opinion of their great Wisdom This makes them Heady Confident and Assuming thinking themsetves wiser than their Teachers and taking upon them to instruct their Betters without any regard to their Learning or Office yea this vain conceit of Knowledge hath lifted some of them to that high degree of Arrogance as to set up their Light within them above the Holy Scriptures and to prefer their own Dreams before Divine Revelations Again 2dly This pretence of greater Knowledge occasions great Contempt and Disobedience to Authority for these Opinionative Men soon become Wiser than their Governors they see farther into matters than all that are above them and so can espy the errors in the Administration of Affairs Hence you shall find them taxing the Actions of their Superiors finding fault with their Conduct and quarrelling with all Orders and Constitutions that are not drawn up by their Model and appointed as they in their great wisdom think best They talk much of a Judgment of Discretion which they oppose to the Judgment of their Superiors and by the help of it can lay aside all Laws and Canons made for publick Peace and Order And what a pernicious influence this must have not only the nature of the thing but our daily and doleful Experience may easily inform us Moreover 3dly This overweaning conceit of great Knowledge makes men pragmatical medlers in things that belong not to them invading the Office both of the King and Bishop prying into matters of State as if they were all Privy Councellors and Expounding the most difficult places in Scripture with greater confidence than the most Learned Doctors Hence you shall see them creeping into Mens Parishes as if none were able to Lead and Instruct their Flock without their Assistance and thrusting themselves into other Folks business as if none had any understanding but themselves Again 4thly This vain conceit of greater Light makes men Obstinate and Pertinacious in their private Fancies and Opinions though never so False and Erroneous We know how difficult a thing it is to reclaim a Schismatick the conceit he hath of his own Knowledge makes him think he cannot be mistaken the Infallibility he denies to the Pope he assumes to himself and vainly thinks that if other Men did but see with his Eyes they might soon discern the Truth and this would make them say and do even as he takes himself to be always in the Right and that 't is not possible for so enlighten'd a Person as he to be in the Wrong And what hope can there be of reclaiming such a one who is resolv'd and arm'd against Conviction Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit saith Solomon there is more hope of a fool than of him Prov. 26.12 Lastly This vain opinion of greater Knowledge makes them to despise censure and condemn the Actions of other Men for thinking themselves only in the right they take all others to be out of the way that go not with them and never so much as dreaming that they can be deceiv'd pity and sigh over others as a company of ignorant blind and deiuded Wretches Thus are they by this means brought fondly to applaud and admire themselves and to look down with contempt and scorn on others though much Wiser than themselves These and many other are the sad effects of this Artifice and plainly proceed from Mens flattering themselves and others with an opinion of their greater Light and knowledge Now to shew the Vanity of this pretence we may observe 1st That the greatest pretenders to Knowledge have commonly the least share of it a smatterer in any Art or Science that hath scarce knowledge enough to see his own ignorance usually boasts of higher measures and degrees of it than a Wiser Man that sees much farther into it will pretend to who being sensible of his own defects and how far short he comes of Perfection is commonly more humble and modest A wise man saith Solomon feareth and departeth from evil but the fool rageth and is confident Prov. 14.16 If any man think he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know 1 Cor. 8.2 We read of some that take upon them to be Teachers of others when themselves need to be Taught the first Principles of the Oracles of God and of others that are ever learning but never come to the knowledge of the truth 2 Tim. 3.7 'T was well-observ'd by my Lord Bacon That a little Knowledge is apt to puff up and make Men giddy but a greater share of it will set them right and bring them to low and humble thoughts of themselves So that this pretence of greater Light is but a covering for their deeds of Darkness and if the light within them be darkness how great is that darkness Matth. 