A Short and True Account of the seve­ral Advances the Church of England hath made towards Rome, &c.

TO discharge my duty, and acquit my self of my promise to you, I have here in these following Papers given you the substance of our last conversation about the Grounds and Motives which have in­duced the Roman Catholicks to conspire and attempt such horrible Murthers as they have done, especially this late dam­nable and hellish Plot, of subverting the Government, al­tering the Religion, and taking away the Life of our most Sacred Monarch; the most daring and cruel that ever was designed, next to that of Crucifying the most holy Jesus, the Lord of life and glory.

You may please to remember, we dwelt long upon this consideration; and indeed we ought to regard with the highest grief, and even with tears of blood, the present state of many Bishops and Doctors of the Church of Eng­land, otherwise pious, learned, and well-affected, who with great fervor and zeal declare themselves against the cruel and bloody Principles of the Papists, and against the Pa­pists themselves; and yet make no reflection upon them­selves [Page 4]nor their Predecessors; shed no tears, nor are they touched as they ought to be, at the sense of their compli­ance for above this last whole Century, with the Doctrine and Ceremonies of the Church of Rome: in not acknow­ledging any other Protestants in the world besides themselves; in discarding all the Reformed Churches beyond Sea, out of the Catalogue of the true Churches of Jesus Christ: in making void all manner of Ordination, but that which is Episcopal, and consequently that of Papists, and their Ad­herents: in putting Calvin, the first Author of their Refor­mation in England, Scotland, and Ireland, among the chief of Rebels and Fanaticks; and suffering persons of the most known approved piety and integrity, to be exposed on the Stage, and made a spectacle of derision to the whole world; and, to conclude, in persecuting all the English Protestants that are at a far greater distance from Rome than themselves: by which means they have, if not intentionally, at least by a necessary consequence, incouraged the Papists to believe, hope, and to expect, even with some confidence, a hasty suc­cess, that a very little matter would re-unite them to Rome. Nay, and this Re-union seems already to them to be so far advanced, that nothing is able to obstruct the happy issue of so great, so pious, and so meritorious a work, as they call it, but the Life of his Sacred Majesty.

But, Sir, to make yet more clear and evident to you, that the hopes of the Papists were not groundless, nor chimeri­cal, not even from the very beginning of the Reformation; but that either by getting the King over to their side, or else by removing him out of the way (as they have lately often attempted, though, blessed be God, hitherto in vain), they hoped to find it an easie business to reduce England to the Communion of Rome.

You may please to remark that as soon as ever the Re­formation was resolved on, the Sentiments of those who [Page 5]had the Governance of it, were divided into two Classes, much-what equal in number, and in quality of interest: Some of them, as Bishop Hooper, Coverdale, John Fox, John Rogers, and Peter Martyr, appeared vigorously for an abso­lute and thorough Reformation, conformable to the Model that Calvin had given of it: the others, as Cranmer, Rid­ley, Cox, &c. were of that judgment, as peremptorily to conclude that a Reformation in all points at first, would draw along with it a dangerous consequence; and that to endeavour to reform all, would be to reform nothing at all; that in that present juncture of affairs, it was impossible all at once to pass from one extreme to another; but it were better to chuse a middle way, and so gradually to advance the Reformation, until the people, who were then almost all of them Papists, were more illuminated, and better instru­cted in the Protestant Religion, and their number were increased, and consequently more disposed to receive the Impressions of this entire and perfect Reformation, which would absolutely draw them off from Rome.

The judgment of these latter prevailing, they jointly de­termined to retain some Ceremonies, and some other out­ward parts of the service of the Roman Church, hoping that it would be a means in a little time of bringing over the Papists to their point, viz. To embrace the Reformed Re­ligion: whereupon they continued the kneeling when they received the Sacrament of the Eucharist; signing with the Cross at the Administration of Baptism; Bowing at the name of Jesus, and not at the name of God, or of Christ; also the Sacerdotal and Episcopal Ornaments; the Religious observance of Feasts, and the Holy time of Lent; the vast distance between a Bishop and a Minister of Jesus Christ, whereby the Bishop is advanced above the highest Civil Dig­nities, and the Minister is made inferior to the lowest of them, and confounded with the common people; whence [Page 6]it happened, that the eminent and high Rank which the Bishops held, as it divested the Inferior Ministers of all that kind of Jurisdiction, which they called Ecclesiastick, so it impowred them arbitrarily with it, though in a manner altogether unwarrantable, because full of iniquity; for they did not delegate it to the Ministers of the Gospel, but to Secular persons, who did not excommunicate in the name of Jesus Christ, but in the name of the Bishops, who were rigidly tenacious of this practise of the Church of Rome, from whence they were lately come. Moreover, they were as stiff and sierce in maintaining their Succession, which by all means they stood upon as coming from Rome: by ver­tue whereof they arrogated to themselves alone the power of Ordination, and Excommunication: neither were the abuses of Visitations, nor the penal Commutations into pe­cuniary, retrenched; nor the plurality of Benefices, where­by six or seven hundred Persons, Bishops, Deans, and Ca­nons, possest, as they do still, three parts of four of the Re­venues of the Church.

All these Reliques of Popery were then retained; and to speak truly of them, it was with a good intention: The first Reformers, who were men of extraordinary goodness and piety, and had honest designs, were not able at the very first throughly to cleanse the Augaean Stable of the Church of Rome from its corrupt impurities; but bequeath­ing the perfection of this work to their Successors, they chiefly set upon that which was most essential: they indea­voured to reform their Doctrine, and to establish the true service of God without any mixtures of Idolatry.

You may yet further be pleased to take notice, that these two dissenting parties have successively been, and conti­nued in the Church of England to this very day: The one in vain hoping to get these Ceremonies rooted out of the Church, which were retained in the first Essay of the Re­formation, [Page 7]whilest the other party have been so far from quitting them, that they have every day made nearer ad­vances to them, and studied how to symbolize more and more with the Church of Rome; introducing still more of their corrupt practises, and some new Ceremonies of that Church; and also sowring with the leaven of Rome, the holy Do­ctrine of the Church of England.

But yet, not to make all alike guilty, you may please to observe as we go along, That as at the beginning the English Protestants, both People and Clergy, were divided into two Classes, the Conformists, and Nonconformists, or Puritans; likewise the Conformists were sub-divided into two Classes, whereof one, who were the most prevailing, and most fol­lowed by those who have their portion in this life, did not only adopt those Ceremonies and Practises that Cranmer, Ridley, and Cox, had retained at the beginning; but besides them, they introduced others of the Church of Rome, and insensibly corrupted the Doctrine of the Church of England, in giving a Romish sense and interpretation to the Ortho­dox confession of this Church, agreed on in King Edw. 6. days, and in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Eliza­beth. The other party of the Conformists, who were the most orthodox, the most approved, and the most followed by the faithful people of God, have always been dissatisfied with, and have opposed their Brethren the Conformists, and their design of introducing new Ceremonies and Practises. There were many of this last Class in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, and her Successor-Kings, as Jewell, Fox, Rudd, Smith, Reynolds, Carleton, Jerome, Perkins, Morton, Dave­nant, the two Abbots, Grindall, Hall, Ʋsher, Prideaux, Brownrig: and at this present, the Bishops of London, Lin­coln, and Hereford, and some others, who have always kept faithful to the Doctrine of the Church of England, and have always been of opinion, as they have openly declared, That [Page 8]these Ceremonies and Practises which I have been speaking of, ought to be suppressed, as being the cause of division among those who were united in matters of faith: But, above all, they could not indure that spirit of persecution with which their Brethren were animated against the Non­conformists; and they have told them, that this rigorous imposing of the Practises and Ceremonies of Rome, was not only contrary to the spirit of Christianity, but to the de­sign which the first Reformers had in their eye, when in their first beginning of Reformation they had thought it ne­cessary to retain some of the Romish Practises and Ceremo­nies, because their design was to use them as a bait to draw the Papists to our Religion; but not as a hook, or scourge, to intrap, and chastise those Protestants who should deny their Conformity to those Ceremonies: This hath been the judgment of John Hales, Joseph Mead, Thomas Fuller, and Dr. Stillingfleet.

