if the same man said Gangr part 1. p. 86. The Scottish Nation was the Babylonish-Beast Ib. p. 87. N. C. I should not have been offended if you had caled such men as these Beasts and said they bellowed or brayed or what you please against your worship Speaking evil of those things which they know not But you are not Ignorant I hope that we have a more knowing people than these who are truly Religious and mind serious things C. What is this to the purpose I ask for a Pick-ax and you bring me a Spade We are not talking of some select persons but of the Multitude which I affirm are grosly Ignorant Yet since you lead me to it I must tell you there are Serious as well as slight follies And I have reason to think there are divers of those who are more sober than those we now spoke of and pass for very knowing Christians that have small skill in any thing but Phrases For what greater token can there be of Ignorance than either not to understand what a man means or elso to slight and undervalue what he sayes if he declare the Doctrine of Christianity in plain and simple words Nay to complain as if Religion were lost and the Gospel gone if we leave off their Forms of Speech and beloved Phrases N. C. Now I scarce know what you mean C. Do you not remember what a noise and clutter there was when Mr. Baxter began to speak more intelligibly about some weighty things in Christianity than others did N. C. Yes very well Some thought he taught a new way of Religion and led us from Christ to the Law again C. The reason was because he put them very much out of the rode of their Phrases This made them fear Christ would be taken away from them and free Grace be despised and a Covenant of works restored And for the very same cause they raise such a dust now against many of our Ministers They do not hear them talk of getting into Christ and getting an interest in Christ and that for this end they must get Faith and go to the promise and eye Christ in the promise and close with him in the promise and lay themselves flat upon the promise and go out of themselves that the promise may enter All which you think are very mysterious things because you are Ignorant for let all the sense that is contain'd in any of these forms be delivered in proper plain and easie words and you despise it as a thing of naught Though you talk of Gospel-light and Gospel-discoveries and Gospel-manifestations yet there is little or nothing all this while to be known or understood Religion you will have to be such a Mystery that if a man thinks he understands it he ought to conclude he is not acquainted with it It is a certain sign a man hath no skill in it if he imagine he knows the plain meaning of it It must be look't upon as a Great something A thing to be star'd at and admired but no body knows what At least you cannot clearly discover it to us not withstanding all the brags we hear of light and discoveries Hence it is which is a great argument of their Ignorance that great numbers of your Religious people have been so easily perverted and turn'd to the wildest Sects when as the clearest Reason that our men can speak will not convince them What multitudes have soon turn'd Anabaptists Antinomians Familists and Behemists but how few and with what difficulty can be brought to the Church of England This is an evident proof to all considering men that they can be made in love with any thing but only Reason And that a Disciple of Jack-pudding shall lead greater troops after him than the gravest Divine They will sooner listen to a fancy and are more ready to embrace another pack of new Phrases than the soberest sense and the wisest Instructions that can be spoken There is a famous and undeniable instance of it in the other and as you think the Purer England Was it not a wonder that the whole Church of Bostou some few excepted should become Converts on a sudden to a daring woman and be infected with her damnable Opinions And that You may find these very words in the proceedings of the General Court holden at New-Town Oct. 2. 1637. against Mrs Hutchinson and others p. 32.40 65 66. though they were esteemed Wise sober and well-grounded Christians and some of her opinions also had the whole Current of Scripture against them Nay they look't upon her as a Prophetess such were her spiritual gifts raised up of God for some great work now at hand as the calling of the Jews c. So as she had more resort to her for Counsel about matters of Conscience and clearing up mens Spiritual Estates than any Minister I might say all the Elders in the Country This they impute to the craft of this American Jezabel But I have reason to think the truer cause was the Ignorance of these knowing people who were easily cheated by her new Phrases and soft Doctrines concerning Free Grace glorious light and holding forth naked Christ Especially with such pretended v. Mr. Welds preface and Error 25.33.38 48 71. c. Mysteries as these that Christ is the New Creature that we may have all graces and yet want Christ That there can be no true closing with Christ in a premise that hath a qualification or condition expressed that conditional promises are Lagat and therefore no true comfort can be had from them That to act by vertue of or in obedience to a Command is Legal that to Evidence Justification by Sanctification or Graces savours of Rome that the Witness of the Spirit is merely immediate without any respect to the Word or omeurrence with it that the Seal of the Spirit is limited to this immediate Witness and doth never witness to any work of grace or any conclusions of ours And finally that the immediate Revelation of my good estate without any respect to the Scriptures is as clear to me as the voice of God from Heaven to Saint Paul N. C. There was Witcheraft sure in the business C. Yes of sweet Doctrines and glorious phrases The pleasing murmur of mysteries and spirituality of immediate Sealing and witnessing of Revelations and manifestations of the Spirit These bewitched the wisest and soberest and well-grounded Christians because in truth they were Ignorant and stood upon the ground of fancy and imagination who would have stopt their ears like the deaf Adder to the charms of sober reason should a man have charmed never so wisely Nor could they ever be dis-inchanted by all the Arguments and perswasions of all the Ministers in that Country but she kept her strength and reputation even among the people of God Ib. pag. ult till the hand of Civil justice laid hold of her and then she began evidently to deeline and the faithful to be
