Castigatio Temporum: OR, A short View and Reprehension Of the ERRORS and ENORMITIES Of the TIMES, BOTH In Church and State; And what is the most probable Means to cure the Distempers in either.  
Printed at London, in the Year 1660.   

To the READER.  
REader, It is more than time, (for Principlis obstes, sero Medicina paratur.)  
That thou and I should at last look to our Duties; whenas Mankind, especially in these Northern Regions, are become so faithless, and make such haste into forbidden wickedness, that not only in Faith and Religion, nothing is esteemed which is not New, but in Morality also, those Noblest Virtues of Justice and Obedience, are persecuted as Vices; and their Contraries have the Reward which is due to Virtue set upon them.   

A short View and Castigation of the Public Vices of the Times.  
DOubtless it is a miserable Slavery, where the Law is wandering or uncertain: Misera servitus ubi Jus est vagum aut incognitum. If then it be a miserable slavery where the Law is wand'ring and uncertain, it must be there a more miserable slavery where the Supreme Power (from whence all Law is derived) is wandering and uncertain: for there what can men trust to? What security can any man have in his Life or Estate, when it is not known where he shall expect it? What Meum or Tuum can there be, where no man can tell from whence to derive it? And if it be true (as it is) That Justice comprehends in itself all Virtues, (Justitia in sese Virtutes continet omnes) what man can there be just, virtuous or honest, where he knows not to what to conform his Actions?  
In the beginning of our Distractions, whenas Liberty and Privilege were opposed to Prerogative, they who asserted Liberty and Privilege though then understood and called by one name, viz. Parliament, yet were compounded of two different Bodies, that is, two Houses, one of Lords, another of Commons: those called themselves the King's hereditary Council; these, the Representative Body of the Kingdom. And these two, strengthened by their Liberty and Privilege, and aided by their Brethren the Scots, drive poor Prerogative out of all, to the utter extirpation of it.  
But because all power is incompatible, and this power in two, and therefore not possible long to consist; the Representative Body 
(a) 6 Febr. 1648.  turns the Hereditary Council out of doors, and seizeth and rifles all Records and Papers in a moment, which they had been above eight years a doing. And then they say the Supreme Power of the Nation is reduced to the prime and original Fountain, viz. the People, and by the People to them. So that a small part of the House of Commons (for above one half were dead, or turned out of doors for adhering to the King; and the Army turned out at one time eleven of them that were left, and above one 
(b) 6 August 1647.  half were imprisoned by the lesser part, and the Army) which entire and whole, was not so much as a Court of Judicature, but to some things amongst themselves, nor had power to take any man's examination) ascribe to themselves the Supreme power of the Nation, and play such reaks, as they became intolerable, even to their own creatures, who do by them, as they had done by the poor Prerogative creatures, the Lords 
(c) 20 April 1653. .  
And then comes, I Oliver, Captain General of all the Porces of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, by the advice of my Officers of the Army, etc. And he himself Taxes, and makes Laws. But this Scoene is soon altered: for the General, as he is called, summons 
(d) 4 July 1653.  divers men from several parts to Whitehall, and, if you believe Politicus, leaning upon a bay window, devolves to them the Sureme power of the Nation. These are called Parliament too, give the General Whitehall; but no damage to any of them: not any of them parted with any thing by this Gift. They make a Law, too, for Marriage by a Justice of Peace; and to hang men by a Law a Posteriori, that is, a Law made after the Fact is committed, as you see in their Law for hanging the Sailors: It is not hard to find this Act of Parliament; for these did not (I think) make many more besides these three. They say, this pitiful thing could not agree in itself, nor bear the burden of the Nation upon their shoulders: and therefore 
(e) 12 Decem. 1653.  they return the General all his power again; and so the General is as he was, and they may go home again, and look to their Cattle.  