6.23 Beside 2dly This boast of greater Knowledge is a great bar to all growth and increase in it For what need have they to labour for that of which they think they have so great a share already This will breed not only a neglect but contempt of all the means of Knowledge 't will make them deaf to Instruction and to shut their Eyes against the Light though it flashes in their Faces 'T was wisely observ'd by the Roman Orator Multi ad Sapientiam pervenissent nisi se jam pervenisse put assent Many might have attain'd to Wisdom were it not for a vain conceit that they had attain'd it already And indeed there is no such Ignorant Arrogant and Incurable Fop as a Gifted Brother full of his Visions and Revelations who pretends to be above Ordinances and to be Wise above that which is Written Lastly This vain conceit of greater Knowledge oft times leads to a judicial Blindness and they who are so apt to Reprobate others are themselves given up to a Reprobate sense that in seeing they should see but not perceive and in hearing they should hear but not understand We read of the Gnosticks That when they professed themselves to be wise they became fools and being vain in their imaginations their foolish hearts were darken'd Rom. 1.21 22. God Almighty put out that Light which they vainly pretended to or wilfully abus'd and suffer'd them to grope on in thick darkness And the same Apostle tells us of others who for not receiving the truth in the love of it were given up to believe a lie and carried away with strong delusions 2 Thess 2.11 And this 't is to be feared is the case of too many Sectaries in our Days who withstand the clearest evidence of Truth and harden their hearts against all Conviction nothing can make them sensible of the error of their ways though it never so plainly appear to be so but will obstinately persist in their evil course against all the Commands of their Superiors the Instructions of their Teachers and the Example of Wise and Holy Men in all Ages as if they were lull'd asleep in a fatal Security and seal'd up under final
and Spirit than other Mens For that is all the Praying by the Spirit since the ceasing of Inspiration And who will presume to judge of that Yea Is not the Heart more hinder'd and call'd off in their Prayers by the Invention of Matter and Words than in others where both these are prepared to their hands I hope they do not pretend to Pray by the immediate dictates and suggestions of the Holy Ghost as the Apostles did if they do they must work a Miracle that we may believe them and then we shall reckon all their Prayers of as great Authority as the Holy Scripture if they cannot they must excuse us if we condemn their depending upon such divine and sudden Suggestions of great Rashness and Presumption and that theirs is so far from a more Spiritual way of Worship that 't is rather more Carnal and scarce deserves the name of Divine Worship And yet here lies the great mystery of this Artifice for these Men take Praying Extempore or by present Conceptions to be Praying by the Spirit and so call it a Spiritual way of Worship whereas Praying by a Form is stil'd stinting of the Spirit and so that must not be allow'd to be Spiritual but Formal Worship and by this device they set the Ears of the People a itching after the one and turn them away or make them deaf to the other Now this Falacy may be easily apparent to any that considers that some of the vilest Wretches and greatest Monsters of Impiety that ever liv'd have been most famous for this talent of Extempore Prayer We read of one actually in League with the Devil Vid. Raviliac Rodivivu Major Were who had such a Fluency this way that he was admir'd by all but could be imitated by none that came near him And will any ascribe the Prayers of such a Wretch made up of Sorceries and the vilest Abominations to the Spirit of God Are they not rather the Diabolical suggestions of the Evil Spirit and to be ascribed to the true Author the Devil who is the Father of all Lies and Impostures And certainly he that considers what bad things have been vented in such Prayers will plainly see it to be not only a Belying but Blaspheming the Holy Ghost to entitle them to Him But 't is time to shew the evil and danger of this device And First This pretence of Purer Ordinances and purer Worship hath prov'd a principle of great Instability and Giddiness in Religion for when some Men began to refine upon the Established Church and set up Purer Ordinances Have not others risen up who thought them not pure enough and refin'd again upon them yea Does not one Sect continue still refining upon another and God knows when and where it will end Have not these double and treble Refiners almost refin'd away all their Religion and left little more than the Name and pretence of it Is it not dwindled into Air and Speculation and almost lost in a crowd of endless scruples and disputes How little of the life and spirit of Religion appears in Mens lives and how few can shew their Faith by their Works Which are the sad effects of this Reforming and Refining Humour Again This hath made the generality of People despise all Godly Forms though far more conducing to the purity of Faith and Devotion than other newfangled Methods for a Form of sound Words may preserve soundness in the matter of our Prayers and prevent indecencies in the manner of them whereas Extemporary Effusions can do neither for there much unsound Matter and many unseemly Expressions may and do frequently drop from those that use them Moreover many ignorant and wicked Persons who have been eminent for this Spiritual way of Praying have encouraged themselves in their Wickedness upon the account of this Gift and too many still flatter themselves on the same account that they are the Children of God and endow'd with his Spirit notwithstanding all their Wickedness Others again for lack of this Gift have been apt to despond as if they wanted that which should chiefly recommend them unto God And both of them have thereby grievously deceived both themselves and others Besides This pretence of greater Purity naturally leads to Schism and Separation