The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America
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If any man think I have spoken rather merrily than seriously he is much mistaken, I have written what I write with all the indignation I can, and no more then I ought. I confesse I veer'd my tongue to this kinde of Language de industria though unwillingly, supposing those I speak to are uncapable of grave and rationall arguments.
I desire all Ladies and Gentlewomen to understand that all this while I intend not such as through necessary modesty to avoyd morose singularity, follow fashions slowly, a flight shot or two off, shewing by their moderation, that they rather draw countermont with their hearts, then put on by their examples.
I point my pen only against the light-heel'd beagles that lead the chase so fast, that they run all civility out of breath, against these Ape-headed pullets, which invent Antique foole-fangles, meerly for fashion and novelty sake.
In a word, if I begin once to declaime against fashions, let men and women look well about them, there is somewhat in the businesse; I confesse to the world, I never had grace enough to be strict in that kinde; and of late years, I have found syrrope of pride very wholesome in a due Dos, which makes mee keep such store of that drugge by me, that if any body comes to me for a question-full or two about fashions, they never complain of me for giving them hard measure, or under-weight.
But I addresse my self to those who can both hear and mend all if they please: I seriously feare, if the pious Parliament doe not finde a time to state fashions, as ancient Parliaments have done in some part, God will hardly finde a time to state Religion or Peace: They are the surquedryes of pride, the wantonnesse of idlenesse, provoking sins, the certain prodromies of assured judgement, Zeph. 1. 7, 8.
It is beyond all account, how many Gentlemens and Citizens estates are deplumed by their feather-headed wives, what usefull supplies the pannage of England would afford other Countries, what rich returnes to it selfe, if it were not slic'd out into male and female fripperies: and what a multitude of misimploy'd hands, might be better improv'd in some more manly Manufactures for the publique weale: it is not easily credible, what may be said of the preterpluralities of Taylors in London: I have heard an honest man say, that not long since there were numbered between Temple-barre and Charing-Crosse, eight thousand of that Trade: let it be conjectured by that proportion how many there are in and about London, and in all England, they will appeare to be very numerous. If the Parliament would please to mend women, which their Husbands dare not doe, there need not so many men to make and mend as there are. I hope the present dolefull estate of the Realme, will perswade more strongly to some considerate course herein, than I now can.
Knew I how to bring it in, I would speak a word to long haire, whereof I will say no more but this: if God proves not such a Barbor to it as he threatens, unlesse it be amended, Esa. 7. 20. before the Peace of the State and Church be well setled, then let my prophesie be scorned, as a sound minde scornes the ryot of that sin, and more it needs not. If those who are tearmed Rattle-heads and Impuritans, would take up a Resolution to begin in moderation of haire, to the just reproach of those that are called Puritans and Round-heads, I would honour their manlinesse, as much as the others godlinesse, so long as I knew what man or honour meant: if neither can find a Barbours shop, let them turne in, to Psal. 68. 21. Jer. 7. 29. 1 Cor. 11. 14. if it be thought no wisdome in men to distinguish themselves in the field by the Scissers, let it bee thought no injustice in God, not to distinguish them by the Sword. I had rather God should know me by my sobriety, than mine enemy not know me by my vanity. He is ill kept, that is kept by his owne sin. A short promise is a farre safer guard than a long lock: it is an ill distinction which God is loth to looke at, and his Angels cannot know his Saints by. Though it be not the mark of the Beast, yet it may be the mark of a beast prepared to slaughter. I am sure men use not to weare such manes; I am also sure Souldiers use to weare other marklets or notadoes in time of battell.
Having done with the upper part of my work, I would now with all humble willingnesse set on the best peece of Soule-leather I have, did I not feare I should break my All, which though it may be a right old English blade, yet it is but little and weake. I should esteeme it the best piece of workmanship my Cobling hand every wrought, if it would please Him whose worke it is, to direct me to speake such a word over the sea, as the good old woman of Abel did over the wall, in the like exigent: but alas, I am but simple. What if I be?