This without doubt hath wosully insuared your peoples Consciences and is one great reason they are so full of fears and scruples They have been taught not to rely upon impartial Reason but to seek still for a place of holy Scripture to be their guide and warrant So Mr. W. Bradshaw a famous Divine Defence of his Book of Lots against Mr. Balmford whose name I know you reverence confessed to Mr. Gataker that he was often troubled to satisfy some in their Cases propounded to him though he gave them never so good reason for his Resolutions because they would not therewith be satisfied unless he could produce some place in Scripture for every particular Thus infinite perplexities doubts and scrupulosities must needs arise in mens minds as Mr. R. Hooker well expresses it and stops and rubs without any end be cast into the course of mens lives concerning their ordinary and civil affairs if the light of Reason shall be suppressed and men shall be constrain'd burn it never so clearly not to proceed by it in ought they are to do till they have had solemn access first to the written Word and fetch'd light from some particular sentence in it for the farther confirmation of them therein And thus I may add the Scripture came to be basely wrested and bended from its proper sense and meaning to serve their particular occasions And in their great Ignorance they went away better satisfied with a fanciful and impertinent application of it to their present business than if the soundest Reason in the world had been offered to them Only this in time was the mischief of it that by this means they found a Way to justify unlawful Actions and supported their Confidence in those wayes against the most evident Reason But it 's possible you will not regard what I say nor Mr. R. Hooker neither being one of those you call blind and superstitious writers Let me send you therefore to Mr. Calvin who tells you that if you understand not your Liberty about things in themselves indifferent there will be no quiet in your Consciences no end of Superstitions Many indeed think saith he that we are fond to move disputation about the free eating of flesh about the free use of dayes and garments and such other small trifles as they think them But there is more weight in them than is commonly thought For when Consciences have once cast themselves into the snare they enter into a long and cumbersome way from whence they can afterward find no easie way to get out If a man begin to doubt for instance whether he may use linnen Sheets Instit L. 3. cap. 16. Sect. 7. Shirts Handkerchiefs and Napkins neither will he be out of doubt whether he may use those of Hemp and after that of coarser stuff Nay he will begin to weigh with himself whether he cannot sup without Napkins and be without Handkerchiefs If he think dainty meat to be unlawful at length he shall not with quietness before the Lord eat either Brown-bread or Common meats when he remembers that he may yet sustain his body with baser food If he doubt of pleasant Wine afterward he will not drink even that which is dead with peace of Conscience last of all he will not be so bold to touch sweeter and cleaner water than other Finally at the length he will come to this point to think it unlawful as the common saying is to tread upon a straw lying a cross For the Question is not light and small being no less than this whether God will have us do this or that whose Will ought to guide all our Counsels and Actions N. C. I know none that are troubled with such idle scruples as these C. That may proceed from the dulness and shortness of their thoughts which never let them see into what endless Labyrinths their principles will lead them I am sure such rules as these have been so improv'd by your Ministers that in an ignorant zeal they deny you your lawful Liberties and lay upon you unnecessary Restramts And on the other side intice you to hear controversies and all manner of Doctrines saying that no part of the Counsel of God must be suppressed and conceiving the People would be defrauded if they were not admitted to these disputations They make no difference as my Lord Bacon * Wise and moderate Discourse of Church affairs printed 1641. since published in his Resuscitatio 1657. observed long ago between Milk and Strong-meat and to speak again in his words which now come to my mind what I said before in my own they seek to prove every thing by express Scripture or else imagine it is not to be allow'd and then that constrains them to wrest it and make conceited inferences and forced allusions And as for preaching it hath been in a manner made necessary to sanctifie every Ordinance which is another very ignorant Conceit There are many have thought saith he that it is almost of the Essence of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to have a Sermon before it This hath brought Liturgies and firms of Divine Service into contempt and made those to be despised who had not the faculty of constant preaching As for those that could not preach at all they have been alwayes reproached by you in so strange a manner that it hath been another occasion of corrupting our Religion and bringing the holy Ordinance of God into contempt N. C. It 's impossible you should rather say the quite contrary C. Hear me a little and then judg These poor men were in a manner constrain'd by your rude clamours to take upon them to expound the word of God though very unable for it and thereby exposed too early even Preaching it self to the laughter and scorn of those that had some Wit to discern but no goodness to pitty their Weakness They were loth to hear themselves called Idol-Shepherds that had Mouths but could not speak a word from God and so rather than endure this reproach they entertain'd the people with their Glosses Paraphrases and Discourses upon the holy Scripture and called all the Word of the Lord though never so absurd and sensless Silence I confess had better becom'd them than straining themselves to speak what they did not understand but yet consider how hard it was to resist the temptation to open their Mouths as oft as they could whereby at once they might both avoid the contempt and odious brand of a dumb dog and also get a great reputation with the Ignorant multitude of an able painful Minister of God's Word And as for those who had some abilities to expound the Scriptures and exhort the People they were called upon with so much earnestness to preach the Word in season and out of season that they knew not at last what to preach They were forced to step up into the Pulpit and make a noise when they had little or Nothing to say By which means the Holy
