in Authority But for all his Exhortation in a two hours Prayer first or last you shall hear but little of that or if the King be named his Titles of Supremacy are not recited or at most but half-way and if he be faintly acknowledged the Defender of the Faith it must not be said that he is Supreme in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal for you must know a Presbyter is as great an Enemy to the Supremacy as a Papist and challenges an underivative-power in Spiritualibus from Christ himself to whom the King is but a Subject and by consequence even in all Temporals in ordine ad spiritualia to every petty Presbyter Oh rare and absolute and more than Papal Church-Tyranny O most excellent Arbitrary Spiritual Government How consistent art thou with Monarchy and with that old and true Aphorism of State Imperium non patitur Duos Empire is incompatible with Rivals and it must be aut Caesar aut nullus Sometimes they will in general terms pray for Him whom God hath set over us an Expression not without Malice according to that place in the Psalms Set thou an ungodly Man to Rule over them They might as well say Whom God has appointed or ordained to be over us which is a Scripture-Expression But I fear they do not think or believe the King and his Power to he of God's appointment for if they did they would endeavour to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty and not think it lawful to draw a Sword against him or think such an Oath unlawful as would tye their Hands from doing it though with the nice distinction betwixt the King and the Person And let them but make it their own Case I dare say they will not be willing to hang up the Presbyter for fear you should also choak the Man This they have done and that they would not be accounted Changelings is plain by their unwillingness to renounce the Devil and all his Works the Covenant and Ingagement to live without King and House of Lords AS for our most Gracious Queen Katherine James Duke of York and the rest of the Royal Family the Bishops and Clergy they never come in their Mouths or Memories so that either the Apostles general Rule to pray for all Men especially for all that are in Authority must be Iyable to an Exception if they think fit or else Queens Dukes and Bishops are No-body with them or not in Authority that is a lawful Authority and indeed that is it which they would be at THERE is nothing which has gain'd these Men that Veneration amongst the Vulgar which this Imposture has done which they endeavour to impose upon easie beliefs whilst they pretend in these Extempore Effusions to be immediately inspired by the Spirit of God which all dissenters cannot be and I am afraid none of them are 1 Cor. 14.14 The Apostle St. Paul speaks of praying with the Spirit but it is manifest that he means there that Miraculous Effusion of the Holy Ghost who for the better propagation of the Gospel gave them utterance in several Languages and let me but hear any one of these men pray in Latine with that fluency as they do in English and I will believe they pray with the Spirit though many of them it may be if they could do that neither in Latine nor English with Understanding But the truth is the Book by which they were taught is not yet made free of the City and it would puzle Cicero himself with all his long-winded Sentences to bestow the Idiom of his Language in which he was so great a Master upon some of their Prayers which are hardly tolerable true English Latine is a Language familiar enough all over Europe and some of them have been educated in it though with others it is the Mark of the Beast and if they had truly the assistance of the Spirit it were as easie for that to teach them to pray in that Tongue as well as in any other and when they can I shall willingly spare them the trial of Hebrew Greek Syriack Arabick c. mentioned Acts chap. 2. But it suffices they say it is by the Spirit and the People who believe they speak as the Oracles of God they believe it and from hence draw a Conclusion that those Persons are the best men in the World having the Spirit in such an extraordinary measure above their Brethren AND this is not the smallest Engine which they make use of to undermine the Church of England and to render the solemn Service of God contemptible All set Forms being as they say dull dead flat and spiritless though they are in a great measure the express words of Scripture and warranted by ancient usage in the Church if not from the Apostolical Times at least from the very next and immediate Age unto them Yet one of their Disciples did not long ago in the presence of several witnesses openly declare That what we call Divine Service and the Worship of God was Blasphemy and the using those Prayers blaspheming not honouring or serving God and since they are all learnt Jurare in verba we may well believe he spoke as he had heard the true sentiments and opinion of his Master NOW that we may discover the greatness of this dangerous and popular Cheat we will first make our Appeal to their own Judg the Scripture Go we then to him who is the Way the Truth and the Life and to whom should we go but to him who has the words of Eternal Life And if we will hear him he gives us an express Charge against Battologies S. Mat. 6.7 8 9. and much speaking in our Prayers and commands a short Prayer and a Form too Whatever long Prayers may be he tells us they look like Hypocrisie and Superstition But when ye Pray say Our Father c. And use not vain Repetitions as the Heathens do for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking Be not ye therefore like them but after this manner pray How well they observed this Rule we need trouble our selves no further to find out if we can but remember that it is not yet twenty years ago since the Lords-Prayer was accounted unlawful and by some scandalous and indeed was generally out of Fashion in the Pulpit and so it is still amongst many Dissenters and yet then they would have us believe they pray'd by the Spirit as well as they do now and I believe they did but it must be the same Spirit which made Saul throw his Javelin at the Musician For it taught them the same Practice not only to be angry with the Musick but to kill the Musicians and put all out of Tune I am sure it could not be the Spirit of Christ which taught them to break and despise a Command of Christ for he tells us that promised Spirit shall speak what he hath heard