And then December 16. 1653. the General is sworn Lord Protector, and swears to an Instrument of God knows whose making, by which the Supreme power of this Nation, is in one person, and the freeborn people of the Nation. Sept. 3. 1654. the Protector summons another Parliament (as he calls it) but with no better success than the former. All this while Taxes are imposed, distrained for, and levied without consent of Parliament: Why what is become of the Rights and Privileges of the English Nation? Sure there is no such thing as Magna Charta, or the Statute De Tallagio non concedendo. But after that, the Protector got another company of men, 
1657.  who called themselves Parliament; these made or renewed him Protector, and gave him power to name his Successor; and if you would have believed (ita vertere seria ludo) at next sitting we should have had the Other House, and every secluded Member (that should swear as he ought) should have power to sit in this House: And yet was the condition of this poor Nation as perplexed as ever before. The Parliament hath given power to the Protector to nominate his Successor, and the Instrument hath given it to the Council; and who shall judge between these two? What is the power of the Instrument? What the power of the Protector? What the power of Parliament? What is a Parliament? Which of these is Supreme? To whom shall any man make his obedience? And to what purpose should the rest of the Members be allowed to sit, and another House made, when these only who are now admitted, with the Protector, can make Laws without them? Whether is the Protector obliged to observe the Instrument, or the Humble Petition and Advice, having sworn to both? Nor would the Protector suffer this Parliament to sit after this expectation, so long as to pass one Act conjunctly with the Other House.  
Since, Sept. 3. 1658. Death made another alteration, by taking away the Protector, Oliver, by the Grace of God, etc. and they say that he designed his Son Richard his Successor, who did swear, they say, to protect and govern this freeborn people according to the Laws; but what the Laws are, no man can tell, where the Legislator is not certainly known. It is a question whether this Protector shall be Richard the First, or Second; or whether he be by the Grace of God, or not; claiming all his Right from the Petition and Advice, and his Father's Nomination.  
But all the World runs a madding still, and is constant in nothing but Inconstancy; and this poor Nation in all these changes finds nothing tending to her cure. The Protector calls a company of men together, 
(f) Jan. 27. 1658.  (viz. this House, and the Other House) and although he claims all his Right from the Petition and Advice, as the chief Cornerstone; yet was this House that made the Petition and Advice, in election and constitution, nothing like this House, who then assumed to themselves the Supreme Authority of this Nation: These men in this House, not only disallow those men who framed the Petition and Advice, as no Free Parliament; but having themselves but an entrusted power (against all Rules of Law and Reason) participate and communicate this their power to Irish and Scotish Members; whereas Delegata potestas non potest participari.  
And because they will not be less kindhearted to the T'other House, than their Scotish and Irish Members, they, for convenience, will transact with the Members now sitting in the Other House, as another House of Parliament. But whether the Other House shall be Superior, Equal, or Inferior to this, may be a great Question: If Superior to this, then cannot this be the Supreme Authority of this Nation; nay, then cannot they be made and created by this House; for no created Thing can be superior to its Maker and Creator: If Equal, then cannot it be the Other House, but a part or relative to this; which must needs be a breach of the Trust of this House; nor shall ever the freeborn people of this Nation need to elect Members to this House, if this House can make Members of their own Scotish and Irish, and another House of like Authority with themselves: If the Other House be Inferior to this, then are the Lords, and alwayes-received Upper-House of Parliament, inferior, and subject to the Lower House, and House of Commons, the cheapest thing in the reckoning.  
It is a strange thing to consider, what a frenzy and madness this Nation is fallen into, since 1641. when under a gracious and known Sovereign, and received and known Laws, the greatest blessings (in the ordinary nature of things) God can give a Nation; not only esteeming Liberty in the multiplicity of Laws, and uncertain Governors, 
(g) As if it were intolerable to obey one known Sovereign, and known Laws, and yet an easy thing to be enslaved to the arbitrary wills and lusts of many men, who by no Right tyrannize over us.  but by their wilful rejecting their known Prince and Laws, they labour under all those Miseries and Calamities which are incident to Confusion; and yet think there is no way to peace, but the contrary extreme. If any man before these times should have named but the bringing in of Excise, (the most tolerable of Taxes we now groan under) I am confident he would have been pulled in pieces by the Multitude. And after all these public Impositions, and Taxes, since 1641. (which I am confident are twenty times more than all the Taxes in five hundred years under our Kings) and the sale of the Crown and Church Lands, (the one, the greatest Ornament of our Nation; the other, of our Church) there is now a greater public Debt upon this Nation, than all the Texes imposed by, or given to the Kings of England these hundred years, will satisfy; though not above two years ago, a constant Salary was constituted, sufficient to defray the charge of the Army and Navy.  