Presbyterian heretofore about Uniformity and Obedience to Laws pag. 248 ERRATA PAge 3. Line 16. r. Ordinances P. 4. l. 15. r. witness to any P. 11. l. 18. marg r. * Second part p. 135. P. 19. l. 14. dele almost P. 22. l. 15. r. Discipline P. 29. l. 9. r. should find P. 32. l. 18. r. packt P. 48. l. 11. dele that before you P. 56. l. antepen dele an P. 60. marg r. p. 122. P. 73. l. 1. r. persons come P. 86. l. 2. r. the Generation P. 94. l. 26. dele now P. 120. l. 26. r. insnarked P. 129. l. 20. dele and P. 149. l. 24. r. forsaker P. 152. l. 21. r. neral of all because of the graces of some Ib. l. 18.21 r. Apostle P. 177. antepen r. as well as Innovations P. 180. l. 8. r. inconvenient P. 183. l. 19. r. objected P. 188. l. 7. r. that it is P. 215. l. 31. for abused r. devised P. 217. l. penult r. suspense P. 221. l. 7. r. that are Gods under God P. 222. l. 21. r. Friends P. 223. l. 6. r. a Book P. 228. l. 1. r. A great P. 229. l. 32. r. things are P. 232. l. 28. r. their sincerity P. 236. l. 19. r. selves challenge P. 237. l. 32. r. may justify A CONTINUATION of the Friendly Debate C. YOU are well met Neighbor How do you N. C. Very well through Mercy Why do you sigh C. To see you so far from mending your Schism that you proceed to make it wider and divide our very language Why cannot you speak as the rest of your Neighbors and say Well I thank God Is it a commendable thing to be Singular without any need and to separate from us even in your words and forms of speech Or is this a part of the Language of Canaan so much talk't of in the late times to be learnt of all those that will be accounted the People of God N. C. Take heed how you speak against the Israel of God They are a peculiar people and must not do after the manner of the Nations C. What Nations Do you take us to be all Heathens Nay such Heathens from whom you are not only to separate your selves but utterly to root out N. C. You carry our meaning too far C. No farther than some of your Sect do whom you have taught in a foonsh and dangerous manner to imitate the Scripture Phrasse and to apply all that concerned Israel to Themselves and all that concern'd the seven accursed Nations or Egypt and Babylon to their Neighbors N. C. I am not one of those but I and many others when we are askt about our welfare dare not speak as you do lest we should take Gods name in Vain of which you know Israel was to be very careful C. Is it to no purpose then to thank God for our own and our Families health Or to pray God would be with our Friend when we meet or part with him Perhaps you think that Boaz took Gods name in vain when according to the Custome in Israel he said to his Reapers the Lord be with you and that they were Offenders for replying the Lord bless thee I doubt ere long you will refuse to say upon occasion GOD SAVE THE KING for fear of taking Gods name in Vain N. C. Not so We can use such words when we are very serious but not commonly C. You made me believe the last time we talk't together that you were commonly if not alwayes Serious But now it seems the world is altered with you N. C. We are afraid you are not Serious but use these words so carelesly that you break the Third Commandment upon which account we would teach you to refrain them C. You are excellent Interpreters of Holy Scripture What a rare Comment should we have upon it if all your Expositions were but gathered and put together As you find words now used in common talk so they sound to your fancy there And this makes you take it so oft into your mouths in vain I mean besides its purpose and intention Alas that you should be no better instructed than generally to entertain this conceit that a man breaks the third Commandment if he mention the Name of God without lifting up his Eyes clapping his Hand on his Breast or some signification of Devotion This absurd Fancy I have heard some alledge as a Reason why they would not let their Children ask them Blessing i. e. desire them to pray to God for them And others have made this the cause why they would not teach them their Catechism nor any Prayers lest they should take Gods Name in vain that is in their sense make mention of it and not mind what they say N. C. I do not approve of such Opinions as these C. If you did you would condemn your self many hundred times in a Day For how oft do you tell us in common discourse of the People of God and the things of God and the Ordinance of God not minding that you mention his Name Nay how many times have we heard you say in your Prayers O LORD O GOD sometimes thrice in one sentence when we have great reason to think you did not know whether you used it so oft or no. Now which will you say That you sinned in this or that it is sufficient to have an habitual Reverence toward Almighty God and never to use his Name in an irreverent manner though we do not alwayes actually attend when we use it N. C. I have not considered this but was alway bred in a Belief that we break the Third Commandment when we use Gods name in common talk and that 's the Reason I did not answer you after the usual manner C. It 's well if you be not more careful to keep the Commandment in the Phrase-sense than in its proper and Principal meaning N. C. How now must we be beholden to you to invent a new word for us C. It cannot be new to you sure who are so well versed in a Divinity that consists in a manner wholly of Phrases and setting them aside hath little or nothing in it upon which account it may well be called Phrase-Divinity N. C. You will never leave your Pleasantness Pray talk more gravely and explain your self C. I 'le tell you then what I mean There are many I observe who have been very scrupulous about the Third Commandment and careful to keep it as the words are vulgarly used in our language now a-dayes who have made no Conscience at all of it at least notoriously broken it according to the true import of the Words among the Hebrews For as I have been taught when Moses said Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain c. His meaning was that no man should dare to call God to witness any thing he spoke and yet utter a falshood or not do according to his promise If he were so prophane he assures him