Warranty of Truth and no further to the best of my knowledg Neither will I be tedious but dispatch what I have to say in as few words as is possible and as near as I can I will calculate it for the Meridian of all Capacities so as neither to endanger the weakest Brains nor if possible to displease the strongest And herein I shall act like a Physician of which Profession or an Apothecary they may guess me if they please and since the Dose I am preparing is like to be very strong I will give it in the lesser quantity I know it will work briskly and be apt movere Bilem make some persons vomit abundance of Choler and it may be that which is blackest upon their Stomachs in others it will strongly stir the Splene not so much to Laughter as Revenge If it does but in any measure contribute to the purging out that Epidemick Scurvy in the Body Politick which betrays it self by those dangerous symptomes of foul Mouths stinking Breaths and the loosness of the Tongue more than the Teeth in many persons I shall be abundantly satisfied And if I may but see any good Effects I am so little sollicitous for any private or particular advantage more than my share in the Publick Good that I care not whether the Cause be ever known THERE is no Science so true as the Mathematicks one of its infallible Demonstrations is Maximum posse moveri a minimo and upon that Basis I will lay the foundation of my hopes and how contemptible soever the first Mover may appear I will not despair but that this little Wheel may give a Motion to those which are far greater and more powerful A single hair if rightly applied may set that Engine at work which will want nothing besides Archimedes his convenient place to fix it upon to remove the Terrestrial Globe from off its Centre CHAP. II. Of the Policy of the Enemies of the Church and State to amuse us with the old Stratagem of Fears and Jealousies of the danger of Popery Hereby they ingratiate themselves with the Common People The improbability that the Romish Perswasion and Government should ever be established again in these Nations if it has of late increased amongst us we are obliged for it to Dissenters who have made those breaches by which those Enemies enter By these Fears and Jealousies which they sow in the minds of the People they endeavour to make them hate the present Government and Governours both in Church and State perswading them they are Popishly inclined and Antichristian and thus secretly undermine the foundation of Monarchy and Episcopacy IT is no uncommon Stratagem in War to make false Assaults against a besieged Place thereby to call away the perplexed Defendants from that place where the Storm is intended in good earnest It were well if this were not our case and truly the present face and posture of our Affairs does not look much unlike it for though there seems to be the greatest distance betwixt Rome and Geneva yet herein they both agree that they are our common Enemies and whilst the bolder Roman openly threatens us with an Assault the crafty Presbyterian with his Confederate Separatists are busie at the Mine and I believe it is not my single Opinion That more places otherways impregnable have submitted to the Will of the Conquerour by that Artifice than by the open fury of the Cannon And so dangerous is the practice of that invention in a Politick sense that how contemptible soever an Enemy may appear if in that Design they make an undiscovered progress there will never want some desperate Faux's to spring their Mines which if they succeed will blow up all from the very Foundations and bury the best built Government in the World in its own Ashes and Ruines I have read of a City whose Walls were overthrown without any other Enemies or Engines than the undermining Moles Whether true or fabulous it matters not sure I am if it be meerly a Fable the Moral may not be unuseful to us and though the Comparison may be odious yet it is but too agreeable to a sort of men whose restless and mischievous Tempers and Opinions hurry them blindly on to the accomplishment of their ill Designs by secret and underhand Practices so long as they are out of hopes to effect them by open Force and Violence BUT they must know they are not so secret or secure as they imagine and there are a great many amongst themselves who contribute not a little to our assistance in Countermining of them And if I might advise them they should not only be extreamly cautelous how they intrust one another with the GRAND DESIGN and SECRET but even how they trust themselves for Treachery and Baseness are so natural to them that they cannot forbear betraying themselves and let them Swear or Forswear Protest and Verily as often as they please yet at one time or another their speeches will discover them to be Galileans and I fear just such as he was before he obeyed the summons of the Cock to go out and weep bitterly S. Peter Mat. 26.75 which they have likewise need to do ONE of the greatest Arts by which they secure themselves whilst they amuse us is to perswade the world of a strange growth and encrease of Popery amongst us and that they are the only persons who stand in the Breach and by their Long Prayers by their sound and Evangelical Doctrine give a check to that threatning Deluge and Inundation This does extremely ingratiate them with the Common People to whom the Name of Popery is far more terrible than that of Mahumetanism and to make these Fears and Jealousies appear something more probable and not only conjectural they do not scruple the lowdest Calumnies and plainly enough to intimate that all things are in the greatest forwardness to entertain this dreadful Revolution All the eminent Prelates and Doctors of the Church being as they affirm favourably inclined to that Faith and some of them already suspected to be secretly of that Perswasion All our Prayers Ceremonies Altars Bowings Vestments and the other Decencies of Religious Worship are already Popish and Antichristian and hereby they do not only establish these Fears and Jealousies Hinc spargere voces In vulgum ambiguas quaerere conscius arma the Prologues to greater Mischiefs but render all the Publick Service of God suspected if not odious amongst the Populace AND I doubt not but if a late Act of Parliament against Treasonable Language and some little Love they have for their Lives and Estates did not repress their Insolence they would fix their Calumnies and Slanders upon the Persons of the highest Character in the Nation And it is neither Duty nor Allegiance nor Modesty but fear and self-love which does prohibit them from proceeding so high NOW to my apprehension there is nothing does more plainly manifest the Vanity of these Fears and