When States dishelv'd are, and Lawes untwist,Wise men keep their tongues, fools speak what they list.I would not be so unwise as to grieve the wise, if I were wise enough to foresee it: I would speake nothing to the Cause or Continuance of these wearisome Warres hitherto; the one is enough debated, the other more than enough peracted. Nor would I declaime of the uncomlinesse, unbrotherlinesse, unseasonablenesse and unreasonablenesse of these direfull digladiations: every stroak strucke sounds too loud upon this harsh string. I would much rather speake perswasives to a comely brotherly seasonable and reasonable cessation of Armes on both sides, by a drawn battaile: Wherein if I shall adventure a few over-bold words, I intreat my ignorance, impartiality, and Loyalty may plead pardon for me.
Foure meanes there are, and no more, within the compasse of my consideration, conducing to what is desired. Either to get the Standard fixed in heaven by the Lord of Hosts taken downe, I meane by Reformation: Or to set up white colours instead of red, on one side or other, I meane by Composition: Or by furling up all the Ensignes on both sides, I meane by mutuall and generall Cessation: Or by still displaying all the Colours and Cornets of every batallion, I mean by prosecution: without Reformation there will hardly be any Composition; without Composition little hope of Cessation; without Cessation there must and will be Prosecution; which God forbid.
Reformation
When the Roman Standard was defixed with such difficulty at the battell between Hanniball and Flaminius at Thrasimene, it proved an ill Omen. When God gives quietnesse, who can make trouble; when he hideth his face, who can behold him? Whether it be against a nation or a man onely. That the Hypocrite reigne not, lest the people be insnared, Job 34. 29, 30. How can the sword of the Lord put it selfe up into its scabbard and be quiet, when himself hath given it a charge to the contrary? Jer. 47. 6, 7. It was a Cardinall Truth which Cardinall Poole spake to H. 8. Penes Reges est inferre bellum, penes autem Deum terminare. If Kings will make their beginnings, God will make his ends: much more when himselfe begins: When I begin I will also make an end, 1 Sam. 3. 12. Farre better were it, for men to make an end with him in time, than put him to make such an end with them as he there intends.
Politicall Reformation he seemes to call for now indigitanter. When he beholds Christian Kingdomes and States unsound in their foundations, illineall in their superstructures, unjust in their administrations; he kicks them in peeces with the foot of his Indignation: But when Religious Statesmen frame and build by the levell and plummet of his wisdome, then people may say as his servants of old, Looke upon Zion the City of our Solemnities; Your eyes shall see it a quiet habitation, a Tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall be removed, neither shall any of the coards thereof bee broken; Isa. 33. 20. neither by civill Commotions nor foraign Invasions. When the coards of a State are exquisitely tight, and the stakes firmely pitched; such a Tent though but a Tent shall not easily flutter or fall: But if the Tacklings be so loose, that the maine Mast cannot stand steady, nor the Saile be well spread; then may the lame take and divide a great prey, ver. 23. If Religion, Laws, Liberties, Affections, Conversations, and foraigne Federacies be slight; the strength of strong men shall be weaknesse, and the weaknesse of the weak victorious.
Pura politeja ne unum admittit solæcismulum, neque valet, præscriptio in politicis aut moralibus. It may maintain a bright conjecture, against a rusty Truth: a legible possession, against an obliterate Claime: an inconvenience, against a convenience; where no cleare remedy may be had: but never any thing that is formally sinfull, or materially mischievous. When rotten States are soundly mended from head to foot, proportions duly admeasured, Justice justly dispenced; then shall Rulers and Subjects have peace with God and themselves: but till then, the gayest Kingdomes shall be but ruffling scuffling, removing and commoving hovells. For England, however the upper Stories are shroadly shattered; yet the foundations and frame being good or mendable by the Architectors now at worke, there is good hope, when peace is setled, people shall dwell more wind-tight and water-tight than formerly. I earnestly wish our Mr. Builders to remember, that punctuality in Divinity and Politie, is but regularity; that what is amisse in the mould, will misfashion the prosult: and that if this market be slipt, things may grow as deare as ever they were. Most expert Gentlemen, bee intreated at length to set our Head right on our shoulders, that we may once look upwards and goe forwards like proper Englishmen.