think it was Generation-work to pull down Monarchy to bind Kings in chains nay Protectors in fetters of Iron And when they were not able to do the last though they had effected the other then they fell to witnessing-work and prophesying against it For that was the Common-wealths mens phrase when they spoke of O. CR. himself * True Catalogue p. 12. The Lords faithful people the foolish contemptible nothings irreconcileable enemies to the Government of a single person were putting up their prayers and appeals to the Lord witnessing and prophecying against him and the Beast-like foundation on which he stood c. For the setting up of him you must know was in their opinion the healing the deadly wound of the Beast * Ib. p. 9. Though by others who were for Generation-work too and thought themselvs as great promoters of it as they He and his son were called Moses and Joshua or David and Solomon as you may see in several Addresses made to them But above all commend me to the good people of Chard in Somersetshire The address from those at Leicester was much to the same purpose who bless that Providence who had given them such a Joshua to conduct them to the land of promise Another phrase as hard to explain as the former But as greedily swallow'd and made use of by your wretched Phrase-mongers to abuse themselves and the Nation In short All the whole gang thought God was fulfilling prophecies and making good the Revelation and they must help and be instrumental to him in this Generation-work Else they might be shut out of the land of promise and not enter into the New Jerusalem There was no man of this sort who had never so little power were he but a petty Constable or the like Officer but he imagin'd he heard God saying to him as Mordecai to Esther Who knows but thou art raised up for such a time as this Nay those whom you count the soberest persons were so drunk with this conceit that they fancied themselvs or their Friends to be Angels powring out Vials or some such thing Mr. Edwards I remember who with so much zeal and courage incountred all the Sectaries and gave a particular reproof to one Durance who prayed that the King might be brought to the Parliament in chains Fell into this dotage himself peremptorily to affirm that God would honour their Brethren of Scotland to be instruments of pulling down the Sectaries They shall all fall before the Scots saith he whom they have so vilified and unworthily dealt with as the Prelatical and Popish party did Which he proves from Revel 3.8 9 10. All those promises to Philadelphia he assures you do in a special manner belong to our Brethren of Scotland as First that God will make them come i. e. those who are the Antitype to those Jews Gangraemi second part p. 193. 194. the Sectaries Anabaptists Independents that whole faction and worship before their feet and to know that God hath loved them that is they shall overcome and triumph over those Sectaries c. O Church of Scotland and all ye that are for Reformation Presbyterial against the Sectaries nourish your Hopes by these things neither let your hearts be troubled whatsoever the world speaks against you And so he interprets a story of a Drum beating in an Independent Congregation as a signification that the War which the Independents thirsted for with the Scots as much as ever an unhappy Boy did to be at fisty-cuffs with one of his fellows would prove their ruin and be a means to overthrow all their Conventicles * Gangraena 3. part pag. 165. Though alas Quite contrary to his expectation the Sectarian Army beat the Scots to dirt subdued the whole Nation brought Philadelphia into bondage and made her worship at their feet And yet Mr. Burroughs I observe one of those Independents Mr. Edw. writes against seemed when time was to have the same opinion of the Scottish Brethren and to foresee glorious things that they would do For he tells the Citizens Certainly that Nation is a Nation that God doth love a Nation that God doth honour and by whose many expressions of his love sheweth that he doth intend to make them SPECIAL INSTRVMENTS of the GREAT THINGS he hath to do in this latter age of the World Speech at Guild-Hall upon the occasion of the coming in of the Scots And it should seem he read this in the Revelation too for he adds We may truly call it Philadelphia And Mr. Brightman that famous light it former time 30. or 40. years since did Parallel the Church of Philadelphia with the Church of Scotland Philadelphia signifies Brotherly-love When was there ever a Nation such a Church that joyned together in such firm Covenant as they have done Hid we the like Vnion among us O how great things had we done before this time And then he tells them that it is a Nation ingag'd to God in a higher more extraordinary way than any Nation upon the face of the Earth a Reformed Nation A people that have risen up against Antichrist more than ever any people have done and that is the great work of God in these times And therefore certainly God hath a love to them because they break the Ice and begin the work and arise in such a way as they do for the pulling down of the man of sin I suppose he means they arose in the way of Arms and resolved not to lay them down till they had finished the work of the times What that was Mr. Burroughs tells you though the word Antichrist now signifies nothing certainly but what every one pleases And Mr. H. Wilkinson tells the Parliament of England what it is in the same terms Your business saith he lyes professedly against the Apocalyptical beast and all his Compliees Epistle before his Sermon preached 25. Octo. 1643. The birth with which you travel as it was the expectation of Antiquity and Ages past so it will be the happiness of posterity and Ages future Think not that it is in the power or compass of Devils or men to make that birth prove abortive which himself hath undertaken to bring forth and to baptize with the name of Israel it being a child of promise Isa 66.9 Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth saith the Lord shall I cause to bring forth and shut the womb saith thy God No saith he a little after God hath spoken the word for the restauration of Sion and building up the walls of Jerusalem and therefore let your Faith hang out its conquering and triumphing Flag and let Emanuel be the Moto Thus you see what both the great Parties thought was the work of Generation and what fine work they have made of it there being a greater growth of Antichristianism of all sorts since that time than ever we knew before You see likewise what work they make with