S. John 16.13 and I hope they dare not say but this Command of our Saviours was one of those things he had head and was one of those Truths into which he was to lead them FURTHER if we examine what are the Fruits of the Spirit they are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness Gal. 5.22 23 24. Eph 5.5 faith meekness temperance righteousness and truth but not the least mention of Extempore Prayer If we search what are the Gifts of the Spirit or the Gifts of God we shall find the Gift of Continency 1 Cor. 7.7 1 Cor. 3.5 Rom. 12.6 1 Cor. 12.1 the Gifts of Prophecie of working Miracles c. but no Gift of Prayer And where the particular Gifts are enumerated there is not one syllable of the Gift of Prayer Certainly if it had been a spiritual Gift or a fruit of the Spirit it would not have been omitted BUT secondly let us appeal to Example For if this be a fruit of the Spirit then all they who can or could thus pray Extempore have the Spirit of God and are the Sons of God This is as much a Demonstration as any in Euclid Now will I bring you such an Army of Saints with Old Noll in the head of them as shall fight and pray with all Nations Either these Saints S. Oliver S. Ireton S. Bradshaw c. pray'd by the Spirit and so were real Saints or what they pray'd was not by the Spirit and so they were no Saints nor Extempore Prayer any Evidence of the Spirit of God Now let them take which of these they will I dare say they had rather Canonize Oliver and his praying Legions than not only as Affairs now stand it is not altogether safe And if they shall refuse both the Hornes of the Dilemma as being sure to be in their sides and too sharp to be handled they must teach us to distinguish and know that they are not just such Saints as the others who had the knack exactly prayed the same Language almost Verbatim made the same boasts of and pretensions to the Spirit and I am afraid had the same Spirit the same Uses to make of it and the self-same Ends and Designs I might bring many instances but I will only add one which is so remarkable that it will be sufficient to convince all those who are not resolved against Conviction and whereby it will appear that this way of Extempore Prayer is so far from being a Gift of God or proceeding from the Spirit of God that it may be a Gift of the Devil and that such who are almost under an irreversible Necessity of Damnation may have it even in Perfection The story is thus At St. Ives in the County of Huntington within the Memory of many Persons yet alive there was a Woman whose name I do not very well remember though many in that place very well do She was one of those who for distinction were then by themselves called Professors by other Puritans she was a great follower of the upholders of the Presbyterian-Tenents a constant frequenter of Godly Meetings and Religious Exercises This Woman came to be so eminent especially in this Gift of Prayer that she was generally admired and look't upon as a Saint of the first Magnitude the noise of her Fame and the boasts of her Party brought many Neighbouring-Ministers in the adjacent Counties of Cambridge and Huntington to hear her pray which she did in that ravishing manner that they never parted from her without an Excess of Admiration and astonishment After some time for what reason I am not able to determine this Holy Sister went over into New-England as about the same time many others did for Liberty of Conscience for a while she was there in the greatest Esteem and height of Reputation but the Devil ow'd her a shame and she him a Soul she was at last suspected and accused to be a Witch was brought to a tryal confeâ—â— her guilt and that her contract with the Devil was That in lieu of her Soul which she did consign unto him he should assist her with the Gift of Extempore Prayer after which confession sentence past upon her and she was accordingly executed as a most abominable Witch Either now we must believe that this Extempore Way is not an infallible sign of the Spirit of God or that the Devil has the Power of disposing of the Gifts of the Spirit BUT thirdly I will appeal to these very men let them speak the Truth and shame the Devil Is not this Way of Praying an acquisition did not the fore-mentioned Book or some Collections of their own of that nature out of Scripture often hearing of others and many secret Trials and Exercises therein bring them by degrees to these perfections or could they from the first Moment of their Conversion pray thus and they do as punctually remember that time as what they did Yesterday and then if ever they had the Spirit of God and it was then as well able to help their infirmities as now and they stood more in need of it and it would have been more visible and apparent that it was not they but the Spirit that taught them how and what to pray Did they not with much pains and industry attain this which they call a Gift let them deny it if they dare for if they will say they never used any of the aforesaid means to help their Weaknesses I will undertake to prove them the most impudent affirmers of a Notorious Untruth for many of their expressions are sentence pickt out of the Bible which they read often over with as much respect to the getting praying Phrases out of it and a great deal more than to be informed of their Duty towards God and Men and it were well if it were no worse but there is such a blend of phantastical particular and uncommon words of their own Mintage and such a medley of singularity of Incomes and Outgoings and In-dwellings and I know not what which like the Wild Gourds spoil all the Pottage and I doubt they will find there is Death too in the Pot. I AM the most deceived if for this purpose they do not stuff their Heads and Memories with Notions how to express themselves upon any sudden Occasion or Emergency and as I am informed by those who have tried both and therefore have reason to know it is a far greater Ease if a Man has the general Notions of what he intends to speak not to be tied to Numerical or Identical Words but to have a Liberty to express those thoughts and Notions according to his present Pleasure and Fancy Which if his Tongue be naturally smooth and voluble will make it less difficult for him to do it even to admiration the charge of Generals being less burdensome to the Memory than that of Particulars and besides it leaves the conceptions an unlimited freedome for choice and variation and affords many sudden