God will also have Ecclesiasticall Reformation now, or nothing: And here he stands not upon Kings, Parliaments or Assemblies, but upon his own Termes. I feare hee will have all drosse and base metalls throughly melted away by these combustions, before Hee quenches them; all his Ordinances and vessells cast into his owne fashion, in his own mould, to his own amussim, before he restores peace. There was not a stone left upon a stone of the old Temple, before the new was erected. If this first worke bee throughly and throughoutly dispatched as I hope it is, the great Remora is removed. If the Parliament and Assembly be pleased to be as curious and industrious as I have seen a great Popish Bishop in execcrating a Protestant Parish Church one day, and consecrating it the next; they may adjourn awhile with leave enough.
Some ten or twelve years before these Wars there came to my view these two Predictions.
1. When God shall purge this Land with soap and nitre,Woe be to the Crowne, woe be to the Mitre.The accent of the blow shall fall there.
He that pities not the Crowne, pities not his owne soule. Hee that pities not those that wore the Mitre, more than they pitied themselves, or the Churches over which they insulted, or the State then corrupted and now Corruined by their pride and negligence, is to blame.
2. There is a set of Bishops comming next behind,Will ride the devill off his legs, and break his wind.Poore men! they might have kept his backe till this time for ought I know, had they not put him beyond his pace: but Schollers must gallop, though they tumble for it. Yet I commend them for this, they gave him such straynes as made him blow short ever since. I doubt the Assembly troubles him; and I doubt he troubles them. Well, the Bishops are gone: If they have carried away with them all that was in the pockets of their Holliday hose, fare them well; let them come againe when I give them a new Conge d' slier, or send a Pursuivant for them; which if I doe, I shall never trust myselfe more, though they have often done it for me, who never deserved that honour. Some of them I confesse were very honest men, and would have been honester if they dared for their fellows.
The sad worke now, is to institute better things in their Roome, and to induct better men in their roome; rather where, and how to finde those things, they having cunningy laid them so farre out of the way; I doubt some good men cannot see them, when they look full upon them: it is like, the Bishops carryed away their eyes with them, but I feare they left their Spectacles behind them. I use no spectacles, yet my eyes are not fine enough, nor my hand steady enough to cut by such fine threads as are now spun. I am I know not what; I cannot tell what to make of my selfe, nor I think no body else: My Trade is to finde more faults than others will mend; and I am very diligent at it; yet it scarce findes me a living, though the Country findes me more worke than I can turne my hand to.
For Church work, I am neither Presbyterian, nor plebsbyterian, but an Interpendent: My task is to sit and study how shapeable the Independent way will be to the body of England, then my head akes on one side; and how suitable the Presbyterian way, as we heare it propounded, will bee to the minde of Christ, then my head akes on the other side: but when I consider how the Parliament will commoderate a way out of both, then my head leaves aking: I am not, without some contrivalls in my patching braines; but I had rather suppose them to powder, than expose them to preregular, much lesse to preter-regular Judgements: I shall therefore rejoyce that the work is faln into so good hands, heads, and hearts, who will weigh Rules by Troyweight, and not by the old Haber-du-pois: and rather then meddle where I have so little skill, I will sit by and tell my feares to them that have the patience to heare them, and leave the red-hot question to them that dare handle it.
I fear many holy men have not so deeply humbled themselves for their former mis-worshippings of God as he will have them before he reveales his secrets to them: as they accounted things indifferent, so they account indifferent repentance will serve turne. Son of man, if my people be ashamed of all that they have done, then shew them the forme of the house, and the fashion thereof, else not, Ezek. 43. 11. A sin in Gods worship, that seemes small in the common beame of the world, may be very great in the scales of his Sanctuary. Where God is very jealous, his servants should be very cautelous.