the holy Scriptures and that it had been a great part of the work of that Generation to pervert and abuse them And withall you see what is become of their high Confidence that they should not miscarry in their Designs upon us whom they baptized with the name of the Complices of the Apocalyptick Beast Their hopes are prov'd abortive and now they are travailing with a new Wind and are in pain till they bring forth a Lye They that were triumphant a little while ago have taken in their Flag and chang'd the Motto Now the word is Ichabod Where is the Glory They have altered the Phrases very much and speak in a complaining tone After so glorious a progress in the Work of pulling down Babylon and such Assurance they should have the Beast under their feet they are cast back again and are but at their Witnessing-work and Prophesying its Destruction Now Mr. Bridge tells us * Seasonable Truths in Evil-times p. 100. this is the work of our Generation Witness-bearing to the truth of Christ in opposition to the wayes of Antichrist in Antichristian times This is the work of our Generation Good lack That the World should be thus turn'd upside down That their hands should be lately at the work that the Carpenters * Mr. Bridge sermon before the Parl. Nov. 29. 1643. 17. should be at work in every part of the Kingdom to cut off the borns and now they should have no work but for their Mouths Witness-bearing-Work is all the business strange The work of the time said Mr. Bridge above 20 years ago is to measure the Temple Nay we are upon the work of Reformation building the Temple * Ib. p. 24. He saw the measuring line in the Parliaments hand yea the Stones were going to be laid and all the fear was they should not lie even But now all is vanished a new Vision appears the Church is hidden the Inner-Court is not to be seen and the Holy-city is still trod under foot and they are got no further than Witnessing-work Then the work was to cast out the Gentiles * Ib. p. 17. and now the Gentiles remain within and the work is only to witness against them * Seas Truths p. 112. This is the work to which a thousand years of Glory and Comfort is promised This is the work witness bearing to the Truths of Christ in opposition to the ways of Antichrist as he tells over and over in his late Sermons * P. 101. Seas Truths printed 1668 Sermon before the Parl. p. 17. Do you not wonder at this that the work was so long ago to cast out the Gentiles and the word was given forth * Vp and be doing and do it fully Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently and with-holdeth his hand from shedding of Blood But now they are only Witnessing waiting for the Power to turn the Nations into was blood N. C They are grown very humble C. No. This is but a new proof of their insufferable Pride They will not ingenuously acknowledg their Errors They are still as bold confident in prophecying from the Revelation as if they had never been mistaken And you feed and incourage their Presumption while you admire these Dreamers and suffer them to lead you quietly by the Nose backward and forward just as they please The Cause of which I doubt is your Pride too who are resolved not to be ashamed of your vain hopes nor abate your confidences but surrounding your selves with Prophesies and Promises to harden your faces and look as boldly upon us as ever The world must not think you have missed the Mark but only suppose you have received a farther light and that the mind of God is more fully revealed and that now you have found certainly in the Revelation whereabouts we are Or rather many of this sort make no reflection upon what is past A new Phrase is able at any time to blot out all remembrance of former things Let them but get this by the end and there is no other talk no other thoughts Away go all Objections and Difficulties all doubts scruples and fears All sad thoughts if they have any vanish as soon as they hear this and you may quiet them with it when you will as you do a Child with a Rattle when it cryes Lord say they it is Witnessing-time How shall thy poor Creature go through this Witnessing-work Alas Christians sayes another when he meets his Friends we are faln into the Witnessing-days Bear your Testimony Fear not their faces only let your Testimony agree If you would bear Witness unite your Testimony O it is a sackcloth-condition Seasonable Truths p. 124.125 replies a Third Let us mind the duty of a sackcloth-condition let us wear our sackcloth handsomly I and then saith a Fourth Christ will pay all the charge that you are at in Witness-bearing If a man have a suit at Law and have 5 or 6. Witnesses and carry them an hundred mile he bears all the charge of their Witness-bearing Saith Christ I will give power to MY Witnesses they are MY Witnesses Ye are Christs Witnesses and look whatsoever charge you are at he will bear the charge he will bear all the charge of your Witness-bearing And therefore be faithful in your Witness-bearing In this manner they are lull'd asleep and tickled out of the remembrance of all things past Nothing else comes into their Minds nothing into their Mouths as long as the strength of these New Phrases last And their Ministers having found the admirable power of them and how they stick in their Fancies and work there and wholly possess them they will not fail to furnish them with good store of them when there is occasion And should they but change a certain Word now in use into one of these Phrases I believe it would help to do their business very effectually N. C. You will not teach them sure in this Art What do you mean C. Preaching you know hath been a Word long in use among us and no body needs be told what we mean by it But this being an old Phrase there were some that grew weary of it and changed it into Teaching And for some time who taught to day was the Phrase But this growing common fell into dislike too and so they called it Exercising And when this became stale also and pleased them no longer then I remember some called it Lecturing But this would not take and so Speaking became in a manner the only Word And among the most pure the question still was who Speaks here this Morning But afterward this was held forth by him to day A great many more such Alterations it 's like you can remember who are better acquainted with these matters than I. But I was going to tell you that if any man should have the conceit to call it Witnessing or Prophesying and this Phrase should get among them