for he that offers a Purer Model shall be sure to draw Disciples after him and many Men being too much given to change are apt to hearken to any higher offers and degrees of Purity there are some who dream of Purity and Perfection here in this life and these will easily listen to any tenders and advances towards it This will cause them to divide and separate from others vainly thinking themselves advanc'd to a higher Form in Christ's School and to have attain'd to greater measures of Perfection which naturally leads not only to Separating but Vilifying one another for they that take themselves to be of a higher Class will scorn to join or converse with those of a lower Form and as others swell in their thoughts and conceits above them so will they make them too the object of their contempt and scorn hence we find the Presbyterians who had declaim'd against the Church for making an Idol of the Common-Prayer were by the Independents and other Sectaries told That they made a greater and worse Idol of their Covenant and they who had stil'd the Liturgy and Episcopacy the Calves of Dan and Bethel found after the Directory and Presbytery branded with the same names and they too accounted the greatest Calves that most admired them Thus you see to what pass declaiming against publick Order and pretending to purer Ordinances may bring matters to which cannot but give great disturbance to any Church or Kingdom whereas the Wisdom that is from above is not only pure but peaceable gentle easy to be intreated free from pride full of good works without partiality and without hypocrisy James 3.17 18. If you will bring the pretences of Dissenters to this Test 't is to be feared Mene Tekel may be written on them they are weigh'd in the balance and found wanting in all these things I am Yours A. B. LETTER V. SIR I Find you sensible in your last of the great mischief of some Mens pretences to greater Purity and a more Spiritual way of Worship and what great advantage they have given to Sectaries to multiply and increase their Parties I shall proceed therefore to a Fourth Artifice made use of to that purpose and that is to cry up Peace and Unity though their Actions tend all the while to destroy and undermine them They know the Holy Scriptures abound every where with Precepts and Exhortations to Peace and Unity and what pressing Arguments and motives are made use of to that end The First things proclaim'd to the World upon our Blessed Saviour's coming into it next to the glory of God were peace on earth and good will towards men The whole course of his Life and Doctrine whilst he continued in it
Followers from all Subjection to them So rarely do they Expound their Christian Liberty which they make use of as a pretence to shake off the Yoke and evade all Obedience to Government Yea they enlarge this Liberty so far as to think themselves obliged not to do what is Commanded and likewise to do what is Forbidden in the Defence of it So that if the Magistrate should forbid what he would have done and command what he would not these Men would be caught in their own Snare and be oblig'd by their own Principles to do as he would have them And yet they stile this humoursome and cross-grain'd sort of Liberty a Privilege purchased for them by Jesus Christ and a Depositum committed to the Care and Keeping of the Christian Church as if Christ had given them a Dispensation from Observing all good Order and let them loose to all Disobedience Whereas such a Privilege is so far from being worth the purchasing that 't is much better to be without it for this would be an Engine of perpetual Discord and Confusion the Mischief whereof both to Church and Kingdom is too visible to need laying open But did these Men who talk so much of Christian Liberty allow that Liberty to others when they were in Power which they now claim to themselves No quite otherwise none were ever more rigid Imposers and more notorious Infringers of Christian Liberty than they 't is well known that they pressed the Covenant upon Mens Consciences with far greater rigor than any ever did Conformity yea those very Men that alledg'd Christian Liberty against Conforming to the Orders of the Church Compell'd others to take the Covenant with Pike and Pistol threatning Loss of Life Goods and Lands on such as refused it I suppose you have heard with how severe and intolerable Penalties they Prohibited the Common-Prayer and with what merciless rigor they were executed on those that used it When some put in their own Plea of Christian Liberty for a little Mitigation they were answered 'T was no Impeachment of Christian Liberty to wear those Golden Chains about their Necks And when they had laid the most intolerable Bonds and Burthens upon Mens Consciences they told them that 't was Prophaneness and Rebellion to say Let us breake their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us We find one of them commending the Parliament for endeavouring to fence the Vineyard with a setled Militia to gather out the Malignants as Stones and to make a Wine-press in it for the squeezing of Delinquents But what shall we say of that barbarous Infringement of Christian Liberty in pressing the Directory upon the Conscience of their Sovereign King Charles the First which they knew was against it they denied him the use of the Liturgy though he earnestly desired it yea they