And certainly these good Bishops of the last Class among the Conformists, were so far from this spirit of persecution, that some of them, as Grindall Archbishop of Canterbury, have either set up, or countenanced all over England the practise of private Assemblies, or Meetings, which were called Houses of Prophesie, wherein the gifts of Prophesying, and expounding the Sacred Scriptures, were exercised, and where was kept up an exact practise of Piety. But as this practise did too much increase the number of Puritans, who were directly contrary to that of Ceremonies, the corrupt part of the Church of England laboured all they could to discredit the use of it, and to look upon Grindall with an evil eye, who had first set it on foot, and he was forced to quit his charge, which was next bestowed on Whitgift, a man sitter for their turn and service. Carleton, Bishop of Carlisle, was so great a friend to the Puritan-Ministers, that he pub­lished the Lives of some of the eminentest among them, as of Gilpin, and of John Knox.

It remains for me now to prove, that at least since the beginning of the Reign of King James, the corrupted par­ty of the Church of England has been daily making nearer advances to that of Rome: But this being matter of fact, which one may either be an eye-witness of, or may find up­on record, it will not be necessary that I should much in­sist upon it, nor that I should give you a Catalogue of all those bad instruments, who for these fifty years, last past, have filled England with their Books, which yet might have been pardoned them, if they had only relished of Popery, and had not been infected with the venom of Arminia­nism, Pelagianism, and Socinianism, and the Maxims of Dr. Hobbes: such as were the Books of Heylin, Thorndike, Jeremy Taylor, Archbishop Bramhall, Pocklinton, Parker; Martyn, Gregory Greybeard: for three Archbishops, Laud, Bramhall, and Maxwell, who lived at the same time, were jointly resolved to advance the Doctrines and Practises of Rome, and to promote them in England, Scotland, and Ire­land: Henry Dodwell hath not long since published a large Book, which makes a great deal of noise and stir in the world; wherein he indeavours to prove, that where there is no Episcopal Ordination like that of the Romish, or En­glish Church, there is no true Church of Jesus Christ, no Sacraments, no Ministry, and no Salvation. I cannot slip a great Folio made by a Bishop in Ireland, the whole design whereof, is to show that Calvin, and all the Puritan par­ty, have introduced Anarchy into the Church, that they are the real Antichrists, the Pests of the State, and the Ene­mies of Secular Powers; that to give a firm and steady footing to the Regency of crowned Heads, and to give peace to the world, this Calvinian Puritanical spirit ought to be expelled; and that none ought to presume to come near the persons of these Anointed of the Lord, but those other anointed, who are the Bishops; and that there is no­thing [Page 10]more true than this maxim, No Bishop, no King. But if it were proper for me in this place to enlarge upon this subject, I could show that this Maxim is as false as the Turkish Alcoran; that the Interests of Bishops, and their practise, is utterly destructive of, and repugnant to the esta­blishment of Secular Powers: and whereas Episcopacy is the first step of ascention to the Popedom, this is that which Bishops chiefly aim at, to have a Pope to them­selves, or some other Power very much resembling it.

There is not in all History one Example of a Bishop, that has any whit contributed to the making of a King, unless he became tributary to their Miter: for even in those places where the Pope hath no power, the Bishops, as such, will not pay their submission to Kings, unless upon this Con­sideration, that they have, like Moses, the Sacerdotal Un­ction: for looking upon them as Temporal Princes, they submit them to their Character, and make the Civil Power truckle to the Ecclesiastick: they will admit the King, in this Sacerdotal Quality, and as Head of the Church, pre­siding at the Convocation of the Clergy, to have the power to make Ordinances and Canons for the regulation of the Church, by an Authority independent on Parliaments; in which they tell us, That Kings are but the Executors of the Commands of the Church; for the writ de Excommunicato capiendo doth issue from the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Prince to the Temporal, to execute the censure judged to be in­flicted by the Ecclesiastical. This is the Doctrine of the English Church as well as the Romish: the Bishops, even the reformed, speak much what like to Peter Bartier, Bi­shop of Montaubon, in his Speech to the King at Rheimes the 8 June, 1654. where he says, That the Bishops are the head to rule and govern, and the mouth of the Church to speak; but the King is the arm, and right-hand for the execution of the Churches Decrees. This is the language [Page 11]of Rome, De Majoritate & obedientia, & ibi glossa; omnes principes terrae Episcopis obedire Petrus praecipiebat.

'Tis true, the Church of England do not speak so grosly; but yet supposing the King to be invested with a Papal power independent on the Civil, it will not then be very wide from the language of the Bishop of Montaubon: for Bishop Hall in the year 1640 made a long Speech to the House of Peers, wherein he indeavours to prove that the King either single, or respected as the head of the Convo­cation, can make Canons as equally and strongly binding as Laws, without the assent, concurrence, or ratisication of Parliament, where he is putting their Lordships in mind of the continual practise of the Christian Church, since the first Synod of the Apostles (Acts 15.) to this day; wherein (says he) I suppose it can never be showed that ever any Ecclesiastical Ca­nons made by the Bishops and Clergy in Synods general, nati­onal, provincial, were either offered or required to be confirmed by Parliaments: Emperors and Princes, by whose Authority those Synods were called, have still given their power to the ra­tification and execution of them, and none others; and if you please to look into the times within the ken of Memory, or some­what beyond it, Linwoods Constitutions which Parliaments con­firmed; The Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth; the Canons of King James, were never tendered to the Parliament for confir­mation; and yet have so far obtained hitherto, that the Go­vernment of the Church was by them still regulated; and whereas, says he, it is said that we have made Canons and Constitutions; Alas my Lords, we have made none, nor can we, more than they can moke Laws: the Canons are so to the Church, as Laws are for the Common-wealth: Now they do but rogare legem, they do not forre, or sancire legem, that is only for the King to do, it is le Roy le Veult, that of Bills makes Laws: so was it for us to do in matters of Canons, we might propound some such constitutions as we should think might [Page 12]be useful; but when we have done, we send them to his Majesty, who perusing them cum advisamento Consilij sui, and approving them, puts life into them; and of dead propositions, makes them Canons; as therefore the Laws are the King's Laws, and not ours; so are the Canons the King's Canons, and not the Cler­gies. Dr. Stillingfleet comes not much short of the Bishop, in his Irenicum, p. 16. The grand use of Synods, and Assem­blies of Pastors of Churches, is to be as the Council of the Church unto the King in matters belonging to the Church, as the Parliament is for matters of civil Government: and as the King for setling civil Laws, takes advice of those per­sons who are more versed in matters of Law; so by proportion of Reason concerning the Church, they are the fittingst Coun­cil, who have been the most versed in matters immediately be­longing to the Church.

On the other hand, Histories are full of examples, which clearly prove, that that party which comes nearest to the Doctrine and practise of the Calvinists and Puritans, and which is most opposite to Rome; that these, I say, have above all others observed the command of the Apostle to the Romans, c. 13. Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers. It was this party who most opposed the League between Rome and Spain; who did set the Crown upon the head of Henry IV: it was this party who established the Family of the Stuarts in this Kingdom; who deli­vered King James, then in his cradle, out of the hands of his Mother Queen Mary, who was a Papist, and gave him the Crown before he had got the use of his tongue, and ex­ercise of his reason: it was this party who restored the Crown to Charles II, and who did as much for Lewis XIII, in defeating the Conspiracy of the Duke de Montmorency, and the Archbishop of Bordeaux; nor did they less for Lewis XIV, during the last siege of Paris; to conclude, they made the King of Sueden, Charles the II, to Reign, [Page 13]who was the Father of Gustavus Adolphus. But (alas!) most of these Kings have paid them with ingratitude, and even persecuted them at the instigation of the Bishops, when their kindnesses to them have exceeded all possibility of equal acknowledgments. Beneficia eo us{que} laeta sunt, cum vi­dentur exolvi posse, ubi multum antevenere, pro gratia odium redditur: They have been treated as Rebels and Murther­ers, that had drawn their Swords against their King, where­as they never drew it but in his defence: they have requited them as Basil the Emperor of Greece did one, who, having saved his life by cutting his belt, which had intangled him in the horns of a Stag, was put to death for drawing his sword against the Emperour. This Puritan-party, for their so close adhering to the Doctrine, Discipline, and Life of Calvin, have been cloathed with Bears-skins and Lyons-skins, that the whole kennel of Rome, or their whelps in England, being let loose upon them, might bait them with greater rage and fury. And this the Lord hath permitted by a wise dispensation of Providence, which will have judgment to begin at his own house, as St. Peter says, and as it has been known by experience over all parts of Europe.

