saying you rail at Gods Ministers God ways and Gods people and look upon all you say as prophane and coming from a prophane and loose spirit Though with never so much meekness you entreat them to take heed how in so saying they blaspheme God and his holy spirit who says altogether so much as I have said in that first vers Though I speak with the Tongue of men and Angels and have not charity I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling Cimbal that is a meer empty Kettle sound and noise yet they see this with their eyes and yet will blaspheme and will not believe Tell them further that this precious Preacher does not yet speak with the tongue of an angel let his whinings and snivellings and gruntings and groanings be never so tuneable they will not believe you but when for the good of their immortal souls you bid them beware of the juggle and take heed they be not cheated with new-coyn'd and feigned words meer Canting as Gypsies that have a peculiar dialect and phrase of their own Yet then they will revile you rendring you hatred for your good will slandering you in blaspheming Christ and the truth you declare to them and think all this while they are lying standering and railing you which is far from Charity that they do God good service and vindicate precious men Ask them further whether those be not â—…eigned fictitious new-coyn'd words as the Apostle St. Peter says false prophets make merchandize or make good markets with through covetousness which the Holy-ghost in Holy Scripture uses not and which Gods Holy word is not acquainted with and they will confess that they must be new-coyned and feigned by false prophets and juglers if not coyn'd there by the Holy-ghost But then say these expressions viz. incomes get experiences look over your experiences get Christ and the indwellings of the spirit such like many hundreds of them produc'd with a wonderful long whine and twang are neither the words of the Holy Ghost Prophets Christ or his Apostles and therefore are feigned words which these spiritual merchants get money with as Gypsies do by Cantting and Singing And they will blaspheme and rail at you though you say no more than St. Peter has done and though they cannot find one such new-coyn'd word in all the Bible Is not the heart of this people hardned and seeing they do not see they will not see nor perceive but like the Pharisees look upon all your reproof to be a reproach to them and the ways of God They cannot be converted because not convinced they are not convinced partly by reason their Preachers are not faithful to their souls but instead of shewing them the
the Language of the Hebrews then spoken at Hierusalem which was Syriack which Theodoret and many other Learned Antiquaries say is an ancienter Language as well as more certain than your Hebrew Tongue and being as was said the Mother Tongue to the Apostles many Autographical Copies of some Books in the New Testament writ in Syriack were acknowledged for Holy Scripture before some of those sacred Books were indited at least before they were generally received into the Canon of Holy Writ namely the Second Epistle of St. Peter the Second and Third Epistles of St. John the Epistle of St. Jude and the Revelations of St. John The Sun's face when long wrap'd up in a cloud More beauteous shows having cast off that hood The English Genius mourning many a year In sniveling black now grows more debonair Rome as she thrive in Arms so thrive in Arts So England too since she got Loyal Hearts More brisk all Learning 's grown lately deform'd And must the Pulpit be the last reform'd In Parliament and Inns of Court Long Speeches Are reckon'd little worth but to wipe br He best does speak that speaks plain short sweet Is not right Eloquence for the Pulpit meet Great is Diana great long Sermons snivelling By which Craft Holder forth sneaks for a Living Be gone base canting Tribe with your New Lights That only teach men to be Hypocrites Long winded Preachments being now forlorn A Dress now out of fashion being worn Thread-bare by whining Pharisees alone Or 't is the Jews-trump of Religion And is it not deservedly in disgrace It ne'r yet had so much as a good face Or form of Godliness far from the Power The Primitive Sermons not one jot like your Christ and his Servants holy Writ records Converted thousands with a few plain words But still I fear little Priscian pursues me and perhaps will say I wonder what work you will cut out for the Ministers of the Church of England now you have clip'd away all but your own Sermon of six verses as well as Modern Orthodoxy Truly truly Generous Sir I have cut out more and better work for you and all Gospel Ministers than you are well aware of or can readily accomplish though all the shreds and parings as rubbish be thrown into Hell except what is included in these six verses and you shall do your work more profitably and honourably to your selves and the people if you keep your selves within the limits of those six verses do as much good as ever you did and have as much work too and yet neither do nor say any thing