tells them there is a Woe against them S. Jude 11. Num. 16. and that they shall perish in the gain-saying of Corah which was disobedience to and raising a Mutiny against Moses and Aaron the Prince and the Priest and by the same Arts and Ways which they use telling them they took too much upon them since all the People were holy the Lords People and had all who were gifted as good a right to Govern as Moses and to be Priests and offer Incense as Aaron pretending Abuses and Reformation which has we see been the old Stratagem to lead on Rebellion 't is all one they will no more believe you than if you quoted the Alehoran to confute them And thus in a confident assurance of Heaven and Everlasting Joys which they think themselves assured of by virtue of their Election they ride Post and there is hardly a possibility of stopping them in the way that leads to everlasting misery and Damnation NOR is the Doctrine of the impossibility of their final falling away from Grace less dangerous than the former of which it is indeed a necessary Branch for hereby they receive encouragement to commit many lesser sins and under the pretence of Failings the imperfections and frailties of Flesh and Blood to pass over with a slight Repentance many wilful Offences and take any slight remorse for a reconciliation with God Who because they believe he will not suffer them to lye in sin because they cannot dye in it brings them to Repentance and how slender soever it is he will accept of it from these his particular Friends and Favourites And thus they slightly heal their Wound and with an imperfect Cure skin over that Hurt which festers and gangrenes underneath and is so much more dangerous by how much the deeper it lyes and they are less sensible of it If this be not an Effect of this Doctrine very frequent and common sure I am it may be being the proper and natural Result of it and which as in the former does likewise compleat the Danger they are in all Arguments are in vain that are employed to convince them of their Errour I have read of a certain Page to a great Nobleman in France who in the high Phrensie of a Fever fancied himself the King of France and during his pleasant Delirium was by his Lords Command accordingly treated and humour'd And I have heard of many Lunaticks and Melancholy persons who have really fancied themselves to be Mighty Monarchs It were an easier task to induce those to believe the contrary for Time and Medicines have done that than to perswade these men that they are not certain Kings and Priests in Reversion though that latter is a title they love so little that it is a question whether they will accept of any place in Heaven if they cannot have it without that Name which they profess to hate and never use but in derision of such who are so on Earth and in the highest probability of being such hereafter in Heaven But amongst all those who are upon Record in the Calogue of distempered Brains I know no Story that parallels that humour so exactly as his who used to stand upon the Pyraeum or famous Port of Athens and seeing the Wealthy Merchants Ships arrive there from several places of the World he wonderfully pleased himself with the belief that they were all his own all their rich Cargo's brought thither only for his use or pleasure when in truth he had not the least share or proporty in any of them So these men fondly think that God Almighty has stor'd up all the Treasures of his Wisdom Riches and Mercy only for them that he displays all his Goodness and Bounties upon the World for their sakes and so arrogantly do they ingross all that they perswade themselves that Heaven and all those inconceivable Pleasures and unspeakable Glories were from all Eternity purely and solely intended and created for them THERE is so much pleasure in the enjoyment and so little satisfaction in renouncing this Opinion that though it be but a meer Cloud they will hug and embrace it with that Ardor and those Passionate Transports as if it were a real Juno a Celestial Beauty and would some of them scarce be divorced from it but with their Lives which I am perswaded they would make no difficulty to quit rather than the pleasing Dream and so much the more willingly because they believe Death to be the Under-Sheriff of Heaven who is to put them into immediate Possession of those dear Delights those unexpressible Joys which they do with so strong an Imagination phansie are there laid up for them in store AFTER all this I would not be thought to be of their Faith who believe there are no such things as assurance of Heaven Joy in believing or Comfort of the Holy Ghost I am very well satisfied that these are not Fictions but the greatest and most certain Truths and that there is a great possibility of enjoying a great Measure of them But this Blessed Hope which is the Anchor of the Soul must be fixed upon firm and solid Cround otherwise it will in our greatest stress and necessity slip and come home to us and indanger our Wrack upon the Rock of Desperation and therefore this Joy and Comfort must be built upon our Willing and Universal Obedience to all the Laws of God and Commands of the Gospel in desire will intention and endeavour which through Faith in the Merits of Christ is only able to fill the Devout and Pious Soul with those true Joys and that Peace of God which passeth all understanding and this Universal Obedience I am sure these Persons cannot justly pretend to so long as they continue in that manifest wilful disobedience to their Lawful Superiors both in Church and State which is so plainly contrary to the Will and Positive Command of God BUT further this Doctrine fills them with a spiritual Pride and Opinion of themselves which makes them despise all others and certainly is one true reason of their Separation whilest though it may be their Words do not yet their Actions speak it out plain enough in the Language of those in Isaiah which said Stand by thy self come not near to me for I am holier than thou Isa 6 5. these are a Smoak in my Nostrils and a Fire that burneth all day says God of these Pretenders to Holiness and Breakers of Union in his Church Good encouragements to Separation and to perswade this sort of men that they are in God's Favour and his Elect and Chosen ones he gives so good a Character of them and that their Actions are so grateful to him Sure they overlook this Text or never soberly consider of it or measure themselves by it for if they did God Almighty would not have so many unrequired Pharisaical thanks from them as I question not but he has That they are not as other Men so or so