The Animosities of the Conformists against the Non­conformists are so great, that the fear they are in, lest the Parliament should make some Reformation in the Doctrine, and in several either ancient or novel practises of the Church of England, and should touch upon the noli me tangere of their benefices and pluralities, makes them not only to talk daily at their Tables, and joint-societies; but even publick­ly to declare in their Books, that now being falling from Scylla to Charibdis, that is, from Popery to Presbytery, they would rather embrace the Church of Rome, and turn Pa­pists, than close with the sneaking Conventicles of the Pres­byterians, as you may see by that considerate expression of Dr. Parker in the next Paragraph.

But to leave this digression, and fall again upon the sub­ject in hand, wherein I was speaking of the favourers of Rome, in the Prelatical party of the Church of England: One Dr. Cheney in his Theological Collectiour, cap. 16. and Bramhall against Baxter, maintain with Thonnedibe in his Weights and Measures, That the Church of Rome is a true visible Church of Jesus Christ, and in no way guilty of Schism: Bramhall says, pag. 117. It is a pernicious, opinion of the Resormed Churches of France, the promiseuous license they give to all sorts of people, qualified or unqualified, not on­ly to read, but to interpret the Holy Scripture according to their private spirit, or particular funcios, without any regard either of the Analogy of Faith which they understand not, or the in­terpretation of the Doctors of former ages: this I might bet­ter say, is more prejudicial, and most pernicious both to parti­cular Christians, and to whole soeieties, than the over-rigorous restraining of the Romanists: and in pag. 116. he tells us, He does not find the Church of Rome to be guilty of retrench­ing any truth that is necessary to salvation.

Parker, in his Preface before Bishop Bramhall's Book, shows a great deal more kindness to the Papists, than to the Puritans. I must have, says he, a greater kindness for the Roman Catholicks, as being an Adversary more learned, and so to be expected more civil and gentle; and wherein they dissent from us, they look upon as fundamental, and so have a greater reason for their dissent, than our Phanatical Presbyteri­ans. And Mr. Andrew Marvell tells us in his Rehearsal, 2 part. p. 279. That Parker told a Lady of good quality, That in case Popery were introduced, he would be one of the first to comply with it. And so no doubt would many more do: for they, through the love they bear to Rome, do spit in the face of the People of God in the language of the said Dr. Parker. Reply, p. 56. That the Nonconformists make a great noise of the Lord Jesus Christ, and getting an interest in [Page 15]him, and tells us sine Romances of the secret amours betwixt the believing soul, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and prodigious stories of the miraculous feats of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Heylin, one of the great Promoters of the Doctrines and Practises of Rome, was a great admirer of their ways, and of their near affinity with Rome: and speaking of Dr. Co­sins, who was since Bishop of Durham, and who was thought to be much against the Doctrine of Rome, says of him ne­vertheless, That the Devotions he set forth about fifty years since, or more, gave the world a great suspition that he was inclinable to Popery; and the frontispiece of his Book did put it beyond all peradventure: for in it he had caused those three Letters to be cut, J. H. S. and a cross incircled with a Glory.

Joseph Hall, one of the Bishops that did most vigorously oppose not only the design of Laud, &c. of introducing the Doctrines and Ceremonies of Rome both in the Church and Universities, but also that spirit of persecution that animated him against the Nonconformists, expresses himself in a Letter he writ above threescore years ago, in this man­ner to Laud, before he was Dean or Bishop, and when, be­ing at Oxford, he made his furious heat appear against the Puritans, and was a great Innovator, and testified a kind­ness for the Doctrine and Ceremonies of Rome.

Decad. 3. Epist. 5. To William Land, expostulating the cause of his unsetledness in Religion, &c.

I would I knew where to find you, then I could tell how to take a direct aim, whereas now I must rove and conjecture: To day you are in the tents of the Romanists, to morrow in ours, the next day between both, against both: our Adversaries think you ours, we theirs; your conscience finds you with both, and neither. I flatter you not, this of yours is the worst of all tem­pers; heat and cold have their uses, lukewarmness is good [Page 16]for nothing, but to trouble the stomach: those that are spiritu­ally hot, find acception; those that are stark cold, have a les­ser reckoning; the mean between both is so much the worse, as it comes nearer to good, and attains it not. How long will you halt in this indifferency? resolve one way, and know at last what you do hold, what you should cast off, either your wings or your teeth; and loathing this Bat-like nature, be either a Bird or a Beast. To dye wavering and uncertain, your self will grant fearful. If you must settle, when begin you? If you must begin, why not now? 'Tis dangerous deferring that whose want is deadly, and whose opportunity is doubtful. Is there any impediment which delay will abate? Is there any which a just answer cannot remove? If you had rather waver, who can set­tle you? But if you love not inconstancy, tell us why you stagger: be plain, or else you will never be firm.

All the Letters, Writings, and Conversations of this great and worthy man, are evident proofs that he loved Puritans in his heart, and desired to come nearer to the Presbyteri­ans and Nonconformists, even for matters of Government: for he says, The divisions of the Church are either general, be­twixt our Church, and the other Reformed; or special, as those within the bosome of our own Church: For the former, blessed be God there is no difference in any essential matter be­twixt the Church of England and her Sisters of the Reformati­on: We accord in every point of Christian Doctrine, without the least variation; their publick Confessions and ours, are suf­ficient convictions to the world, of our full and absolute agree­ment. The only difference is, in the form of outward Admi­nistration; wherein also we are so far agreed, as that we all profess this form not to be essential to the being of a Church (though much importing the well, or better being of it, accor­ding to the several apprehensions thereof): and that we do all retain a reverend and loving opinion of each other in our own several ways, not seeing any reason why so poor a diversity should [Page 17]work any alienation of affection in us one towards another; but withal, nothing hinders (and this I mostly aim at here) but that we may come yet nearer to one another, if both may resolve to meet in that primitive Government (whereby it is meet we should both be regulated) universally agreed upon by all anti­quity, wherein all things were ordered and transsacted by the consent of the Presbytery, moderated by one constant President thereof. Laus Deo, nullum inter nos de Religionis substan­tia certamen. Theol. Gallus de discipl. Ecclesiae, c. 1. An. 1622. Instituti divini est, ut in omni caetu Presbyterorum unus sit qui ordine praeeat & praesit reliquis. Bez. de grad. Minist. Evangel. Bp. Hall in his Peace-maker, fol. 560. c. 6.

The particular account of his Life, which he himself drew up, doth confirm how great an affection he had for that Party. And as he loved the Puritans, so he had no affection for the Anti-Puritan, whom he thus describeth: He who hath a greater horror, and believes he commits a higher crime in not pulling off his hat, and being uncovered at the name of Je­sus, than in taking the name of God in vain by swearing.

But since I am fallen upon the specialties of his Life, of which he himself is the Writer; I cannot let slip one pas­sage here, which fully and clearly proves, that whereas in the beginning and first design of the Reformation, our Re­formers thought fit to retain some ceremonies of the Church of Rome, it was so far from bringing Rome nearer to us, or make it to conform to our Doctrine, that it was rather a Cord to draw us to its communion, and a means to make them hope, believe, be almost assured, that England would one day return into the bosome of her Mother again; which an ingenious Gentleman illustrated by a most apt similitude of a floating Vessel fastened to a Rock by a Rope, so that if any in the Vessel should have a mind to pull this Rock to them by the Rope, they would find their endeavours insignificant and foolish: for instead of gaining [Page 18]their desire, they would draw themselves nearer to the Rock. Bishop Bonner having learnt that Cranmer and Rid­ley had retained some Ceremonies and Practices of the Ro­mish Church, said, That he doubted not, since their Broath went down with them so well, but they would ere long come to feed upon their Beef too. And the Papists have always been in hopes, that kneeling at the Sacrament of the Eucharist, would in a short time turn the Table to an Al­tar; and that the object of this kneeling or genuflection, would be bread and wine transubstantiated; concluding thus with themselves, That one of the relatives, as was the Altar, being once admitted, would soon bring in its corre­lative the Sacrifice.

The truth is, we have in the Church of England proofs and testimonies enough to convince us, that the effect of keeping up the Ceremonies of Rome, would be no less than this, viz. the incorporating of both Churches into one; and that those Ceremonies would be of the nature of lea­ven, which though little, was sufficient to leaven the whole lump; whereas in the Churches Reformed according to the Model of Calvin, which have always kept themselves whole and pure from any mixtures of corruption, and have got as far off from Rome, as England is advanced to it, it is clear otherwise. But to return to Joseph Hall.