mischievously and impertinently For first your conversations at which the enemy is so scandalized as well as your selves will be unblameable by doing as you would be done unto you cannot then chouce poor Gentlemen of their moneys when they play pieces at an Ordinary this Principle will keep you from cheating tricks or being cheated will keep your hands from picking and stealing and defrauding and your tongues from evil speaking lying and slandering why because you would not willingly be so served by others but you must by this principle behave your selves soberly in reference to your own bodies in temperance righteously in reference to all other men by justice and godlily in reference to devotion towards God in duties of Religion and holy worship which is made up of five particulars namely Faith the Seals of Faith Prayers Praises and Ceremonies Unto which some adde Swearing but not well advised therein For though God Almighty says to his people Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God Deut. 6. 13. and serve him and shalt swear by his name yet the last clause is not exegetical of the former nor do men serve God by swearing nor is it any part of Heavenly Liturgy other than as when we serve truth and our generation being called at Courts of Judicature to attest truth calling God to witness and to judge us according to the truth of what we averr and if this be done cordially it assoils such a man of Atheism but not of irreligion if by Religion we mean religious worship which I say has but five parts as abovesaid and all included in my Sermon of six verses Now saith little Modern Orthodox are you there again with your Clypticks having neither accepted Sermon nor Lecture into your holy worship I hope Sermons that have had all the room in the Church when your Liturgy and your Sacraments and your Ceremonies were turn'd out of doors shall yet be taken in for one share part and portion of religious and holy worship of God No not a bit I admit no Sermons Lectures Preachments nor Harangues no not mine own dear Sermon of six verses to have any part or lot in this matter of religious worship I know they have turn'd all religious worship out of the house of God so that now Sermon is taken to be the All of Gods worship and so understood in common phrase Is there a Sermon this After-noon or to day is sermon done were you at sermon to day c. meaning were you at Church or serving God to day sermon sermon for all and if no sermon then there 's nothing at all that amongst silly men and women can sound like religious worship Whereas I come and say quite contrary namely that Ceremonies Sacraments c. are religious necessary and holy worship of God but Sermons Lectures and Harangues are not at all the religious and holy worship of God when they are never so good sermons but the usual sermons of Modern Orthodox that justled true and holy worship out of the Church did not so much as tend to holy worship consisting in Ceremonies the Liturgy Sacraments c. those men being so far from preaching up those parts of holy worship that they preach'd them down and consequently the more sermons and the more eloquent sermons of that nature were the most devillish works of darkness and Hell and the more men heard and believed those sermons the more they were children of wrath and darkness if so be that those five particulars aforesaid contain all the parts and portions of holy worship and that sermons the most admired Preachments be not allowed therein any not so much as the least share sermons at best being only in order to Gods worship as they plainly and honestly comment upon and exhort unto Ceremonies Faith Seals of Faith Prayers and Praises this ought to be the height of the Ambition that sermons can lay claim unto only to be subservient and serviceable to these high and mighty Devotions Faith the seals of Faith Prayers Praises and Ceremonies which three last you have most Evangelically in our Holy Liturgy And all sermons that tend not to the preaching up of these how worthy cares soever Father Grey-beards do esteem them are whimsical and extravagant at best in relation to instructing people in Holy and Gospel worship but if those sermons cry down these or any of these five
met Also I deny that it is unlawful for me but rather a duty incumbent upon me to give my servants lieve to play and recreate themselves with any honest sport upon the Sunday or any other Holy-day at convenient times for I ought in mercy and charity to be merciful to my beasts my oxe or my ass in watering them which is not necessary but only expedient for life Much more ought I to be merciful to my poor Prentice my servant my Hand-maiden that have drudg'd and trudg'd to slave and work for me on working days when Sunday or any other Holy-day comes if I be of Christs true Religion and do as I would be done by Nay I ought if I am able to let them drink better liquor and eat better meat eat the fat and drink the sweet as Nehemiah speaks and send portions thereof to the poor according to my ability on those festivals at least give them what I give my beast ease and rest