such as complain'd to her of any affront or injury they knew not well how to revenge Defame 'em Defame 'em some Body will believe it and whose Disciples and Followers they are and what designs they have we may soon know if we call to mind that it was the advice of their great Masters when they were to draw up a Charge against the most innocent King Charles the First Let us blacken him by all means let us blacken him which they did to purpose till their Cruelty gave him the Coronation Robes for Heaven dy'd in the pure Scarlet of his own Blood Nor do these of the Nursery ever fail to put the Doctrine in practice and all this they think they may do and that it is good and justifiable being only against the Wicked who are God's because their Enemies And that hereby they may make them appear such and manifest that they only are the Godly and Elect and all other Reprobates BUT these are but slender attempts and only in order to their Grand Design of Religiously subverting both the Church and State which let them protest never so much against and pretend themselves never so innocent of any such Intentions I shall never be able to believe but they do design Others may do as they think fit But if I meet a Man at Ware going towards London I shall conclude that to be the Place whither he designs his Journey though he tells me he is travelling towards York which if I were not well acquainted with the Roads I might otherwise be apt enough to credit especially if I tell him he is mistaken and must turn back again and I find he intends to deceive me telling me I am mistaken and that he is in the Right way and his Wits too and knows better than I can direct him whither he is going which is the exact humour of all these Barge-Saints who tugg so hard at the Oars of Reformation and constantly Row one Way and look another CHAP. XI Of the Wicked Design they have by the strength of this Doctrine to overthrow the present Church and its Government Which by their pretending to be the Elect who Worship God in Spirit and Truth they endeavour to make unlawful and Antichristian This Doctrine contrary to Gods promise to be with his Church to the End of the World and derogatorie to his Honour Of the false aspersions they secretly cast upon the Church and the publique Service of God Of the inconvenience of arguing with them and the advantages they make thereof Their impudence in boasting themselves and arguments invincible Of their dislike of Places of publique Worship of the treatment they met with in the times of their Power the house of Prayer made a Den of Theeves Of their inveterate Hatred against Bishops and the Liturgie Of the dangerous Tenent they maintain that all People Princes and Magistrats are bound to pull down Antichrist which with them is Episcopacy and that if Princes will not the People may if they can get the Power into their hands Which makes them grasp continually at Dominion LET us now come to examine the dangerous effects this Doctrine has upon the Church and how industriously secretly and with an unwearied and restless constancy they undermine its Foundations and with all their Power mightily endeavour to overturn it And wisely they do like their Predecessors make their attaque upon that quarter of the Government which is most defenceless and unarmed and by Ruining which they formerly gain'd the Town Now that they do really design this is apparent from the New Model of Church-Government which they should introduce and impose upon the Christian World as the only true and Evangelical way warranted by the Word of God and for the Establishment of which they have so often drawn the Sword in Scotland and England For the very design of building a new house in the same Place necessarily implyes the pulling down of the Old one as being decayed useless and inconvenient Does not this new invention of theirs extreamly conduce to the Glory of the only Wise God and confirm the Truth of his Promises that he would be with his Church to the End of the World and that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it When from the very time of his Ascension if we will believe them for fifteen hundred years and upwards he never thought more of it For sure if he had he would never have suffered Antichrist to rule in it so long and in all that time never reveal what was his Positive Will and Pleasure in the way of his publique Worship and Service till this new Apostle Fisherman found it out in the Lake of Geneva or in that other Lake which has no Bottom which by the fire and Brimstone with which it has set the World in Flames one would be apt to Guess and that it came from the Angel of the bottomless Pit whose name is in the Hebrew Abaddon Rev. 9.11 but in the Greek Tongue hath his name Apollyon and in the English the Destroyer and some will be ready to interpret it the Presbyterian They may talk what they will of the Mystery of Iniquity which with them is Episcopal Government and the Church-Hierarchy which begun they say to work so Early I am sure the woful Experience of the greatest part of Europe especially England can sadly testifie that their way is the Abomination of Desolation or that which makes Desolate wherever it comes which they would set up in the Holy Place or in the Place of the Holy Church But the thing is certain for they are the Elect People of God who were predestinated from all Eternity to be so and therefore the true Church and if so all others must be False And to make this manifest and apparent having neither * unless a stat prorâ—tione Voluntas Reason Antiquity nor Scripture to assist them they are resolved to be their own Friends and since Fathers Councels and Scriptures are all Prrtial because the writings of Bishops in their own Cause they can do the Work without them And though St. Peter tells them no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation St. Pet. 2. Ep. 1 Cap. 20 v. and they are yet but Private men and I hope will never be other Yet will they put them upon the Rack of their private Interpretations and the prophecy of the Revelations for all the Curse at the End of it more than any other till they wrest and Extort a confession from them that Episcopacy is Babylon c. that is such a sence as may advance their own Designs and it is to be feared Damnation since the same Apostle tells all those do who are unlearned unstable 2 Ep. St. Pet. 1. v. 12. or unfixed in the truth as he uses the Word which does exactly correspond with the humor of these people who after they have once left the Church roul from one Opinion to another and