the rude and senseless noise which the multitude make with those words only by imitation N. C. But you compare them to Swine C. No. I only compare their cryes together which are both alike unreasonable Do but ask for instance what they mean by Popery and some of these Ignorant Zealots will tell you it is to do that which is practised in the Church of Rome Which is no better than the voice of a Brute If this be Popery all our Religion is Popery We must turn Jews or Turks or Pagans that we may not be Papists And yet that will not do neither for this Popery will still be found among us that we pray and give thanks to God which are actions common to all the world with the Church of Rome N. C. You need not have spent one word to confute such a gross Conceit as this C. True But this sottish Definition of Popery you will be sure to meet withal from some if you will but take the pains to enquire Others it 's like will tell you that it is Popery to do any thing after that manner that the Papists do And then we must never kneel nor lift up our eyes or our hands nor meet together in a Church N. C. Why do you fetch such a sigh C. I sigh to think of the intolerable blockishness of those people that will pretend to know all the Mysteries of God For others who think themselves more wise than the rest will tell you that to use any ceremonies in use among them is certainly Popish And then we must use none at all and so make no outward expression of Religious devotion which must be done in some manner or other or else they must be such as are confessedly absurd and ridiculons Nay all civil Ceremonies and Customes will be forbidden us in time by these men At least for every thing that they hate this shall be the name Popish Antichristian or Babylonish For O. C. himself True Catalogue p. 15. I well remember could not be carried to his grave without their clamours that it was a needless chargeable Popish funeral solemnity because there was black Velvet a Bed of State and a Waxen Image Nay let Monareby look to it self for that is Popish and Antichristian too in such mens opinion and this Kingdom one of the Ten Horns of the Beast And down shall my Lord Mayor go also when they are able as an Image of that Government together with all the pomp and foolery which attends him as their words formerly were N. C. I hope there are no such dangerous persons now among us C It 's well if there be not But you will certainly find some who will tell you that all Ceremonies invented by the Pope are Popish and think themselves much wiser than their Neighbors if upon this ground they furiously rage against our Church But the best of it is that this is nothing to the purpose For none of ours were invented by him The Cross was used among Christian people long before the name or power of the Pope was heard of And so was kneeling and white garments and bowing the body in adoration of our Blessed Saviour N. C. But I have heard some say that it is Popish to do any thing of this nature but what is prescribed by the Word C. This is as sottish as all the rest For it supposes both that nothing may be done in or about the worship of God but what we have a Command for in Holy Scripture and that the Pope and his followers are the only persons who have done any thing not prescribed there Else why should they call it Popish or Romish more than Patriarkish or Greekish N. C. Is not the Supposal true C. No. All the ancient Christians did many things in Divine worship appointed by the Scriptures for which they had no particular prescription there Nay such is your Ignorance you your selves do so too and never mind it For what direction is there to make a new prayer twice or thrice a day And one Prayer before the Sermon and another after To receive the Sacrament of Christ's body and blood in the morning and not after Supper To deliver it into the hands of every person that receives it with Prayer for him or Exhortation to him or both N. C. Pray stay You will let nothing at all be Popish if you be let alone At least nothing of this Nature C. Yes We are taught by our Divines that to ordain such a multitude of Ceremonies as will imploy most of our thoughts and care in time of Divine Service how to do them aright deserves that name Or if we make any of them an essential part of Gods worship or give them power to obtain pardon for us or work grace in us Or lastly it we make them Apostolical and necessary Commands that bind the Conscience as the Laws of God do Then call them Popish and Antichristian or what you please N. C. You say well And I confess I know a little more than I did C. O that you would help to reduce those silly and many of them I hope well-meaning souls who through mere Ignorance and blind prejudice are departed from the grave and sober way of serving God among us to follow their own vain fancies and perhaps conceit they are Witnessing against Popery and the wayes of Antichrist that is against they know not what N. C. I am not come so far yet nor hold my self able to Witness against such persons but this I can say that all is not Popery which is so called C. Nor Superstition neither Though with the same doltish Ignorance they charge us with that vice which they are most guilty of themselves and do not know it As appears by what I told you at our last meeting N. C. They like not your definition of Superstition C. That 's because they like nothing that we say And because it makes them so plainly guilty of that which they condemn But do they like Mr. Calvin's definition of it better N. C. What is it C. You may have met it's possible with his Institutions for they have been long in the English Tongue There he tells you almost in the beginning of the Book Book 1. chap. 12. pag. 41. that as Religion hath its name from binding and is set as contrary to wandring Liberty because it binds men up and prescribes bounds and limits to them in which true Piety consists So Superstition hath its name from going beyond all measures being a humour that will not be bounded nor limited or as his very words are that not being contented with the manner and order prescribed heapeth up together a superfluous and order prescribed heapeth up together a superfluous number of vain things Do you like this I say or no If you do then I will shew you that as in Prayers so in other holy Duties your humour is to keep no measure nor order but to heap up one