‘I had (saith he in the specialties of his life) in my journey to Spaw in Germany, a very hot dispute with a Sorbonist, a Prior of the Carmelites, in the company of several Noblemen, and other persons as well Ecclesiastical as Secular, very different both in Communion and Opini­ons. The Sorbonist maintained (and there were some of the Protestants that joined with him). That the Church of England believed Transubstantiation, because kneeling at the Communion was looked on by those of the Ro­mish [Page 19]Church, and by all Protestants, except some English, as a consequence of Transubstantiation; it being an ab­surd and ridicalous thing to kneel at the eating of com­mon bread, and drinking of common drink; that the world had never heard of kneeling at the Communion; and that it was never practised for the first Twelve Cen­turies; and that when it began to be used, it was a con­sequence of Transubstantiation; that if Transubstantia­tion had been believed in the Church, before kneeling at the Supper (as the Roman Catholicks would have it) at least this genuflection or kneeling was never in use and practise before the belief of Transubstantiation. That not any Church of Calvin's Communion but England, ever practised this genuflection: that if some Lutheran Chur­ches use it, it is in respect of their Consubstantiation, which is much a kin to the other: in a word, that there is nothing more true than this, That kneeling had ne­ver been thought of, had it not been for the Doctrine of Transubstantiation.’

This reasoning seemed so plausible to all the company, at least to the greatest part; and the applauses which were given to the Prior, and to those who maintained the strength of it, were attended with such a shout and acclamation, that it was impossible for the Bishop to disabuse them, in alledging the Rubrick, or the express Declaration of the Church of England; which says in positive words, That this kneeling was to adore Jesus Christ, and did not termi­nate in the Elements.

This passage makes me to remember another I have read in a discourse between Grindall Archbishop of Canterbury, and Theodore Beza: this latter had written to the Arch­bishop, that kneeling at the Communion was a great shock to most of the Protestants, and a rock of offence, but was wholly grateful to the Papists, as being a Ceremony which [Page 20]would go near to bring in Transubstantiation: for Beza as yet had not heard of the Declaration contained in the Ru­brick, till Grindall had made him acquainted with the Con­tents of it; but being informed of it, he returned this Apologue.

‘There was a certain great Lord, who, resolving to re­pair his house, and having made all necessary preparati­ons to that end, and finished the structure, left before his gate a great stone which he had had no occasion for; it seems this stone caused many persons in the dark to stum­ble and fall at it: Complaint hereof being made, he was desired to have it removed out of the way; but being a long time obstinate, he was at last perswaded to hang a Lanthorn over this stone: this being also very trouble­some, one of his friends took the liberty to speak to him about it, and said, Sir, if you would be pleased to rid your self of further sollicitation, and quiet all parties, cause this stone and candle to be taken away from your gate: This stone, saith Beza, is a stone of stumbling, and it represents the kneeling at the Communion, as also the Rubrick represents the Lanthorn. Indeed the Lawyers and the Judges look upon those Laws to be absolutely unprofitable, which cannot be understood, nor subsist without Comments and Glosses: and when Laws are ena­cted against Treasons, Murders, and Robberies on the high­ways, they stand in need of Rubricks, Exceptions, &c.’

As then the Papists saw that they retained at the begin­ning of the Reformation, many of their Ceremonies, they thereby conceived hopes, that they would be like a tree cut down, but not pluckt up by the roots, so that in time they might put forth new branches: so likewise the adopting of many of their Superstitions and corrupt Doctrines, do con­firm their hopes, and makes them believe, That the passage would neither be long nor difficult from the Religion of [Page 21]that corrupt party, unto the Religion of Rome.

It is easie for me to verifie this by such proofs as are in­contestable, taken from two sorts of witnesses, from those who fear some great change in Religion, and those who express much joy in the hopes of it. I could easily bring a could of witnesses of this latter sort, English, French, Ita­lians, Germans, &c. who published to the world the joy which they had to see England in so good a disposition to favour and embrace Popery.

A certan Jesuit, one Ch. M. in his pious Sermon on the 51 Psalm, Printed in the year 1631. with the approbation of John Colvener, who was appointed to examine and license those Books that were to be printed at Douay, said, That it was needless to dwell long upon proofs to show the Mass is a real and true Sacrifice, since he saw England so well disposed to receive it, and that it set up Altars everywhere to that end; which did necessarily import the consequence, viz. a true Sacrifice; Since the Altar and Sacrifices are cor­relative terms.

Another Jesuit in a Book intituled, Charity maintained, expresses great joy in the prospect of this good work (as Dr. Bray calls it) which was then in hand: See what he says in his Preface, speaking of the change which happen­ed in the Church of England, and of its affinity with Rome.

‘The Doctrine is altered in many things: the Pope is no longer Antichrist: Images are tolerated: Predestina­tion on foreseen works: Universal Grace: Inherent Righ­teousness, are all granted, and free-will is preached up: they have given to the 39 Articles a Catholique sense: they acknowledg the Authority of the Church in deci­ding Controversies about matters of faith, and interpre­tation of Scripture: In conversation and in writings they now more generally, and with greater pleasure make use [Page 22]of the more venerable names of Priests, and Altars: the Protestant Religion is almost now grown weary of it self: and to be a Calvinist in England, is to be a Traitor, and a Heretick: Limbus patrum, prayers for the dead, Justification by works, the possibility of keeping the Commandments of God, now begin to be introduced.’

In the Writings of Heylin, Dr. Bray, Pocklynton, and a hundred others, there are to be found convincing proofs of what this Jesuit alledges: the Books of those men, and such as they are, are only those now that are cryed up and li­censed: so that it need not to be wondred that the Popish Writers believe them upon their own words, and have ga­thered great hopes, that England would not be long before it returned into the bosom of Rome.

The French Historian, Du Chesne, Siri an Italian, the keeper of Cardinal Mazarines Library, in his book Di cur­renti tempi; Gage in his Expedition to the Indies, and his Voyage to Rome, discover all the Intrigues and Conferences which Cardinal Barberini, and the Jesuit Fitzherbert had at Rome, with some Deputies of England, to further and per­fect the work of Englands Reduction to the obedience of the Pope: and they tell us, That the persons of greatest learning and understanding of that Communion, were much rejoyced to perceive that England gave such pledges of its return to Rome, hoping that they would be followed with a speedy and intire Union.

But on the other hand, those of the Church of England who were sincere and uncorrupted, with some Lords, and others of the Commons then assembled in Parliament, in the year 1640, opposed the designs of the Canterburians, as they were then stiled, and made loud complaints against all those that were going after the Romish way: witness the many Speeches that were then made by some of the Lords [Page 23]and Commons, Faulkland, Rudyer, Rouse, Dighy, &c. many of which were printed, and are full of lamentations, and demonstrations of deep sorrow, in that they perceived the Ceremonies, Doctrines and Practises, so pleasing to the [...], to be countenanced by the Bishops who then sat at the [...]rn in England. My Lord Faulkland was large upon the sub­ject, saying, That the Bishops and their C [...]ins were like to those whom Thomas Aquiras speaks of, whose design was not so much to divert men from sin, as to teach them how near they may come to the borders of it without com­mitting it. He said, they boast of their Origine, and that they derive their succession from the Church of Rome, as if they had a desire from a principle of gratitude to return to that Religion, or that Church, from which they had departed; or else by acknowledging their error, to recede from it, and embrace that Faction which they had abandoned. He also taxes the best of them for endeavouring to introduce Po­pery into England, and Papal Authority; that is to say, de­siring to subject the people to the Clergy, and that by a blind and absolute obedience, such as is that submission to the Pope; but he particularly declaims against the spirit of persecution and barbarity, whereby brethren rose up against brethren, and were under grievous sufferings, whilst the Pa­pists found at least as much, if not more favour, than those who were members of their own body.

Also there were some persons, at the time of the Convo­cation of the Clergy of England, although indeed not ma­ny, who did second my Lord Faulkland, as Davenant, Mor­ton, Hall, boldly disavowing the favouring of the Doctrines and Ceremonies of the Church of Rome. Dr. Warmestry spoke against Images that were hung up in some Churches, and against Candlesticks filled with Candles, though not lighted; and he said, That they were a fit Emblem of our ignorant and unprofitable Clergy, which filled up the Candle­sticks of our Churches, but gave no light.