are driven about with every new Wind of Doctrine and truly let them but alone and they want neither Skill nor Will to accomplish these and far more difficult Enterprises In General therefore they perswade all Men every where that the present visible Church is Antichristian and Popish a thing strangely made up of outward Pomp and Splendor Formality Ceremonies and Will-worship the Inventions Traditions and Commandments of Men not at all agreeable to the Word of God or the naked and Primitive Purity and simplicity of the Gospel and the Truth as it is in Jesus These Controversies have been so learnedly debated and they have been so often baffled in all they could say for themselves that I know no Plea that has been left them except Conscience which they will not part with though most people from their Actions Judge if they have any it is an Evil conscience and of the largest size in the World Though the plain truth is the thing which they call Conscience is commonly known and called by the name of Wilfulness in Opinion And is just like the Mother Viper which when her young Brood are hunted and in Danger opens her mouth and there secures them and it may be mortally stings the pursuers I will not therefore repeat the Combate since they can never be so often thrown to the ground but like the Gyant Antaens they rise again and gather strength by their frequent foils And though I would not have any one think I have an intention by what I say to put my self into the number of those Worthies I am perswaded by the repeated victories which the Champions of Truth have so often gained over them these vanquished become victors and the great Condescensions of so many Famous and Learned Cheiftians as have undertaken to confute them and have really done it has rendred them more considerable amongst the Vulgar than all their own Abilities put together could have done For Ignorant and credulous People must of necessity believe that they are some body and that there is something more than Ordinary of truth in their Opinions which emboldens them to affront Authority and to have the Courage to measure their Weapons with the most Famous and Learned Persons of the Age. And by these Comabtes these Triflers purchase a real Victory Honour and Reputation and triumph in their being defeated by such glorious Armes And here it will not be amiss to inform all people of one of their Stratagems which never fails them Vide their Reports of the Conferences at Hampton Court before King James nor they to make use of it amongst the credulous Company of their fiends Followers and Disciples they alwayes boast themselves Invincible and tell them that such and such with whom they disputed were not able to resist the Wisdome and Spirit by which they spake and though they will own their Weaknesses yet will they glory in the pretended Victory of the Truth And by disclaiming their own Interest in these great Atchievements and ascribing it all to God who hath chosen the Weak and contemptible things to confound the Great and Wise they still advance their Reputation as being the particular Favourites of Heaven and the only Instruments which God is pleased to make use of to carry on his Work his great Work which appears so much the more his own wonderful doing by how much the Means he imployes in it are despicable and unlikely to Effect it And hereby they insinuate and wind themselves into the esteem and admiration of their Party though others who observe them thus cunningly crawling upon their bellies with a seeming humility think it discovers in them more of the subtile Serpent than of the innocent Dove But to go on they will not be contented with Generals but their attempts descend to particulars and therefore as if they meant to fulfill the prediction of our Saviour against the Jewish Temple upon the present Church there is not one stone from the Foundation to the highest Pinacle which they would leave upon another or do not endeavour to throw down Not the Porch that is called Beautiful nor the Altar sacred in all places Ages and amongst all Nations and Religions except the Turks can escape their Zealous Rage and Holy fury Their secret practices and aims are levell'd at All Root and Branch is the Word of Ecclesiastical Places Persons and Performances As to their dislike of Places that is not so General and I question not but if they and their Appennages were converted to their use and sanctified by the Word and Prayer for they must not be Consecrated because that is a Popish word and Ceremony they could dispense with any of them except the Cathedrals which so long as they stand will put the World in mind of Bishops their true and Ancient Possessors But yet some Dissenters who are no Steeple-house Quakers will speak most contemptuously of the Church of God which is the House of God 1 Tim. 3.15 Nor indeed do any of them believe there is any such thing in them as a Relative Holiness though God tells them there is when he commanded Moses to put off his Shoes from off his Feet Ex. 3 5. for the Place whereon he stood was Holy Ground And many Ornaments and Vestments dedicated to his service are called Holy Ex. 29.6 As the Holy Crown or Mitre for the High-Priest Lev 16.4 Ezech. 4.14 the holy Linnen Coat and holy Chambers where they laid these Holy things But these Men are not under Law but under Grace As if the great Obligations of the Gospel were intended to set us free from that respect we owe unto Almighty God Whereas common reason will tell us they ought rather to increase and augment it And I know not what is if this be not as St. Peter sayes an abusing of Christian freedom 1 St. Pet. 2. Chap. 13.14 15 16. and using it for a Cloak of Maliciousness As all those persons do who will not submit themselves to Government and by Obedience Honour the King which is the way to shew that they fear God How little fear or respect they have for either is but too plain What will they say to you of the houses of God are they any more than other Places Heaps of Wood and Stones they are sorry that they are not heaps of Rubbish too Were they not all built by Papists in the times of Superstition Blindness and Ignorance But some of them will yet go further and can afford them no better Title they are the High Places the * A pretty witty new name for a Church it is to be thought from the Publicans and Sinners that resort to it Oh the happy Inventions of some Men Publick and the Places of Idolatry One of these Venerable Men riding not long ago near a Cathedral of this Nation took occasion at the next Meeting whither he was going to hold forth to speak to this Effect if not these Words