I feare, the furnace wherein our new formes are casting, is over-heat, and casts smoake in the eyes of our founders, that they cannot well see what they doe, or ought to doe; Omne perit judicium cum res transit in affectum. Truth and peace are the Castor and Pollux of the Gospell: they that seek the one without the other, are like to finde neither: Anger will hinder domestick Prayers, much more Ecclesiastique Councels. What is produced by tumult, is either deficient or redundant. When the judgements of good men concurre with a harmonious Diapason, the result is melodious and commodious. Warring and jarring men are no builders of houses for God, though otherwise very good. Instruments may be well made and well strung, but if they be not well fretted, the Musique is marred. The great Turke hearing Musitians so long a tuning, he thought it stood not with his state to wait for what would follow. When Christ whips Market-makers out of his Temple, he raises dust: but when he enters in with Truth and Holinesse, he calls for deep silence, Hab. 2. 20. There must not a toole be heard when the Tabernacle is reared: Nor is that amiable or serviceable to men that passeth through so many ill animadversions of Auditors and Spectators. If the Assembly can hardly agree what to determine, people will not easily agree what to accept.
I fear, these differences and delayes have occasioned men to make more new discoveries then otherwise they would. If publique Assemblies of Divines cannot agree upon a right way, private Conventicles of illiterate men, will soon find a wrong. Bivious demurres breed devious resolutions. Passengers to heaven are in haste, and will walk one way or other. He that doubts of his way, thinkes hee loses his day: and when men are gone awhile, they will be loth to turn back. If God hide his path, Satan is at hand to turn Convoy: If any have a minde to ride poste, he will helpe them with a fresh spavin'd Opinion at every Stage.
Where clocks will stand, and Dials have no light,There men must goe by guesse, be't wrong or right.I feare, if the Assembly of all Divines, doe not consent, and concenter the sooner, God will breath a spirit of wisedome and meeknesse, into the Parliament of no Divines, to whom the Imperative and Coactive power supremely belongs, to consult such a contemperate way, as shall best please him, and profit his Churches, so that it shall be written upon the doore of the Assembly; The Lord was not there.
I feare, the importunity of some impatient, and subtlety of some malevolent mindes, will put both Parliament and Assembly upon some preproperations, that will not be safe in Ecclesiasticall Constitutions. To procrastinate in matters clear, as I said even now, may be dangerous; so, not to deliberate in dubious cases, will be as perilous. We here, though I think under favour, wee have some as able Steersmen as England affords, have been driven to tack about again to some other points of Christs Compasse, and to make better observations before we hoyse up sayles. It will be found great wisdome in disputable cases, not to walk on by twylight, but very cautelously; rather by probationers for a time, then peremptory positives: Reelings and wheelings in Church acts, are both difficult and disadvantageous. It is rather Christian modesty than shame, in the dawning of Reformation, to be very perpensive. Christs mind is, that Evangelicall policies, should be framed by Angelicall measures; not by a line of flaxe, but by a golden Reed, Rev. 21. 15.
I feare, he that sayes, the Presbyterian and Independent way, if rightly carryed, doe not meet in one, he doth not handle his Compasses so considerately as he should.
I feare, if Authority doth not establish a sutable and peaceable Government of Churches the sooner, the bells in all the steeples will ring awke so long, that they will hardly be brought into tune any more.
My last, but not least feare, is, That God will hardly replant his Gospel in any part of Christendome, in so faire an Edition as is expected, till the whole field hath been so ploughed and harrowed, that the soile be throughly cleansed and fitted for new seed: Or whether he will not transplant it into some other Regions, I know not: This feare I have feared these 20 years, but upon what grounds I had rather bury than broach.
I dare not but adde to what preceded about Church-Reformation, a most humble petition, that the Authority of the Ministry be kept in its due altitude: if it be dropp'd in the dust, it will soon bee stifled: Encroachments on both sides, have bred detriments enough to the whole. The Separatists are content their teaching Elders should sit highest on the Bench, so they may sit in the Chaire over-against them; and that their ruling Elders shall ride on the saddle, so they may hold the bridle. That they may likewise have seasonable and honorable maintenance, and that certainly stated: which generally we find and practise here as the best way. When Elders live upon peoples good wills, people care little for their ill wills, be they never so just: Voluntary contributions or non-tributions of Members, put Ministers upon many temptations in administrations of their Offices: two houres care does more dis-spirit an ingenuous man than two dayes study: nor can an Elder be given to hospitality, when he knowes not what will be given him to defray it: it is pity men of gifts should live upon men's gifts. I have seen most of the Reformed Churches in Europ, and seene more misery in these two respects, then it is meet others should hear: the complaints of painfull Pareus, David Pareus, to my selfe, with tears, concerning the Germane Churches, are not to be related.