'Tis true, the timorousness of some of the Kings of Eng­land, dreading a Dagger and Pistol, made them a little to yeild, and to shew favour to the Papists, which they would never have done, if they had but had the courage of Queen Elizabeth, or if they had not attempted their Lives. In the year 1599, when King James was only King of Scotland, and feared the Romish party would, if they could, hinder his succession to the Crown of England, he wrote Letters full of flattery to Clement VIII, [Rushworths Collections, Pag. 167.] to gain his good esteem, and concluded one of them with these words, Beatitudinis tuae Obsequentissimus filius; and besides, 25 years after, the fright the King was put into by an attempt upon his person, made him to re­solve a little before his death, to receive the Overtures and Propositions made him to re-establish the Romish Religion in England, as is evident by the Memoirs of Mr. D' Ageant, and of the Archbishop of Ambrune, as also by those of Mr. de Bassompierre: He wrote to Ʋrban the eighth, Letters full of submission, in which he acknowledged the Pope to be the Vicar of Jesus Christ upon earth, and Governour in chief of the Catholick Church.

Those terrors which the Pope fills the hearts of Kings withal by his cruel and devillish attempts upon their lives, have always had the same success, and have ingaged Princes, either to receive, or to confirm Popery in their Dominions: Witness Henry IV of France.

Surely it is impossible but that a Religion which is pro­pagated by such infernal means, must be a most hellish and devillish Religion; and yet the Popes and Jesuits are fur­nished with no better. And this is the reason why they cannot indure Aristocratical Governments, nor Common­wealths, because where many are actually interessed in the Government, they are not afraid of the three notorious In­struments of Rome, the Dagger, the Pistol, and the Poison, [Page 25]and so consequently cannot be obliged by such terrors to re­ceive Popery; whereas in a Monarchical State, it is but ta­king away the Life of one man, and the business is done, and the scene of affairs shifted to their own purpose.

But however, whether by dissimulation or reality, whe­ther by fear or inclination, when once a King listens to such Proposals, and especially when a Clergy that is no violent Enemy to Rome, backs them, it is a very strong argument, and a shrewd sign that the Papists beyond-sea are in a conti­nual expectation of Englands re-union with them.

Now that this design of carrying on the Romish Interest, hath been strenuously pursued and advanced ever since the happy Restoration of His Sacred Majesty, by the Prelatical party, is a thing both so visible and deplorable, that it stands not in so much need of proofs, as of our tears. The good Bishop Brownrig shed many at the foresight of it; a spirit of prophecy seizing of him some moments before his death, and a few months before the Kings Restoration, he started up one day from his Couch where he lay, out of a slumber, and broke out into these words: I am sure the King will be restored; but I foresee that at the same time he will bring along with him a Canterburian Train, that will be loath to part with a rag of their Surplice to bind up the wounds of the Church. That sweet and mild spirit which animated this good Bishop, was far different from that hot furious spirit of per­secution which has transported his Brethren, and which has instigated them to separate from their own body so many Churches of Jesus Christ, arrogating to themselves alone the title of true Protestants, though in truth they make not up the fiftieth part of that number.

This hath been their carriage especially towards the Churches in France: for whereas before the taking of Ro­chel, they were in such a flourishing condition, that the third part of the Nobility were of the Reformed Keligion; [Page 26]and of Eight Marshals of France, four were Protestants; yet then that Party of the Church of England which be­gan to entertain kind thoughts of Popery, and were much inclinable to the way of Rome, did retain some respect for those Churches, and owned the Ordination of their Mini­sters to be good and legitimate, and they not to need any any other re-ordination.

The Bishops, Doctors, and Professors of the Universities, did publickly own themselves to be of the same Communi­on with Calvin, and never mentioned his Name openly without veneration and respect: But alas! instead of things going after this manner, they quite changed face, and turn­ed about; and since, the flourishing state of the Church is not only upon its declension, but even upon the brink of ruine: for the Prelatical party have razed the Protestants out of the Catalogue of the Churches of Jesus Christ, for want of Episcopal Ordination. Calvin has not only lost his credit with them, but was turn'd into Ridicule, and look'd on as a Phanatick and a Rebel; the Ordination of their Mini­sters was adjudged null and void. In a word, that party soon practised the Maxime of Caesar Borgia, Cole faelices, fuge miseros; be a friend to those in prosperity, but shun the miserable.

It is not unworthy our observation, what my Lord Ca­stlemain, a Roman-Catholick, and Husband to the Dutchess of Cleveland, mentions in his Book against Dr. Floyd, con­cerning this same party: Sure (saith he) those men that per­secute others, are besides themselves: for if they should go but to reckon themselves up together with all their adherents, they would find they are not the sixth part of the Reformed people in England, whom they thus abuse. In pag. 18, he adds very judiciously, That they have not much reason to repreach the Roman Catholicks for the Parisian Massacre, that of Ireland, and the Gunpowder-Plot on the Fifth of November 1605, since that those Massacres were committed only upon those per­sons [Page 27]whom Rome had anathematized and proscribed as Here­ticks and Apostates; and it was never known that Rome per­secuted (as the Bishops do) those who adhere to the same Do­ctrine and Faith with themselves, and established an Irquisiti­on against the Bigots among them, nor against the professors of the strictest piety.

He might very well have added, That the Prelates in their proceedings have exceeded the barbarousness of the hea­thens in the persecution of the Christians; for instead of punishing Informers and the busie Inquisitors of Christians, whom all the world looks upon with infamy and detestation, they have put inferior Magistrates upon Rewarding those Informers, and Punishing those that refuse to execute those Severities, or are not not diligent to execute such Cruelties against Nonconformists, as could hardly be equalled by the Barbarians. Certainly Trajan used more moderation to Christians, than the Prelates do now to the people of God; for although he ordered that when the Christians were ac­cused and condemned, they should be punished; yet he would not have them searched for: Conquerendi non sunt, si deferantur & arguantur, puniendi. In one thing they equal the Cruelty of those Pagans (and it is only for that reason) who punish Christians not for their Religion, but for their obstinacy, Plin. lib. 10. Epist. 97. Pervicam certe & inflexi­bilem obstinationem debere puniri, non dubitavi.

How do they also imitate Rome in their manner of gain­ing Proselytes by the pleasing-bait of Benefices! for it is rarely seen that any come over from Rome to the Puritan party, who have no more Benefices to bestow than the Pa­pal Councils, which made Aeneas Sylvius to say, That he found more persons to side with the Pope than the Coun­cils, and who set up the Pope above Councils, than he found those that postponed the Pope to the Councils. Not but that there are some such excellent Protestants who see [Page 28]as much reason to abhor the ways of the Church of Eng­land, as those of Rome; and prefer a good Conscience in a meaner sphere, to all the Grandure and Pomp of the world.

But, without a longer digression, to return to that good man before-mentioned, Bishop Brownrig, who, if he were now alive, could not be able to see this spirit of rage and cruelty, without horror, or at least without pity; and he would believe that for certain the hour of the Prince of darkness was come, or was very near, in which the Papists were ready to cut all our throats, I mean all the Prote­stants, without distinction of Prelates, Presbyterians, Inde­pendents, &c. And though these Enemies of our persons and Religion take advantage from our divisions, yet are not we so wise to join together in brotherly love and ami­ty, but one party of these Protestants rises up against the two other, and persecutes them almost with as much cruel­ty as the Papists would exercise upon all the three, and that too for a more frivolous cause, only because (forsooth) they refuse to submit to the Ceremonies of the Church; which they themselves own to be indifferent, and in their own nature are, if not superstitious, at best impertinent, being no ways essential to salvation. And what can be more inhuman, cruel, and barbarous, than to drag Christians, Pro­testants, and married persons, meerly upon this account, out of their houses, and to rend them from their wives and children, banishing them from their Countrey, or transport­ing them as slaves into new Plantations and Colonies? as we have lately had a remarkable instance hereof in those Sixty and odd persons whose very condition this was.

Now would not this good Bishop draw this incontesta­ble Conclusion and Argument when he should see persons so opposite in Doctrine and Practise to the Church of Rome, used after such a barbarous manner, that the Papists have [Page 29]all the reason in the world to hope, and to flatter themselves that this good work (as they call it) is half done to their hand, and that it will in a short time be compleated, though they should not contribute any further help, since that of those parties who make up most of the Nation, and with whom their chief concern lies, the one does so much be­friend them, as to endeavour the utter destruction of the o­ther who are their mortal enemies.