on those vacation-days a penny-worth of ease is worth a penny And the contrary opinion is hypocritical pharisaical hard-hearted apocryphal and prophane and contrary to the great Law of charity and mercy and contrary to those infallible and unanswerable reasons rendred excellently in that proclamation for lawful sports on Sundays and all other Holy-days published by the Command and well setled judgment of King James King Charles I. to that purpose And agreeable with the opinion and practice of all Christians Nations and Kingdoms in the world and even of Geneva it self and contradicted by none but our senceless hypocritical modern orthodox Rebels that write in this particular after nobody but Knox that grand Rebel and Innovator Oh but did not these fellows arm the rabble against the King and Bishops upon this very account They did so the more prophane wretches they by laying a yoke upon the necks of the disciples which God never imposed through their own superstition or rather perverseness Wheedling the silly rabble with pretence of Religion and Gods-day which is not a day that the Lord has made more than any other day nor more holy than so far forth as the King and Parliament have made it and set it apart for holy uses as they have done other Holy-days namely vacation-days from servile and worldly toil that men might be now at leisure for Gods worship merciful and charitable works to our selves our neighbours our servants our handmaidens our Ox and our Ass and the like which are the proper duties for a Sunday and other holy-days And because we are a trading covetous having worldly minded people if the King and Parliament think fit to allow us no other Holy-days but Sundays and half a dozen more in a year I am content And the late wrethced Rebels might with more right and good reason have taken occasion to rebel as Massinâ—…lla and his mutineers in Naples did by the spilling and overturning of a basket of Apples than from that honest Proclamation for sports published by King James and King Charles I. of blessed memory for lawful refreshments and recreations on Sundays and Holy-days after Divine service So consonant to the doctrine and practice of all Christendom and so agreeable with the great Law of doing as we would be done by And there is never a one of these spleenatick peevâ—…sh morose unsociable and hypocritical Pharisees but in their practice do as much contradict their own doctrine for the Sabbath as that so much talk'd of Proclamation has done every Sunday when they leave their maid at home carefully to look to the pot and the spit that all be ready piping hot precisely against the time that Lungs comes home when his Auditory is tyr'd perhaps more than himself Binding heavy burdens and grievous to be born and laying them on other mens shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers and saying as John of Leyden did upon the rack confessing the true cause of his Fanaticism and Impostures The people love to he cheated with Superstition and love them hâ—…st that gull them most Thus have I as briefly and as fast as my pen could write given an honest and down-right account why and how true Christians should keep a Sunday or other day holy though not according to the hypocritical and modern orthodox but consentaneous with all the truly Orthodox Christians in the world And in answer to what Father Grey-beard in a different character sets down as the Apocryphal opinion of the Reverend Bishop Bramhall but is an infallible truth p. 38. namely he maintains the publick Sports on the Lords day by the Proclamation to that purpose and the example of the Reformed Churches beyond Sea and for the publick dances of our youth upon Countrey-Greens on Sundays after the duties of the day he sees nothing in them but innocent and agreeable to that under-sort of people And he takes the promiscuous License to unqualified persons to read the Scriptures far more prejudicial nay more pernicious than the over-rigorous restraint of the Romanists And he took it well in so taking it For though no man can have a more sacred esteem and value for the holy Scripture and Gods word than I have knowing that it is profitable for instruction and to make the man of God perfect throughly furnished unto every good work Yet this good work of instructing out of it properly belongs to the man of God it is his province not incumbent upon every man nor possible to be undertaken by every man Because our English Bibles are not in every particular the word of God nor in any one thing the words of the Prophets of Christ and the Apostles who not one of them spoke English except perhaps S. Bartholomew and the modern Orthodox have no great kindness for that Apostle because of a certain Reason But chiefly because neither he nor any other Apostle delivered the mind of God and holy writ in the English tongue The English Bibles in the Translation at best being but a paraphrase or Homily of the word of God nor all that neither for these reasons that are unanswerable and infallible First because the English Bibles are in some places erroneous Secondly They are in some places scarce sence and of dangerous consequences when every pert bold and conceited fellow that only understands English takes upon himself to raise doctrines and opinions thence contrary to the sence and meaning of God in his holy word contrary to the mind and meaning of the Holy-Ghost as well as contrary to the sence of the Church and truly Orthodox I love not this discourse and could wish it were any bodies task and employment rather than mine it is so ungrateful and generally displeasing yet since this bold Greg. has given the occasion by reflecting upon the honest words of the most Reverend and learned Bishop Bramhall in these odde animadversions in things far above his shallow pate apprehension and reach Therefore now my hand is in