Sence of our Ecclesiastical Performances for which we shall find they have as little kindness or Charity as for the former All the Ceremonies of the Church which they tell tell the People are with us the greatest part if not the All of our Worship are far from that Spirit and Truth which God seeks for in all those Worshippers that he approves That they are no where Warranted in the Word of God and therefore unlawful The Surplice and other Vestments badges of Innocence and distinctions of Degrees or Office are Rags of Rome Bowing at the Name of Jesus flat Idolatry kneeling at the Sacrament the same The Cross after Baptism a vain and foolish piece of Superstition and a Relique of the Popish Crossing In short the whole Book of Common Prayer c. a dull dead Letter formal having not the Power or Spirit of Devotion nothing but a translation of the Mass-book into English Full of Thank Calvin for his Tolerabiles ineptiae frivolous stuff mere Porredge and I know not what for there is nothing that may render the Service of the Church contemptible or Odious which they will stick to say of it and in so doing perswade us they do their Duty and God good Service How far they have successfully advanced in this Wicked Design is but too Evident by the General neglect of People in repairing to the Church on the Holy Fasts and Festival Dayes Though they are enjoyned by the Statute Laws of the Land to be kept Holy Ann. quarto quinto Ed. Sexti st 3. as well as by the Command of the Church And by which all people are enjoyned to resort to their Parish-Churches to hear Divine Service Anno. 1. Eliz. st 2. and to joyn in an unanimous and Vniform Worship of God Anno 23. Eliz. st 1. Nor will they come to Church on the Lords Day in the afternoons when they have no pretence of the hindrance of their Secular Affairs if there be only Prayers and Catechizing but not a Sermon which as hereafter shall be shewn is made the Essential part of all Religion Now all these Waters of Marah spring from the same Fountain The Doctrine of their being the Elect and only people of God For if they be theirs is the right way of worship and all others false and vain But that they are the Elect you have already heard and what infallible Marks their Teachers have given them and more than all that have told them that undoubtedly they are which likewise has been confirmed unto them by the Testimony of the Spirit helping them to pray and filling them with Love and Joy in believing And if ours be false wayes and Will-worship such as keep men in Error and Ignorance Blindness Formality and Superstition such as will certainly bring them to Hell ought they not think you to promote Gods Glory and their own by pulling down the Kingdom of Antichrist and destroying the Brazen Serpent when it is abused to Idolatry Undoubtedly they think it is their Duty and not only theirs but the Duty of all Magistrates Kings and Princes of the Earth who are bound to endeavour it to hate the great Whore of Babylon and to burn her with fire and if they will not be so wise to receive this Instruction from them and so learned as to put this in Execution the people may if they can get power nay must endeavour it with or against their Wills for the Work is the Lords and Cursed be he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48.10 and Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from Blood which is the true Chain of their desperate Opinions and Practices A most admirable Sorites to prove Rebellions not only Lawful but Necessary and which you see is forcibly back't with abused Scripture Thus one Error in the Foundation multiplies into a thousand and contrary to the Rules of Architecture is like an inverted Pyramid the higher it rises the wider it spreads and one mistake in a Principle is the Parent of innumerable in the Practice I will conclude this particular with the following Apologue and leave the Application of it to every mans pleasure A certain Husbandman having in his Plantation a Vine it grew wonderfully and did produce great plenty of incomparable Clusters and of a most delicate tast some of his wise neighbours coming to see his Plantation and perceiving the Shoots and Branches so Luxuriant they gave him advice to crop and prune it and to take off most of the largest and fairest leaves telling him that the Plant spent it self too much that way and that all the good they did was but to make a little unnecessary Flourish which might well be spared that they Beauty or Shade could not make a recompence for the injury they did in drawing away such abundance of the sapp and moisture from the Root whereby they hindred its Fruit robbing it in great measure of they juicy nourishment Upon tryal the Experiment does not succede the Fruit proves neither so fair plentiful nor of that greateful flavour as formerly it used to do But to give him assistance in his design the following Yeaâ— he spies upon one of the Branches a fine wrought webb charged only with a few little tender Eggs his Curiosity and Ignorance of what it was tempted him to let them alone and to see what they would come to The heat of the Sun in a short time discloses a brood of most curiously variegated Catterpillers the honest man finds them still lodged in their cunning inclosure admires their Beauty and many-colour'd nature Ammel and thus argues with himselfe Sure these Worms can do my Vine no hurt they look so finely and feel so soft which arguments prevail with him not to disturb much Iess destroy them Before he thought any more of them or look't again they had overspread his Vine and devoured all the Leaves and had left the tender fruit naked and bare which being thereby exposed to the scorching Sun the unkindness of the Winds and Weather in a little time parch'd and dwindled quite away and if he had not used much industry he had utterly lost his delicate Plant. Which for all his care and pains did not yet in several Years recover the damage it had sustained by these pretty silken Guests You need make no Question but for ever after he knew them again at first sight and assoon as ever he spied a Webb but beginning to be spun upon his Vine he gave it a speedy Dispatch CHAP. XII Of the Desperate influences this Doctrine has upon the State and Civil Government This Amazon Fury bred in Rebellion and ever since nurst up with blood proved from our own and all Europe's sad Experience This Doctrine inclines men to Aristocracy or the Government of a Common-wealth Of the little kindness they have for Monarchy Salus populi Suprema Lex their fundamental Principle of Government abused to perswade Men. that the