would not allow him to use any other set Form of Prayer in his own House though he declared it against his Conscience to join in a way of Worship where it was wholly uncertain what the Minister would say to God hoping as he told them that they would not offer Violence to the Conscience of their Sovereign yea they denied him the Attendance of his own Chaplains to direct and comfort him in his Troubles A piece of Rigor and Barbarity as himself stiles it greater than is ever used by Christians to the meanest Prisoners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or greatest Malefactors So that this Pretence to Christian Liberty is a Device made use of to serve their own turn and to be deny'd to all others which plainly shews the Fallacy and Falshood of it I am SIR Yours A. B. LETTER XIII SIR ANother Artifice of Dissenters to keep up their Schism is a pretence to better means of Edification this is a Device-occasioned by the Ignorance of the People and cherished in them by the Subtilty of their Teachers They cannot Edifie they tell us so well in the Church as in the Conventicle and they Profit more by the Sermons of the one than they can by the other This is a plausible and popular Plea for Separation and hath help'd much to increase the Party for it carries a fair shew of Zeal and Care for their Souls to look out for the best means of Edification none they think can blame them if they hear those Sermons by which they Profit most and follow those Teachers that best promote their Eternal Welfare But let us examine what Truth there is in this Pretence to this end we must enquire What it is to Profit by Sermons And who are the most Edifying Preachers Because there are great and dangerous Mistakes in both To Edify then or Profit by Sermons is First To have our Judgments well inform'd in the Knowledge of God and the Mysteries of the Gospel And 2ly To lead our lives according to it so that they who most truly and plainly Expound the Holy Scriptures and best apply them to all the ends and purposes of a Holy Life are indeed the most Edifying Teachers and they who most grow in Grace and the sound Knowlege of God and abound most in all the Acts of Virtue and a Good Life are most Edified by the Prayers and Discourses they hear and are the best Proficients in Christ's School Now there is no Church in the Christian World that affords better means of Edification to all these purposes than that whereof we are Members For there the Word of God is faithfully Preach'd and Expounded by which we may be throughly Instructed in all Divine and Sacred Knowledge There all the Articles of the Creed containing all that is necessary to be Believ'd are plainly and practically unfolded to us by which we may be built up in our most Holy Faith There we have the Lord's Prayer the most perfect of all Prayers together with other excellent and well-order'd Prayers composed by it daily sounding in our Ears by which we are directed in all our Addresses unto God to offer up a Pious Sober and Well-compos'd Devotion There again we hear the Ten Commandments frequently Read and Explain'd to us in the full latitude both of the Precepts and Prohibitions contain'd in them by which we may learn how to walk in the Whole course of our lives so as to Please God and Profit our selves In a word there is no Duty incumbent on us either with relation to God our Neighbour or our selves but what is clearly opened and by the most proper and pressing Motives exhorted to And there is no Sin or Transgression against either but what we are by the most convincing Arguments dehorted from in the publick Assemblies of the Established Church Whereas in the Separate Meetings of Sectaries the Holy Scriptures are very badly Expounded and too often very sadly Perverted The fore-mentioned excellent Models and Abridgments of the Christian Religion I mean the Creed the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments are seldom or never rehearsed in the Ears of the People by which neglect
Their pretence to Christian Liberty p. 106 Letter XIII Their pretence to better means of Edification p. 117 Letter XIV Their setting up and encouraging little private Schools of Philosophy p. 126 Postscript Their settling and maintaining a secret Correspondence among themselves with a Copy of one of their late Letters p. 135 The End of the CONTENTS LETTER I. SIR I Remember my Promise of giving you some account of the Artifices of Dissenters to support their Schism And though this Mystery of Iniquity hath some depths and intriegues that are out of the reach of a vulgar eye yet there are other Devices that lie more open and may be easily discern'd by an ordinary Observer And here the First thing that occurs to our view is their great zeal and diligence in making Proselytes in which they imitate if not outdo the zeal of the Pharisees Matt. 23.15 who compass sea and land to make a proselyte This unwearied diligence of the Pharisees is remark'd by our Saviour as an instance of their Hypocrisy And the Jewish Writers tell us how they used their utmost endeavours in hunting after Proselytes not for their good but their own gain that they might some way or other drain their Purses after they had drawn them into their Sect They spared no pains among all sorts of persons but especially among the Richer Widows whom by their subtle attractives they despoil'd of a great part of