things more particularly to see the Scripture so wretchedly abused wrested even in this very case to justify their Separation and with-drawing from us N. C. You mean I believe that to the Corinthians cited by Mr. Bridge Come out from among them and be ye separate 2 Pag. 166. touch no unclean thing 2 Cor. 6.17 C. Yes N. C. And doth it not require us to have no Communion with the wicked of which your Congregations we think are full C. But do you think then we are all Pagans and Infidels i. e. such people as do not so much as acknowledg Jesus Christ to be the Lord N. C. God forbid C. Then you apply those words impertinently to us as you do the rest of the Scriptures who are nothing like those from whom the Apostle would have the Corinthians withdraw It is an exceeding great shame that you have been so long turning over the Bible and talking of the word of God and yet not understand so plain a thing as this You seem to me to be like those the Apostle speaks of in another Epistle who are ever learning but never come to the knowledg of the Truth Nay you are like little children that tear and rend their Book into little scraps or like those imperfect creatures I spoke of before you nibble at a bit of the Scripture and instantly start away and leave all the rest Could you not have cast your eye back but to the 14. verse There you might have seen who they are the Apostle speaks of Be ye not unequally yoked together with Infidels saith he i. e. Either do not marry an infidel or do not joyn with them in any of their rites belonging to their Idolatrous service Be not at their Idol feasts the thing he admonisht them of in the former Epistle and touches upon here again as some think lest they should not be cautious enough in this particular For the Apostle having told them an Idol was nothing they might hold these festival entertainments to be indifferent things and so when their kinsfolk or friends invited them not deny that Civility to accompany them to their Temples Stay says the Apostle consider what you do What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness c. these things are as contrary as Light and Darkness you cannot partake of the Table of the Lord and the Table of Devils too as he told them in his first letter And then he renews his Exhortation Come out from among them and be ye separate from those Idolatrous Infidels touch no unclean thing meddle not with their Idolatrous services nor any of their wicked ways You would be more assured that this is the sense if you would but turn to the place from whence these words are cited as the Margin directs you Isa 52.11 where the Prophet bids not the more holy sort of Jews to separate from their prophane Brethren but the whole Body of the Jews to flye out of Babylon as any body may see that reads the place And therefore they cannot be urged without a notorious force to prove such a separation as you are in of one part of a society professing belief in Christ and baptized into his name and renouncing all Idols whatsoever from the other And so Mr. Geree I remember a discreet Presbyterian confessed and explained the words to the same purpose that I do And so did a noted person long before him * Arin 1610. Mr. Rich. Bernard plain evidence p. 140 141 c. and far more largely in his dispute against the Brownists For I must tell you those old Separatists condemned by all honest Nonconformists in former times sought to justifie their Schism from the Church of Christ from this very place and the very truth is so did the Ancient Donatists Who to make a fair shew for their fearful Schism cryed out just as you do now Come out from among them touch no unclean thing Depart depart Separate your selves Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness Be not partakers of other mens sins What hath the Chaff to do with the Wheat which are the very words now Ignorantly imployed by your Party against us with as little knowledg of their sense and meaning as of their being the rotten Tools wherewith those Schismaticks sought to overthrow the whole Church N.C. How come you by more knowledg than other folk in this matter Can you tell what the Donatists said C. Yes without reading St. Austin For I can believe an old English Divine who lived above half an Age since that acquainted me with this and shewed withall that those proud people had the same answer to this place from that Father Mr. G. Gyffard plain Declaration that our Brownists are full Donatists p. 19. An. 1590. which I have now given you These words saith he They understanding carnally have cut themselves into so many divisions into little bits in this Africa alone For they do not understand that no man is joyned with Infidels but he that commits the sins of Pagans or else doth favour those that do such things c. And who hath fellowship with darkness but he that by the darkness of his consent forsaking Christ doth follow Belial Who puts his part with Insidels but he which is partaker of that Infidelity For that way he ceaseth to be the Temple of God neither otherways doth he joyn himself to Idols N. C. I am convinced of this But may we not gather by proportion that we ought to separate from the wicked sort of Christians though it be not here intended C. Hear what Mr. John Geree answers to this No. Resolution of 10 Cases 1644. All that can be inferred is that we should avoid needless familiarity with the wicked and all s ciety in sin To keep them from the Sacrament if we can But if it be not in our Power not to omit the Sacrament because they partake of it In which he followed the resolution of St. Austin who immediately after the words before mentioned adds these as my Author tells me B. 2. against Parmen cap. 18. And they which are the Temples of the living God and in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation appear as lights in the world having the word of life nothing doth infect them which they tolerate for Vnities sake nor are they pent up in any straight because God doth dwell in them and walk in them And they depart in the mean time out of the evil and are separate at least in heart lest haply while they would separate by the sedition of Schism they should rather be spiritually separated from the good than carporally from the bad This old Divine also admonishes us very well out of the same Father that when the multitude of the Assemblies of the Church are free from that crime to which Excommunication is denounced it is very healthful and because so many avoid him he will be stricken with fear and healed through