Lastly, If this holy Bishop had lived to see the Book of another Bishop who resembles him, at least in goodness and sincerity, I mean Thomas Barlow Bishop of Lincoln; if he had, I say, seen but that Book wherein he proves with the greatest conviction in the world, That the Pope, the Reli­gion, and the Church of Rome, are only built upon seditious and detestable Principles, cemented with lyes, cheats, frauds, impostures, blood, and usurpations: surely he would have made this reflection on the carriage of his Countreymen and Brethren, That this behaviour discovers them neither to have piety nor reason (if perhaps they ever had) to covet to be the Apes and imitators of those persons who have no other design in engaging them to be of their side, but only that they may the more easily cut their throats.

Certainly, if the Learned Dean of Canterbury, Dr. Til­lotson, had understood what inhuman usage those sixty and odd persons met with, and upon what score, he would not have failed in his most excellent Sermon on the fifth of No­vember, to have put that spirit which was the promoter of that persecution, in the number of those Seven which our Lord Jesus Christ spoke of, which were worse than he that raised them: and if he condemns all fiery spirits, even to­wards the greatest enemies of our Lives and our Religion; Would not his heart have risen at the thoughts of such a Persecution, when of two parties that profess one and the same Faith, and who are both Protestants, one should perse­cute [Page 30]the other in a more savage and cruel manner than ever Dioclesian did the Christians.

The present state of the Affairs of England, which pro­mises that the next Parliament will banish out of the King­dom this spirit of Persecution, makes me that I cannot for­bear repeating the words of this worthy Doctor, to incite the Grave and Noble Senators to put on bowels of com­passion, and to persuade the corrupt part of the Clergy, which is now the most prevailing with us, to lay aside their spirit of fierceness and cruelty, which hath caused the gross of the people of England for above these hundred years to groan under the yoke of Romish Ceremonies.

His Sermon is upon the passionate behaviour and carriage of the Apostles against the Samaritans, Luke 9.55, 56, and upon their unchristian spirit and mistaken zeal; where there is a continued paraphrase on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ against this spirit of persecution: ‘You know not what manner of spirit you are of; which is as if he had said, You own your selves to be my disciples, but do you consider what spirit now acts and governs you? not that surely which my Doctrine designs to mould and fashion you into, which is not a furious, and persecuting, and de structive spirit; but mild, and gentle, and saving, tender of the lives and interests of men, even of those who are our greatest Enemies: You ought to consider, that you are not now under the rough and sowr dispensation of the Law, but under the calm and peaceable institution of the Gospel, to which the spirit of Elias, though he was a very good man in his time, would be altogether unsuit­able; God permitted it then under that imperfect way of Religion; but now under the Gospel it would be intole­rable: for that designs universal love and peace, and good will; and now no difference of Religion, no pretence of zeal for God and Christ, can warrant and justifie this pas­sionate [Page 31]and fierce, this vindictive and exterminating spirit.’

What shall I say of our two Universities, which in a great measure have lost their beauty since they have so gree­dily suckt in that poyson of Pelagianism, Socinianism, and Popery? A person of great worth, and a member of their body, though he be not in their opinions, but is as Lot in Sodom; told me, That had it not been for Dr. Tully and himself, those Heresies would have infected the whole U­niversity of Oxford; but they had some private Conferen­ces with many of the best disposed youth, and gave them such wholesome Instructions, as might be a sufficient Medi­cine to preserve them from the poison of those Pestilential Heresies.

Whosoever will take the pains to peruse a late Book in Latin call'd CELEƲSMA, &c. which calls aloud to the ho­nest and Orthodox Members of the Church of England, will be informed that the prevailing and most numerous party of that Church have been these twenty years endea­vouring to make their advances towards Rome, and have run themselves into Pelagianism and Socinianism; scoffing at, and deriding those who get as far from Rome as they can in their Doctrine and Practise, whether they be any of their own body, or of them whom they call Presbyterians, Inde­pendents, Puritans, or Fanaticks, they have accused them all alike guilty of the death of that Royal Martyr Charles the first of happy memory. Their Books are and have been a constant Satyr and invective against the sincere and irre­proachable piety of the Puritans; and after a most blasphe­mous manner do Dr. Parker, Sherlock, Serivener, Hickrin­gill, George Bull, Wetenhall, Bramhall, Ignatius Fuller, &c. speak against God and his Saints.

Dr. Patrick (and he is one of the best among a hundred of them) joins hands with them in burlesquing upon the Doctrine of Imputative Righteousness, and of that fiduciary [Page 32]relying and recumbency of a poor sinner upon the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. I will cite you some passages in his Book called the Pilgrim, for the proof of this: A modish and courtly saith it is, which sits still, and yet sits you in the lap of Christ; it passes under so many names, that I cannot stand to number them all now. It is called a casting of our selves upon Christ, a relying on his Mercies, shrouding our selves under the robe of his righteous­ness; and though sometimes it is called a going to him for salvation, yet there is this mystery in the business, that you may go, and yet not go; you may go, and yet stand still; you may cast your self upon him, and not come to him; or, if you take one little step, and be at the pains to come to him, the work is done, and you need not follow him: it is indeed a resting, not a travelling grace; and such a grand secret there is in it, that a man may rest before he stirs a foot; he may lean on Christ, and approach no nearer him than he was be­fore; he may lay hold on him, and yet remain at a great di­stance from him; it will carry you to the end of the way, be­fore you are at the beginning; the very first step is to stay your self; the very beginning of its motion, is to be at rest. Do you not see a strange enchantment in it already? Is it not a Magical operation, or much beholding to strength of fancy, and the Witchcraft of imagination? For my part, I should take my self to be in a worse condition than Cresinius was, if I should be accused of vending such drugs, and dealing in such dan­gerous charms. I would grant that my enemies had cause to exclaim, and should never expect to clear my self, if I should be charged with such incantations: There is no jugling so artifi­cial whereby I could hope to hide the deceit, if I abused the world with these Impostures. All the lewd men in the world are well content to take this journey, which may be finished atone step.

He goes on in the same strain: There is not a soul so wick­ed [Page 33](says he) but fancies all his sins are covered by Christ his righteousness: it is the sweetest thing in the world to cast them­selves into Christ his arms, and expect not to go, but to be car­ried to heaven.

And pag. 143, 144, he laughs at such notions, how that believing is nothing else but a relying on Jesus Christ for salva­tion, a fiducial recumbency upon him, a casting our selves wholly upon him, and his merits, or an applying of his righteousness to our souls: and if you throw all other phrases after him (one would think he means the low Proverb of throwing old shooes after one) which tell us it is a taking of Christ, a lay­ing hold of him, a closing with him, you shall do the better, and more certainly secure your self from being deceived. Sure this Doctor either did never read, or at that time think of Ja­cobs wrestling with the Angel, whom he would not let go before he had blest him.

But above all, in pag. 149, he turns into raillery that holy Doctrine of the Protestants concerning justification by faith, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is impu­ted to us in the manner as it is established, not only in the holy Scripture, but explained and made clear by the first Reformers, and by the Authors of the Articles of the En­glish Confession, and of the Homilies by Calvin, Martyn, Be­za, &c. in this cited place, he compares the reliance upon Christ his righteousness and merits, with a persons relying upon his Masters Merits, and depending only on the worth and sufficiency of his Lord; he trusts in his goodness for the pardon of all his faults, and hopes he will esteem him a good servant, because he is a good Master; he leans upon his arms, and closes fast about him, and is resolved not to let him go, till he hath paid him his wages; he embraces him kindly, and hopes he will account him righteous, because he is so himself; and in a word, he applies to himself all the good works his Master has performed; and prays to be excused if he doth not his bu­siness, [Page 34]because his Lord can do it better.

Was ever the Play called the Cheat, or the Bartholomew-Fair by Ben Johnson, or the Friendly Debate, fill'd with worse scurrilous and venomous stuff than these are? Who would think that such sweet and honey-mouths, had so much of gall in the heart?

To be short, Dr. Patrick makes no other account of ju­stification by faith, but of an hearty assent to the truth of the Gospel, and an endeavouring to live according to it.

If that Doctor, who resembles Gregory the first, the best of bad Popes, and the worst of good ones, does in so erro­neous a manner run away from the Church of England, as it was about a hundred years ago, and from all the Prote­stant Divines, as well Lutherans as Calvinists, as well Eng­lish as French; What sinister judgment may be made of a hundred of his Collegues, who are much inferior to him both in the profession of holiness of Doctrine, and of Life?