They were wont to cry out of, and to fear Arbitrary power, whenas they felt it not, or suffered under it: what but Arbitrary power, hath destroyed all the known Laws and Liberties of this Church and Nation? What but an Arbitrary power has brought us into such a condition, that we know not what is Just and Legal, and what is not? And if it be a miserable slavery where the Law is wand'ring and uncertain; what a miserable slavery are we fallen into? whereas Incertainty is the only Certainty of our Condition, and Perjury the least of our Crimes. At first men protested to be true to the King, and the Protestant Religion, as it was established: after, they covenanted to be true and faithful to the King, in order to the Solemn League and Covenant: then engaged to be true to a Government without King or House of Lords: but that not being consistent with the late Protectors greatness, was repealed by a Parliament (so called, of his own making:) then the Protector and his creatures swear to an Instrument of their own making: but this continued no longer than the Parliament (so called) which made the Petition and Advice, and they made a new oath to be taken by the Protector, his Council, and all who shall sit in Parliament, or bear Office in the Commonwealth. I do wonder which of the Members in any of these last Parliaments, after they came into the House, ever regarded what he had sworn at the Door: as if the being a Member had been sufficient privilege against perjury: and let any sober Christian lay his hand upon his heart, and consider whether here has not been swearing and forswearing sufficient to swear all Religion of an Oath, as well as Truth and Integrity, quite out of doors for ever: and what Conversation, Truth, Integrity or Ingenuity can be expected from those men in ordinary things, who in things of highest concernment, have so often violated and falsified their Faith, Troth and Oaths.  
But miserable sure is it with those men whose ills cannot be safe without attempting greater. To all our antecedent Distractions and Confusions, is yet added another, of the Officers of the Army; and where it will end, God only knows. These men, they say, pretending great dangers and fears to the Saints, get leave of the Protector to assemble and advise for safety and redress; where, after fasting and long Prayer, they promulge a Petition to the Protector, testifying their great care of him, the Parliament, and conservation of his glorious Father's renowned Memory: but it is a peculiar mark of godliness, especially after a Fast, with these Saints, that men never understand their meaning, by any thing they say: (the Protectors Father of renowned Memory, next after old Satan, the common Father of them all, was most excellent at it) for the word was scarce cold in their mouths, whenas they not only dissolve the Parliament, but use the Protector just with that Veneration and Observance that his glorious Father of renowned Memory, did the King at Hampton-Court, and Carisbrook-Castle. Where are all the Hails now, of your Highness' most obedient Soldiers and Subjects, to live and die with your Highness, in the preservation of the Rights Civil and Religious of this Nation? Who gave, or by what Birthright do these Officers do these things. Why may not the Under-Officers do by them, as they have done by the Parliament and Protector? and so the common Soldiers and Agitators, by the Under-Officers; and so ad infinitum: and in what a condition are we the while?  
But although the Officers and the rest of the lower sort of Soldiers do not well agree among themselves, but as it may relate to their interest, in continuance of their present greatness, and enjoying the good and fat of the Land; yet for the present they so far agree (it being the likeliest means to continue their greatness) to revive the Long Parliament, (or, as it is called, the Rump of it) that all they who have continued since 1648. (some great good was done then, I warrant you) until the 20th of April, 1653. may reassume their Trust; and so they declare 
(h) May 6. 1659. : which Declaration was delivered to the old Speaker, by the Lord Lambert, the Lord Cooper, the Lord Berry, etc. I would fain know whether it were not these very Officers that cut off the Rump of this long black Parliament, and in utter renunciation of it, did not take new Commissions from the late Protector. It is a very great Question among the Critics, whether this Rump be the Army's Parliament, or whether the Army be the Parliaments Army.  