that Greg. had not said trinkle Trinkle it does so run in my mind like a new tune that I cannot write one jot more till I have eas'd my hypochondriack sides and laugh'd at this same Trinkle a little with my little Droll A Mistress I lately made love to only for the sake of her dress 't is so much in fashion and looks prettily But I ne'er entertain her above half an hour at a time having better employ and alwayes after dinner And that 's the reason my Minerva is Crassa and my wit so gross yet it is but little neither for its age For which cause my little Mistress Droll does not much care for me for fear I should get nothing but a race of Pigmies and therefore coy and seldom comes at me Her Iodgings are in the Middle Temple there she keeps with the ingenuous Hudibras and in good earnest I think she loves him above all English men Holla nine Sisters you Clio Melp Thal. and th' rest come hither Ho! But stay of late you 're grown so common Send little Droll your waiting woman You get the Hiss but She the Hum Droll then my pretty Houswife Come What is 't if thou be Oedipus To Trinkle Members of the House Come scratch thy noddle Girl and guess Riddle me riddle me what it is To trinkle members is meant here To round the members in the ear No no for they 've thrown off their Round Heads And now got Perukes and more sound beads To trinkle members is perhaps To cure the members that have Claps Yet now that cannot be meant here For Harry Martin sits not there To trinkle members then must be Some new new term of Alchymie And does in phrase of Virtuoso Speak Royal Aid supply or so so Then trinkle members is get Glasses Limbecks Charcoal Stills Furnaces To crock your faces be not sorry Turn the house to a Laboratory Bring Luna Venus Quick-silver Mars Saturn Sol and Jupiter Sulphur Salt-Peter and Petrol Bole-Armonack and Vitriol Ceruse Minium and Red-Oker Pitch Chalk Ars'nick and Synoper Allum and Salt and Antimony To find the Mine where does lie Money Casting off Caput mortuum Try for the Stone if it will come So trinkle members as I 've heard Is nothing else but what I fear'd Fire the House with honest Fellows Trinkle the members blow the Bellows Thus trinkle th' members as I am told Is turn the members into Gold And so those Bishops were Midas's And some o' th' members golden Asses Or trinkle members is Get on Hey for Superfetation These two last sences th' meaning is Or Trinkles is non-sence I wis And Greg. had better far been hang'd Than thus with lasting Droll be bang'd And if Greg. takes it in Dudgeon that I thus set my little Droll upon him and soil him let him the next time bring either better weapons skill and strength or more humility submission and manners Lest she that has now bang'd him in Metre give him the next time no more Quarter than the old Irish Rimes do their Rais. But indeed it would be better on all hands if he would keep him quiet and within doors and not as now so weakly and and wickedly Rhodomantade for a baffled cause By challenging his Betters whether dead or alive to come if they dare whether King or Parliament Fathers of the Church or Privy Counsellors to play the prize over again once more at the same old weapons jealousies and fears vile aspersions crying down with the evil Counsellors and the Liturgy to fight for Reformation Liberty Indulgence modern Orthodoxy and the Covenant Thus far I thought the design of the man was to fight neither with small nor great but only with the King and Parliament But now his hand 's in he 'll play at small games rather than sit out if 't be but for lâ—…oksake and to that purpose in the next page 311. makes one step to the Ordinary Have you never a little Clergy-man here for a Gentleman to play with never a Droll or boon companion with a Cassock on that forgetting his serious office will make a Gentleman merry rather than fail with a Joque upon Scriptures make a little Play that I may pass upon him once or twice and with a lucky hit or as he phrases it p. 312. with an unlucky Repartee jear the Parson make him a scorn a tail and contempt to the people His words there are But his the Eccles-Politician's zeal spends it self against the Atheists because they use to jear Parsons That they may do and no Atheists neither For really while Clergy-men will having so serious an office play the Drolls and Boon Companions and