the Domestick Servants and talk't of within doors first and then abroad and Harbingers prepare the way This hath been the news throughout the houshold and Harbingers have been sent abroad It is a sign that he is not far off it will not be long before be come N. C. Cannot you repeat a sentence without laughing C. If you had not been very gross you would have either laught or been angry at those that did not see or would not take notice of the cheat How came you I beseech you to whisper this and afterward talk it abroad that Christ was coming to sit upon his Throne Had you any Revelation of it Did you that are his Domesticks hear Christ the King say so Or were you not told so by these pretended Favourites of his and believed them without asking whence they had the News N. C. Undoubtedly we never thought of it till we heard it preach't and proclaimed by them C. And then when your heads were fill'd with this conceit and they had set your tongues a going and made this the general Talk they ask't you if you were apt to despond Why do you doubt of it Be of good chear without question he is not far off for otherwise you would never have talk't so much of his coming Which was no more in plain English than this you would never have believed us if it were not so Were not these rare devices to support the people's confidence And were not the people very blind that could not discern this foul Imposture Never talk now of the Sottishness of the multitude in the Romish Church for they are cousened by neater Legerdemains than this Which is just as if I should entertain a Child a long time with hopes of Plums and fine Toys coming from some Fair and when he began to doubt of it should tell him thou hast talk't of them so long my Child that without question they will be here by and by How is it possible that thou shouldest be in such expectation of them if they were not at hand N. C. No more words You have said enough to make a Child understand the delusion C. And yet you suffered your selves to be wheedled and cheated thus over and over again as if you would cross the Apostles rule and be Men in Malice but Children in understanding You heard your Ministers pray for instance that Babylon might fall and the walls of Jerusalem be built And then you heard them stirring you up with the greatest vehemence to give God no rest till Jerusalem was made a praise in the Earth And when they had set you all on fire with these desires then you were very well contented to be made believe it was a certain sign God would do the business because he had put it into your hearts to be so earnest for it How is it possible said they that there should be such a spirit of grace and supplication poured suddenly on the Nation if Christ were not coming down after it Since God hath knit the hearts of his people in such a Holy Conspiracy as it were to besiege Heaven with their Prayers all is not to be given for lost God a Mr. Case Engl. Incouragement to wait on God p. 77. hath taken off the bridle of restraint from the lips of his people Pag. 78. The Prayers of Gods people are gone up to Heaven in great Assemblies and have surrounded the Throne of Grace God was never so tempted to bow the Heavens and come down to the rescue of his People c Pag. 79. God will bow down his ears to them if they cannot come to God he will cause his ear to come down to them He will make hard shift as it were to hear rather than their prayers be lost d Pag. 80. N. C. You make me blush to think how we have been gull'd C. So you will be still And it is no wonder they make so bold with you since they were so bold with God and with his holy Word which they drew to be instrumental in the Cheat. They sanctified every design with some text of Scripture or other and with many prayers tili they had defaced the certainty of Holy Writ and made no other thing of it than a Nose of Wax which may be turned any way as will serve our purposes * Mr. Knew stubs against the Herefie of N. N. pag. 61. You need not be angry they are the words of one esteemed here tofore though I know not what thoughts you would have of him or he of you if he lived now If I may pass my conjecture I think he would take you to be the very spawn of those Brownists which were so justly detested in those days For he would hear the same words and phrases out of your mouths now which he heard in those days from theirs who cryed out upon an Idol Church and Idol Ministry an Idol Government And as if they were sure to carry the cause by these out-cryes they never ceased to pour out these Accusations wherewith the people were terribly affrighted For they poor souls never considered that if all were granted that such words import it would not prove a separation should be made from our Assemblies For in what sense can a Minister be said to be an Idol but in such an one as the people of England were called so by one of you N. C. What sense should that be C. I 'le repeat his words if you please which you may find in a Book put forth on purpose to prevent a Peace between the King and Parliament Plain English pag. 27. 1643. upon any terms than such as should make the King yeild to all their desires We have long pretended zeal saith that Author against Idolatry when in the mean time we are all become one Idol We have eyes and fee not an Army of Papists not only with permission allowed to use their own Religion but with Commission appointed in event to destroy ours We have Ears and hear not the continual Blasphemies against our God the reproaches and standers against our Parliament It cannot indeed be said we have mouths and speak not for they that do least commonly speak most But I am sure I may say we have Feet and march not hands have we and handle not the Sword and Shield N. C. You love still to be rubbing these old sores as I told you once C. Not I. But I love to rub up your memory that you may reflect how your beloved phrases are applied to all purposes and see that an Idol Minister can signifie nothing but one that doth no more of the work of a Minister than the people it seems did of your work of fighting against the King till they were alarm'd by such clamours as these and affraid to be thought Idolaters or an Idol-people In short he is such a person as the Shepherds of Israel were when they neglected their Office and took no care of the