Thus have we taken a short view of the Alterations and Distractions which have (by God's Judgement and Justice) happened to us, since we would wilfully cast off our known Governors and Laws. Now let any man, not madly and foolishly blinded with vain Zeal, consider in all these Revolutions and Changes of our uncertain and many Arbitrary Masters, (who by no colour of Right tyrannize over us) whether all Faith and Religion hath not utterly fled from us? Whether all Laws, by which any Man should direct his Actions, have not been shut up in the Arbitrary Breasts of our Lordly Governors? Nay, whether the observance of the known Laws (the only Rule of Justice, Virtue, and Honesty) have not been persecuted by our lordly Governors, as Treason, and notorious Vices? Did all the Fields of this Nation ever run such streams of humane Blood, as under them? Did ever all the Kings of this Nation, in five hundred years, exact the twentieth part of Taxes, which these new Masters have done in five? Were not the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation butchered, imprisoned, sequestered, by no colour of Law; and their only Crime, the observance of the Law? And to all these Calamities, are not the sacred Patrimony both of Church and Crown invaded, and made a prey to Soldiers, Sequestrators and Excise-men? Are we not only dissenting and jarring among ourselves; but at open Enmity, and in the state of War with all the World, and all Trade and Traffic interrupted? Are not these Lord Officers (titles their saintships can easily digest in themselves, and an effect only of the Protectors Tyranny, which they disclaimed, & at first was abominated by them) two parts of this Rump-Parliament, who must be not only our Lords and Taskers; but also the Takers and Receivers of all the Taxes they please to impose upon us?  
Things standing upon such a horrid and rotten Basis, it was impossible they should long continue: But the Generous Booth; disdaining such a company of Pigwidgeon Usurpers should arrogate to themselves the Title of Parliament; in August last, 1659. accompanied by a gallant Troop of Gentry, opposes them, and declares for a Free Parliament: which so startled them at Westminster, that they most imprudently Armed and sent Lambert against him; (whose Victory all prudent Men foresaw would be more terrible to his Masters, then if he were vanquished.) All this while, although the Nation were generally engaged with Sir George, they not only left him to sustain the united force of his Enemies, but contribute (though passively) to his opposition; so that left alone (although he did as much more than could be hoped from him, as the rest of the Nation had been negligent in what he expected) he and his Party sunk under the pressure of his Adversaries; yet with so strange a Catastrophe, that in a short time, without Blood, the Victor became the Vanquished, and the Conquered in the state of a Conqueror.  
For the Lord Lambert (as he is called) returning triumphantly to London, after his Victory, and disdaining that these men who were restored by the mere force of the Army, should make these Lordly Officers hold their places and greatness at the will of their creatures, resolves to have them distinct and independent from them: in order whereunto, they, on the 9 of October, 1659. present them a Petition (as they called it) which was so far from being granted, that the Rump reassume the Commissions formerly granted them, and constitute seven Commissioners to govern the Army, during the Rumps pleasure: which so startled these Lord-Officers, that on the 13 they reduced them to the same state they were before May last, and resolve to share all the greatness not only of this Nation, but also of Scotland and Ireland, among themselves and creatures.  
These strange and unheard-of tumults and alterations, no man knowing whither they would tend, rouse the Northern Lion, (who for many years had securely governed a Scotish Generation in peace, which none of their Kings before him could ever do) and he declares against these tumults and disorders of the English Army. Against him the Officers send their victorious General Lord Lambert; but General Monk being a prudent Manager of his Designs, and having no body to depend upon, opposes him upon a defensive posture, resolving to put nothing upon Fortune, which he had securely in his own hands; whereas Lambert expecting Orders and Directions from a distracted company of Schismatics, whose Foundation depended only upon the wretched common Soldiers, is deserted, first at Portsmouth, then at London, and lastly by them all.  
The Soldiers having thus deserted their Officers, the Rump return, Decem. 26. to the exercise of their Trust, as they call it; yet so, that they resolve to keep out a much greater number than themselves, who by equal right might exercise with them; and (not considering that their Foundation was only the affections of a company of needy and wretched Soldiers, who expected to derive their pay from them, for want of which, they deserted their Officers) proceed as high and arrogantly, as if they had had the greatest injustice done to them, and been placed in as just Authority as ever men had. It is a most remarkable thing, that these very Officers, who not content to have been Lords of the Other House, and to have shared almost all the Military and Civil greatness of the Nation among themselves, should turn out the Protector and his Parliament, and place a thing in stead thereof, who in less than the Revolution of a Year should take so great vengeance upon them all.  