make merry with the Scriptures not only among themselves who neither having Perukes on their heads nor Swingers and Repartees at their tongues end cannot possibly be Gentlemen but in Gentlemens company 't is impossible but that they should meet with at least if not a swinger and a rapper two or three yet an unlucky Repariee oh I thought it would come sometimes and grow by degrees to be a tale and contempt to the people or as it is in the Original Our people namely the modern Orthodox do make themselves a taile of an old Orthodox Divine And p. 314. I know not by what fate every day one or other of the Clergy does or saith some so ridiculous or foolish thing or some so pretty accident befals them that in our Authors words a man must be very splenetick that can refrain from laughter it should have been quite contrary A man must not be very splenetick that can refrain from laughter for Splen ridet It is the seat of laughter always while you live so much spleen so much laugh But it would make a man laugh spite of his teeth though he had scarce any laugh to spare at what To see how every day one or other of the Clergy does or saith or some accident befals him that a body can't câ—…use but laugh Thus the Tassil-gentle once upon the wing for lack of a Heron or some noble prey rather than fail makes a stoop at a Jack-daw or a Mag-pye 'T is a merry world with Greg. he says every day some one or other of the Clergy either by word or deed done by him or done upon him is as good to Greg. as Jack-pudding himself or Wild or Merry Andrew to make him laugh When will 't come to my turn think I to wait and make the Gentleman sport I am afraid he will not like my Droll I shall ne'er please him or if he do laugh I shall with some unlucky repartee make him laugh but on one side of his mouth Let me see give me mine Almanack since that Greg. has his every day sport and laughing and jesting at one or other of the Clergy How long will it be before it comes to my turn For you know my dear friend Father-gray-beard will find no great comfort in me excâ—…pt to laugh at
on 't better â—…th to fly So high a Pitch had cause to fear I never should find entrance there On that acount but was to blame Peter was not my Christian name Besides I fear'd St. Peter should Owe me a Grudge because I would Often for which I now am vext Make a holdsally from my Text Against the Pope who is alli'd To Peter by the surer side Fearing success and loth to climb I put off 'till some other time The Journey I desisting then Can tell you no great News from Heaven Therefore I 'l keep me to my Text That with some dâ—…ubts is much perplext But I 'l resolve All out of hand And first in order as they stand Curse ye Meroz What is Meroz Some Infidel will not come near us Nor to us will Horse and Arms bring But rather send them to the King And go himself and men to boot But for the Cause not stir one foot This is that Cursed Meroz that To th' Parliament will send no Plate But from us if he can will lock it And keep his money in his Pocket So much for that Another word There is to clear Help of the Lord. Help of the Lord What 's that Lord Bishop Or House of Lords Not so I hope Nor Lórd Newcastle nor Lord Goring With whom the wicked go a whoring Help of the Lord is One and All Help the Lord Essex General But that 's not All for moneys are The Nerves and Sinews too of War For Powder must be had for Gun We had as good else ne'r begun If the Red-coats have not their Pay They 'l from their Colours run away Nor will they willing be to die Nay and perhaps may mutinie For want of Pay where are we then We may go hang our selves for men Except we money have The Gold Must here be found as I 'l unfold Help of the Lord then is Dear honeys Help the poor Red-coats with your moneys Down with your Dust then come be nimble Plate Bodkins Tankards Spoon â—…r Thimble All these then as if at a stand And into pocket putting his hand All these like Barber's Teeth being strung On Red cloth ready as they hung Holding forth said all these good People From Colchester St. Peter's steeple Are all clear gains and I assure ye As many more I got at Bury Then lest the people should discover His sleight of hand and so give over Finding the Juggle out and mock it He put his hand in th' other pocket As feeling for some other strings But in the interim flyly flings His right hand into th' left behind And then the better them to blind His hands met under 's cloak in brief As the receiver with the Thief He held it out then to be seen As if some other string 't had been And said This other string of Plate I from the Wives of Ipswich got The Butcher's Wife did freely give All the poor soul had I believe I got all to her very Plackit And can have more still when I lack it Help of the Lord then is Dear Coneys Help us dear Petticoats with moneys List for I hear this Text plain lie Fine Ends of Gold and Silver crie Beggars must be nâ—… chusers whether Silver broken or whole bring 't hiâ—…her Good Wife or Wâ—…nch the Widows mite Oliver C. shall you requite If you 'l not credit what he saith I 'l give you then the Publick