unscriptural or unlawful that he blesses the Lord God of Israel who had put such a thing into the Kings Heart as was the only expedient to enable him to rebuild the House of the Lord and bring it to its former Beauty and Glory As for that fort of Punishment which is Capital and Sanguinary as it does not at all suit the temper of the Gospel so they are satisfied that it is not the Custome of our Law-givers to write theirs as 't is said the Athenian Draco did his Statutes in Characters of Blood Nor shall these Men need to fear resisting unto Blood unless they mean in unlawful Insurrections of their own railing Or for intentional or actual Violence Treason or Rebellion to which they seem to be in the ready and nearest way and therefore since if they will but take care to avoid the Crimes they are out of the reach of their punishments we will pursue this consideration no further A second sort of punishment which has been made use of is Imprisonment and in this they pretend to Glory and to make most considerable advantages for though you may confine their Bodies yet their Tongues and Pens have alwayes been at Liberty and this has been so far from hindering that contrary to other Infections they make this shutting them up contribute to the spreading of the Contagion and it has been no unusual thing for the Jaylors advantage to have a Conventicle in the very Prison fer Persecution Bonds and Imprisonments for the Gospel and also because God appears so particularly for them in delivering them out of all these afflictions and tribulations Let us now see how they will deal with a third way of Punishment which is Confiscation of Goods which has been the penalty that our Laws have most generally inflicted upon Dissenters and here it has been the general observation that the smaller Fines as twelve pence a Sunday have been most effectual the proceedings upon the greater and heavier Fines being more rarely put in execution that being generally a tenderness in all men which makes them unwilling to ruine others in their Estates as they believe these heavy Impositions would do But they may spare themselves that Pity for these People know well enough not only how to avoid the punishment but to make it become serviceable to their Interest If the Penalty proceeds upon Information as most generally it does they endeavour to render the name and Office of Informer odious so that few people of credit will intermeddle in it and then either it will not be done at all or it will be undertook by the meaner sort of people who inform out of the Hopes of their share of the Forfeiture and if it happens as too many of them are that the Information is given in by loose idle or scandalous poor people then they are safe enough and proclaim to every body You see what kind of people these are Drunkards Swearers poor pityful Fellows that will say or swear any thing for Money that are hired against us and are our Accusers And this adds not a little to the confidence with which their Leaders inspire them of having a good Opinion of themselves or of that which hereby others may come to have of them and their wayes seeing them prosecuted which they call Persecuted by such a fort of people as having no Religion themselves may therefore be thought to hate and persecute such as have and this also affords them an opportunity which they are not backward to improve by insinuating that the Authority which sets such Men at Work encourages them in it and rewards them for it is like them persecuting and wicked too Or if the Information be given in by sober honest and credible Persons they can make a Bill of Sale of all their Visible Estate to a true and trusty Friend and then they will bid the Levy a Defiance and never think this a fraudulent Deed nor shall the Officers be able if they were so minded by all their Art or Industry to discover and to prove that it is Or however they will stand upon their guard and keep the Doors fast lock't and bolted in despight of that Aphorism of the Law which sayes That no mans House shall he his Castle against the King They will rarely pay the Forfeiture which by virtue of the Warrant to Levy is demanded of them though it be but a Shilling so that the Officers are obliged to Distrain and for their own security they will take enough and when that is done there is such a general squeamishness upon People that they do not care to buy such Goods unless they be overcome by the Temptation of an excessive great Bargain so that they are forced to sell Robin Hoods merry Penny-worths and when all the Charges are deducted which necessarily attends this Procedure there will be but a slender Surplusage to be returned to the Owners some of which to mend an ill Market are so stubborn that they will not receive it Now though the fault was wholly in themselves yet will they cry out That their Goods were sold for a quarter of their worth and exclaim against the injustice and oppression of such proceedings And after all is done they will tell you that you cannot take away their Spiritual Comforts you cannot take away their God from them And they have so often and so lowdly in the Meeting-House been fore-warn'd of this that they are fore-arm'd against it What can you endure to suffer Persecution with the People of God Can you be contented joyfully to take the spoiling of your Goods for the Gospels sake Can you be ready to suffer Bonds and Imprisonments and Death rather than forsake Christ Can you endure to suffer affliction for a season with the People of God like Moses Ah my Friends it is but for a Season a short Season for those Days shall be shortned for the Elect sake Can you bear the Cross and despise the shame Can you be contented to be the Song of the Drunkards such as are drunk with the Cup of the Fornications of the great Whore of Babylon Can you endure to be called Hypocrites and Deceivers Oh! then you Elect and previous and a thousand such things I say they have so frequently been told of this that they verily believe these afflictions are sent of God purposely for the tryal of their Truth and Constancy and by their sufferings of this Nature their Teachers persuade and convince them beyond all other Arguments that they are the People of God and no Hypocrites for all that will live Godly must suffer Persecution Though that all is apparently to be restrained to that Age or some following for it is known that many who have lived Godly have not suffered Persecution Nor do they after all this noise for it is the Cause that makes Persecution and Martyrdom But having lost their outward Enjoyments they fly to their inward Refreshments to the thoughts of their being