In the Interim, victorious General Monk, victorious without fight, and a Conqueror without blood, courageously advances out of Scotland toward London; all the way meeting from almost all Countries, Remonstrances full of dissatisfaction to the present Government; and desirous of a full and free Parliament, or that the Secluded Members might be admitted to sit again. After he arrived at London, the first service these worthy Patriots put him upon, was to make War upon the City Gates and Portcullises; a thing as ill relishing the greatness of his spirit and undertake, as hateful and ridiculous to men in general: the baseness of which Action, together with the Reasons alleged by the Secluded Members, it may be was the cause of their readmission and Session.  
Upon the 16 of this Month of March, this many Tailed and many Headed thing (although they by a most unparallelled fact among them had cut off their Head) called Parliament, which had in so many shapes acted Tragedies the greatest part of 20 years, was dissolved: having against all Law and Justice, not only been the ruin almost of infinite Families of all sorts of men; and not only caused the Fields of the three Nations to run with more streams of humane blood, than ever was before mentioned by any story of the Nations in many years: but also erected new and unheard-of Courts, after the War was done to, ensnare and take away men's lives: having not only taxed the Subject forty times more than all the Kings of this Nation have done in 500 years before; but also embezel'd and sold all the Public Revenues both of Church and Crown; and yet left a greater Debt upon the Nation, than all the Parliaments (except the Sacrilegious gift of Church-Lands) have given to the Kings of this Nation these 400 years: having made the honour of the English Nation vile and contemptible to all Nations abroad: having not only lost all faith at home, but kept none abroad; whereby the Public Trade and Traffic of this Nation is interrupted and lost; and yet have left above 50000 armed men, besides the ordinary Militia, to be maintained by the Nations: yet as an Epicedium, to manifest their Saintships to the world, and how ill the Cavaliers have deserved, because guilty of none of these things, they not only exclude them, but their posterity, from being eligible in what they call this next Parliament.  
Since it is impossible that any differences can be composed, 
What are the most probable means to cure the distractions in the State.  where men will not submit to some certain and known rule, to which the men differing aught indifferently to submit themselves; and since all Factions have played reaks at the Helm, and Imperiously, without all Title or Precedent, not only arrogantly dominered over one another, but also the rest of their fellow-Subjects; and since the forsaking our known Governors, (to whom by all Laws of God and man, we did owe our obedience) and those known Laws, which should be the Rule of the Subject's actions, and put a period to their differences, hath been the cause of all our civil distractions; and since there is no other probable means under heaven to cure our distractions and compose our differences, but by returning to our known Governors and Laws: then at last, let men lay a side all further animosities, & take hold of those means, which may save the Ship of this Commonwealth before it utterly sinks, to the Public ruin of the Inhabitants. But how the wounds of this distracted Nation may be so healed, and the breaches so cemented, that though all be sufferers, yet the Nation redeemed, will doubtless require the wisdom of a Full and Free Parliament, duly constituted; by whose judgement all the differences and civil distractions of the Nation ought to be determined and decided.  
Qui molitur insidias in Patriam, id facit quod infaelix  
Nauta, perforans navem, in qua ipse vehitur.  
Let us see whether, as the case now stands with us, the condition of this Nation be any better in Religion then Government. Credere Deum esse, non est articulus fidei: To believe there is a God, is an Article of no man's Faith: nor is that act Religion to worship & serve God with, which every individual man frames and purposes to himself as useful and expedient for him to do, (yet indeed it is very requisite, that every man should every day, with his private worship and service, implore Gods preventing and assisting grace, all the day after: because no man or men can tell another man what he wants, and to what sin by nature he is evilly prone to, so well as himself) for then all men who worship one God, were of one Religion and of one Faith. Let us therefore see what is Faith, & what Religion? Who an Atheist, and what Atheism?  