Faith Methinks I hear the Proverb started A fool and 's money is soon pâ—…rted That Proverb does belong to those That part with money to ouâ—… foes Help who the King No. Nosuch thing Help Parliament not Help the King When we say King and Parliament The Parliament alone is meant So much for this time then I say Desiderantur Caetera By this you have heard how the juggle has been done the story is good because 't is true and thousands to this day witness it to their cost to the loss of their goods plate and estates and which is more to the loss of the bodies and souls too it is too probable of their dear relations Was the holy word of God ever before in any age or Kingdom so vilely abus'd by such abominable wrestings and interpretations and to such base and bloody ends and designs as by these Peters Owens Marshals Baxters c. are not these worthy cares for the Fathers of the new Church of modern Orthodoxy are not these within an inch and a half at least as bad as a Rationale upon the sacred Common-Prayer could the Devil of hell ever abuse and wrest the Holy Scriptures as these modern Orthodox juglers and Sermon-mongers have done nay the Devil to give him his due was not so impudent Mat. 4. For though he was Devil for taking the sacred word into his mouth since he hated to be reformed yet those Sermon mongers in these times were much more Devils in that particular and outvyed Beelzebub himself For He Mat. 4. quoted the Scripture truly but not fully omitting in the sixth verse of that Chapter as his children used to do in the seventeenth verse of 1 Pet. 2. the latter clause as that which made not for their turn But these children have out-done their Father in hellish craft upon those Scriptures Curse ye Meroz give them blood to drink Bind their Kings with chains and their Nobles in fetters of Iron and a hundred the like not in concealing the full sence of them as the Devil did but being more devillish and out witting Hell it self in wresting them to a quite contrary sence the Devil went not so far these modern Orthodox herein making the Devil an Ass. Are not these worthy cares Mr. Grey beard for your Learned Fathers Considering therefore these things with my self as one whose fate it was to be born and bred up in schismatical times and a factious University sucking in Schism with my mothers milk in two sâ—…nses and consequently when I was a child did as a child and was gull'd and cheated into their Fopperies as much as I must needs have been into Mabometanism if I had been born and bred up amongst the Turks whom yet I have found the honester of the two though both bad I say considering with my self when I came to years of consideration what devillish bloody and rapacious villains these Modern Orthodox Preachers and Sermon-mongers were so that Hell it self could not match them and withal considering that those people that most haunted those Preachments Sermons Lectures and Stories were above all mankind whether Turks Cannibals Indians or Jews the most false malicious revengeful slanderous envious liars cheaters treacherous bloody perfidious rapacious plunderers Sequestrators Oliverians Committee-men Gifted-men cruel Dissemblers Lovers of their own selves alone together with them of their gang covetous Boasters proud Blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy Traitors heady high-minded Lovers of pleasures more than Lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof c. Presently I think
holiness Hakkadosh but in the Chaldee Tongue and as spurious and adulterate rejected by our Saviour Which do you think is the most Authentick apographical Copy of the Septuagint the Vatican or Alexandrian Much alike yet the Alexandrian is usually preferred we call it the King's Manuscript because it was sent to our King from Constantinople by Cyril Lucaris Patriarch there and brought with him as a famous monument from Alexandria where he was Patriarch till advanc'd to the higher dignity the Patriarchat of Constantinople from whence our Leiger Ambassadour there Sir Thomas Roe sent it to our King The Greek Church heard of no other Bible but this Septuagint 400 years after Christ when St. Hierom first divulg'd commonly the Hebrew Text at which the African Bishops St. Augustine especially was so offended that he interdicted that Hebrew Bible as did also the Greek Bishops which forc'd St. Hierom l. 2. cont Ruffinum in Praf ad 2 Chron. to beg their pardon saying he had no design by that Promulgation to confront the sacred Septuagint And for my part I think if you will not be angry that the Vulgar Latin is a more certain Interpreter and as old I believe as since the times of the Apostles being writ by them or some of their Disciples for the use of the Church of Rome to whom St. Paul writ an Epistle and even Beza as well as Grotius acknowledges it so much the more credibly authentick for that old as well as odd Latine in which it gloried before St. Hierom's time For he indeed pretended to amend and correct it by putting forth another Latine Translation concordant as to the Old Testament with his Hebrew Text encouraged