I would take for example Dr. Jeremy Taylor, Bishop in Ireland, one of the most learned men that England or Ire­land ever produced, but yet who is the same; or rather vies with Dr. Patrick, about the Doctrines that are quite dif­ferent from the first Reformation in the time of King Ed­ward the sixth, for he denies Original sin; he says with the Poet, ‘—Lex est non poena perire.’ That death is a Law of Nature, and not a punishment of sin. That Concupiscence is not a sin, neither in those who are baptized, nor in those who are not. He establishes the works of Supererogation, and the conjunction of the grace of God with the strength of man, which give their mutual assistance to the working of mans salvation. And in p. 258. of his Liberty of Prophecying, he has such expressions as would make one almost to question whether he believed the [Page 35]Trinity or not: for there he tells us, That the Trinity is, as much as Transubstantiation, contrary to reason either natural or supernatural: An assertion as false as is the Tur­kish Alcoran; for the Holy Trinity is as much grounded on reason, as the three Faculties, the Vegetative, the Sensitive, and the Intellectual; which being really and distinctly in Man, do nevertheless act, and are moved by one and the same principle. But he has set forth a large Book, where he strongly proves, That Religion ought not to be established by persecution; for it is contrary to the very spirit and temper of Christianity.

Wherein the Doctor's conduct has been diametrically op­posite to the carriage of those who are joined with him in the design and endeavour of his getting near to Rome: for these, at the same time that they have made shipwrack con­cerning the Faith, as the Apostle speaks, have broken off all Charity towards their Brethren, and have cloathed them­selves with the spirit of animosity, malignity, and persecu­tion; and, after they have abandoned God and his truth, they've revenged themselves of that loss, by that of love and affection towards those, whose purity of Doctrine, and holiness of life have been a continual reproach and eye-sore to them, [...], which is a thing that Dr. Taylor has never done: for how erroneous soever that Doctor was as to matter of Doctrine, he was yet endowed with two very excellent qualities; the one, that he was of a most exemplary life, as he did sufficiently testifie it in his carri­age, and by his Writings; the other, that he had an affecti­onate tenderness, and love, and pity, for those who did not agree with him either in the profession of the same do­ctrine, or in the practise of Ceremonies; in which he dif­fered very much from his brethren in the work of the Mi­nistry, who satisfie themselves with the profession of a super­ficial piety; who easily do digest and swallow non-residency, [Page 36]plurality of benefices, and preaching by a deputy, and the divertisement of the Play-house, or of a pack of Cards; and who insult over such as Baxter, Owen, Annesly, Jenkins, Bates, Watson, How, and the rest, for driving men to de­speration, and so to hell, by too rigorously pressing the pra­ctise of piety. That is the Irarum causa, & hinc illae lachry­mae; and why they mortally hate those holy persons. But I cannot but strangely wonder why they do not put St. Paul amongst such desperate Divines, from whose mouth and pen issued forth more severe and thundring doctrines and mena­ces than ever came from Mr. Baxter, &c. and that they do not blot out of their Bibles this holy Apostle's rowsing say­ing, 2 Cor. 5.10, That we must all appear before the judg­ment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive according to that he hath done, whether it be good or evil. And who tells us, That those that live after the flesh, shall dye; and who teacheth no other doctrine than that of the Lord Jesus Christ, That at the day of Judgment we must answer for every idle thought and word: and except we be converted, and our righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, we shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of heaven.

But yet there is nothing that more evidently discovers the carriage of these corrupt Church of England men, than the due consideration of those whom they persecute, as to their temper, conduct, and behaviour; those have remained still the same: or if they have changed, it has been from good to better: they have always been retreating farther from the doctrines and practises of the Romanists, as the o­thers have been advancing nearer to them. None can find any weakness in their reasons, error in their doctrine or practises, not in the many Remonstrances they have made to the Bi­shops: In the conferences they have had with them, it was not truth, nor reason, nor sincerity prevailed, but the best sword, or stoutest lungs, or he that stood on the highest [Page 37]ground magnifying his capacity with his pluralities and dig­nities, that carried the day.

The word of God and right reason, were the foundati­on that these built their discourses on, in opposition to the imposing of Ceremonies, and the practises of Rome, the force of which could never be enervated, but has remain'd unmovable for these hundred years.

Among the many absurdities which attend this kneeling, this is not the least, that it destroys the nature of the com­munion which is between Christ and his members, or at least is most unsuitable to it; for the Lords Supper is an exact representation of that holy Oyl of Aaron that run down from his beard to the skirts of his garment; of that friend­ship and love which binds all the members of Christs body mystical together, of what condition soever they be, whe­ther King or subjects, Nobles or peasants, Masters or ser­vants, bond or free, and of that brotherhood and familiarity that is among guests who are all equally invited to set down at the same Table with the same freedom as St. John had to lay his head in Christs bosome, and Lazarus in that of A­braham. This Communion, I say, on earth, is but a resem­blance of that state into which we shall be translated in the [Page 39]Kingdom of Heaven, where all the faithful shall sit down with Jesus Christ, and with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and with the Prophets and Apostles, where their posture is not that of prostrate suppliants, but of such as are at rest, and in full liberty, satiating themselves in the contemplation of all the glorious and incomprehensible perfections of the Di­vinity: for what is the Eucharist but an Ordinance of joy and satisfaction, of union and vision? To conclude, since the Lord Jesus Christ represents to us the act of believing in him, for the application of the promises, and receiving his benefits into our souls, by eating and drinking, as sitting at his table; how shall we imagine, that he who invites you to his table, expects that you should kneel before his table, and so eat and drink in that posture? The Parallel holds exactly with reference to this spiritual feast unto which the Lord Jesus Christ invites all his disciples.

No wonder then so many refuse to submit to this posture, as also to that of bowing at the name of Jesus in the Church, having no other argument for it than the 2 Chap. of the Epistle to the Phillippians, At the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow. Which devotion of theirs, in pulling off the hat every time the word Jesus is pronounced, saith the Elder Dr. Du-Moulin in his 7th Decade, Sermon 8. I should not so much reprehend, if they did manifest the same respect to the name of Christ or God.

But to do the Dissenters right, herein they are very Or­thodox, whilest with John Hales, Dr. Stillingfleet, and Mon­sieur Claude in his Letter to Monsieur Michaely, they affirm that the Schism is only chargeable on those who impose the Ceremonies, and not on those that refuse to use them. If one party, saith Monsieur Claude, being in power, would con­strain the other against their conscience and judgment, in mat­ters of indifference, as are the points which now make all the disorder in England, the schism is certainly on their side. And [Page 40]it was an excellent saying, that which is Mr. Robert Jenni­son's second Narrative, pag. 41. 'Tis not he that taketh, but that administreth the occasion, who is the true and proper Schis­matick.

Nor are they to be blamed in this particular, in condemn­ing with the same Monsieur Claude the opinion of the validity and lawfulness of the Romish Ordination: where­as all good Protestants hold Rome to be the Mother of Abo­minations, and the great scarlet Whore; but on the other hand they reject the call of all Protestant Ministers, who receive the Imposition of hands out of England, as void and null, unless it be by the hands of the Bishops.

But I find that there is nothing does more condemn the conduct of the Conformists in pressing submission to the Hierarchy, and to the Ceremonies of the Church of En­gland under the penalty of deprivation ab officio & beneficio, and being made uncapable of both; and which stands more up in the justification of that of the Nonconformists in their refusing; There is nothing, I say, does more condemn the one, and justifie the other, than that which happened about 34 years ago at Oxford, which was then all Prelati­cal. As therefore those who were then in power, imposed upon the Oxford-men the Covenant, if they meant to keep their places; All the University joined to publish a Book intituled Oxford-Reasons, to show the injustice of imposing the Covenant upon such conditions that were unreasonable, and to prove the reasonableness of their refusing; making use of such cogent arguments, proofs and reasons, that have been alledged, and used above these 100 years by the Non­conformists, for their refusing to subscribe to the Hierarchy, and to the Ceremonies, and which must be of equal weight and strength in the mouths of one party as well as anothers. They of Oxford thus wind up their Reasons.

Thus we have clearly and freely represented our present judg­ment, which upon better information in any particular, we shall be ready to rectifie; only we desire that it may be consi­dered, that if any one single person remain unsatisfied (though we should receive satisfaction in all the rest) and in that it cannot neither be reasonable for them to press us, nor lawful for us that cannot be satisfied to submit unto the said Covenant.