Faith is an act of Belief in God, as he hath revealed himself to mankind extraordinarily, 
What is Faith.  and so as by nature no man could possibly without God's grace, attain to the knowledge or belief of it. It was therefore an act of faith in the Children of Israel, to believe in God as he had revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel; to the evidence of which, no man inspired with all the knowledge and learning of Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and all other Philosophers could possibly by those helps only attain; and to believe in God as known to them and their Fathers by the name of Jehovah, was an Article of Jewish Faith: and to believe in God the Father as he hath revealed himself to mankind in his Son Jesus Christ, God and Man, is the sum of Christian faith; and by doing in this faith, ought every Christian man to seek out his Salvation with fear and trembling.  
By Religion, 
What Religion.  all men generally, Christians, Jews, Mahometans and Infidels (who though misplacing the Deity in the Creatures, as the Sun or Moon, an Oak, Apollo, etc.) understand, the restraining or binding men to the Public worship and service of God, in such an unity, form, and communion. And so zealous were the Druids, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Nicias Orat. Thuc. l. 7.  in their Rites and Forms, that none but their Priests and Scholars might learn them; nor would they commit them to Letters, both because they would not have them divulged (lest they should grow contemptible by being exposed to the view of the rude and ignorant multitude) and because their Scholars might the better retain and keep them in their memory. 
Selden annal. Anglobr. l. c. 4 Cesar li. 6. de bell. Gall. Camb Br. p. 13.14.  If then Religion be the binding men to worship God in such a form, etc. let us see what makes and altars forms. Forma rerum sicut numeri (according to Aristotle) consistunt in indivisibili: Tho forms of things, as numbers, do consist indivisibly, or integrally; for as in numbers, if you add to, alter or diminish aught from any number, it ceases to be the number it was before; so in forms, if you add, diminish or alter aught, it ceases to be the form it was before: therefore St. Paul exhorts, 1 Tim. 2. That first of all (because there can be no Religion without it) prayers, and supplications, intercessions and giving of thanks, be made for all men, for Kings, etc. And let all things be done decently and in order, 1 Cor. 14.40. Now decency and order must pre-suppose rules, precepts and forms, to which they are referred; and where there are no rules, precepts, and forms observed, there necessarily things must be done indecently and out of order; and the reason of all is, That men may with one mouth and one mind glorify God, Rom. 6.15. And therefore in the Church of England (and I believe in all Christian Churches,) set forms are not only ordered, when Congregations are gathered together, that many may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, both for all sorts of men, in their several vocations and stations; 
Flaminem assiduum Jovi sacerdotalem erea vit. Livy. lib. 1.  That as amongst the Jews, the fire upon the Altar might never go out, so among Christians no day might the Priest omit to offer up the public service of God, for all sorts of men. To believe then in God the Father, in God the Son, in God the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, & ' c. are Articles of Christian faith; and the worshipping of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost in the Catholic Church, and communion of Saints, is an act of Christian Religion.  
Now let us see who is an Atheist, and what is Atheism? there is no man in his wits, that is compos mentis, who can think there is no God: David, Psal. 14.1. says, The foolish body hath said his heart, There is no God: and 'tis not folly merely, which makes men Atheists; Nor is there any man so mad, as to believe there is a God, and he not to be served and worshipped: 
Who is an Atheist.  who then is an Atheist? why he who is of no Religion, that believes there is no God to be publicly and formally worshipped. And if that be Religion that restrains and binds men to the worship and service of God, in such an unity, form, and communion; then that is Atheism that destroys this unity, 
What is Atheism.  form, and communion, and gives liberty or licentiousness to all men to run a whoring after their own inventions.  