There is yet a personall Reformation, as requisite as the Politicall. When States are so reformed, that they conforme such as are profligate, into good civility: civill men, into religious morality: When Churches are so constituted, that Faith is ordained Pastor, Truth Teacher, Holinesse and Righteousnesse ruling Elders: Wisedome and Charity Deacons: Knowledge, love, hope, zeale, heavenly-mindednesse, meeknesse, patience, watchfulnesse, humility, diligence, sobriety, modesty, chastity, constancy, prudence, contentation, innocency, sincerity, &c. admitted members and all their opposites excluded: then there will bee peace of Country and Conscience.
Did the servants of Christ know what it is to live in Reformed Churches with unreformed spirits, under strict order with loose hearts, how formes of Religion breed but formes of Godlinesse, how men by Church-discipline, learne their Church-postures, and there rest; they would pray as hard for purity of heart, as purity of Ordinances. If we mocke God in these, He will mocke us; either with defeat of our hopes; or which is worse: when we have what we so much desire, we shall be so much the worse for it. It was a well salted speech, uttered by an English Christian of a Reformed Church in the Netherlands, Wee have the good Orders here, but you have the good Christians in England. Hee that prizes not Old England Graces, as much as New England Ordinances, had need goe to some other market before hee comes hither. In a word, hee that is not Pastor, Teacher, Ruler, Deacon and Brother to himselfe, and lookes not at Christ above all, it matters not a farthing whether he be Presbyterian or Independent: he may be a zealot in bearing witnesse to which he likes best, and yet an Iscariot to both, in the witnesse of his owne Conscience.
I have upon strict observation, seen so much power of godlinesse, and spirituall mindednesse in English Christians, living meerly upon Sermons and private duties, hardly come by, when the Gospell was little more than symptomaticall to the State; such Epidemicall and lethall formality in other disciplinated Churches, that I professe in the hearing of God, my heart hath mourned, and mine eyes wept in secret, to consider what will become of multitudes of my deare Country-men, when they shall enjoy what they now covet: Not that good Ordinances breed ill Consciences, but ill Consciences grow stark nought under good Ordinances; insomuch that might I wish an hypocrite the most perilous place but Hell, I should wish him a Membership in a strict Reformed Church: and might I wish a sincere Servant of God, the greatest griefe earth can afford, I should wish him to live with a pure heart, in a Church impurely Reformed; yet through the improvement of Gods Spirit, that griefe may sanctifie him for Gods service and presence, as much as the meanes he would have, but cannot.
I speak this the rather to prevent, what in me lyes, the imprudent romaging that is like to be in England, from Villages to Townes, from Townes to Cities, for Churches sake, to the undoing of Societies, Friendships, Kindreds, Families, Heritages, Callings, yea, the wise Providence of God in disposing mens habitations, now in the very Infancy of Reformation: by forgetting that a little leaven may season a large lump: and it is much better to doe good than receive. It were a most uncharitable and unserviceable part, for good men to desert their own Congregations, where many may glorifie God in the day of his Visitation, for their presence and assistance. If a Christian would picke out a way to thrive in grace, let him study to administer grace to them that want: or to make sure a blessing upon his Family; let him labour to multiply the family of Christ, and beleeve, that he which soweth liberally, shall reap abundantly; and hee that spareth more than is need, from them that have more need, shall surely come to poverty: yea, let me say, that he who forsakes the meanes of grace for Christ and his Churches sake, shall meet with a better bargaine, namely, grace it selfe. It is a time now, when full flocks should rather scatter to leane Churches, than gather from other places, to make themselves fat; when able Christians should rather turne Jesuites and Seminaries, than run into Covents and Frieries: had this beene the course in the Primitive time, the Gospel had been pinfolded up in a few Cities, and not spread as it is.