thereunto by Pope Damasus and both his Latine Version and the old Vulgar Latine were confirmed by Gregory the Great But because they made a distraction in the Church they were by the Authority as well as pains of Clement 8. concorporated and now are known by the old name given before St. Hierom was born The Vulgar Latine To which Learned men I 'le assure you give a great deal of Credit and Reverence therein consenting with Baronius Bonfrerius Serrarius c. though they differ in other matters But I speak of my Hebrew Tongue now that it is mended by the University at Tiberias the Masoreth What say you to that I say nothing to it I told you before I love no Tongues when the goodness is quite dry'd out of them I value them no more than a chip though for want of better accommodation they usually serve some vain People to make a show with thinking they are better than nothing if you will believe a grave and learned Authour called Hudibras For Hebrew Roots although th' are found To flourish most in barren Ground c. Be not offended Sir I do not think you Sir nor a thousand more such Hebrew bablers as your self are at all concern'd in the Sarcasme you carry Hebrew only a little at the tip and Tongues end they are no small fools I can tell you that can produce the Roots of that Tongue What Language spoke our Saviour Only one the Syriack or Babylonish his Mother Tongue according to the flesh though as God he understood all Languages and things but he never travell'd during his Incarnation out of the Nation and Language wherein he was born that we read of When our Saviour and the Apostles quoted Scripture out of the Old Testament did they not follow the Hebrew Text No certainly but the Septuagint as 't is evident Nor was the Old Testament compos'd into a Canon as we have it until Esdras first did it after the Captivity And the Samaritans own no Scripture to this day nor in our Saviours time but the Pentateuch the minor Prophets as we have them not till Esdras his time compos'd as now and some of the Holy Scripture is yet quite lost to us namely the Prophecies of the Prophets Iddo Nathan Shemajah c. Besides most part of the Prophecie of Daniel was writ in Chaldee so also Ezra chap. 4. and some other Parts of Holy Scripture that I list not here to recite And St. Augustine l. 18. c. 13. de civit Dei tells us the Grecian Christians knew not in his time whether there were any other sacred Original but the Septuagint Happily made more intelligible if not more legible by the concurrent Testimonies of sacred Apographical Versions and Copies Syriack Armenian Indian Vulgar Latine Aethiopick and the Mungrel Tongue Coptick partly Greek partly Old Aegyptian as to some Books of the Bible Persian Chaldee Paraphrase by the Providence of Almighty God and the indefatigable pains of Learned men preserved and collected namely St. Hierom Cyril Eusebius and Pamphilus Mercer Buxtorf Sixtus Senensis Pradus Nobilius Flaminius Abbas Apollinarius Stephanus Vilalpandus Azorius Simon de Muis Lindanus Kircher Casaubon Bochartus Usherus Fullerus Erasmus Grotius Beza Morinus Breerwood Vatablus Munster Hutter Junius Fabritius Boderianus Masius above all Cardinal Ximenius the Toletan Primate for the first great Polyglot Bible enlarged by Arias Montanus at the charge of Philip King of Spain commonly called the King of Spain's Bible but augmented since by the Parisian Bible at the cost and care of Michael de Jay and now all of them outvied by the Late Polyglot Bible Printed at London with as incomparable profit as pains But do we not find the old Hebrew Tongue in those Bibles Yes Yes But that which is rather construed by comparing with other Languages more certain and better known especially since the old Hebrew that had anciently but three Letters that stood for Vowels we may now make a nose of wax of an old Hebrew word now that we have got a Baker's dozen of Vowels besides Dipthongs added to the former And indeed all those vowels notes and points are not only uncertain but of less standing in the University than Greek accents and aspirations a new invention too of the Grammarians yet both of them are of much longer standing than the distinction of the Holy Books inter Chapters and Verses which yet are useful if they be not always too much insisted upon of all the new Hebrew additions Dagesch pleads the greatest seniority being as old some say as the Letter N. But most old Hebrew Copies neglect him and leave him out In what Language was the New Testament first indited In Greek all of them Autographically as the most universal Language and also in other Languages Autographically as Latine Syriack without controversie and one or two Books thereof some say in the Hebrew Tongue indeed the Apostles could speak all useful Languages but although some ancient MS. say that Matthew's Gospel was writ in the Hebrew Tongue for the Jews at Hierusalem cited by the Learned Doctour Hammond in his Annotations upon Matt. 1. 1. yet because it is certain the Jews then at Hierusalem understood Hebrew at that time no more than you and I by the Hebrew Tongue there must be understood