Now would I fain know what religion or public form of worship and service of God is used among us in Churches, 
Whether there be any Religion publicly professed in England.  where it is to be found? In what two Churches is God served with one mind and one mouth? what Minister uses the same thing twice? Is not every man's soul by an implicit faith, haled before the great Tribunal of heaven in whatsoever the Minister shall say, be it sense or nonsense? wherein is the decency and order which the Apostle commands? what rules or precepts of God or his Church are here observed? and yet if this be not the public worship and service of God, then have the poor auditory nothing but preaching the Gospel for their money, (unless the reading of two Chapters and Psalms, which is given in to the reckoning.) And now good God, that ever such impudence and blasphemy should enter into the hearts of men, as to call the preaching of the Chimeras & fancies of the wild-headed and brainsick men, the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Sure that which converted the world to Christianity, was true: but what man can force a belief to all the contradictions and absurdities preached by our new lights? yet every one of these hath as much to say for his Gospel one as another, viz. the taking of each of their bare words for it. God commands Moses to put off his shoes, (an expression of worship with the Hebrews) because the ground whereon he stood was holy: but here all are with their Hats on their heads; for which no reason can be given, but that all of them might be alike profane. God in the second Commandment forbids the bowing down to, or worshipping any creature made with hands (and because all negative precepts pre-suppose affirmative, therefore this bowing down to or worshipping must be done to somewhat else) for the Lord thy God is a jealous God; and what is God jealous of there? but that this Divine adoration, which is only due to him, should be given to any creature; and this abstract adoration, and not concrete, or joined with any Petition: therefore when the Devil, Mat. 5.4, 9 had showed our Saviour all the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, he did not stipulate with our Saviour, to ask any thing of him, but told him if he would fall down and worship him, he would give him them all: and that this worship is due to God, our Saviour saith, ver. 10. It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And all men by nature, wheresoever they conceive a Deity, did and do attribute this worship to it. They bowed themselves and worshipped, Exod. 4.31. and Numb. 25.2, 3. And the people, (viz. the Israelites) did eat, and bowed down to their gods; and Israel joined themselves to Baal-Peor. And how did Israel join themselves to Baal-Peor, but in joining with the Moabites in the worshipping, viz. the bowing down, etc. to their misplaced Deity? therefore the Moabites did bow down to them. And Judg. 2.12. The Children of Israel followed other Gods, of the Gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, etc. And v. 17. They would not hearken unto their Judges, but went a whoring after other Gods, and bowed down to them. Sure no man can imagine that the Children of Israel did more by these Gods than the people round about them. And Dan. 3. Whosoeever falleth not down and worshippeth the golden image which the King hath set up. And no question this bowing down is employed in the worshipping Osiris and Isis by the Egyptians, and of Jupiter and Saturn, etc. by the ancient Heathens.  
And I dare challenge any man to show, where any men do, or ever did conceive a Deity, (until our Reformers of Faith and Christian Religion left it out) and did not bow down and worship it with this abstract adoration. And in reason shall any man give his superior (although it may be he never had, nor does expect any thing from him) a Civil Worship? and shall not I, who am infinitely less than a Worm, and no Man, compared with God, (for between us there is no proportion) give this divine adoration to God, so good and gracious to me, that he has not only made me, and that not a vile and contemptible Creature, but after his own Image, and endued me with a reasonable soul? And yet with what spite and scorn was and is this adoration decried by the Zealots of these time, as bowing and cringing to the Altar? etc. God no doubt permitting their spite and malice to take place among their followers, lest this divine adoration should be offered up to the imaginations of such wretched men. Yet shall these very men quarrel and fight with the Dutch and other Nations, if they do not by striking sail to their Admiral, etc. (though they ask nothing of him) acknowledge their power in the narrow Seas; which is more than they will do by Almighty God, in bowing down and worshipping him. But they say, they worship God in spirit and truth: so may the Dutch, etc. acknowledge their power, for aught they know. These men do moreover inveigh against the Papists, because (they say) they commit Idolatry in worshipping Images; they themselves not considering, that if this adoration be not due to God, (which in their practice they deny) it cannot be Idolatry to give it to any Creature. With what face shall these men appear before God, who have for so many years together taken the sacred Patrimony and means of God's Church, ordained and given for such an end, viz. daily to offer up the prayers of the Church for all sorts of men in their several vocations, to visit the sick, to baptise infants, to administer the Eucharist, to bury the dead, to instruct the ignorant, to reduce such as walk out of the way, etc. and in stead of these, become only Time-servers, studying how to please them who pay them their wages? And if God so severely punished Nadab and Abihu, Exod. 10. the sons of Aaron, for once offering up strange fire; what shall these men expect, who for so many years together have offered up nothing else but strange fire? Which of all these men bows his knee at the Name of Jesus, though expressly commanded? would any man take any of them for Christians? Compare the spirit of our Professors, who have reduced all Music in the public service to the singing of Tom. Sternholds and Hopkins Psalm, with the Spirit of God, 150 Psalm. De Jove quid sentis? I wonder what the men of this age think of God; what is become of that ghostly power, which our Saviour instituted in Apostles, Priests, & c? Sure it is not to be found with the late Tryers at Whitehall.  