their Substance The Scripture hath recorded of them That they devoured widows houses Matt. 23.14 by their long Prayers which they made to serve as a long Grace to hallow and sanctify their Oppression In a word they fish'd for Proselytes every where and made a prey of all that they drew into their Net And herein they are equall'd if not exceeded by our Dissenting Brethren the art and industry used by them to this purpose being too well known to need any proof The chief things to be remark'd under this Head are 1st The Persons of whom these Proselytes consist 2dly Whence they are gathered And 3dly What they are Proselyted to For the Parties on whom this Game is plaid They are not any Persons of Education and Parts who can see through the disguise and discover the Imposture but the weak and illiterate Vulgar whose want of Judgment renders them the more easy and liable to seduction And here their great business is to flatter and humour the common People who are the sole Props and Members of the Conventicle being fearful and tender of displeasing them lest they should fly off and Dagon fall with them and therefore we are told by a wise Observer of their ways That the People are most truly the Guides and that the Pastors must follow them whom they pretend to Conduct which shews them to be rather Men-pleasers than the Servants of God But whence are these Proselytes taken Why out of the Parochial Established Churches for they can be taken no where else and we all know that the Conventicle is made up of a few straggling Sheep gathered out of other Flocks and drawn from the true Fold of the Catholick Church Now these Parochial Churches being by the Dissenters themselves acknowledged to be true Churches of Christ this can be no other than gathering Churches out of Churches a thing severely Condemn'd by the Puritans of old in the Brownists and by the Presbyterians of late in the Independents and other Sectaries If you will peruse the Presbyterian Writings and pirticularly the Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici the exactest Book that hath been written by them You will find this practice of gathering Churches out of Churches and setting up separate Meetings against an Established Church bitterly inveigh'd against as the Mother of Confusion the Nurse of Schism and the Step mother of Edification How comes the case then to be thus alter'd That gathering Churches out of Churches which was formerly a heinous Crime should now become not only a harmless thing but a necessary Duty And what was so fiercely disputed against as a grievous Faction should now be so earnestly contended for as if it were the faith once delivered to the saints What is it that hath made this change Is Vice of a sudden turn'd into Virtue Or hath the Mother of Confusion chang'd the Breed and brought forth a purer way of Worship and Devotion No the Mystery of it is That the Presbyterians upon the dissolution of the Government which they had in a great measure occasion'd fed themselves with hopes of being uppermost and laboured hard to bring the other Sects that grew up under them to the lure of their Discipline and then setting up Altar against Altar and gathering Churches out of Churches were vile and abominable things but finding themselves oppos'd and indeed overtop'd by the Independents and by the Re-establishment of the Church upon its ancient Foundation utterly defeated of all their hopes they began then to play the same game and lest they should be left in the lurch fell a gathering Disciples as fast as the other Sectaries And then all their own Arguments taken from Peace and Unity which were very strong whilst they made for Them of a sudden lost all their force when they were turned against them Most rare and well-grounded Divinity But what is it that these Industrious Men seek to make Proselytes to Is it to the embracing of Christianity or the practice of real Piety and Virtue No this were a very charitable and commendable Zeal indeed but 't is to a Party a Faction to a Schism or Separation from a true Church which they themselves have branded for the sink of Error and the inlet of all Confusion So that if the People would but open their Eyes they might easily see their Leaders acting against their own Principles and might condemn them out of their own mouths But what is the end or design of this great diligence in making Proselytes Why the plain design of it is the weakening the established Church by drawing the Members from it the strengthning their own Party by adding Followers to it and by degrees undermining the Government in Church and State to draw the Power and Interest of both into their own hands Great and noble designs indeed not for the publick Good but their own private Interest and Ambition And yet these apparently lie at the bottom of these endeavours Now this will lead us to consider the evil and danger of such Practices and that as well to the Parties Proselyted as those that Proselyte them St. Paul sharply rebuked this way of Proselyting or Party-taking among the Corinthians though they made some of the Apostles yea Christ himselfe to be one of the Heads of the Party While one saith I am of Paul another I am of Apollos another I am of Cephas another I am of Christ are ye not carnal and walk as men Yes as the worst sort of men for ye divide Kingdoms rend Churches and tear in pieces the very