1O2 7 hL7FE of the LiB.1. profefs that his Content or Hand was never to it : But Pride ritually goeth before DefEruílion. r47. And having laid this ofthe Crimes ofthefeFirebrands ofthe Army,' muff fay fomewhat of the Se&arianParty inGeneral; I mean, thofe who havebeen molt addi&ed to Church-Divisions, and Separations, and Sidings, and Parties,and have re- futed all terms of Concord and Unity : I doubt not but many of themwere People that feared God, who in their Ignorance of the Doetrine of Church Unity and Communion, have been drawn by Pretences ofPurity to follow their Leaders in ways which they underftoodnot : And I doubt not but thePresbyterians have had their Faults in their Treaties with them ; and that politick Statefinenkept open the Divifrons for their ownDeugns, ( that they might have a Party to weaken the Soots and Presbyterians that would have reftored the King ). But yet I mull record it to the Shame of their Mifcarriages, that the weaker andyounger fort of Profefrs, havebeen prone to be puffup with high Thoughts of themfelves, and to over-value their little Degrees of Knowledge and Parts, which fet them not above the Pity of underftanding Men : That they have been fet upon thofe Courfes which tend to advance them above the Common People in the Obfervationof the World, and to fee them at a farther Diftancefrom others than God alloweth, and all this un- der the Pretence of the Purity of the Church. That in Pro- The Lord Raw nameth Four fecution of their Ends, there are fewof the Anabaptifts that Caufes ofAtheifm. I. many Di- have not been the Oppofersand Troublers of the faithful Mi- vifions in Religion. a. TheScan- nifters of the Land ; and were the Troublers of their People, dal of Priells. Scoffing 3. A Cuticula of and the Hinderers of their Succefs they ftrengthned the Proper.. 4. Corrupting about Holy Y g Matters. c m m profpen- Handsof the Prophane : The Se&cries (efpecially the Ana- ty. Effay 16. p. 95. baptilts, theSeekers, and the Quakers ) chofe out the molt able, zealous Minifters, to make the Marks of their Reproach and Obliquy, and all becaufe they flood in the Way of their Defigns, and hin- dered them in the propagatingof their Opinions : They fet againft the fame Men that the Drunkards and Swearers fee againft, and much after the fame manner; re- viling them, and railing up falle Reports of them, and doing all that they could to make themodious, and at fall attempting to pull them all down ; only they did it more prophanely than the Prophane ; in that they laid, [Let the Lord be glo- rified; Let the Gofpel be propagated ] and ablated and prophanedScriptur,p and the Name of God by entituling him to their Fa&ion and Mifcarriages. Yea, though they thought themfelves the molt underflanding and confciencious People of the Land, yet did the Gang of them feldom flick at any thing which feemed to pro- mote their Caute ; but whatever their Fa&ion in the Army did, they pleaded for it and approved it : If they pull'd down the Parliament, imprifon'd the godly faithful Members, killed the King, ifthey call out the Rump, if they chofea Little Parliament of their own, if they letup Cromweol, if they fee up his Son and puli'd him down again, if they fought to obtrude Agreements on the People, if they one Week fee up a Council of State, and if another Week the Rump were reflo- red, if they foughtto take down Tythes and Parilh-Minifters, to the utter Confu- lionof the Stateof Religion in the Land; in all thefe the Anabaptifts, and many of the Independants in theThree Kingdoms followed them ; and even their Pa- Hors were ready to lead them to confenr. And all this began but in unwarrantable Separations, and too much aggravating the Faults of the Churches andCommon People, and Common Prayer Book and Mìniflry; which indeedwere none of them without Faults to be lamented and reformed : But they thought that becaufe it neededAmendment, it required their obftinate Se- paration,, and that they were allowed to make odious any thing that was amifs; and becaufe it was faulty, if any Man had rebuked them for belying it, and making it far more faulty than it was, instead of confeflìng their Sin, they called their Reprover a Pleader for Antichrill or Baal ; every Error in the Mode of the Common Worship they had no fitter Name for, than Idolatry, Popery, Antichri- ftianifin, Superftition, Willworlhip, &c. when in the mean time, manyof their own Prayers werefull of Carnal Paflion, Selfilhnel, Fa&ion, Diforder, vainRe- pliions, unfound and loathfnm Expreflions, and their Doetrine full of Errors and Confuflion ; and thefe Beams in their own Eyes were matter of no Offence to them : They wouldnot communicatewith that Church where ignorant Perlons or Swearers were tollerated ( though they themfelves never did their Part to have them call out, but look'd theMinifters fhould do all without them) ; but without any fcruple they would communicate with them that had broke their Vow and Covenant with God and Man, and reielled againft both King, Parliament, and all
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