And now, Oh that I could more than pour forth all Jeremiahs' Lamentations in Commiseration of thee, O my Mother Church and Native Country! much more deserving it, than the Jews did in the Babylonish Captivity; for there the Prophet foresaw their deliverance, and the promised Messiah; whereas we cannot hope but that Christianity itself is in the wain with us, whenas not only Bishops and Priests are hated, persecuted and despised for no cause, but because they are Christ's Ministers; and Mountebanks, Puppets and Tryers set up in stead, and in detestation of them; whenas not only days are kept for the effusion of Christian blood, most unchristianly shed; and all those solemn days and times for the celebration of the mysteries of our Saviour's Nativity, Death, Passion, Ascention, and the coming of the Holy Ghost upon Men, are by public Authority decried as superstitious and idolatrous; when as no man is qualified for Saintship, that cannot show some badge of Sacrilege, but also the defacing of those goodly Monuments built and founded by our pious Ancestors for the celebration of the public worship and service of God, and the greatest Ornaments of the English Nation, are numbered amongst their glorious actions. The Prophet David complained bitterly that in his time the carved Work of God's House was broken down with Axes and Hammers; whereas here not only the carved Work of God's House is broken down with Axes and Hammers, but God's House itself is made a Jakes, and stable for Horses. Our Saviour whipped the Money-Changers and sellers of Doves out of the Temple, because God's House was called a House of Prayer: we have not only perverted the end of God's House; from being a House of Prayer, and made it a House of preaching the vile passions and affections of seditious men; but made it a Public Exchange, not only for Money-Changers, but also for all sorts of Paltry Ribbon, and indeed of all sorts of Ribaldry; since not half of this Profaneness was ever heard of in the African Churches; where (were it not for some poor Christian Slaves) there are no footsteps of Christianity left: and yet after all this abomination of desolation, and mystery of Iniquity, are men so generally careless of redress, that they apprehend that the only virtue, which is only incident to fools and madmen, viz. to cure supposed Vices by running into contrary Extremes, until in the end they arrive at right-down Infidelity and Atheism. Sure if there were no Faith or Religion in us as Christians, nor any sense of the honour of the English Nation; yet in Reason and Prudence, we (in all this confusion and distraction both of Church and State, which must necessarily bring destruction upon us, if not timely prevented) should consider of our condition before these calamities, (not only enjoying peace, when all the world were at War; and such plenty and abundance of all Gods temporal blessings, that gold and silver were almost as common as stones in the street; but were the most envied and renowned Church of all the Reformed) and return thither, and there continue, until we be in some sort assured, that by forsaking our station, we shall better our condition, and not run into all Irreligion and Profaneness.   

A Postscript to the Reader  
SInce all these Nations have so long laboured in such frenzies and distractions both in Church and State, and since so much does depend upon the prudence and temper of this next Representative, in order to the cure of them in either, (the Nation, by God's extraordinary grace and mercy being well-disposed thereunto) it is therefore desired, that all animosities, affections, and private interest be laid aside in Elections: and because it may be truly feared, that not only they who have made, themselves private Fortunes out of the public ruins, are not proper Instruments for the dementing of our distractions, being prejudiced by their particular interest; so neither are those men (how worthy and well-deserving soever otherwise) who have been much Sufferers, very proper for Representatives this next Session, lest provoked by passion or otherwise, they might rather endeavour to repair their private, then public state: nor are men of vile fortunes, who may hope by fishing in troubled Waters to better their condition, to be considered in this Election; yet are not men's fortunes so absolutely to be considered, as their parts and integrity: nor are the wounds of this Nation in probability to be searched into, and proper Medicines to be applied to them by men of youth and ignorance, whose rashness may produce like effects, to the prejudice of others.  
FINIS.