What they say, that although all the University should acquiesce and submit to the reasons which are alledged to perswade them to take the Covenant, and there should be but one single person that cannot yield to it, it would nei­ther be justice nor reason so to press, and punish this single person, who should not submit: This argument, I say, is in­comparably more strong, having respect to many thousands of persons, who for above this 100 years have refused their submission to the Hierarchy, and to the Ceremonies, than only respecting the University of Oxford; and this same argument is no less applicable to those who are in power at this day, for their obstinacy and rigour in persecu­ting so many persons, because of their Non-submission, as it was then. I might insist by arguments that come very near to a demonstration, to prove, that those whom they odiously distinguish by the names of Puritans, Presbyteri­ans, Independents, Fanaticks, Rebels, Sons of Belial, King's Murtherers, &c. are the best Christians, the best Protestants, the best English men, the most loyal Subjects, the greatest Pillars, but tresses and supporters of Monarchy, and of the Government by King, Lords and Commons; and that they are the greatest Promoters of Religion, Peace, and Piety, against those that indeavour to bring in Tyranny and Po­pery; at least, a Mungrel one, that comes pretty near to the true Popery.

But this Matter would hold me too long, and therefore I shall reduce what I have to say here, to three Argu­ments.

1. The secret hatred, malice, grudg, and core against those whom they thus distinguish, and against the Piety which they profess in a more exact and sincere man­ner, and whose life is a continual practise of Repen­tance.

2. Another argument, to prove that their cause is that of honest godly men, and those that have better intentions than they who speak of them with so much disadvantage, to wit, those are wont to involve the best men beyond Seas, the best Divines, and the first Reformers, as Calvin, Beza, &c. in the same guilt of Phanaticks, Sons of Belial, as be­ing Partners with them, and Countenancers of Rebellion and Jesuitical Principles, against the Government and Lives of Kings.

3. Those who thus characterise the Religion of these Puritans and Fanaticks, for being so taken up with Faith, that they have no room for Charity, and good works, are all besides the cushion; for, on the contrary, those that put so much stress upon saith, and so little upon good works, are those who live far otherwise than they, in the exact and exemplary practise of good works; as on the other hand, those who do most enervate justifying faith, and the impu­tative righteousness of Jesus Christ, by the meer grace of God without works, and who so highly magnifie and ex­toll justification by works, are those who are most loose and negligent in the practise of good works, and who, if Ministers, make it no scruple of conscience to possess several [Page 43]Benefices, and not to reside in one of them, but to Preach in them by hireling-Deputies.

'Tis true, those of that corrupted part, which they call the Church of England, notwithstanding they make great advances towards Rome, and bear a secret affection and good will to his Holiness the Pope; yet they will not in­dure to be called Papists, but Protestants; but also being loth to be Partners in the name of those they are so set against, they declare aloud to the world, That they are the only Protestants, and who deserve that name exclusively and privitavely from the rest; and this is much what the same with that which Dodwell tells us, when he confines them within the trub Church of Jesus Christ, who have an Epis­copal Ordination, that is to say, in 5 or 600 persons that are such as those that are marked in the worst Column of the Celeusma.

Having hitherto spoken of the good conduct, and the strong and rational arguments of the Nonconformists in the behalf of themselves, and of their way; some might expect perhaps I should recite what the Conformists can say for themselves, that is, to oppose the unreasonableness of their carriage, and the Arguments of the Conformists for them­selves: but all they can say, is their meer will, and they make their arguments in Ferio and Barbara, the best Sword, that of the Romish Church, their grandeur Authority, Gold and Silver, rich Revenues.

And those who will take the pains to read diligently, with an unbiassed judgment, disintangled from all the tempting baits of the Church of England, those Treatises which the Conformists have published against the Non­conformists [Page 44]for the justifying of their Ceremonies, and the imposing them on no less penalty than excommunica­tion, suspension, and deposition, will soon find that that spirit which animates the Authors of them, is not as Dr. Tillotson says, that of Christianity, which is a spirit of meek­ness, gentleness, and easie to be entreated; but that of St. Paul before his conversion, full of malignity, revenge, and persecution. But there cannot be found in all their argu­ments which they use for their Ceremonies, and their rigo­rous imposing of them, any good sense, or solid reason. I am sure that which Archbishop Laud alledged for the ju­stifying of the erection of Altars in Churches, and for their prostrations and bowings to them, is a very extra­vagant one; as you may see in his Speech delivered in the Star-Chamber in the year 1638. where he said, That at our coming into, and going out of the Church, and also in continuing there, we ought to give more respect to the Altar, than to the Minister's Pulpit; because with re­ference to the latter it can only be said, hoc est verbum me­um; but as to the other it is said, hoc est corpus meum, this is my body; which, saith he, is beyond all comparison more to be reverenced than the word.

Now, Sir, to close up this discourse, from what has been said, be pleased to deduce these two consequences.

1. That though the first Authors of the Reformation in England did very innocently retain some Ceremonies and Practises of the Church of Rome, with an intention and hopes, that their Successors would afterwards abolish them; yet that, they not being removed, hath fed the Pa­pists with a great presumption, that the Church of En­gland might easily allow of more, and so pass on from a [Page 45]liking and approving of them, to an embracing and recei­ving of their Doctrines.

2. That though it be granted (as I am apt to believe, not only from a principle of Charity, but upon good solid Reasons) that the Prelatical party of England, how cor­rupt soever they are in their Doctrine and Morals, and whatsoever inclination they might have to the Church of Rome, never had any design, nor so much as a thought to bring Popery into England by such detestable ways, as of late have been attempted to introduce it: Yet notwith­standing it is most certain, that if they had but kept as great a distance from Rome, as the Puritans, or as the other Prote­stants of Europe, or at least but as much as the sober Confor­mists of England, the Papists would never have dreamt of bringing in their Religion by such a horrid, damnable, and hellish Conspiracy as has of late been most wonderfully and happily found out.

For seeing nothing in their way to hinder their design from taking effect, but the Life of His most Sacred Majesty; and besides, understanding the miserable and low condition of the Scots, how uncapable to give any assistance; and that Ireland is now become almost absolutely all Papists, the pre­vailing party of the Church of England ready to receive them; the mortal hatred between them and the Noncon­formists, and the confidence they have of a successor to the Crown fitted for their purpose: All these considerations, I say, have given fair leave to the Devil to work his ends on us, and to reduce England to the Communion of Rome by the death of the King.

As to the zeal and passion, which many, even of the [Page 46]Prelatical party, have testified at this time against the Pa­pists, it must be confessed they do it not altogether with­out reason; for commonly the greatest friends become irreconcilable enemies, when those bonds that kept them together, come to be dissolved. Proximorum odia acerri­ma; when it once comes to the dividing of the spoil, one of them will have all, or nothing: the great Benefices of their best friends in the Church of England are little worth, if they are not worth the pains they take to get into the possession of them by Murders and Assassinati­ons. So that before Rome and this party fell out about sharing of the prey, it was thought in all probability their friendship would remain inviolable, and they per­sweded themselves that the Papists would think them­selves very happy in having re-established their Religion in England, without ever wishing for the fat and rich Be­nefices from those that enjoyed them; but the Papists meant clear another matter; for they would have all, or nothing; and do as the Abbot of Beziers, who besieging a Town, during the Wars with the Waldenses, in which there was a great number both of friends and enemies, and the Soldiers and Officers making a conscience of in­veloping their friends in the destruction of their Enemies: he cryed out to them, Kill all, kill all, God knows who are his. If the Clergy of Rome would not have spared the life of the King, much less would they have been in hu­mour to spare the Lives and the Benefices of their good Friends the Bishops, the Deans, and the Canons. Whence we may say, hinc illae lachrymae; for this was it that touched them to the quick with a Jehu's zeal; and they look upon the design they had to put them out of their benefices, as a most horrible crime, and which would be no less abomina­ble, than the sending of Kings out of the world by Poy­son, [Page 47]Dagger, or Pistol. So that the best interpretation that can be made of their present carriage, is, that the love they have for their Benefices and preferments, for their Bishop­ricks, Deaneries, and Prebendaries, hath sufficiently awa­kened them, and sharpned their hatred, and raised their in­dignation against Rome, and at the present, at least, hath made them to forget their former engagement.